On the trial version when a session ends the attendee is automatically sent to a "sign up for a trial"
page. With the VClass version that we move to after the trial period does this still happen?
Does 3 participants in the VClass version include the moderator or is it one moderator and 3 participants?
Thanks as always for any replies.
Replies
Hi Will. From your use of three seater, I realized when I read your post that you really meant the vRoom. That is the free one.
However, combining what you have asked here with what you have posted elsewhere, I thought I would jump in and help you with the differences between vRoom and the vClass and it may help out in regards to the being diverted to the sign up page for Collaborate. The free version definitely does divert you to the sign up page - vRoom. The vClass doesn't. When participants sign out of the vClass, it merely closes. The vClass is $2000/year though. That may be more than you need as an individual proprietor of a business that doesn't really need the multi-moderator license that is the distinction of the vClass license level. Even though the vOffice has been discontinued, I really think that if they get enough requests for something that fits the single-proprietor's needs they may bring it back, or some variation of it. I never have had the vOffice, but I don't think that it had a diversion to the Blackboard sign up page when the session ended. I have seen a sign up for Blackboard ad on the sign in page even at the vClass level though. It still may be a problem if you don't want any Blackboard promotions at all in your customer's interactions with the software.
Hi Tammy,
happy 2012 for you and your family.It´s good to see you back. Many thanks for your time and all the valuable insights you gave us at LCO and for bridging that to a new community. I definitly feel better not being alone on writing longer tractats.
At the moment I´m puzzling my first course on coursesites.com, but did not hit the max#participants limit yet. The LMS template promises me, it´s a free 50-seater (see below) ;-)
I found Blackboard LMS surprisingly flexible and powerful (German localization >90% correct, wow). Coursesites offer is definitly worth a try for any online teachers n´ trainers, even if you find Moodle sufficient for your work. It is not a social network, but it comes with a lot of "2.0" tools onboard. Blackboard´s strategy is to invite individuals for practising in a sandbox gaining LMS handling skills. I feel animated, definitely.
Signing in on coursesites.com just for getting a free 50-seater Collaborate room (I named it vCourseself-created an inofficial just for clarification, because behavior is slightly different from a vRoom) is possible, but requires some work with the LMS until you can pick up direct moderator and participant links for usage outside of coursesites.
Both vRoom and 'vCourse' are free and recording is disabled.
vRoom shows a Blackboard intro slide, post-session-URL is pointing to the Collaborate page.
vCourse has an empty starting slide and no post-session-URL.
Unlike vRoom, the vCourse has no option to invite guests during the session.
vOffice has a Blackboard intro slide, in-session invitation and recordings of course, no post-session URL
Visualized:
1. vRoom, which before was a 25 seater TryOut 30 days long.
2. vCourse, generated by opening a free account on Coursesites, a Blackboard LMS bridge implementation
3. vOffice, ordered in 2010 via Learncentral.org, currently not available (vClass looks the same, I guess)
Regarding vOffice stripping, I agree with Tammi that Blackboard strategic decision makers opted for shoot in the own foot. In general, Collaborate´s acceptance is based on a growing large pool of individuals having Collaborate mastery skills. Easy going for beginners is widespread in the competition.Hi-End toolsets need Hi-end drivers to tell the difference. Hi-end driving needs to follow a learning curve until the end. All competitors have learned that and started to offer free webinar programs for people come in touch with the product. Most of the competitors decided to introduce a low cost entry license attractive to individual teachers and trainers. The vOffice price level of 500 bucks was triggered by a sales war between Cisco and Adobe.
Stripping both - free webinar programs and low level entry licenses is ignorant - at least in delayed markets like Europe, where the large-scale university LMS market reached saturation, while mid-scale webinar and corporate academy market is in the gold rush phase.
Changing to that strategy right after a severe change on Collaborate´s user interface, which is a partial reset in skill distribution, this approach is named her "Management by Harakiri", which somebody should tell to Blackboard´s decision making share holders, who want to maximise the short-time outcome.
vClass vs. vOffice
First of all, my 2cents on vOffice license abuse. It was discussed on Learncentral, that vOffice is misused by many moderators sharing a single moderator link. Multi moderator was a feature of the vClass license.This might be the main reason why vOffice was stripped from the pricelist.
My opinion on this topic is, that - in times of learning 2.0 - it is simply necessary to promote participants to become co-moderators from time to time. We alway learn in multi-moderator groups more or less. That´s daily business and should not be limited by license restrictions.Evolving all those people to act as sole moderators is a huge step towards the large pool of skilled teachers, as I mentioned above. Each co-moderating person might be another evangelist why Elluminate/Collaborate is the best-in-class live online collaboration toolset.
My advises to the sales department:
Years ago, Elluminate did try to deliver a "light" version (without application sharing), but this was a bumerang, as the users spread the word "Elluminate can´t share applications". It remains a good marketing strategy to deliver the total feature set even with the entry license to enable it´s viral marketing 2.0 power.
Pushing up the vClass sales may be achieved also by improving the add-on value beyond the capability to have unpersonalized moderator links. In the past. vClass was bundled to a single person Plan/Publish license. A good idea.In the future, vClass may be loaded with the branding abilities (intro slide, post-session-URL, both set once by Blackboard support). In addition, vClass can be made more powerful by a small server-side settings page like we had on Learncentral. As a consultant, I suggest to bundle an extended Blackboard LMS account with a LCO-like setting page ;-)
Finally, joining a 4th seat into a three-for-free licensed vRoom (known issue since the early days of Elluminate Live! v7, is not worth a try. Nobody needs to misuse free offers, if a low-budget entry license is available. I definitly join the "return of vOffice" competition.
Mero
Hey Tammy, thanks for the clarification. You can certainly sign me up for the "return of vOffice" petition!
€2000 is a lot just to remove an exist page advert. so I'm going to start out with the free version and if things are going well, upgrade to the vClass or vOffice... if democracy prevails!
Thanks Tammy. I appreciate the help.
Any idea on the other question?
"On the trial version when a session ends the attendee is automatically sent to a "sign up for a trial"
page. With the VClass version that we move to after the trial period does this still happen?"
Will, did you know that you can get a free 20-seater (or maybe it was 30) by signing up at Blackboard's CourseSItes? It is supposed to be for as long as you want it and keep your CourseSites course active, not a trial that expires. You can have up to three courses for free (I think they all share the same Collaborate room). This was talked about in the sunset discussion for LearnCentral. The idea is that you would develop courses in the Blackboard's CourseSites and would find it useful to eventually move up to their main LMS system which has Blackboard Collaborate also baked-in.
Hmmm, I bet it would. You can take my v-Room's participant's link and then see what happens after you log out. The link is ...
http://try.bbcollaborate.com/vroom/p.go?rk=HLd1DxcQNoAKmKcQ
Officially, it is 3 as a total including the moderator/owner of the room. I have seen posts by people that say it is possible to get up to 4, but I haven't personally gotten that many in before. :0)