Elluminate Users Conference - October 2009

The use of synchronous communication tools such as Elluminate Live! appears to be growing in K to 12 education - especially at the high school level. One of the drivers appears to be students in conventional high schools taking individual courses online in order to complete graduation requirements (e.g. certain course that is only offered once a year or will not fit into the student's existing timetable). Comments from online K to 12 teachers suggest that the synchronous sessions help to establish a sense of online community, which helps increase student motivation and responsibility leading to successful course completion (rather than withdrawal and failure). I had a chance at a recent Elluminate Users Conference to discuss the findings from the pilot study that Mike Power and I conducted on the use of Elluminate Live! to support graduate courses in education. The conference was held at the University of Calgary but I facilitated my session via Elluminate as I was also involved in a Jossey-Bass online conference. The PowerPoint slides from my session are available online and my session emphasized the use of synchronous communication tools in online graduate courses to increase student success and satisfaction, increase teaching flexibility and satisfaction for the faculty, and to potentially increase course revenues and decrease costs from an administrative perspective. I thought the session began on an interactive note by the participants describing how they are using Elluminate Live! in their own courses and programs but then I "hogged" the microphone and "talked at the audience" about our pilot study results with minimal opportunities for Q&A or discussion. From my perspective, Web-conferencing sessions require a fair bit of design and discipline by the facilitator in order to ensure that they are "two way" experiences as without visual cues with the audience - it's all too easy to become a "talking head".