SYNCHRONOUS LEARNING TOOLS WHAT ARE SYNCHRONOUS LEARNING TOOLS? Synchronous learning tools open up a virtual learning environment for students that give more flexibility to instructors administering course material and live classroom collaboration over distances. Big Blue Button is a program in which an instructor can enlist computer aided instruction to set up an online class session over the Internet for class collaboration, or to aid with post-lecture clarification. Students can attend over a distance, saving on travel expenses and valuable class space. This lends opportunity to those students unable to be on campus for reasons beyond their control. This gives instructors the ability to speak to their students live, rather than relying on WebCT pop-up announcements being acknowledged by students, their email being retrieved, or the next class to roll around in order to deliver pertinent information. WAYS TO USE SYNCHRONOUS LEARNING 1. Process Teaching Instead of having to wait for technical difficulties to creep up in your inbox, and taking up valuable study time for students trying to rectify their difficulties, reduce the chance of lost time to such troubleshooting by showing students how it s done. Demonstrate the how it s done by sharing a live screen capture of yourself giving a short demo in a program, to give students a concrete sense of your expectations for an assignment. Giving a WebTour through the program, and show your students a few days after class where to find something you ve uploaded to a WebCT folder, as well as how to open it. 2. Remote Guest Speaker Individuals specializing in their own fields are high quality additions to a lecture. They are hard enough to get a hold of, and to get them into your classroom can be difficult to arrange. If it s an instructor you d like to have present to your class who has a busy schedule and can t make it, cancel out the factor of travel time by arranging a video feed directly into your Big Blue Button classroom so that they can contribute their knowledge or experience to your course. 3. Online Office Hours The problem with having a large class, a handful of T.A.s, and one office, is that you can generally only see one or two people at a time. If student initiative is high and your office hour is in high demand, this can be a challenge. By supplementing your office hours with a pre-scheduled online office hours through a Big Blue Button session between lectures, you re granted the capacity to address all of your students in one easy-to-use setting, and still collaborate privately with T.A.s to keep them on the same page. No more repeating yourself; with your entire class logged into a prescheduled Big Blue Button session, get your message across instantly to your entire course participants. 4. Make Up For Lost Time For those with difficulty with mobility, traversing to the classroom can be extremely difficult, and sometimes impossible. Video conferencing in Big Blue Button makes this possible through web conferencing with students if needed, to present material and clarify concepts. Because of this, Big Blue Button has known to have cross-continental applications. Furthermore, with Big Blue Button s Voice Over Internet (VoIP) functionality, not only can you see the person you re talking to, but even if you re not equipped with a webcam you can still speak to them.
5. Let students help you teach Immerse your class in a new environment that allows significantly greater student participation, greater intellectual manoeuvrability and room to bounce around new thoughts and ideas. The worst thing to happen to a classroom has traditionally been the least transparent: the inability for the students-base to communicate back to the instructor to verify and comprehend material. Encourage student input; offer bonus points for greater participation and willingness to participate. Convey to your students that in a computer-aided classroom environment they will be able to digest course material more effectively than ever before, with fewer resources, and a greater fun factor. BEST PRACTICES 1. Preset the correct settings before commencing any activity. Synchronous learning tools such Big Blue Button will typically prompt you to set your connection speed (most likely Cable/DSL or LAN, but even 56K dial-up speeds will usually still suffice). This will help the tool understand your performance restrictions in order to serve you better. Let students know that they need the most up-to-date version of Java, available for download at www.java.com. Java is a standard that helps Internet services run correctly. Students will need to be up to par on Java to ensure Elluminate functions properly. 2. Adjust your Firewall if needed, so that Big Blue Button will be allowed access through your Internet connection. Firewalls are common among computers to prevent external access to your computer. Firewall software may attempt to intervene between Big Blue Button s connection and users trying to connect to your hosted session. Ensure that Big Blue Button is one of the trusted items within. 3. Orient yourself with the interface first before introducing the class to what you have planned. First-time users will often need a little time to become accustomed to their synchronous learning tool prior to delving the class into the environment, as Big Blue Button will require a short period of time for you to get acquainted with the tool. The last thing you need kicking off your first session is mass hysteria because students are overwhelmed by all of the features before them. To prevent this from happening, start off your first session with students utilising only a few features, and branch out your virtual classroom from there. 