Evaluating Elluminate Live!

Transcription

1 Evaluating Elluminate Live! In your search for the best synchronous and web collaboration software for your organization, the process in which you evaluate various products is very important. You have most likely identified key areas to examine during your evaluation including features, cost and support and services. At face value, all products will look very similar. For example, they all have a whiteboard where you can load and create content, they allow users to share applications, they have a polling feature and they allow you to talk over the Internet. However, there are many other key areas that you must consider examining in your evaluation. These include: Performance Quality of Experience Ease of Use This document highlights the key features and differentiators of Elluminate Live! and also provides you with ideas on testing the various products that you are examining. Our aim is to provide guidance so that you select the best product for your organization. Elluminate Live! Features Elluminate Live! is a world-class, real-time training, demonstration, and collaboration environment that is powerful, flexible, and easy to use. Because it is designed with pedagogy in mind, this moderator-led, rich collaboration environment enables the delivery of live, online learning, training, coaching, mentoring, and meeting. Superior Technical Foundation Full Duplex Voice Over the Internet Collaborate in real time, regardless of Internet connection speed, with everyone seeing and hearing the same thing at the same time. Participants and moderators speak to each other using full duplex audio through standard microphone connected to the computer. State-of-the-art technology delivers incredibly clear and crisp audio on bandwidths as low as 28.8Kbps. Sessions can be configured to allow up to 4 attendees to speak simultaneously, perfect for speaker panels or small group discussions. Phone bridge is available if required, enabling session to be 100% voice over the Internet, 100% teleconference, or mixed.

2 Shared Interactive Whiteboard Application Sharing Live Webcam Video Remote Control Breakout Rooms Virtual Labs Quiz Manager Direct Messaging Graphing Calculator Proprietary, shared whiteboard features easy-to-use and flexible tools for writing, drawing, and erasing. The whiteboard enables you to: Have private and backup slides (sub-slides) Collaborate on multiple whiteboard screens Resize/insert/re-arrange whiteboard screens Edit/group/align/resize/layer objects Access a customizable library of presentation symbols and clip art Save (as PDF) and print any screen, if permission is granted by moderator Share applications, desktop, or region of desktop with others for hands-on training and demonstrations. Hosts have visual indicators of the content they are sharing. Easy-to-use menus and buttons allow hosts to take snapshots of the content for markup and share applications that run full screen while still managing interaction. Show live video in four different modes based on quality or frame ration. Give video privilege to one or more selected participants or all participants. Give control of applications or desktop to others, enabling true hands-on training and support. Allows users to take control automatically or by entering a password. Create breakout rooms that contain private audio and content (whiteboards, app sharing, etc.). Moderators can freely and easily move themselves and participants between rooms. Participants can be randomly assigned into breakout rooms and returned to the same rooms at any time. Create a virtual lab environment where participants can independently work on applications. Ability to send keystroke combinations to remote machine allows users to seamlessly control a remote computer and its applications. Moderators can deliver quizzes or surveys from within Elluminate Live! creating questions in advance or on the fly. Participants respond and submit their answers. Results can be displayed to all (in graphical format) or kept private. Participants and moderators can communicate using variety of messaging capabilities, including private messaging between moderator and participant, one-to-one messaging between participants, and one-to-many messaging between moderator and participants. Direct message areas can be resized as can the font in each area. Participants can plot one or two graphs and find their points of intersection and x- and y-intercepts. Use privately or share, with viewing controlled by the moderator. Only available in the Academic and Lite Edition.

3 Content Development PowerPoint Import Additional Content Import AppSnap Multimedia Content Delivery Synchronized Web Browsing File Transfer Interactive Recordings Load PowerPoint files onto whiteboard automatically with single mouse click. Presentations can be loaded onto the whiteboard at any screen size. In addition to PowerPoint presentations, load OpenOffice and StarOffice presentations and PDF files onto the whiteboard. Users can also load images in various file formats, including BMP, JPEG, PNG, GIF, and TIFF. Animated GIFs can also be loaded. Capture screen shot from any application or your desktop and show it on whiteboard another quick and easy way to build content for your sessions. Play multimedia files, such as QuickTime movies, and load in library. Monitor download to participants and initiate playback. Push participants to multiple URLs via embedded windows. Allow participants to interact independently with content in fully functional windows. Redirect participants to any link all at the same time. Transfer files within the Elluminate Live! session to distribute documents, assignments, and handouts. Give privileges to participants to transfer files. When loading files, all users can be prompted to save the file, or files can be transferred silently and saved by those who need the file. Record live sessions for later play back for participants who missed a session or want a review. Playing back recordings is just like being there every bit of audio, every highlight; every shared application is recorded, and played back in perfect synchronization. Easy-to-use controls allow viewers to pause, forward, rewind, or navigate to a certain location in the recording. Recordings allow the social networking and community building that happened during the live session to be extended to watching recordings. Users can save slides, text messages, and choose to view or save Closed Captioning transcripts. Viewers can view user-profiles of participants who shared them during the live session and even easily send that person an from right within with the Elluminate recording thus fostering the community building between live participants and recording viewers. File Transfer during a live session (Eg. to handout a homework assignment) carries over to the recording -, the viewer is prompted to save the homework assignment at the exact same time during recording playback as the live participants did during the live session. Web Tour during a live session (Eg. a moderator might want participants to fill out a survey at the end of a session) carries over to the recording At the exact same time during recording playback, the viewers are directed to the same web survey enhancing the viewer s experience as well as the interactivity between the moderator and viewers. Moreover a Web Push launches a browser outside of Elluminate Live! allowing users to bookmark a website while watching the recording for later review.

