Elearning - June/July 2008 - (Page 44) casestudyonlinelearning WEB CONFERENCING In order to meet the needs of students and faculty of the pharmacy program, the university would need to replace its existing conferencing solution. After looking at the leading competitors, the program’s decision-makers selected iLinc because of the strength of the technology and its pricing model, as well as the service-oriented approach of the company. Additionally, iLinc met a critical requirement that other vendors could not provide. Challenge Replace an unsophisticated Web conferencing technology with a robust solution to serve the distancelearning needs of the nation’s first distance entry-level Doctorate of Pharmacy program. benefits them by providing broader options for study and collaboration, it also enables the university to keep IT resource utilization to a minimum. Solution Implement iLinc Web conferencing software to enable distance learning and improve the educational experience through online presentations, study groups, virtual office hours, exam reviews and more. traditional classroom, an instructional designer would assist by running the iLinc portion of the class — sharing applications and documents, dents jumped right into using iLinc as well, quickly learning how to set up sessions for class-related activities such as presentations and study groups. The faculty relies on iLinc for virtual office hours, exam reviews, and even interviewing potential employees. This saves the university the cost of paying for candidates to travel and eliminates having to ask candidates to take time off to attend interviews. A very clear illustration of the ease with which iLinc was adopted occurred in one of the school’s post-professional health programs for working adults. In one particular program, students were clamoring for a tool that would enable working together on projects over the weekend. The program’s instructor hesitated to give them access to iLinc without any training, but eventually gave in to the request. Without any training at all, the entire study group got into session and immediately began using iLinc to collaborate and communicate online. Learn more by visiting the Website www.ilinc.com. ‘Beyond phones, e-mail and IM, iLinc gives our students a stronger collaboration tool to work on projects together in real-time. It’s a more positive student experience.’ —Tracy Chapman, Creighton University The university required that the Web conferencing solution integrate with Active Directory to enable single sign-on and authentication (enabling users to use the same user name and password to get into online courses and Web conferences). Beyond the technology, Creighton’s decision-making team appreciated the customer-focused service that iLinc consistently delivered. “iLinc was easy to work with from a service perspective as we were making our decision,” explains Tracy Chapman, Creighton’s executive director of e-learning and academic technologies. “Whenever I tried to get in touch with my sales person, I could get through. They were always fair and very helpful.” The decision to offer iLinc to students and faculty not only 44 June/July 2008 Elearning! “Supporting iLinc has been easy,” confirms Chapman. “The amount of time required of our system administrators is minimal.” ON AND OFF CAMPUS After fully implementing iLinc, School of Pharmacy and Health Professions’ instructors began teaching some courses on campus and online at the same time. As the professor would lecture and facilitate the and engaging in chat and other interactivity with distance learners. Outside the classroom, stu- http://www.ilinc.com
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