We had the first online tutorial last night which was done using the application 'Blackboard Collaborate'. The tutorial was much better than the ones we experienced on A222 using 'Elluminate', as
that application didn't feel fully developed as it always seemed to be full of problems.
The 'Blackboard Collaborate' program takes a bit of downloading and sorting out, so you really need to do this and check it prior to the tutorial. I tested this last week and everything seemed fine, but signing in to the tutorial took much longer than on the test, so maybe the authentication slows down when many people are online, subsequently there were still people joining the group within the first 15 minutes, but other than the slow start it went very well.
This was a cluster group so there were students there from other tutorial groups which made things more interesting. After going over specific questions that had been submitted by students, we were put into virtual rooms to discuss monetary and fiscal policy. This went reasonably well although as with these things the chat seemed to be dominated by a few, while others chose not to join in at all.
So I now feel a bit more confident about what is required in the TMA, and this was all achieved while sitting at home watching Manchester City v Viktoria Plzen, so a big thumbs up to online tutorials.
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