Adobe Connect Blog

Come join the fun as the Adobe Connect team, Brookwood Media, and several other Adobe teams will present at the mLearnCon 2013 Mobile Learning Conference & Expo, happening June 18–20, at the Fairmont in San Jose, CA. The conference focuses on the management strategies, technology alternatives, and design and development considerations for mobile learning; and is sure to enable those tasked with mobile learning initiatives discover the ideas, information, and community that will help drive success.

The Adobe Connect team will be presenting a session on designing engaging mobile virtual classrooms, as well as participating in a DemoFest booth where we will showcase an innovative use of Adobe Connect mobile to deliver a virtual field trip on a canoe expedition on the Florida Everglades. Also, our partner Brookwood Media will at DemoFest showcasing a field training use case, again powered by Adobe Connect Mobile.

Below are the sessions related to Adobe Connect, which are only a subset of the full agenda. Register today if you haven’t already. We’ll see you there!

Designing Effective and Engaging Mobile Virtual Classrooms
Jump into a mobile virtual classroom and learn about the setup, presentation tips, and engagement tools and techniques that will give you the confidence to encourage learners and SMEs to attend and contribute to your classes from anywhere.
Time/Location: Tuesday, June 18, 2013 2:00 PM – 2:45 PM, Mobile Design Strategies Stage in the Expo area

mLearning DemoFest
Topic: Virtual field trip: Mobile learning on River of Grass Canoe Expedition, presented by Peter Ryce and Rocky Mitarai of Adobe Systems.
Time/Location: Wednesday, 6/19 from 5pm-7pm (Pacific), Regency Ballrooom, Table 2

Topic: Live training via Adobe Connect Mobile: Field Coaching/Training, presented by Jacquie Beck of Brookwood Media, Inc.
Time/Location: Wednesday, 6/19 from 5pm-7pm (Pacific), Regency Ballrooom, Table 6

If knowledge is power, MobileIron is working very hard to empower its employees, customers, and partners.

More than 4,000 organizations have already chosen the MobileIron IT platform to secure and manage their mobile devices, applications, and content. To support the growing demand for enterprise mobility, the company created MobileIron University, the industry’s first center for mobile device management training and certification.

Essential to the success of MobileIron University is its use of Adobe Connect to deliver on-demand training. With Adobe Connect, MobileIron can leverage Adobe Presenter and Adobe Captivate to create and deliver immersive experiences in live and on-demand classes. In the past year, more than 5,500 participants have enrolled in the more than 700 classes built with Adobe products.

“MobileIron University is embracing the end-to-end Adobe Connect solution and deep integration with the Adobe eLearning Suite to deliver persistent, top-quality, on-demand training,” says Richard Lewis, MobileIron’s director of education and training. “We see the results in more closed deals and more revenue opportunities.”

In fact, MobileIron University generated at least 3,000 new sales leads in six months as a result of people looking for mobile device management education. Now the importance of eLearning to MobileIron is so great that it is part of the product lifecycle. As product milestones are hit, templates let subject matter experts quickly create content for the internal sales team and engineers. Upon each new solution’s release, MobileIron releases associated eLearning content to its customers and partners to enable their success.

Check out this snapshot to learn more about how Adobe Connect helps MobileIron use eLearning as a competitive differentiator.

We’re excited to announce the release of Adobe Connect Mobile 2.1, now available for iOS and Android.  The new release delivers significant enhancements for mobile learning in virtual classrooms, as well as several other feature updates and optimized support for iPad Mini and iPhone 5.

Over the past year, we have continued to see tremendous demand from our users for the ability to offer mobile access to training, whether in live or on-demand formats.  Mobile learning is becoming a necessity for more and more organizations and institutions, with learners demanding access to training when a laptop or desktop isn’t handy, and trainers needing to deliver training outside of the classroom.

Last year, Adobe Connect delivered a complete mobile learning solution through Adobe Connect 9 and our Mobile 2.0 client, supporting virtual classroom access, rich learner interactions, and tracking of on-demand training including Adobe Captivate and Presenter content.  In addition, complete hosting capability was delivered to trainers to fully host virtual classes directly from their mobile device.

With Adobe Connect Mobile 2.1, we’ve continued to innovate around mobile learning, enabling trainers to deploy training in Adobe Presenter format, and learners to conveniently access courses and content directly through the Adobe Connect mobile client when participating in a virtual class.  Learner progress and interactions can be tracked within the Adobe Connect Learning Management System or another integrated system of record, as they interact with training from anywhere, on virtually any device.

New features include:

• Deliver, interact with, and track Adobe Presenter training content in virtual classrooms, supporting multiple choice, true/false, and matching questions
• Viewing of meeting background imagery for personalization and branding
• Two live webcams (user and another attendee), and unlimited paused webcams, can be viewed simultaneously
• More information on features and updates can be found in the release notes here

Adobe Connect Mobile 2.1 is now available for free download on iTunes Preview here, and the Google Play Store here.

The app supports the following devices and operating systems:

Apple:

• Devices: iPad2, iPad3, iPad with Retina display, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (4^th and 5^th generations)
• Supported OS versions: iOS 5 or higher

Android:

• Devices: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1 and 7.0), Samsung Galaxy Tab (10.1), Nexus 7, HTC EVO 4G, Motorola Atrix, Motorola Xoom, Motorola Xoom 2, Samsung Galaxy SII/SIII
• Supported OS versions:  2.3.4 and higher

Over the past year, recognition continued to roll in for Adobe Connect.  Another great review that came in at the end of 2012 was from Network World.

Network World conducted side-by-side comparisons of eight of the leading Web conferencing vendors and ranked Adobe Connect in a tie for first. The Network World web conferencing vendor test ranked the services according to four scenarios ranging from meetings of two to five people to large scale webinars.

We were excited to see the areas where the review praised Adobe Connect, including the ability to host large-scale webinars calling it a “post-conferencing reporting powerhouse.” