Videoconferencing

Being part of a team, I’m sure we all find it easier to communicate and engage with each other face-to-face; it’s argubly the best way to build up the rapport.  However, face-to-face meetings can entail lots of time and effort in coordination and traveling, which might not be feasible if your team members are working in different locations in a county, or even across different regions.  So what alternative do we have?

Besides using tools such as online forum and wiki to collaborate, we can always do it in the old-fashion way – give your teammate a ring!  With the help of free online tools such as MSN, Skype and iChat (For Mac users), not only can we speak with each other, we can also see each others’ faces – a good substitute to getting in for a one-hour meeting with three-hour drive before and afterwards.

Videoconferencing

Setting up videoconferencing facilities could be an expensive process, if you’re looking at high quality equipments with good audio and visual output.  According to Oxford University Computer Services, a stand-alone video-conference equipment would cost at least £2,000.   That said, some colleges might already have that kind of equipments in place, and registered with JANET, who provides free videoconferencing services for FE and HE institutions.  So go and seek advice from your IT department and see whether you could use their facilities.  As long as one of your campuses have registered, other team members can join in the conference as guests.  That comes quite handy!

However, you don’t need to have very high-end equipments to get started.  If your aim is to connect with your teammates and work together, online tools such as Skype can be very useful.  All you need to set up a meeting with 2 to 6 people in different locations are headset and webcam; not only can you save up much time in traveling, these online tools are also free of charge!  A perfect solution for geographical barriers – Officers from Cornwall College have told us at the NUS FEstival their plan to adopt this technology across their seven campuses.  So what are you waiting for?

Small tips

• The option of using free online tools is only effective if you’re hosting a small-scale meeting, i.e. each end has only one attendee (so if you’ve six different locations, then six people). The reason is that if you’ve to use speakers (instead of headsets) to speak, there would be a huge compromise on audio quality.
• Make sure you speak clearly and let others know who you’re, as it’s not a one-to-one conversation and can be quite confusing at times.
• In case of confusion, make good use of the chatting function attached to these software (That’s definitely an advantage over normal phone conversation).

Need more information?
JANET Video Conferencing Services
Oxford University Computer Services – Video Conferencing

Virtual Learning Environment

Throughout the last weeks, we’ve been looking at how various technological tools can help us engage and communicate with learners.  While external tools such as social networking sites, blog, independent websites are effective and mostly free-of-charge, your organisation might wish to use something with can sit within the institutional infrastructure.  If that’s the case, what can you do?  The answer is Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)!

Virtual Learning Environment?

JISC defines a VLE as “a collection of integrated tools enabling the management of online learning, providing a delivery mechanism, student tracking, assessment and access to resources” (Quoted from JISC infoNet – Effective Use of Virtual Learning Environments).  Majority of colleges, and many learning providers, now have a VLE in place to support learning and teaching.  VLE can be a single platform (such as Blackboard and Moodle) or an integrated set of tools.  Many institutions are now looking at, if not already, connecting the VLE together with intranet and library catalogue, so staff members and students can use all the facilities with a single-login, anytime and anywhere.

When using effectively, VLE is a powerful tool to make learning more flexible, interactive and personalised.  There’re a lot of discussion on the role VLE can play in learning, and we’re not going to repeat it here.  Have a look around in the internet if you’re interested, sure you’d be able to acquire lots of insight.

Why VLE?

One of the reasons for VLE’s popularity is its security.  Your institution has control on who can access to the platform, which means your staff members and students can conduct activities and exchange ideas in a safe environment.  This is particular useful when safeguarding issues are taken into consideration.  Most VLEs support a wide range of functions, which is also a strength.  You don’t need to use site A for blog, download software B for instant messaging, and register page C for an online forum – You can have all the functions together in one place.  VLEs allow you to upload and store files, so you can have podcasts and videos, without using external host such as YouTube.  As you can probably imagine, if enough traffic can be driven into the VLE, it can serve as an information hub, as well as a starting point to establish a strong online community.

How to use VLE to strengthen learner voice?

