Sharing Programs Among CTL Centers via Academic Commons

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  Posted by Bruce Rosenbloom on December 2, 2012 at 6:06 pm

  Dear CTL Directors–
  For quite some time, I have advocated for the potential of having CTL’s be able to share their programs with other schools. For various reasons, this project seemed too far to reach due to funding, logistics and planning. However, recently Matt Gold (DIrector of the CUNY Academic Commons) at the CUNY CAT (Committee on Academic Technology) meeting, introduced a new feature to the Academic Commons site that may make this vision a reality.

  Coming soon, the Academic Commons will be able to broadcast “live” events on “channels” set up for this purpose. I specifically asked Matt whether CTL’s can have their own channel, and he responded in the affirmative. With such a feature, if we do a workshop at CCNY, we can use a relatively simple technology setup to stream it over the Commons site. Any CUNY professor with the link, (or outside the University) will be able to see the presentation at a minimum. I realize there are a lot of technical and practical issues that need to be addressed including:
  –Can these sessions be recorded?
  –What are the costs (I believe minimal) for the broadcast?
  –How can 15 CTL Center’s programs be coordinated?
  –What if any permissions are need in this programming?
  –Can persons remotely viewing a workshop participate via questions?

  Invariably, additional questions/issues will arise. What I feel is needed, is a small working group (3-4 Centers) to fully explore the potential and challenges of this project, including securing adequate funding . At our next meeting, this Wednesday, I will be given some time to discuss this. I look forward to your feedback and participation….Bruce Rosenbloom

• Eva Fernández

  Participant

  December 2, 2012 at 7:16 pm

  Hi Bruce:

  At the CTL in Queens, we’ve been experimenting (with some success) with this type of thing for about two years now. We use Adobe Connect (we pay a license) to do live broadcasts and to record presentations. You can see some of the recordings at our nifty blog:

  http://teachlearn.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
  (look under “TALKS”)

  For a specific webcast and recorded talk, see the one on author’s rights, broadcast during Open Access week back in October:

  http://teachlearn.commons.gc.cuny.edu/?page_id=837

  We have also experimented with other webcasting tools, including Justin TV.

  I can answer some of your questions, and look forward to talking more on Wednesday:

  External costs are minimal (we pay a license for Adobe Connect); internal costs are not insignificant, since it’s taken a good amount of work for one of our technologists to develop the expertise and to figure out all the things that can possibly go wrong—and with this, many things can go wrong.

  People viewing remotely can definitely participate, but you need a good moderator to watch the questions and make sure the participants online get a chance to “speak”. (In some ways, they have a bigger voice, because if you set things up right, their questions are visible to the audience before they are uttered.)

  Are permissions needed? Yes, absolutely (we have a form)—and this is one of the many things that can go wrong, because some people are turned off by the idea of being broadcast or recorded or both. You have to tell the presenters ahead of time and get their consent. It’s also good form to notify the audience, so they know not to ask questions if they don’t want to be broadcast or recorded.

  We would probably be interested in contributing to a test of this new feature of the Commons.

  See you all on Wednesday!
  Alyson Vogel

  Participant

  December 3, 2012 at 11:31 am

  Hi Bruce
  When you mentioned this recently as one of your ideas the other day at the
  conference I thought it was a good one- I’m available to assist if you need
  people to talk over logistics!

  —
  Alyson Vogel
  Associate Director, Online Education
  Office of Undergraduate Studies and Online Education
  Lehman College, CUNY
  alyson.vogel@lehman.cuny.edu

  Carman Hall, 264
  250 Bedford Park Blvd West
  Bronx, NY 10468
  Ph:347 577-4024
  Fx: 718 960-2252

  On Sun, Dec 2, 2012 at 5:06 PM, CUNY Academic Commons <
  wordpress@commons.gc.cuny.edu> wrote: