Observations from the LTEO test
Posted by Andy Ramsden in Uncategorized March 6th, 2009We tested / demo’d the Megameeting software with Julie, Suki, Dom, Taliesin and Andy. I demo’d the use of the poll questions, the show desktop (powerpoint and web site), and the text chat. As the facilitator, all was OK except I need to work out how to save the poll questions. I exited the software and had to type them in again 
Also, the images for the whiteboard have to be in JPG format … the default saving for mine is PNG 
The most important point to come out of the post session discussion was the issue of audio quality. Lots of people had quite poor quality. This might have nothing to do with the software, but more our indivdiual set ups and the way we used the software. Therefore, some tips (recommendations) are;
- if you are not talking then unlock your audio.
- therefore, if you want to talk use the text chat to indicate this (it would be really nice if they had a hands up symbol or if they do, it would be nice to find it), or the presenter needs to design in opportunities to talk.
- encourage people to test their audio set ups, and that people don’t have the mic volume to high.
- try to use a headset (mic and speakers) even when using a web cam, as this will reduce exernal noise
Other comments that need further investigation include how the presenter could ensure that their powerpoints display so no scrolling is required.
A couple of things which I remembered after the session was to include the slide / image which outlined how the session would run and expectations. This might allow use to mention about the audio set up and how to raise your hand.
Any thoughts, comments from the other participants?
March 6th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I enjoyed using megameeting, but couldn’t participate fully due to poor audio quality. Not only could I not hear other participants very well, there was a lot of background noise. I would imagine if there was a mix of people using webcam/audio and those just typing in their comments, the ones typing their responses would get left behind. It was good to see Andy’s presentation on screen, though there was quite a lot of scrolling around in order to see everything. I liked it when Andy and Dom’s image moved to the side of the screen to accommodate the presentation, so when he was talking us through it, you could still see him. I think megameeting is a great idea, but the audio quality definitely needs to be improved.