Thank you to everyone that attended this Forum, below is the chat that took place during the forum.
Chat from the EdTOA Forum: Supporting Synchronous Online Learning 5/27/20
13:54:56 From ESFTV : Hello Folks, from ESFTV In Syracuse
14:15:47 From Kelly Larrivey : Here is our website please consider submitting an article about a Cool Space on your campus or a product that you are looking at On Your Work Bench or if you would like to be spotlighted please let us know: https://www.edtoa.suny.edu/
14:15:50 From Drew : external groups and the existing listed liaison
14:15:53 From Drew : CCIO group – ?
Fact2 – ?
COA – ?
TOA – ?
Avixa – Andrew Tucci
CCUMC – Emily Trapp
Educause – John McCune
Extron – Andrew Tucci
Crestron – Mark English
14:17:03 From Mark English : Can anyone share information on working models of Synchronous Learning facilities they have?
14:17:57 From Jarrod McFarlane : Same boat
14:18:28 From Christopher C Taverna : CDC Considerations for Institutes of Higher Education: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/colleges-universities/considerations.html
14:18:59 From Mark English : Who would be willing to talk about their facilities?
14:20:29 From Edward Brunet Jr : Solstice pods are starting to provide great AVoverIP keeping cost lower then Crestron
14:21:45 From Bill Meyers : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10Ka0A-jQeYCx71V-uwpJgJoFiAv_nymhIhEsvYTxYW8/edit?usp=sharing
14:22:05 From Bill Meyers : Above is something we did for a few conference rooms last year. Costs and model numbers may need to be updated, and it would need to be scaled for a larger room
14:23:58 From w schultze : Note that true sanitizing is a time dependent process. Even a wipe down with an agent doesn’t guarantee all virus has been deactivated in 5 minutes or less.
14:26:46 From Jarrod McFarlane : Note that CDC updated guidance last week that even though the virus can live on surfaces, the likelihood of contraction that way is far less likely than originally thought
14:27:30 From Maureen Larsen : We are still waiting for guidance. Right now could be any of the above.
14:28:23 From Maureen Larsen : Some faculty have said they may not feel safe coming back to campus even if we scheduled on campus classes again.
14:28:26 From Beth F : We do a little pf everything at UB
14:28:42 From Kevin Hartman : Yup, and I can talk a bit
14:28:56 From Richard Holliday : Has anyone used these? https://www.scansound.com/microphone-covers-white.html
14:29:36 From Kelly Larrivey to Mark English(Privately) : some people have offered to speak
14:29:43 From Jarrod McFarlane : Yes. At Stony Brook, we procured those and deployed them in the week leading up to face to face cancellation
14:29:59 From Kelly Larrivey to Mark English(Privately) : scroll down
14:30:10 From Kelly Larrivey to Mark English(Privately) : see everyone
14:30:58 From Beth F : @Jarrod did the individual faculty remove the cover after each class?
14:32:02 From Dave Shurtleff : UB has presentation computers in our central rooms
14:32:06 From Jarrod McFarlane : We rotate equipment in buildings where we have a service site, so my staff did,
and sanitized between users (sprayed down with Clorox, sat for 10 mins)
14:33:07 From Beth F : Did you spray the mics?
14:33:19 From Edward Brunet Jr : Crestron’s solution to today’s crisis.
https://www.crestron.com/Products/Featured-Solutions/Crestron-Flex-R-Series
14:33:37 From Jack Empson SUNY @ Buffalo : Has anyone looked into using Microban 24 as antivirus agent on
hard surfaces. Its supposed to kill viruses for 24 hours.
14:34:28 From Edward Brunet Jr : Auto switching tech for cameras is cheap and inexpensive these days.
14:34:49 From Bob Hageny : For our general classrooms, we have ceiling cams (webcams) mounted at the projectors.
This also captures audio.
14:34:52 From Jarrod McFarlane : Yes Beth we did, because wipes were IMPOSSIBLE to procure at the time.
My wipes order came delivered like 3 weeks later
14:35:39 From jpearce1b : We’ve used these at Fashion institute in a few rooms w great success https://www.crestron.com/Products/Workspace-Solutions/Unified-Communications/Smart-Soundbars/UC-SB1-CAM
14:36:40 From David S.U.N.Y at Buffalo : At UB – Many of our classrooms with camera’s we have four preset shots.
Full width of the white / chalkboard down to the presenter at the teaching station. Seldom will the preset yield enough to read the details of the “board”.