Using Moodle as an example, the basic functions you need to create dynamic and interactions are all in place.  For example instant messaging, survey, forum, blog and wiki (Wiki is very useful if you wish to have collaborative writing with a group):

To use VLE effectively in engaging your students, it’s important to:

• Be interactive: a lot of students find their VLE systems “boring”, like a “warehouse” which stores materials only. To attract students to actively log-on and use the system, it’s essential to make it interactive, so they can participate and feel being part of it.  Online forum and “user-generated” content are always good points to start.
• Have a presence: most institutions use their VLEs with a discipline-based approach (it’s natural, as VLE primarily supports learning). While as sudents’ union or student support unit you can’t control how others use the system, but it’s definitely helpful to establish a presence in the system.  Having a quick link or a pop-up box right after students login the system can definitely catch their eyes!
• Link up: Even if you’ve an independent website, a Facebook group, etc. it’s still worth to link them up with the VLE, so as to maximise your chances to reach out to your students.

Remember to work closely with your colleagues at the IT department, they’ll be able to give you advice and support that you need!

Blog – Online presence with a voice

In the last few blog entries, we have discussed how an online presence can be established through social networking sites and independent websites; while these tools are powerful and can effectively disseminate information and maintain a searchable platform, there is one single tool I’d highly recommend on top of them – Blog.

Why blogging?

Unlike other formal communications, blogging enables a mixture of formal and informal communication approaches: Company CEOs talking about their ambition, travellers sharing their experience, students’ union presidents expressing their ideas and thoughts… the unqiue “voice” in between the lines is more engaging and reflective, just like our old friends telling their stories.  At the same time, blog is also a very good tool to provide information and collect feedbacks.  It’s therefore a very popular tool in this social media era.

If you don’t want to spend a lot of time maintain an independent website, and you don’t want to use social networking tools such as Facebook and MySpace, blogging tools can also help you establish an online presence quickly.  For more information on how blog can be used as an alternative to a website, check out information 1 and 2.

What to blog?

The essence of a blog is its update – so you can keep your audience informed anything that you think they’d be be interested in.  For example:

• Event information
• Call for campaign support
• Policy updates
• Meeing highlight
• Discussion of learning issues

Want some ideas on the content and the tone of communication?  Why not checking out some excellent examples from various government and political organisations?

 

 

 

How to blog?

Exisiting blogging tools are pretty user-friendly, so you won’t need a long time to pick the skills up.  However, there’re other issues you need to consider.  Resource planning is very important:

• How often do you plan to blog? (If it’s left in the cold for too long, your audience might lose interest!)
• How many people are involving? (Bringing in different voices is brilliant, but that needs a bit of coordination.)
• Who is responsible for what?
• What kind of tone of language would you adopt?
• Do you have other tools to help you create content? (E.g. Camcorders, audio recorders, etc.)
• Should your blog be hosted externally (E.g. with WordPress or Blogger)? Within your organisation’s website? Or within VLE (Most VLE supports blogging function)?
• How would you integrate your blog to your wider communication strategy?

Need more ideas?  Check them out:
Imperial College Union Blog
Your Lewisham College (This blog is establised by college members, but open for individual students to submit entries for publication. This idea is quite interesting and has made good use of the “collaborative power” in the social media era.)

More on Online Presence

Last time we’ve discussed how social networking sites could establish our online presence.  While these tools come handy, it might not be able to give the much control you wish to have (e.g. layout, colours, functionality, etc.).  In that case, building up an independent website (not pages attached to a wider organisational website) might be a better option for you.

How to build up a website?

If this question was posed 10 years ago, you probably would come up with things like Html, Dreamweaver, Frontpage, etc.  While harnessing those tools can give you space and freedom for creativity, these days we don’t need to sweat for it.  If you are from an educational establishment, there are website service providers which provide their supoort with no cost (Note that there are terms and conditions which you might wish to consider carefully before commissioning) – BAM and On Campus are two commonly used providers in FE and HE sector. 

This kind of service can help you handle ”problems” of hosting your website or file storage (e.g. media files such as videos and podcast can take up much space).  They usually have a standard website layout, but you can tailor the colour scheme, banners, breakdown of the websites and applications plug-in to suit your needs.  Alternatively, if you’re not planning for a very complicated website, you can use blogging services to present the essential information and updates of your organisation (WordPress is getting more popular for this purpose).  Check out explaination 1 and 2 if you’re interested in this option. 

