DLC Summer 2019 Class Projects/Robin OCallaghan

Project Details

Professor O'Callaghan is having her class utilize the desktop software Adobe Connect to work at a distance to collaborate virtually on your group project. Adobe Connect is a full-featured web conferencing tool that can be used on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. It supports video and audio over the Internet, document and screen sharing, and more. It is web-based and does not require the installation of any major software application. For this project, you will need one person from the group to create an Adobe Connect Room where the group can meet. Meeting hosts can create meetings with Adobe Connect Rooms in the Connect Manager, provide access to those rooms through a URL that others in the group can use to gain access to the room, and then use the tools available in the room to facilitate engaging online meetings with anyone in the world via a web browser. Meeting attendees can participate in online activities based on the role assigned to them by the host. For this class, we are offering five sessions for you to learn all of the content below and more. These sessions will be hosted in Adobe Connect and we will be meeting in this room Chad's Practice Room The dates and times for these sessions are listed below along with the testing Connect Testing tool.

Tuesday 5/28 from 3:00-4:00 pm

Wednesday 5/29- Noon-1:00 pm

Thursday 5/30 3:00-4:00 pm

Thursday 5/30 6:00-7:00 pm

Monday 6/3 from 11:00-Noon

Tuesday 6/4 from 2:00-3: 00 pm

Wednesday 6/5 from 6:30-7:00 pm

If you have never attended an Adobe Connect meeting before you can test your connection: Adobe Browser Test Tool

Hardware/Software

Adobe Connect

Creating a Connect Room

One person from the group should create an Adobe Connect Room where the group will meet for their project meetings. To create a Room the Host should have an active Minnesota State StarID and password. You can then activate your Connect account by simply logging into the Connect Manager site using the steps below and following all the steps to create an Adobe Connect Room.

1. Use your favorite web browser to go to https://webmeeting.minnstate.edu/.

2. Enter your StarID and password. The Connect Manager page will open.

3. Occasionally, users will get a "Not Authorized" message. If this happens, click "OK", wait 5 minutes, then log in again.

4. To create a meeting room, follow the screenshots below. You will end up with a web address or URL for the room, which you can pass along to anyone you want to attend the meeting.

5. Your meeting will now appear under the section “Custom Meetings”. To enter your room, select “Join” on the right side of the screen. To share your link, copy and paste the URL next to the title of your room.

6. Next, you will want to add all members of your group to your Room as Hosts so everyone can access the room at any. To do this select the Setting button and select Edit.

7. Search for Group Members (1), Select Group Members (2), and Add them to them to the Room (3), and promote them to Host (4) to your Adobe Connect Room.

Before you Begin an Adobe Connect Meeting

When participating in a Connect online rooms you will want to make sure to take two important steps to make the experience of participating in this meeting a success.

Have a set of earbuds or headphones to separate the sound from your speakers and microphone so you do not have feedback.
Before you start using Adobe Connect, use this link Adobe Connect Diagnostic Test to make sure you have a good connection, the Flash media player, and Adobe Connect presenter app installed.

Connect Audio Settings

Your professor may want you to participate with audio for the class and this requires you to launch the Audio Setup Wizard that is found within the Meeting menu. The following steps walk you through this process

Click Next to begin testing your laptop audio output.
On the Sound Output page, click Play Sound button. If you did not hear the sound sample, click Help button for more information.
After successful audio test click Next button.
On the Select Microphone page, select your microphone type from the pull‑down menu.
Click Next and on the Test Microphone page, click Record button to test your microphone. If a dialog box appears requesting access to your camera and microphone, click Allow to allow Acrobat Connect Professional to access your camera and microphone.
After 5 seconds of recording click Record button again and then Play Recording button to see if the level of audio is appropriate.
Click Next button and on the Tune Silence Level page, click the Test Silence button. Remain silent until progress is complete. Acrobat Connect Professional sets a microphone sound level that compensates for background noise in your environment.
Select Finish button and you will be returned to the online room. Make sure to activate your microphone (i.e. White=Inactive and Green=Active) on the Application Bar at the top of your screen in the Connect online room (see Figure 1 below).

Figure 1. Active Microphone

Using Chat

Sometimes faculty just want you to use the Chat feature to send a message to everyone in your class. The chat feature allows you to also select a specific person and have a private chat. By default the Chat box will send your messages to all, but if you choose from the Attendees pod a specific person by hovering over their name you can select the Start Private Chat and a new Tab will appear in the Chatbox (see Figure 2 below) and you can start a private conversation with this person.

Figure 2. Private Chat Tab

Activating Webcam Video

Your professor may have you use your laptop webcam to share video. When you see the Video pod in your online room you will have a Start My Webcam button in the center of this pod. Important:You will then be asked to Start Sharing and one you click on this button you will be live. You can also use the webcam icon in the Application Bar to access your webcam and preference.

Presenting You Screen

You may be asked to present your screen when using your online room. Sharing your screen requires you to have the Adobe Connect Add-in that the Adobe Connect Diagnostic Test (see Before You Begin above) checks for this add-in and automatically downloads it if you are missing this file on your laptop. Once you give Presenter or Host status, you will see in the Share pod a Share My Screen button. Select this and choose the screen you wish to share and you will see a smaller Connect menu appear and your screen will be viewed by all participants in the online room.

The Sharing your screen video from Lynda provides much more detail about why and how to use the feature when presenting something in your Connect online room.

Alt 1 --Share this YouTube video on sharing? https://youtu.be/2KZD5Rrbhqs

Alt 2 --Adobe Connect support page on Sharing https://helpx.adobe.com/adobe-connect/using/sharing-content-meeting.html

Recording Adobe Connect Meetings

Before launching any recording always announce that you are going to be recording this meeting before launching the recording tool. Once in your Adobe Connect meeting room go to the Meetings menu and select Record Meeting.

Next title your recording with a topic, date, and time of the meeting and select OK. Your meeting room will have a red light indicator in the top right corner of the screen (see clip below).

After your meeting, you can click on the red light again and choose the Stop Recording option seen in the clip above.

Sharing Recordings

Once you have closed the Adobe Connect application you can share this video by going back to the Connect launch page. Below your Adobe Connect room link there is a Recordings link.

A list of recordings from this room will appear and you will need to select Share from the Actions menu.

Next, you will need to switch the recording from private to public and copy the URL from this page and Save.

Paste the URL to this recording into an email, D2L Brightspace Assignment Submission Folder, or Discussion Forum.

Additional Resources

Lynda Training

Adobe Connect Essential Training

Other Resources

DLC Support

Phone: 507-457-2206
Email: dlc@winona.edu
1:1 Support: Krueger Library #105