14:36:47 From Brad Snyder (SUNY Cortland) : What is everyone using for capture? PC based, or hardware encoder?
14:38:21 From Edward Brunet Jr : @jpearce1b the Crestron sound bar is an amazing product
14:38:32 From Donna Dougherty : The question about web conferencing. We are using Zoom here at Delhi
but we may switch to Webex for cost reasonings.
14:38:57 From Monica Papagni : does anyone know where suny is on a suny-wide zoom contract?
14:39:01 From Edward Brunet Jr : Webex and Webex TEAMS is a great product
14:39:17 From Donna Dougherty : Delhi uses Teams as well
14:39:20 From Edward Brunet Jr : I am not crazy about zoom
14:39:27 From Lisa Stephens : Agreed, I like Webex Teams more than #Slack
14:39:31 From T. John Mccune : We just signed a Zoom contract. Feel free to email me at mccune@fredonia.edu
if you are interested.
14:39:39 From Erica : How are you handling access specialized software in computer classrooms that is
not available in the cloud, through VDI or off campus due to licensing constraints?
14:39:45 From george.guba : Webex, Teams, Skype for Business. Mainly recommending Webex.
14:39:57 From Richard Holliday : Is anyone using NDI for cameras in any locations? We are considering it as
some locations as an alternative to using thing like a Vaddio Bridge.
14:40:30 From Jon : At Rockland, we mainly use Zoom but some folks are using Meet and Webex as well
14:40:46 From Bill Meyers : We’re primarily a Zoom campus, but have had to support Skype for Business as
we are an Office 365 campus
14:41:20 From Steven Perta : Like happened in March, there may be such a run on equipment acquisition that we may
not be able to obtain the desired equipment to outfit locations this summer.
Every school and university is working these same issues.
14:41:40 From Maureen Larsen : Steven – good point.
14:42:05 From Jarrod McFarlane : GREAT point. You couldn’t buy a webcam in March
14:42:29 From Brad Snyder (SUNY Cortland) : Agree Steven!
14:42:41 From Lisa Stephens : I’m told that Teams is being rolled out at UB soon.
14:42:45 From Jarrod McFarlane : Across the globe, everyone is procuring computers, mics and webcams.
Expect delayed ship times
14:43:04 From Richard Holliday : Steven- Yes that will be an issue for everyone. It will be interesting to see how
manufacturers can cope with this.
14:43:05 From Maureen Larsen : We picked Zoom because it was easy to teach faculty to use.
14:46:10 From Kristina Maricle : Microsoft Office 365 has an Interactive Whiteboard tool in the suite.
You can share the link with others and all can contribute to it.
14:49:40 From Richard Holliday : Have faculty found that students are going classes with multiple devices
to allow a multi screen environment?
14:50:10 From Richard Holliday : Joining not going
14:52:03 From Bob Hageny : We have standardized our doc cam’s to Epson’s. Excellent quality, very reasonably priced,
displays both the image through HDMI to switcher and simultaneously captures the video through
USB to PC. Also has a built in mic.
14:52:06 From Richard Holliday : At Stony Brook we have Smart Podiums (Sympodiums) in many of our larger rooms.
14:52:27 From Bill Meyers : SMART does not make those any more
14:54:00 From Justin Sledz – Buffalo State : Bill Meyers: They started making them again. Here is the link.
https://www.smarttech.com/en/products/podium
14:54:52 From Jim Whitlock : I’m interested in how many of us are hearing talk suggesting that we will have students back on campus at all in the Fall; I’m guessing that it’s effectively all of us. The Chronicle of Higher Education in print and in stark contrast came down solidly on the side of no, it just won’t happen; there are and will still be too many risks. They also point out that most campus leaders feel compelled today to speak as though they would be opening in order to try to preserve enrollments and income. The only local talk I know of is predicated on the assumption that some number of students will be returning to campus in the Fall. Are we all hearing the same things? There are no elephants in our rooms, yet? If there are campuses, however, that are seriously considering not opening up to students on campus in the Fall, it would be very interesting to hear what they ARE considering.
14:55:31 From Richard Holliday : Justin – you beat me to it. That is the current model and
we have quite a few of them and they seem pretty good so far
14:55:54 From Bill Meyers : We bought one of these for a classroom that “required” a Sympodium:
Sharp LL-S201A http://global.sharp/products/professional-monitors/products/ll-s201a/index.html
14:56:03 From Bill Meyers : $634.00, BTW
14:56:06 From Justin Sledz – Buffalo State : On the topic of cleaning – we have union cleaners.