4 Math Symbol Library Library of commonly used mathematical symbols is accessible by all participants. Customized symbols and images can also be added to library. Only available in the Academic and Lite Edition. Management and Usability Moderator Control Individual Bandwidth Management Real-Time Session Awareness (Moderator ESP) User Profiles Polling Emoticons Close a Session Stepped Out Indicator New User Notification Audible Hand Raise Notification Track Whiteboards and Content Language Translations All participants can see who is speaking, typing a message, or using the whiteboard. Yet all communication within session is controlled and monitored by moderator. Rather than depending on browser for bandwidth management, Elluminate Live! optimizes data stream specifically for connection speed of each individual. Whether participant uses a 28.8K modem or fast speed LAN, everyone sees and hears the same thing at the same time. Moderator knows whether participants are seeing what they should. When application sharing or displaying whiteboard content, moderator knows if participants are experiencing Internet delays and can adjust their presentation accordingly, with minimal disruption. Attendees can enter their profile displaying picture and contact information. Moderators decide who can view profiles: no one, only moderators, or everyone in the session. Allows others to save profiles as a vcard and send an from within the session. Poll participants with yes/no, true/false, or multiple-choice questions, and visually monitor responses, privately or publicly. Participants can provide feedback to moderator on pace of session. The results are tabulated and can be kept private or graphically displayed to all participants. Participants can express themselves to moderator and other participants with emotion indicators. Moderator can prevent additional participants from joining the session. Participants and moderators can let others know they had to step away from their computer temporarily. Moderators can receive an auditory and visual notification when a new user enters the room. Moderators can decide if they wish to have an audible notification when users raise their hands. Moderators have full session awareness with whiteboard content. Moderators can associate all objects on a whiteboard with each participant. When participants are allowed to navigate through slides, moderators can track which whiteboard screen each participant is viewing and ensure participants are on-track with assignments. Whiteboard and text chat automatically adapt to the language settings of the operating system for any language. Display menus and dialogs are available in English, Spanish, and French and automatically inherit language settings of operating system.

5 Accessibility Closed Captioning Color Settings Direct Messaging Short-cut and Hot Keys Screen Readers Moderator determines which participant(s) can view or provide closed captions. Use multiple streams for multiple languages or to create blogs of the session. Automatically use desktop color setting, such as high contrast, in the Elluminate Live! interface. Resize font and store default for easier readability. Activate menus, buttons, and dialogs with short-cut keys, including hand-raise, polling, and emoticons. Hot keys include activating audio, transiting video, and terminating application sharing. Provide verbal cues in Elluminate Live! interface via Java Accessibility Bridge to screen readers, such as JAWS and Narrator. Manageability Multi-platform Compatibility Server Software or ASP Service Extensive Bandwidth Management Automatic Reconnect SSL Communications In addition to Windows, Elluminate Live! runs on MacOS, Linux (Novell SUSE, Red Hat), and Solaris. Choose between server software installed behind your firewall or an ASP service accessible from anywhere. Extensive bandwidth management provides total control over the Elluminate Live! network footprint with ability to rate limit or cap the amount of bandwidth to be used. If Internet connection is temporarily lost, Elluminate Live! automatically reconnects and the user does not lose any content and is quickly synchronized with the rest of the participants. Elluminate Live! can be configured to use fully encrypted communications (SSL).

