What technologies are needed/supported for Online Instructors / Students?

Questions:

1) What is the minimum software/equipment you would recommend for a person to start developing an online class, in particular, if they wanted to post some lectures?

• The minimum would be a computer with proper browser configuration, stable internet connection (broadband or better is recommended) and a headset/microphone. While there are some helpful tools available to faculty to make this process easier, the previously mentioned software & equipment would suffice.
  

2) What type of software and license agreements does the University or Distance Ed have that would help in creating online courses?

• Blackboard / Georgia View Vista 8 (CourseDen) is provided as the main Learning Management System for the University
  Telephone Conferencing System - ITS provides the ability for up to 12 callers to dial into a scheduled audio conference bridge.
• Camtasia Relay - Relay is a version of Camtasia's screen recorder and encoder; it runs on a server and can encode in multiple formats and publish to multiple sites automatically via pre-defined profiles. However, Camtasia Studio would still be needed if the user wanted to edit the material before posting to the web.
• Camtasia - This application allows for users to record screen-captures from a computer, with accompanying narration if desired, edit the records, and encode them in multiple delivery formats. The College of Ed and the College of Business have purchased licenses for their keyserver, so there are a select number of licenses can be shared amongst the labs and/or users desktops within their colleges.
• Adobe Connect - The Media and Instructional Technology Department is currently utilizing Adobe Connect for student/faculty video conferencing needs.
• Virtual Lab - The Nursing Department has created a virtual lab for problem solving and case collaborations
• TurnitIn - eCore offers their faculty Turnitin to assist with detecting plagarism in their courses.
• ITS' Classroom Support & Multimedia Services can assist instructors on a project-by-project basis, including editing and producing audio and video in multiple formats. They use a variety of software, depending the project's needs and resources available, including Adobe Premiere & Pinnacle, iMove, GarageBand, SoundForge, and Adobe Soundbooth.
  
• ITS provides myUWG Course Tools, campus email, assistance with online surveys, web space and support for faculty and students posting web pages.

The DDEC Provides:

• Impatica - Used to post narrated Powerpoint lectures as Java applets
• Blackboard Collaborate Tools - There is a campus-wide license for the following Blackboard Collaborate Tools:
• Blackboard Collaborate - Live and recorded, two-way audio and/or video presentation application; it allows for application sharing, on-the-fly assessments and surveys, instant messaging, texting, emoticons, mark-ups via an integrated whiteboard, and has a phone-bridge in case participants need to call in via a regular phone line.
• Voice Authoring – Record up to a 20 minute audio narrative or feedback. You can include this in a CourseDen Learning Module or Download and attach it to a Mail message.
• Voice Board – Just like the Discussion Board, except both you and the students can record your audio answers instead of having to type. Some instructors have set up private Voice Boards for each student, in order to provide individual feedback.
• Voice Email –Similar to Voice Authoring except that it automatically sends the message to the student's EXTERNAL email account.
• PresentationVoice – Allows you to annotate web pages with audio.
• Podcaster – Similar to Voice Board but can only be arranged by date (chronologically), however this option allows for users to subscribe and download the audio to their computer, Mp3 player, etc.
• Blackboard Collaborate IM - Allows instructors, students and staff to collaborate outside the learning management system in an Instant Messaging environment. The software automatically polulates the students enrollments per semester from the learning management system. This tool can be utilized for office hours, teamwork, across campus messaging, whiteboard, and voice/video conferencing.
  
• Respondus - Allows users to create assessments offline and import into CourseDen later.
• Respondus' StudyMate Author - Allows users to create simple interactive flash tutorials.
• USG Podcast Server - Both faculty and students may use the USG Podcast Server freely for academic use with no limits on storage space; faculty also have the ability to capture/record podcasts on-the-fly, within the system.
  
• Surveymonkey - Single licenses are available and can shared as needed, for faculty who'd like to use the tool to conduct online surveys.
  
• Smarthinking - Used for online tutoring, paper review, writing assitance, and general subject help for online West Georgia students
• Bomgar - Allows customer support specialists to remotely access users desktops, in order to better provide support.
• Wikispaces -Gives wiki access to all students, faculty, and staff to create websites, learning communities, and discussion areas for their courses
  
  

Our department also has experience with and can provide limited support with the use of the following free open-source tools:

• Google Docs - Collaborative sharing and editing of documents and spreadsheets
• Google Forms - Part of Google Docs; allows users to quickly create and post an online form or survey online, for which the results are automatically collected in a Google Doc spreadsheet (can be downloaded into a .csv file for easy import into SPSS or other statistical analysis package)
  
• Gabcast - Allows users to create and post audio-only podcasts on the web, using a telephone; includes the ability to record and post a phone interview between two participants.
• Audacity - Free audio editor
• RSS feed creator - Allows instructor to include an RSS feed of their choice, within their CourseDen course