How to present information on the website?

Once you’ve the website structure set up, you can then think of the information you wish to present to your audience.  Castle College Nottingham Students’ Union website demonstrates a user-friendly, simple and clear example:

I’m sure you’ve the same experience which you found a website disorganised, out-of-date or you couldn’t find the piece of information you needed until the 10th click.  That was not pleasant was it?  Bear this in mind, it is important to plan ahead:

• Analyse what your audience mostly need and are interested in, so to make the website accessible.
• Arrange the information in such a way that people can find the essential info (such as organisational introduction, staff contact, important resources, etc.) easily, while picking up news and updates at the same time.
• Use simple applications and plug-ins such as event calendar, comment box and survey tools to support your operation and interaction.

What else to consider?

Establishing and maintaining an online presence is about building up a connection – a platform where your audience can get to you, and give you feedback when appropriate.  Merely “having a space” somewhere on the World Wide Web is not enough, when you think about the endless number of websites and resources in the virtual space.  It is important, therefore, to keep your audience engaged and coming back to you from time to time.  A few tips on that:

• Interesting materials such as videos, photos, podcasts which are relevant to your audience can always spice up the website a bit, compared to pure text.
• It’d be advisable to have functionalities in place to assist people with visual impairment.
• Make sure your website are up-to-date: who wants to click into a page with nothing newer than 6 months?
• Keeping up the content and maintainence can be time-consuming: do share the workload in your team systematically.
• Also service providers in the market can usually give you technical support, it’d be helpful to have in-house support, e.g. IT students volunteering for website maintenance.

Next time we’ll talk about blogging – another option for online presence, or a good tool to engage with your own voice!

Online Presence

Situation: You need some basic information of an organisation, what would you do?
A. Ask your friends/family
B. Call the organisation’s enquiry line
C. Check out the organisation’s website

I bet you’d come up with answer D – Google it.   Even when we wish to get a phone number, or check out a website, the very first thing we do is to locate the information by using search engine.  It’s simply the way how we acquire information nowadays.   With this in mind, our next question should be: how should we establish ourselves and reach out with our online presence, so that people who are interested in our work can locate and keep in touch with us?

How to establish an online presence?

To make your organisation/group searchable, you need a website somewhere in the world of World Wide Web.  This can be in the format of an page on social networking site, a “normal” website, or a blog.  All these tools serve the same function – being there, disseminating information, and interacting with your potential audience – but they also have different nature and functionality which can suit different needs.  In the coming few entries, we’re going to look at these tools one by one, and what needs to be considered in a wider context.

Social Networking

It is not just about partying and fun!  By using it effectively, social networking can strengthen the community power – people connecting with each other, information passing on through word of mouth, etc.  Mirroring our interest in knowing what our family and friends are up to, our audience probably also want to receive updates from the groups/clubs/societies they feel they belong to, and give feedbacks when necessary.  Tool such as Facebook Page is useful to provide a user-friendly, simple platform to establish our online presence quickly:

• It has interactive functions such as online forum, comments, uploading photos and videos (Note: Administrators do have control on the right of files upload, so you can decide whether you allow your students to use this function), which makes it more participative an engaging that traditional websites.
• Unlike some other social networking sites or pages within the virtual learning environment (VLE) systems, individuals do not need to be a member to read the page.  This is important if you wish to open a window for perspective students and alumni to keep in touch with you (VLE, on the other hand, is more secure yet not as helpful for establishing online presence).
• With the “status update” and “announcement” functions, information and updates can be “put” directly onto their news feed pages, without them checking out your page.  This subscription function is very powerful way to reach out.
• It gives you full control on the content of the page, unlike attaching a few webpages on a wider organisational website (e.g. a webpage of students’ union in a college website).

(Examples: City College Norwich Facebook Page; NUS Further Education Zone)

Which Social Networking site to choose?

Facebook is just one of the examples.  To consider which tool to pick, we have to take a look at:

• Which tool(s) do our audience mostly use? (E.g. Twitter is so popular now, especially in organisational and professional context. But do your students normally have a twitter account? Are they interested in it? If not you might need to consider whether it’d be suitable for you.)
• Which tool(s) can best fit in our wider communication planning/strategy?
• Which tool(s) would subject the least access problems with the access policy of your organisation? (If the tool is banned on campus it might not be ideal)

Also make sure you familiarise yourself with the tool before using it for your organisation!  We do want to establish a good online presence, don’t we?