If we start doing their job, will we be grieved?
14:56:19 From Maureen Larsen : Jim – agree that this is the big question. No info from my campus yet.
I think they said we will get more information sometime in June.
14:58:26 From Brad Snyder (SUNY Cortland) : Jim, I agree as well. That said, we are asked
to come up with as many technical solutions and their impacts are.
14:58:31 From Christopher C Taverna : Jim – it seems to be driven strictly by economics.
We need the student dollars to pay the bills…
14:58:37 From Lisa Stephens : Good to see so many friends. Sadly I entered late, and must now leave early,
but TYVM for pulling this together Mark, very helpful! Keep on Rocking’
14:58:51 From Keith Edwards : Justin, union cleaning (CSEA) is not responsible for cleaning classroom equipment, only
the facility. At OCC the AV department (Me) is responsible for cleaning classroom equipment, especially if we installed it
14:59:52 From Bill Meyers : I need to reach out to my contact at Extron to see what kind of sanitizers
their touch screen panels can tolerate!
15:02:30 From rcjacobs : Heres the link on Extron site https://www.extron.com/article/productcleaning
15:02:32 From Dave Shurtleff : @emily we have done that at UB
15:05:40 From Bill Meyers : Thanks, Ross!
15:07:54 From Maureen Larsen : How is accessibility being addressed in these scenarios?
15:08:48 From Bill Meyers : Zoom “supports” captioning, but it is not automatic. You need a service or j
ust someone in the room typing away madly!
15:09:09 From Bill Meyers : Google Hangouts does a good job of it automatically.
15:09:42 From Bill Meyers : If the professor uses Google Slides to present, they can activate auto captioning.
That works well
15:09:45 From Maureen Larsen : That’s a good point. I thought Zoom had captioning for videos. 🙁
15:10:07 From george.guba : Webex has auto caption as a setting.
15:10:11 From Cindy Stoner : Or if you use powerpoint or slides to caption that shows up well in zoom
15:10:32 From Maureen Larsen : We could use Google slides. Will that record and save presentation + captions?
15:10:35 From Beth F : Zoom captions the recording, but not live yet. It’s on their roadmap,
but that got swamped by COVID
15:10:36 From Tera Doty-Blance : Bill: Google slides has auto captioning, but they’re not included in a recording 🙁
15:10:55 From Bill Meyers : Ugh! Forgot that
15:10:57 From Brad Snyder (SUNY Cortland) : Math – If classrooms only hold 1/6th of the students due to social
distancing, are they going to physically attend a class every third week? Wouldn’t be better just to hold online classes?
15:11:36 From Bill Meyers : Our campus is worried about the loss of income in the dorms and dining halls!
15:11:53 From Steve : Good point Brad.
15:12:21 From Bill Meyers : Youtube has auto-captioning. If you upload a video, you can add captioning after
15:12:58 From Fermin Romero : Hyflex: Combines online and face-to-face instruction simultaneously into one single course section. Students are able to participate in class in different ways: as a synchronous distance learner (via real-time, video streaming); as an asynchronous distance learner (accessing materials, recorded lectures, and responding at a later time); as a face-to-face learner (physically present in the classroom); or as a flexible learner (with a degree of choice as to how they participate each week; sometimes face-to-face, sometimes by streaming class sessions, etc.).
15:13:18 From Maureen Larsen : Yes, we do that now with YouTube, and have Amara
in Ensemble for manually captioning.
15:13:23 From george.guba : You can also download the caption from YouTube, make corrections,
and upload the updated file to your video.
15:13:29 From David S.U.N.Y at Buffalo : For those who NEED face time, they attend. All else learns remotely
15:14:17 From Kevin Hartman : What Rob is discussing with hyflex is very much like we’ve been doing with
UB School of Management. We call it Digital Access
15:14:41 From Dave Shurtleff : what if the need for face time is larger than capacity?
15:16:41 From David S.U.N.Y at Buffalo : Get in early. Or rotate the limited number of seats?
15:17:43 From ESFTV : I’ve been in an out, has anyone discussed flipped classrooms with
recitation sessions for in person experience?
15:18:37 From Dave Shurtleff : we have not discussed flipped classrooms yet
15:19:30 From ESFTV : I have a model for that
15:19:40 From Christopher C Taverna : Completely agree. Either F2F or online. Hyflex sounds like we
15:19:58 From Christopher C Taverna : are setting people up to fail (sorry hit enter too early)
15:20:53 From Dave Shurtleff : @Fermin PREACH!
