webqem is running a seminar on Adobe Connect focusing on driving down travel costs in your organization.

This event will include topics that will allow you to dramatically reduce training and travel costs while securely staying connected to people from all over the globe. We will show you how to create secure online meeting rooms within seconds, allowing you to communicate with greater frequency and quality and boost your audience attendance and participation. E-Learning, tracking and rapid content creation will also be covered.

The event will be running on the 18th May from 8am to 9:30am. It is to be  held at the Duxton Hotel, 1 St Georges Terrace, Perth, WA 6000 Au. If you would like to attend please email Thomast@webqem.com or register online.

So it seems like the world of online education is growing. Yes, this is no surprise, as the internet is taking over our lives, but more surprising is online education for K-12 students, which according to Jodi Church’s online article ‘Is online education more effective than traditional learning?’, is becoming more prominent.

Recent studies have proven the benefits of online education, as Church writes: “According to a recent study conducted by SRI International for the US Department of Education, online learners perform slightly better than students in traditional face-to-face classrooms.” A key outcome of this report is that it will put an end to the myth that online learning is inferior to traditional learning, as well as generating greater interest in developing technology for education.

A client of webqem’s – Kaplan University, is at the forefront of developing online education. Kaplan is renowned as a giant in online university degrees, and is now offering programs for students in grades 6 to 12 – an area previously untouched by online education. One of Kaplan’s key technologies for online education is Adobe Connect Pro and Presenter, which they use to conduct online meetings and to develop high impact online presentations.

So how much further will online education grow? It seems like we have only scraped the surface of the possibilities as many education institutions are only now  just adopting online education, so lets just say there is still a long way to go.

For the August ACUGA meeting, we were joined by Terry Shane – the President and founder of Refined Data Solutions. Terry showed us the synchronization and automation that can occur between two completely different systems: Adobe Connect Pro and Moodle. Terry’s company has developed a level of integration between the two systems that is “unmatched”. It is so well integrated, that students would never see the Connect system, only the Moodle interface.

The two systems work so well together, it must be magic! No, its just a great piece of technology that has enabled the two systems to work together. For more details check out the recording, or click on the image.

Building studies and virtual classrooms? You would not think they go together. However, a keen teacher from Armidale TAFE in NSW, has managed to successfully put the two together with the use of Adobe’s Connect Pro. Graeme Wilton regularly uses Connect Pro to teach his teach his Certificate IV in Building Studies course to a range of distance education students in North-West NSW. His students “absolutely love it”.  He says that “It’s added an enthusiasm that I haven’t seen for a while, but I must say that part of that would come from me because I’m a little ‘g-ed’ up about the whole thing too,” he laughs.

This is another Connect Pro success story that the webqem team was instrumental in – Good work team! You can read the full report here.

University of the Sunshine Coast business lecturer Gayle Mayes used Adobe Connect to bring the Beijing Olympics into her classroom.

Ms Mayes spent two weeks in Beijing for the Olympic Games, and organised live video links with her Sport and Event Marketing classes during their scheduled lecture times, covering the sports marketing topics discussed in her University classes.

Issues included ticket prices, politics and sport, drugs in sport, security, the cultural, economic, political and environmental impacts of mega events, and the challenges of marketing and managing an international event in China.

Ms Mayes uses experiential education as her main teaching strategy. This approach last year earned her a $10,000 grant from the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education.

Adobe’s John Treloar, well known to educators here in Australia, is one of the people quoted in the article that covers how a variety of different technologies are being used to engage students online.

Using Adobe Connect to involve students in a collaborative environment rather than a passive one-to-many online seminar means that the learning process is more engaging – that the student has the ability to contribute and to be part of the learning experience.

Read more in the Sydney Morning Herald article entitled “Dial-up duxes”.