6 Key Differentiators User Experience Individual bandwidth management ensures that all elements are always in sync, regardless of Internet connection speed or quality. If a user experiences an Internet connection problem, Elluminate ensures that o The user is automatically reconnected, o the moderator is notified, o no content is missed, and o that the participant remains synchronized with the rest of the class Since we do not use any third party software for audio or content delivery, Elluminate can control the delivery of content directly, ensuring everyone is always synchronized. Easy to use interface with same view for moderators and participants, no layering or forced layout changes. High interactivity for moderators AND participants (no need to be a moderator or host to interact with whiteboard, tools, etc.). No Third Party Tools There is a one-time, automatic download for ALL features of our software (approximately 3MB) when a user tries to access Elluminate Live! for the first time There is no need to download any third party applications such as RealPlayer, VNC, etc. Since Elluminate Live! does not use any 3 rd party tools, scalability and performance is improved. Classroom Management Moderators are kept informed when: o A participant is not seeing what they should be seeing o A participant has a bad Internet connection o A participant has received all content (in the background) Granular permission granting. Moderators can determine, on an individual basis, who can talk, use the whiteboard, use text messaging, application share, video, etc. with a single click. Moderators know who raised their hands and knows in what order hands were raised. Through indicator lights, everyone knows who is doing what in the classroom (who is talking, using text chat, drawing on the whiteboard, etc.). Moderators see the same interface as participants so there is no new interface to learn. Social Networking Build a community of users. Users can share their profiles with all attendees in the session and with viewers who watch the recording. Users can import and export vcard data from a session and with viewers who watch the recording This allows participants to get to know each other, each other during and after the sessions and build a collaboration community.

7 Advanced Whiteboard Object oriented whiteboard whiteboard objects are dynamic can be selected, moved, resized, etc. Participants can see who placed what on whiteboard Laser pointing capability in whiteboard Elluminate provides a customizable Clip Art Library Advanced Polling Many polling options o Yes/No o Multiple choice o Class pace Polling results viewable in graphic format Quiz Manager available for advanced testing and surveys o Multiple choice and/or short answer Breakout Rooms Breakout rooms can be created ahead of time or on the fly. Each breakout room has its own private audio, whiteboard, application sharing, etc. Participants can be automatically divided into smaller breakout rooms (which can be prepopulated with exercises) - allowing small-group interactivity even in sessions which are hundreds of users. No User Left Behind Full multiple platform support and features for Windows, Macintosh, and Java Desktop. Low bandwidth and system requirements In support of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Elluminate enables each individual user to experience our live elearning and Web collaboration environment in the best way possible. Accessibility features include: o Multi-Channel Closed Captioning with the ability to save the transcript to a local text file o Color Settings o Scalability of Visual Content o Keyboard Access o Interface Control o Auditory Notification o Screen Readers Compatibility Graphing Calculator Built in Graphing calculator that can be moderator controlled or individually controlled. Interactive Recordings Pause, forward, rewind or navigate to any location in recording Ability to save/print public text messages, presentations Share, save and interact with a user s profile, even send them while watching the recording Web Tours and File Transfers happen during a recording at the right time

8 Recommendations for Testing When testing various synchronous products, the key is to simulate real-life scenarios. For example: What are the things that your faculty will need to do when teaching? Which features will you use in your meetings and how will they be used? What do you expect the participants to be able to do? Here are some testing scenarios to help you out. These will highlight the usability and performance of the products that you are evaluating. Scenarios 1. Join the session as a moderator and without making any changes ask a participant to: a. use audio b. show video c. application share a document d. mark up the whiteboard with drawing tools e. load an image onto the whiteboard 2. With one moderator and 25 participants, give 10 participants the privilege to talk, but not the other With 25 participants, ask all the attendees to raise their hand in the session. Then, based on the order that the participants raised their hands, ask participants to begin to introduce themselves using Voice over the Internet. 4. While an attendee is speaking, take away their microphone without demoting them 5. Disconnect the Internet connection for five seconds while someone is talking; upon reconnection keep track of the audio heard. Determine if there was any content missed. 6. As a moderator, application share a region of your screen. While you are sharing the region, give control to another attendee. Then take back control and have another participant ask for control of the document. 7. Share a proprietary application on a platform (PC, Mac, Solaris, Linux) and give control to another attendee on a different platform. 8. Use application sharing and have a participant ask for control of the application 9. Load a 10 MB PowerPoint presentation during the session and see how long it takes to load. 10. Load a multimedia file with audio. Check if all participants loaded the file. Then play the file and see if all the participants hear the sound in sync. 11. Load a QuickTime or MPEG multimedia file. 12. Create a blank whiteboard and have the participants write and draw on it without promoting them to host or presenter. 13. Create a profile with a name, picture and address. Use the option to send an immediate to the intended participant 14. Randomly distribute participants into breakout rooms and then with a single click return them to the main room. Then place them back into their breakout room in the same configuration with a single click in order for them to continue their small group work. 15. Quickly transition between different types of content. For example: quickly change from a whiteboard screen to sharing an application to playing a multimedia file, and then back to the whiteboard.

9 16. Use the tools in the product to capture a snapshot of an application or website running on your computer and load it on to the whiteboard for participants to annotate. Save the whiteboard screen to a file and load it into another session. 17. Have one session with users on high bandwidth speeds (LAN+), next session try with lower bandwidths. Notice the difference in the flow of the classroom. 18. Record one of your sessions and view the interactivity in the recording. While viewing the recording save/print whiteboard content, save all files transferred, view/save user profiles, view/save closed captions and participate in web tours.