Next time we’ll talk about what you need to do to set up a website!

Texting

At the beginning of this year, technologists around the world have predicted that Mobile Technology would be the next huge development.  As individuals, I’m sure you can also feel this leap – not only do we have more advanced mobiles and applications available, text messaging also becomes one of our major ways to keep in touch with family and friends, colleagues and other fellows.  According to the Mobile Data Association, we have sent a total of 78.9 billion sms in 2008!!  With this striking figure in our mind, we might wish to think about ways we can better engage our students, through a device we all carry around everyday.

Why texting?

Contacting students through texting service is not a new idea: Schools use that to keep parents informed, libraries message users about their loans and release of new books, colleges give out information and events to perspective students… Texting provides an efficient way to reach a large group of students, quickly and directly, anytime anywhere.  By deploying it effectively, it is particularly powerful in reaching work-based learners (such as apprentices), adult learners, part-time learners, etc. who are not on campus (or in front of a computer) all the time and cannot participate as much as they would wish to.

According to the feedbacks from front-line practitioners, texting is a means to uphold retention and give timely support for students!  It is not only efficient, but also easy to use.  More and more colleges now have their own texting system in place.  Service providers usually allow users to send messages out from their virtual learning environment (VLE, e.g. Moodle and Blackboard), via desktop software, linkage with existing email systems, or using website facilities (remote access is therefore possible). 

What to do with texting?

Primarily, texting allows us to disseminate information quickly.   So anything you wish your students to know can be passed on via text messages, or draw their attention to find out further details online:

• Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG)
• Social events
• Study tips
• Examination reminders
• Learner Rep meeting info
• Career information
• Call for campaign support
• Call for nomination and election

Student participation is by no means a one-way street, texting can also facilitate interaction as such.  Nowadays most service providers support two-way communication – students can send their questions, comments or other things back to designated “mobile numbers”, staff members can then check them out in their email/text inbox.  This not only opens one more channel to collect students’ feedback throughout the year, one can also send out simple questions on certain issues to students, when necessary.  By the same token, this interactive approach of engagement is becoming increasingly common in large meetings and conferences, through the support of “text walls” (with which one can see participants’ feedbacks quickly, all on one page).  Maybe we can also consider allowing polling through texting as well?

How to start texting?

It might sound obvious, but I have heard of situations in which people needed to send sms to students through their own mobiles (!), typing in a list of numbers one by one.  By seeking technical support from service providers, we can send out messages more efficiently; we can also manage and target particular groups of students with information relevant to them (e.g. apprentice induction day, change of evening class venue, etc.). 

If your college/organisation has already commissioned a texting service, you might wish to make use of the exisiting service by requesting for additional user accounts (so that you can have independent right to send/receive text messages) and purchasing extra credits through your budget.  By doing so, you can save up the start-up cost of putting the system in place.  If not, there are a number of large providers in the sector which can offer you technical support.  For instance, JANET txt provides services for colleges/organisations in the sector by waving the start-up fee.  Other companies such as edutxt and fastsms  also provide different packages you can choose from.

So what are you waiting for?  Let’s get your text going!

Video

Last time we’ve talked about Podcast; let’s have a look at video this week.

Thanks to the blooming of YouTube - breaking news, hidden talents and captivating speeches are now more accessible than ever.  Besides uploading videos, many people also use it as a “search engine” to find new information, ideas and inspiration.  But you might be wondering: how can we make the best out of it for student participation?

Why using Video?

Video gives an alternative for people to get the information they need.  Not only is video more entertaining (of course only when the content and presentation are interesting!), it also helps us get a flavour of the events’ atmosphere and people’s emotions.  Similar to podcast, this nature can better keep your auidence’s attention and get your voice heard in a friendly and personal manner.  Not to mention: Making videos is now easier than ever!

What to capture?

As you can imagine, videos are in a much better position to capture actions, atmospehre and movements.  Therefore it is a popular tool for recording events, such as student music contest and football competition.  However, have you thought of…

• Presidental broadcast on students’ union updates?
• Promoting nomination and election?
• Induction information for new students?
• Students talking about their learning experience?
• Apprentices sharing their daily life at work place?
• Interview with principal or staff members?
• Campaign highlights?