15:21:32 From Dave Shurtleff : Pretty hard to get that camera the past few months
15:21:50 From rcjacobs : Must go – good stuff Fermin
15:22:11 From w schultze : I like how Fermin started his speaking by saying, he’s not a professor and
he’s not a guy who gets up in front of people to talk. hahahaha
15:23:28 From Kevin Hartman : Fermin is my new hero…
15:24:27 From ESFTV : Whenever I see Fermin, I think of Steve Forbert and Romeo’s Tune
15:25:46 From Dave Shurtleff : Training is what is going to suffer if campus’s don’t make a decision
on what instruction will look like in the fall
15:27:06 From Maureen Larsen : Dave – YES~! That’s where I am right now.
We don’t know yet what we will be supporting.
15:30:02 From Maureen Larsen : We need to develop checklists for what to do in different scenarios
when something doesn’t work.
15:30:16 From Fermin Romero : Who’s ESFTV? Can you email me?
15:30:19 From Dave Shurtleff : If the equipment you need can be found in stock!
15:30:24 From Christopher C Taverna : This could also cause more in-person support even though
we should be encouraging more remote support
15:31:13 From Jarrod McFarlane : Right. Complicated systems that can’t be controlled remotely causes more face to face
15:31:27 From Dave Shurtleff : I’m not sure we will have a budget to have students working for us
15:31:43 From Bill Meyers : I’m sorry Chef Mark; you have been CHOPPED!
15:32:45 From Tera Doty-Blance : YES!
15:33:12 From Beth F : That’s lesson you learn once!
15:33:30 From Brad Snyder (SUNY Cortland) : Is there a need for synchronous? Isn’t asynchronous sufficient?
15:33:57 From Tera Doty-Blance : Collaborate doesn’t have auto captioning
15:34:47 From Beth F : @Brad, I agree we should not try to do synchronous, it’s makes attending or teaching difficult
15:34:54 From Upstate Medical : Is anyone using Maxell MA-XL1 encoder?
15:34:56 From Dave Shurtleff : @Brad I was saying that back in March. My guess is most instructors
can only imagine using a tool that replicates the in class experience
15:35:09 From Brad Snyder (SUNY Cortland) : Other than live interactivity I guess.
15:35:19 From Steven Perta : About one hour counting down to Space X Launch !
15:35:22 From Kevin Hartman : @Brad agreed. Synchronous really only works if you can guarantee those
remotely learning are in the same time zone… If you have international students, forget it…, hyflex time
15:36:03 From george.guba : The toughest part with synchronous has been faculty wanting to keep everything
to the same schedule. Including live tests.
15:37:11 From Tera Doty-Blance : What was the name of the LogiTech device?
15:37:16 From george.guba : I’ve been recommending synchronous faculty at Cortland record their lectures
for student review and access.
15:37:41 From Fermin Romero : There’s three Logitech devices I use:
15:38:06 From Fermin Romero : C920 Webcam, Group camera, Meetup Camera
15:38:16 From Fermin Romero : Thats my 3 go-to units.
15:40:02 From Kevin Hartman : Gotta run, but this has been great, thank you Mark.
15:40:30 From Beth F : Planar monitor with web cam. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1354658-REG/planar_systems_997_7052_00_helium_24_wide_projected.html/?ap=y&ap=y&smp=y&smp=y&lsft=BI%3A514&gclid=CjwKCAjw-YT1BRAFEiwAd2WRtrYjAYyO5rOek5cKCDVvqDi3d4u3s-3pl3Zy9VzDGtodZG9OvDzizRoCnCgQAvD_BwE
15:43:28 From jbabcock : In Webex the host can lock their meeting so no one can join
15:43:29 From Bill Meyers : Thanks, Beth!
15:43:44 From Bill Meyers : You can lock the meeting in Zoom too
15:44:02 From Christopher C Taverna : https://zoom.us/security
15:45:19 From Beth F : In Zoom you can/should lock down sharing to host only and you can mute all and
keep them muted.
15:46:11 From Jarrod McFarlane : It all depends on experience
15:46:14 From Bill Meyers : I like setting up settings with “Mute Participants on Joining” enabled!
Some people are not aware how loud they are when joining a meeting!
