On May 2nd, Ecampus held our annual Faculty Forum which showcases the outstanding work that OSU is doing in online education. Sixteen interactive sessions allowed faculty the opportunity to learn more about innovative teaching methods and share their experiences in online teaching with each other.

This year we were delighted to have Dr. Kevin Gannon, a professor of history and director for the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Education at Grand View University, present a keynote address on a very timely and relevant topic for all online educators – designing online classrooms where inclusive discussions can take place while effectively engaging students with challenging or controversial materials.  His presentation – Sea lions, trolls, and flames – oh my! Navigating the difficulty places in online learning – was a thought-provoking and inspiring call to action for online educators.

This tool is great for Instructor to Student interaction either to show a quick demonstration or for office hours use. Students to Student interaction for group collaboration work. Student to Instructor/Students for a project presentation.

Pros

  • Voice/Video communication up to 10 people.
  • Free
  • Most everyone has a google account
  • Screenshare
  • Sketchup
  • Google Docs Integration
  • Use with mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, iOS Devices, Android Phones)
  • Dial in a guest speaker via phone

Cons

  • Google+
  • Install Plugin

 

If students don’t want to use their personal account or share personal information, have them create an alias account under a different name or email address.

Here’s what the Google Hangout interface looks like

Google’s Guide to Hangout.

On Air, this is a new feature that google just added, so not everyone will have it yet. It will allow:

  • Real-time streaming of your google hangout up to 10 people viewable to anyone on the Internet.
  • Allows viewers to interact with the hangout via chat interface.
  • Upon completion the video broadcast will be recorded and stored on youtube for viewing.

So you don’t have On Air on your account, how do you record your Google Hangout session?
5 Free Tools for Recording Google+ Hangouts