As technology develops, students don’t necessarily be passive auidence.  So why not invite your students to make videos around a certain topic, and engage them in discussion and sharing?  An idea could be “One minute of your favourite time on campus”; another interesting one is currently carried out by University of Central Lancashire Students’ Union - 100 Voices from new students.  People love learning others’ stories, especially for those who are related to their own lives!

So use your creativity and tell the stories!

How to make video?

Capturing – Some people think nowadays the quality of videos is not so crucial as before.  That said, we still need equipments which can have a decent image quality, as well as audio support.  Small handheld tools such as (good quality) digitial camera and point-and-shoot camera (e.g. flip camera and busbi video) can help you produce video footage quickly and easily.  They are light and easy to carry; you can always bring them along and and capture interesting things when they happen.  If you need videos with more professional appearence and audio support, you would need a good camcorder.  Usually your Learning and Resource Centre or IT Department would have some for short loan.
 
Editing – No matter your video aims to be simple and friendly, or professional and funky, you’ve to edit it before release.  Tools such as iMovie, Window Movie Maker and VirtualDub can help you with the task.  Do bear in mind that video editing can be a time-consuming process: seeking support from your team or volunteers from media studies students can lighten your burden.

Hosting – While YouTube is seemingly an obvious choice, you can also consider other wesbites, such as blip.tv and Hulu, to suit your specific needs.

Need some advice and ideas? Check them out:
JISC Digital Media (With user-friendly explanation on media production)
Cornwall College Students’ Union Channel
Lancaster & Morecambe College
University of Central Lancashire Students’ Union Channel

Podcast

Have you ever got the feeling which you are tired of reading page after page?  I’m sure it happens to all of us – while having a homepage, publishing newsletter or sending our emails can be very efficient and informative, it might not be able to draw people’s attention all the time.  That’s where technology such as videos and podcast comes in and makes a difference!

What is Podcast?

Why Podcast?

• Keep people’s attention: Not everyone has the time/energy/patience to keep reading. Conveying messages or reporting updates into audio format allow your students catch up with you like they listen to news or music – a good alternative indeed! 
• Portable: They can listen to your “story”, anytime and anywhere, by downloading the podcasts to their mp3 or mobile
• Alternative “voice”: Depending on what content your podcast has, you can keep your students updated with narrative (e.g. monthly update from LGBT Officer) or interactive (e.g. chitchating with an international student about his experience on campus) approach, which makes it more interesting, lively and personal.

What to Podcast?

Ideas can be endless!  In principle, anything you can report by writing can be made into podcast.  The key is to be creative, concise and witty.  Some examples can be:

• Regular updates from officers
• News of / calling for campaigns
• Interviews with staff and students on different issues
• “Digest” of meetings and minutes (how the decision can influence students’ life)

How to Podcast?

One of the advantages of podcasting is its accessibility!  You don’t need to have expensive equipments – a reasonable audio recorder (or mp3 with recording function) can already do the job!  After recording, you can edit it with freeware such as Audacity before making it available online.   Remember to allow your students to subscribe your podcast by using RSS, so your new podcast will automatically go to their iTune or other audio players.

What some ideas?  Check them out:
Canterbury College Podcast
Sheffield University Students’ Union Podcast

Toolkit Series

It has been a long while - I’ve been out and about conducting workshop, writing reports and so on (and enjoying the rare warm sunny days too!).  Now it’s time to dust off this space and stay writing again!

In the coming weeks, I’m going to suggest a number of technological tools, which can help engage your student members.  While these tools are almost part of our daily life, deploying them to support your team/group is a different story!  We’ve to ask ourselves:

• Why should we use these tools (what kind of benefit can they bring?)
• What can these tools actually do (to support your operation and other activities)?
• How do we use it (implementation and other technical/resource concern)?

Different tools have different functionalities and nature, so no matter you’re a newbie, or an online guru who are at the “flying” stage, there are always something you can do to make your operation and communication better:

(Sources: http://www.slideshare.net/montelutz/social-pulpit-barack-obamas-social-media-toolkit)

So watch out this space!