Staff on the cutting edge 

Since its official campus launch last fall as SU's web conferencing tool, Adobe Connect Pro (ACP) has attracted a number of dedicated users.  Groups large and small have convened online and securely shared documents, audio, video, presentations, desktops, whiteboard updates and more in real time, right from their individual desktops.  Adobe Connect Pro provides a whole new set of collaborative opportunities.
 
In a note to iSchool faculty announcing ACP's availability, Peggy Brown, Director of Instructional Design and LMS Adminstrator at the iSchool said "This is a very easy system to use.  I encourage you to use it and have your students use it.  It's great for virtual group work and meetings."
 
In less than four months, ACP has attracted 651 registered users, 277 of whom have hosted 650 meetings.
 
"ACP has been a great product for us so far," said Chuck Savage of the School of Architecture. "We have run two seminars that would not have been possible otherwise. In each case the professor was off campus and wanted to present an interactive presentation to be viewed and heard by the students. They were also able to hear and chat with students. Presenters, faculty, and students all enjoyed the presentations and were happy with how simple the setup was to do."
 
While ACP will allow as many as one hundred participants in a single session, meetings thus far have averaged 6 participants and lasted an average of 43 minutes.
 
At the Whitman School of Management, Mitchell Franklin, Assistant Professor of Management & Accounting, uses ACP for live audio class sessions in his distance-learning MBA class. "Every 2 to 3 weeks I hold a 'class' where I spend an hour or so answering student questions and highlighting the points they should be taking away from the lessons," said professor Franklin. 
 
Eunkyu Lee,  Associate Professor of Management & Marketing at Whitman is using ACP for holding meetings with iMBA student groups, each with 4 or 5 students, located all over the country. Said professor Lee, "Later this semester, I also plan to use it for holding office hours."
 
Scott Nadzan, Whitman's Director of Information Technology, shared that "Whitman faculty and students used Adobe Connect Pro to deliver our first class to Camp Lemonnier, a United States Naval Expeditionary Base in Djibouti, Africa. The core element of this program is utilizing students to advance entrepreneurship in developing countries.  Participants in the session were in Syracuse, Washington, DC and Djibouti."
 
"I was delighted to find out that SU had a product that would enable my students and me to interact in real time," said Stacy Veeder, Adjunct Faculty in the iSchool. "Through Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro, I'll be able to conduct an exercise that I didn't think would be possible in the course, which is presented entirely online.  The students will be able to meet with me in small groups and engage in a role-playing exercise involving real-time debates.  I'm very pleased that I can now take this activity online."

Stacy found the ability to use microphones and web cameras key to conducting her exercise, and the "chat" pod also came in handy.  "I was also happy to discover that we can share files in another pod, and I can even share my entire desktop," she said. "Also, while I haven't decided yet whether I'll require my students to "raise their hands" electronically in order to speak, it's very nice that I have that option."

Stacy's students also use ACP to record and make available oral presentations.  "Students gain experience in making such presentations and learn from one another about issues that go beyond our regular class discussions," she said. "The tools offered by Connect Pro will enable each student to record both the oral presentation itself and any visual materials that he or she wishes to include.  Later, the other students in the class will be able to access each recording at their convenience, much in the same way they now access their assigned readings."

"I suspect that, the more I use Connect Pro, the more I'll see additional ways to use it in my teaching," said Stacy. "Connect Pro appears to be an extremely powerful tool, and I'm excited about incorporating it into my online classes."

Attend an Adobe Connect Pro Demo

 

If you are interested in learning more about web conferencing, its uses and implications, please attend a demonstration session on To register for the session, or if you have any other questions, please email help@syr.edu.
 
Get Started 
 
To learn how to put web conferences to work using Adobe Connect Pro, visit the ITS web site at http://its.syr.edu/webconference/.