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| Breiner |
by BRITTANY PENLAND
News Reporter
The virtual program “Elluminate,” provides Appalachian State University faculty and staff a new tool for the classroom.
Elluminate is offered over the Web and has the ability to stream over dial-up and high-speed Internet connections, Associate Director of Information Technology Services Steve Breiner said.
Appalachian has purchased user licenses for Elluminate for the past two years, Breiner said.
Although the program has been offered at Appalachian for a couple of years, it continues to gain popularity.
“I think
it is all about access. What we are doing with something like
[Elluminate] is starting to remove the barriers to communication,”
Breiner said.
The
program is a Web interface, which allows an instructor to broadcast
their course in real time over a Web cam, Instructional Technology
Consultant Mary Beth McKee said.
“There
are competitors with Elluminate, but part of the reason that we picked
them was they spent a lot of time on user interface, so people don’t
need a lot of training and it is also good for PC and Mac users,” McKee
said.
By using
Elluminate, instructors can share applications with students, show
video and PowerPoint presentations, send instant messages and pictures
as well as use voice-over Internet Protocol.
“There
is a big push to teach online and students are certainly eager for that
because it frees up everyone’s schedule and you don’t have to be in a
particular spot,” McKee said.
Associate
Vice Chancellor for Student Development Dino DiBernardi said the uses
of Elluminate can be lent to faculty office hours, conference meetings,
guest speakers and even student orientation.
“I am
intrigued with the potential for it to be used for other things besides
just traditional in-class instruction,” DiBernardi said.
Breiner
and McKee both said Elluminate has allowed contact between Appalachian
and people in Germany, Mexico, China, Spain and other countries around
the world.
“Personal
contact is one of the hallmarks of Appalachian, so I see it being a
tool, but hopefully would never be the primary way of doing something,
unless for economic or other reasons in which it makes sense to do
that,” DiBernardi said.
There are currently an estimated 63 faculty and staff using Elluminate in their classrooms, Breiner said.
“I try
to be innovative in class. I think that students realize how hard that
their professors try to make classes exciting,” Assistant Professor of
Technology Kevin R. Howell said. “This new technology gives a lot of
options for my classes.”
In order
to become a part of the program, the university went into a pool with
other North Carolina colleges to purchase 350 seats from Elluminate,
Breiner said.
Appalachian bought 50 of those seats.
Buying the allotted 50 seats allows for one instructor and 49 students to enter in to an Elluminate session at one time.
If a class exceeds the number of seats available, the instructor can apply for seats from the other schools in the pool.
“We
actually purchased [Elluminate] as part of this collaborative group so
that we could start to give faculty the option for online office
hours,” Breiner said.
Workshops are available to those interested in learning how to use Elluminate.
The next instruction will be held Wednesday, and faculty and staff can sign up on the LTS site.
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