As an I.T. Professional at the University of Pennsylvania, I’ve been lucky to work on Al Filreis’ 10-week Modern and Contemporary Poetry MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on Coursera. The free, not-for-credit course is comprised of nearly 100 pre-recorded video lectures, weekly quizzes and 4 writing assignments.
Creating Engaging + Interactive Live Webcasts
The Wikipedia article for “webcast” states that “webcasting usually refers to non-interactive linear streams or events” and that “essentially, webcasting is broadcasting over the internet.” There is absolutely no reason for webcasts to be “non-interactive.” You’re doing yourself and your audience a disservice if this is the case. At the University of Pennsylvania, we’ve done dozens of interactive webcasts, trying many new tools along the way.
Does Google Hangouts On Air “Make the Cut” as a Professional Webcasting Platform?
With Google Hangouts On Air, you can host and broadcast live discussions and performances to the world. You can also embed the live video player into a webpage with an html code, and later edit and share a copy of the broadcast. At the University of Pennsylvania, I’ve done dozens of complex, large-scale live webcasts using Google Hangouts on Air. Here, I share my findings.