Live Webcasting for Academic Staff

What is Live Webcasting?

Live webcasting supports blended distance learning. This means that you teach some students ("classroom students") in a traditional classroom environment and other students ("remote students") are outside of the classroom, either all of the time or some of the time:

• The classroom students listen and participate as usual.

• The remote students are each logged in on their own computers, watching the presentation as it occurs. In many cases, these remote students can participate in classroom discussions via the chat application.

• The presentation is also captured and all students can view it later as an Echo. The entire chat log is attached to the Echo. This means that classroom students (who cannot see the chat log during the lecture) can view the chat log when they view the Echo.

Live webcasting makes very little difference to you as a Presenter. You will still:

• Give your lecture

• Answer student questions or lead discussions

• Attach your laptop to the classroom projection devices

• Use the document camera or other in-classroom devices

However, you also have these new capabilities: 

• You can control the capture of the live webcast. You can pause and resume the live webcast to allow for class breaks, and even extend the time allowed for the webcast if necessary. You can also stop the webcast if the class or event has finished before the scheduled end time.

• You can monitor the webcast. You can monitor the student view of your presentation. This allows you to adjust items as needed during the webcast.

• You can include Lecture Tools polls and quizzes with your presentation if your institution uses and has integrated Lecture Tools with EchoSystem.

High-Level Procedure

Although webcasting does not differ much from the typical lecture, it does require some additional preparation. We suggest this procedure. Some tasks can be delegated to a Teaching Assistant (TA):

1. Appoint a TA or student to manage chat for you. Delegating this task allows you to concentrate on lecture and discussion. See Manage Chat.

2. Access the Webcast Presenter View to start the webcast.

3. Monitor the webcast. Verify that remote students can see all parts of the presentation.

4. View Attendees of the Webcast. This shows you how many students are attending the class.

5. Begin the lecture.

6. Pause and resume the recording as needed.

7. At the end of the lecture, remind students that the recording, which includes the entire chat log, will be available as part of the Echo. Classroom students do not see the chat log during the lecture.

8. Log out of the EchoCenter.

The Presenter view of a live webcast is different from the student view:

• Like the student view, the Presenter view contains an Apps pane. However, the Presenter apps are different from the student apps.

• Chat (if available) resides on the main pane of the window. This is shown in the figure below of the default Presenter view.

• The Monitoring app, when enabled, expands in the Apps pane. See Monitor the Webcast for a picture of the Presenter view with the Monitoring app selected.

When the System Administrator configures the section, she can assign multiple Academic Staff roles to the section, such as an Instructor and one or more Teaching Assistants (TA). This allows TAs to use their own logins to access the Presenter view and assist the instructor. The Presenter view of the webcast is available to any Academic Staff configured for the section, regardless of role.

To access the Presenter view:

1. Go to the classroom assigned for the class

2. Log in to the EchoCenter page for your class.

3. Click on the join button on the EchoCenter page, shown in the figure below.
   

   Open

   

   JoinLiveButton-Instructor.png

4. In the Live Admin section of the window that appears, be sure Tools is selected as the view type. If you choose "Player" instead, as shown in the below figure, you will see the student's view of the presentation and will not have access to all of the tools available for Presenters.  

   Open

   

5. Choose the theme (Light or Dark).

6. Click the Play button to launch the EchoPlayer.

7. Verify that you are seeing the Presenter view of the live webcast. You should see Monitoring and Capture Control buttons, along with the other Apps listed on the right side of the screen. 

8. If you are not seeing the Monitoring and Capture Control buttons on your screen, you are not configured as or are not logged in as a Presenter for this section. You may need to close your browser and re-access the EchoCenter to log in with the appropriate credentials.

The figure below shows the default Presenter view of a live webcast, including chat entries in the main portion of the window and Presenter apps on the right.

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DefaultPresenterView.png

The Apps buttons shown may include some or all of the following, depending on  which applications the System Administrator has chosen to enable and whether your system uses collaboration features:

• Presence, Monitoring, Capture Control: Appear only for live webcasts and are described in the sections below. 

• Info, Help – Appear for both Echoes and live webcasts.

• Share, Feedback – May appear for both Echoes and live webcasts. System Administrators can hide or show these buttons.

At the bottom of the screen the Presenter Tools toolbar contains:

• A timer, showing how long you have been logged in to the webcast

• Buttons that allow you to show or hide the chat window or the Apps buttons

• A "screen reset" button that reverts the screen to the original configuration, showing both the chat window and the Apps buttons.

You may want to ask a TA or student to monitor the chat log while you present your lecture. The Chat Monitor can summarize questions and comments from the chat session, presenting them to you for a response. Since all students can see the chat log, the Chat Monitor is not required to use the Presenter view. However, since the chat log in the Presenter view (shown above) comprises the majority of the screen, the monitor may find it easier to use the Presenter view than the Student view of the webcast.

Whoever is monitoring the chat log during the webcast must be logged in with an Academic Staff role in order to see the Presenter view of the chat log. Follow these steps:

1. Ask the Chat Monitor to log into the webcast through the LMS or EchoCenter.
   

2. If the Chat Monitor is a TA and is assigned to the section, s/he will see the Presenter view described in the section above.
   

3. If the Chat Monitor prefers the Presenter view but lacks the credentials to access it, you can log in to the EchoCenter page (using the Instructor credentials) on the Chat Monitor's computer.
   

4. As comments arrive, the Chat Monitor can: 

   • Read the comment or

   • Save the comments and summarize them for you during the class question period

5. Remind the Chat Monitor to log out at the end of class.

Chat entries are processed with the webcast and attached to the Echo. This means that anyone viewing the Echo can also review the chat.