Using Lecture Tools with EchoCenter

In this section:

End of Support

As of Friday, July 1, LectureTools has been officially shut down and is no longer available as a separate platform. The LectureTools.com commercial website will remain active for several months, and instructors looking to download a PDF archive of their presentations and activities can do so by visiting the website. LectureTools capabilities will only be available in the Echo360 active learning platform moving forward. This upgraded platform experience is faster, more reliable and offers never before seen analytics on student behaviors so you can intervene sooner with at-risk students.

Moving from Lecture Tools to Echo360

A full guide on the process of moving from Lecture Tools to the Echo360 active learning platform is located here: Moving from Lecture Tools to Echo360.

Overview

Reference Material

The following information regarding Lecture Tools is for historical reference only. No new Lecture Tools integrations will be available past July 1, 2016.

Echo360 has been integrated with Lecture Tools to allow instructors to seamlessly provide in-class quizzes, questions, and polls, to provide a more interactive experience, even with remote students.

There are two primary scenarios for which the Lecture Tools integration was designed:

  • Live Webcasts: Allows you to integrate the questions to students during class in real-time and within the context of the lecture or presentation. Lecture Tools allows you (or a Teaching Assistant) to review responses in real-time as well, letting you incorporate those responses into your presentation.
  • With Personal Capture as a pre-class exercise: Allows you to post a Personal Capture recording, then add polls or questions for students to respond to prior to class. Then you can use the classroom time to discuss the students' responses.

This page provides information on accessing Lecture Tools through the EchoCenter. If you need assistance or instructions for using Lecture Tools itself, please refer to the Lecture Tools documentation or contact your institution's help desk.

Access Lecture Tools and EchoPlayer Through EchoCenter

The integration between EchoCenter and Lecture Tools is currently a "one-way" integration. This means you can only link the Lecture Tools course materials to the EchoCenter course lecture by accessing them through EchoCenter. While you can prepare materials directly in Lecture Tools, in order to provide them to the class, you AND your students MUST access the EchoPlayer lecture through the EchoCenter course page. Direct links to the lecture itself (the EchoPlayer or Live webcast) will NOT provide links to the polling materials generated through Lecture Tools.   

Process

The basic process for using Lecture Tools with a course in EchoCenter is as follows:

  1. Open the EchoCenter course page.
  2. Click a Lecture Tools link. There are several options, depending on whether the course is streamed as a Live event or distributed only as a Personal Capture recording or Echo.
  3. Create a password in Lecture Tools. You will only have to do this once.
  4. Create the course in Lecture Tools. You will only have to do this once for each course. Alternately, if the course already exists in Lecture Tools, you can select it from a list.
  5. Create the lecture in Lecture Tools. You will do this for each lecture for which you want to provide Lecture Tools materials and questions.
  6. Create the materials in Lecture Tools. The EchoCenter integration supports everything except Image Quiz.
  7. Publish the Lecture Tools course materials, hiding or unhiding items as appropriate.

Lecture Tools Requires User Login for Both Students and Instructors

Lecture Tools can only be used for courses that are configured with user authentication required. This is because Lecture Tools must have login information for both instructors and students in order to deliver the proper course materials as well as to record quiz or polling question responses from students. If you are not seeing the Lecture Tools access buttons described on this page, or your students are not seeing the Polling link to view the configured Lecture Tools materials, contact your System Administrator and be sure that authentication has been configured for the course.

Linking to Lecture Tools

When you enter the course EchoCenter page, you will see one or both of the Lecture Tools buttons identified in the below figure.

screenshot of echocenter banner with lecture tools buttons identified

If the course is configured as a Live event, you will see a Prepare Lecture button in the Live Event banner. Otherwise, you can use the View Course Tools button at any time to link this EchoCenter course to a course in Lecture Tools.

You will also see a Lecture Tools button for preparing a lecture to the left of the Play button in the EchoCenter, as shown in the below figure. This button also opens the corresponding Lecture Tools course and allows you to prepare materials for any of the lectures for the course.

lecture tools button in lecture title block as described

Once you click a Lecture Tools button, a new browser tab or window opens (depending on your browser's settings) showing Lecture Tools. If this is your first time accessing Lecture Tools, you will be asked to create a password, as shown in the below figure. You will only have to do this one time.

screenshot of create password dialog box in lecture tools as described

After creating a password, you must either create or link to a Lecture Tools course, as shown in the below figure. This is the course that will be linked to your EchoSystem course.

screenshot of connect to or create lecture tools course as described

If you have not already configured a course in Lecture Tools, you must create one. The figure below shows the information requested by Lecture Tools for the course you are creating. Enter the information that corresponds to the EchoCenter course to which you want to link. You will only have to do this once for each course.

screenshot of create course dialog box in lecture tools as described

Once the course is created, you are then asked to create a specific lecture for that course, as shown in the below figure. You should use a Lecture Title that easily identifies this lecture and ties it to the specific Course lecture to which it will be linked, such as the subject of the particular presentation. You will have to do this for each lecture for which you want to provide Lecture Tools materials. However you can import the slides from a prior lecture if necessary.

screenshot of create lecture dialog box in lecture tools as described

Now you can create the lecture materials. Once published, this lecture's materials will be linked through the Polling button on the EchoPlayer, shown below, allowing students to participate as you present the questions during your lecture or presentation. Remember (and remind them) that students MUST ACCESS the lecture or Personal Capture recording through the course EchoCenter page and NOT via a direct link to see your polling materials and participate in class.

screenshot of Echoplayer tools with polling button as described

When students click the Polling button, the Lecture Tools presentation materials are listed, along with selections for responses. An example is shown below. Keep in mind that you can hide or unhide lecture materials throughout the presentation, or have a Teaching Assistant do this for you. That allows each poll or quiz question to be shown individually as appropriate.

screenshot of an echoplayer showing a lecture and polling question as described

Responses are recorded in Lecture Tools, allowing you (or your Teaching Assistant) to review the responses in real-time (for Live presentations) or later as appropriate.

If you need assistance in using Lecture Tools, or you are not seeing the access buttons or other items described here, please refer to the Lecture Tools documentation (click Help in Lecture Tools) or contact your institution's help desk for assistance.

Adding Lecture Tools Materials to Existing Echoes

As noted in the Overview above, the expectation is that Lecture Tools materials will be used primarily for Live event presentations, or for pre-class exercises in association with Personal Capture.

The basic difference in use between the two is that during a Live presentation, you can present each question or poll in real-time, in coordination with the lecture as it is given. When adding Lecture Tools materials with a Personal Capture recording (or to a classroom Echo) remember that students can see ALL of the published questions at any time during the recording. The poll cannot be coordinated with any particular time on the recording.

Use the following steps to add Lecture Tools materials to an existing Echo (either a classroom or Personal Capture recording):

  1. Access the Course page in EchoCenter.
  2. Find the Echo you want to add materials to and (optionally) make the recording Unavailable.
  3. Click the green "e" button to the left of Play (as shown above) to access Lecture Tools.
  4. Follow the instructions on this page as needed to create a password, course, and lecture in Lecture Tools.
  5. Create the Lecture Tools materials and Publish them.
  6. Return to the EchoCenter page.
  7. Make the Echo Available again (if you made it Unavailable).

Students viewing the recording should now see a Polling button that contains the materials you created in Lecture Tools for this lecture.