4. Set an itinerary for your Big Blue Button sessions rather than playing it as you go, so that students will know what you have planned and not lose interest. Getting lost in cyberspace can happen, so do your best keep the class on task. Remember to take advantage of the send email invitations feature following the creation of a session. Once the session has begun, ask students if they re experiencing any difficulties to confirm that they are not experiencing any technical issues, questions about the technology, and that they are ready to proceed. BIG BLUE BUTTON Big Blue Button is an online classroom developed by Carleton s TIM (technology innovation management) program. The best part of the program is how versatile it can be to suit your needs for such things as maintaining online office hours, conducting tutorials, meeting tool for collaboration and running distance courses. The program is free to use and enables free conference calling through a webcam and microphone. bigbluebutton.org
USING BIG BLUE BUTTON 1. Go to edc.bigbluebutton.org 2. Enter your login information: Students: Full Name = (your full name) Password = student. Instructors: Logins to moderate/run a meeting are provided by the EDC. Note: If you did not receive a password or username, please contact edc@carleton.ca. 3. Choose your classroom using the drop down menu below your username/full name. Classrooms #1, 2, 3 & 4 are free to use if you want to try it out before setting up classroom of your own. GETTING THE HANG OF BIG BLUE BUTTON Big Blue Button has a student view and a teacher/designer view. As such, in your role as classroom presenter, you ll have many more features and design capabilities that your students, or viewers, do not. Once the virtual classroom loads, you ll see 4 primary windows: users, listeners, presentations and chat. USERS The users box displays classroom participants. The icon beside your name under the status column indicates your role in the classroom. This icon represents the classroom presenter/instructor/designer. You can change who the presenter is by clicking the icon on the bottom of the user box and highlight the person s name. LISTENERS The listeners box is only active if you want an audio component to your presentation. This would require use of a microphone on your end, as well as for the students if you expect them to interact with you using voice. You can mute the students microphones by clicking on the lock beside their name. You may eject a person from the audio conversation by highlighting their name and clicking the eject button.
PRESENTATIONS The presentations box the core of the Big Blue Button features as it enables you to interact with your students through visuals. The Big Blue Button program enables you to upload any Microsoft program (excel, powerpoint, word, etc) in addition to PDF files and it presents it within the presentation box in a format viewable to all students even if their computers do not support Microsoft programs. To upload your presentation, click the Upload Presentation button at the bottom of the screen. Browse to find your presentation and click upload. Your presentation will load and present itself in the window of the presentation box. Once you ve loaded your presentation, the box changes by providing more options. Remember, everything within the presentation box will be visible to students! The title presentation changes to the title of the presentation you re giving. In this case, it changed to storyboarding. 1. The green arrows allow you to scroll through your presentation. 2. The red dot is actually your mouse. Students will be able to view you moving your mouse by following the red dot. This enables you to point out key images or direct their attention elsewhere. 3. You may also use the zoom feature to narrow in on a particular image. CHAT The fourth and final primary window is the chat box. This box enables text chatting with students. You can speak to all students individually, or set up a private chat between one particular student. To chat with an individual student, click on the ALL button. It ll bring up a dropdown menu feature names of all participants. Select their name and a separate chat window will open. Font colour can be changed as well by clicking on the colour tab beside the Send button. The chat window is viewable by all participants in the discussion.
AUDIO / VIDEO / SCREEN SHARING Right above the user box are three icons: headphones, webcam, desktop view. The headphones icon enables voice/audio chat. The webcam will activate a webcam feature where students will be able to see you live on camera. The desktop view enables students to view your desktop screen in the event you want to show them something else not visible on the Big Blue Button presentation screen. LOGGING OUT When you re all finished, say goodbye and click the logout button, featured in the top right-hand corner of your browser. ADVANTAGES OF BIGBLUEBUTTON Hold online office hours this can be done either by you or a teaching assistant. It s a great way to reach students who cannot meet office hours due to scheduling. Interact with students from the comfort of your own home. Reach students through distance education; opening opportunities for other students to learn your lessons. Show the video window and utilise your webcam so your class can actually see you. OTHER RESOURCES For more information on Big Blue Button, check out these 4-minute tutorials available for both students and teachers http://www.bigbluebutton.org/content/videos For additional information on Big Blue Button, contact the Educational Development Centre at edc@carleton.ca and by phone at extension 4433.