Virtual meeting rooms/ spaces
Virtual meeting rooms/spaces enable groups to meet online in real time to conduct classes, meetings or conferences. A wide range of options are available with varying levels of cost, functionality, features and infrastructure/ network requirements, and many of these have been used and trialled across the UNSW community.
Typically virtual meeting rooms include the following functionalities:
• voice chat
• text chat
• collaborative whiteboard
• joint file viewing
• application sharing
• shared web browsing
• polling
• breakout rooms
Platform options under consideration for the TELT Platform include:
• Adobe Connect Pro
• Wimba Live Classroom
In addition many LMS platforms including Blackboard Learn have embedded tools albeit simple.
The virtual meeting room evaluation will consider:
• research and evaluation of current usage and options
• faculty consultation re required functionalities
• consideration of the impact of platforms on students – downloads within restricted environments, bandwidth, ease of use etc
• cost/benefit returns
