Interactive Video Conferencing

Two video conferencing solutions are available to faculty for conducting distance educational classes or meetings:
Polycom® and Adobe™ Connect.

These are two different solutions with different requirements for capabilities for interaction. Neither is a perfect replacement for face-to-face classroom instruction but they do provide opportunities for students to participate in live classroom discussions from off-campus locations. Faculty seeking to use these technologies are advised to consider their needs for distance students, their audience’s capabilities and their own level of technology expertise. Practice with the technologies well in advance of the actual class meeting is highly advised.

Arrangements for Polycom® and Adobe™ Connect meetings need to be scheduled in advance.
Please contact Val McKain at coesched@ksu.edu.

Polycom®
Polycom® is a specific hardware solution that connects Polycom® units at specific locations. It is best used when teaching from one classroom (16E Bluemont Hall) to another classroom at a distant location. In addition to making arrangements to use the College of Education facilities, arrangements with the distant site need to be established in advance. These distant site arrangements include:

• The physical location of the Polycom® room at the distant site, which must be a room, not just a town or educational institution.
• The IP Number of the Polycom® equipment at the distant location.
• A contact number, e-mail address and name for the person who will be responsible for the room arrangements at the distant site.
• Notification of the participants where to attend the meeting.
• The local time at the distant site when the meeting will take place.

Polycom® conferences can be initiated with multiple sites, but additional arrangements must be made to schedule this connectivity through K-State Communications and Marketing Video Production Services.

Adobe™ Connect
Adobe™ Connect is a non-specific hardware solution that connects multiple properly-equipped computers at varied locations. It can be used with teaching from 16E Bluemont Hall to another classroom, as well as from a faculty member’s office computer (with the proper camera and microphone) to students at multiple locations (also equipped with a computer and the proper camera and microphone). It does not need arrangements with the distant site for a specific room.

Adobe™ Connect arrangements include:

• A “virtual meeting” space to be scheduled in advance.
• Arrangements to notify of the URL where the virtual conference will take place.
• Students at the far end need to be able to acquire, setup and manage their own technology with a high-speed Internet access. ALL participants MUST HAVE a camera, an echo-cancelling microphone and high–speed internet access.

Our current provider for Adobe Connect conferencing has a very comprehensive website full of information for both instructors and participants:

Adobe Connect Conferencing
http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/techweb/p.aspx?tabid=658

Camera Advice, which is located towards the bottom right of the page, provides a link to the camera they currently recommend which has a camera with a compatible microphone built in to it.

Other items of importance (under HELP Links) include:
Test your Computer
Getting Started
Presenter’s Help