Beyond IM, E-mail, and Texting: Real-time
Global Interactions without Leaving Home
Barb Mann, Assistant Director for Public Services
Julie Arnold, Course Manager for UCSP 611
University of Maryland University College
What We Have Done
• Used Adobe Acrobat Connect to provide one-on-one and
group synchronous sessions with Doctor of Management
students in Taiwan
• Used Adobe Acrobat Connect and Wimba to provide
synchronous lecture/discussions with UCSP 611students
• Used Adobe Acrobat Connect and Wimba to provide
specialized resource instruction to UMUC students and faculty
“Nuts and Bolts” for DM Sessions
• One-on-one sessions
 Determine learning outcomes
 Determine schedule of one-hour time slots for librarians and allow students to
“sign up” for an hour
 Provide web-based digital learning materials and an assignment rubric for
students to enhance learning and as pre-work
 Librarian spends one hour (sometimes longer) going over research process with
student based on their research topic
• Group sessions:
 Determine learning outcomes
 Create content in collaboration with faculty
 Send hand-outs of content ahead of time so that the students can follow along
 Work out technical logistics
DM Taiwan students
“Nuts and Bolts” for UCSP 611 Sessions
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Select day/time based on time zones
Post announcement of session as well as technical logistics
Determine learning outcomes
Create content
Record session and post in the WebTycho classroom
Provide assessment
Assessment
• Surveys
 Comments on Course Evaluations
 Zoomerang surveys for students in the course – whether they attended
live session or not
• Debriefings (faculty and librarians)
• Anecdotal
 Comments received from participants
• Project Comparisons
 Compare UCSP 611 project grades with sections that did not receive
synchronous sessions
DM-Assessment (highlights)
DM-Assessment (highlights)
DM-Assessment (highlights)
DM-Assessment – anecdotal comments
• It's helpful. Thanks for the considerate arrangement.
• Thanks to my librarian. He has been very helpful.
• The potential to use technology tools in interactive learning.
UCSP 611 Assessment-Adobe Connect
UCSP 611 Assessment-Adobe Connect
UCSP 611 Assessment-Benefits
“Taking a class in an online environment, you do not necessarily
get interaction with your instructor or your class. This gives
everyone a chance to get together, ask questions, and get some
personal/devoted one-on-one time with the instructor. We get
the benefit of learning from the instructor, as well as from
questions from other students.”
“I strongly feel the online/live discussions were very helpful. It
helps see what the other students are thinking and questioning.
Plus it gives more details about the assignment than what is just
listed on paper. I can't emphasize enough how helpful this was.”
UCSP 611 Assessment-Drawbacks
“I really don't see any drawbacks to the online discussion other
than the standard challenge of making free time to attend the
live session. This is sometimes complicated in different time
zones when some people may still be at work.”
“It requires that computer hardware and internet connections be in
excellent working condition.”
UCSP 611 Assessment-Additional
Comments
“I think this live chat was excellent because the instructor
responded to everyone's question in a decent order and I would
definitely agree to have these kind of live chats for all classes
since most of the classes are online. Also, I could ask questions
to problems if my classes were all online instead of face-to-face.
I really appreciate this live chat because it really helped.”
“I would like to see these become available for other classes and
then posted, so if you are unable to attend the live session you
can still view it at a later time.”
Challenges
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Technical issues
Working with faculty
Language barriers
Time zone differences
Cultural differences