Before
To complete activity Module 3 I start with searching the net by using Google and Yahoo search engine. I found a few short online courses in Microsoft website which were quite interesting and the course that I have selected was one of the latest short courses available in Microsoft website. Selected course is designed to allow people to communicate and collaborate online via Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007.
The first impression of the course (communication and collaboration via web) captured my attention and made me curious as I have already experienced chatting online via yahoo and hotmail messenger. With use of Microsoft Office Live Meeting we as TAFE teachers are capable of communicating and collaborating online in real time and share information and knowledge instantly not just in NSW (New South Wales) or Australian wide but all over the world.
During
The course appeared to be well structured. From the course ‘Homepage’, navigation is possible to any part of the course. This appears to add a good feature to the course. There are a number of interesting graphics included (one link below) and on nearly every page there are flash animations illustrating various aspects of Live Meeting which made the learning experience lot easier (just in time learning).
The course had five self-paced lessons and three practice sessions for hands-on experience. At the end of each section there were five interactive multiple choice questions. These questions mark themselves and offer feedback to the participant. This immediate feedback is a great way to judge how you are going with the content before moving on to the next section. The content appears to be aimed at a level were a typical person with minimal computer skills can understand. The technical jargon that is offered in many texts has been omitted and simplifications made. A quick reference card was issued which people could take away from the course for future references.
The course was very useful in which I could encourage my colleagues via e-mail to learn Microsoft Live Meeting so we could arrange meeting online and create conferences which allows many people to access the conference and share their knowledge and information.
The teaching method (online) was quite good in the sense that I like to learn in my own time (self paste learning). Therefore the course delivery method was good and successful.
After
By the end of the course I had a very good understanding of:
Ø How download and set up Microsoft Live Meeting in my computer.
Ø How to join a live meeting
Ø Join the audio and video in a live meeting
Ø Configure the conferencing add-in for Microsoft Office Outlook
Ø Schedule a live meeting that is supported by Office Communications Server 2007.
Ø Schedule a live meeting that is supported by the live meeting service.
Ø Exit or end a live meeting.
Ø Upload content into a live meeting.
Ø Navigate through uploaded material.
Ø Record a live meeting for future play back.
In conclusion I found the course very productive and referring to above outcome from the course I could state that the course achieved the stated learning objectives, the course was well structured and provided me with plenty of information to develop and construct relative knowledge on the subject.
