You may already be aware of Blackboard Collaborate Ultra as a solution for live virtual class sessions, student group meetings, or online office hours – in addition to these uses, there are even more opportunities to take advantage of this easy to use and live collaborative tool!
Classroom Guest Speakers
To help save time and department travel costs, Collaborate Ultra is a good solution for guest speakers. In fact, sessions can be recorded and played back in subsequent semesters or for those students that missed class. Courses in Occupational Therapy, Geology, and Technology in Public Relations and Advertising here at the university have used Collaborate Ultra to bring in guest speakers for their students.
Another example is the use of Collaborate Ultra for Online Library Research Instruction. Presented by Rita Kohrman, GVSU Education Librarian, the sessions are conducted in the Steelcase Library and provide assistance to education graduate students in understanding how to access, retrieve, and evaluate materials for their Projects/Theses. Students learn various library and/or research applications to better assist in obtaining materials for the completion of projects or theses.
The classes are simultaneously taught face-to-face and online via Collaborate Ultra for those students who are unable to attend in person.
Online Interviews
Collaborate Ultra was used for live streaming the Dean of University Libraries interviews from the Allendale to the Pew Campus downtown. This provided an opportunity for those staff whose offices are downtown, but still wanted to be able to see the candidate presentations.
Live Campus Events
The West Michigan Health Information Management Association recently used Collaborate Ultra to connect 2 remote locations in the upper peninsula in Iron Mountain and Newberry, Michigan for a continuing education coding workshop.
Virtual Conferences
Bb Collaborate Ultra supported the 2016 Youth Virtual Conference of the UNU RCEs Conference. This project provides students with the perspective and practice of a global dialogue, in hopes that they will better understand the unique energy systems dilemmas facing the regions of the world and in turn reveal and embrace the universal themes of sustainable evolution through dialogue, empathy, and collaboration.
Sites that participated during the event that was held on March 2, 2016 included:
- Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Portland, Oregon
- La Paz School, Costa Rica
- Minna, Nigeria
- Medellin/Bogota, Colombia
- Curitiba, Brazil
Here is a link to the YouTube Livestream Recording from the Youth Virtual Conference.
Another example of a conference was that GVSU Scribe Academy event. The Academy is designed to train individuals to assist healthcare providers in local Emergency Departments by documenting patient care in the electronic medical record. The Program consists of two training sections: Pre-clinical and Clinical Training.
Class sessions are simultaneously taught face-to-face and online via Collaborate Ultra for students who are unable to attend in person. Jeffery Trytko, Director of the GVSU Scribe Academy, acts as the online moderator/facilitator.
Remote Troubleshooting
The eLearning staff has been using Collaborate Ultra to help troubleshoot and support faculty in their use of educational technologies. But having the remote user share their screen, it is often more efficient and effective to provide tips, guidance, and solutions to faculty requesting assistance.
Online Training
For those situations where it is challenging or difficult to come to a training session on campus, Collaborate Ultra is providing a solution to learn about a variety of topics and subjects whether the participants are on the main Allendale campus, or at one of GVSU’s other regional campuses.
Please let us know how we can help you best leverage technology to save costs, reduce travel, increase convenience, or enhance collaboration!
THANK YOU GVSU ONLINE/HYBRID FACULTY – PLEASE JOIN US FOR BREAKFAST!