15:46:32 From Beth F : @Bill that is so true
15:46:45 From T. John Mccune : Nope
15:47:05 From Steven Perta : Our Provost has created a Academic Operations Steering Team with representation from many areas looking at course requirements, locations, capacity, technology requirements, support, etc… Getting all the players together to work the strategy is important !
15:47:29 From Christopher C Taverna : Regardless of platform if you don’t utilize the settings in a secure manner you can
be at risk. I think just because Zoom became the de facto standard rather quickly we got the term Zoom Bombing.
15:47:29 From Upstate Medical : Anyone using Kaltura?
15:49:28 From Maureen Larsen : ZERO – have not seen them in months
15:49:32 From Christopher C Taverna : always out of stock
15:49:38 From Maureen Larsen : No Lysol spray either
15:50:10 From george.guba : My previous institution provided USB mics for faculty wanting to do lecture capture, or
synchronous sessions. Inexpensive ones, however it represented maybe 20% of 80 faculty.
15:50:49 From John Berwick : I think we had a prof throw out the actual foam windscreen off the mic with the baggies
15:51:18 From Maureen Larsen : What about alcohol sprays? Would that be as effective?
15:52:49 From Jarrod McFarlane : Yes, but if you read the isntructions on Clorox, ity has to sit for 10 mins to be effective
15:52:57 From Maureen Larsen : Ah.
15:52:59 From Jarrod McFarlane : We’re also looking into a UV sanitizer
15:53:30 From Christopher C Taverna : There are also issues with directing people to use wipes, etc. Technically only
trained personnel can use. The workaround is to leave them in a public space and leave it to people’s personal choice.
15:53:33 From Dave Shurtleff : Seems like a lot of effort/money being spent to provide some level of safety to F2F
instruction. 100% online seems like a true safe temporary solution for what we are facing right now
15:54:28 From Jim Whitlock : Do most campuses have a designated infection control officer?
15:54:30 From Christopher C Taverna : If we had proper (non-student based) funding SUNY
probably would have gone online only weeks ago.
15:54:49 From Fermin Romero : @Jim – Do you have that position at your campus? I’ve not heard of it.
15:54:52 From Dave Shurtleff : I don’t think anyone can or will claim to be able to effectively sanitize our equipment
15:55:11 From Jarrod McFarlane : Agreed @dave, but a lot of students are saying “if Fall is online, I’m transferring,
or gap year’ing” Universities are scared to death of losing those students (and revenue)
15:55:26 From Dave Shurtleff : Can our on campus medical facilities accommodate an outbreak?
15:55:48 From Jim Whitlock : I think so but am not certain. I think they are part of our Environmental
Health and Safety department.
15:56:00 From Dave Shurtleff : @Jarrod oh well, that’s the tough situation we are in
15:56:06 From Bill Meyers : This UV Sanitizer was shared to the list recently: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07W7HSDPZ/ref=sspa_dk_detail_2?psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExT1lXVkNIUldDUzlVJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNjg5ODUzMVVTQlNYSjVYOFZBUiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwODE5MDk3MThWT0RXMENGNU9aTyZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2RldGFpbDImYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl
15:56:06 From Fermin Romero : @Jarrod EXACTLY! We have a quality of product we’re on the hook to produce.
15:56:19 From Fermin Romero : If we produce a bad product, there may be no recovery.
15:56:35 From Brad Snyder (SUNY Cortland) : Agree Dave. Our product is a degree. These students may have
a year of online classes. I keep thinking what our grandparents had to go thru in WWII,
15:56:35 From Jarrod McFarlane : Thanks Bill
15:57:24 From Dave Shurtleff : We are all in this together and are all making sacrifices, Students are included in this.
15:59:15 From T. John Mccune : Great session! Thank you!
15:59:16 From Maureen Larsen : Very much appreciated this discussion.
15:59:50 From Maureen Larsen : It is good to know we are all puzzling many of the same questions,
and I appreciate the hardware info too.
15:59:52 From Donna Dougherty : Thank you for your time!
15:59:53 From Chris Marsigliano : Thank you all.
16:00:00 From Tera Doty-Blance : Hello!
16:00:02 From Brad Snyder (SUNY Cortland) : Nice discussion.
16:00:45 From Jarrod McFarlane : Thanks
16:00:49 From Alyssa McGovern : thank you!
16:00:57 From Tami Bullard : Thank you!!
16:00:57 From Kristina Maricle : Thank you!
16:00:58 From Jon : thanks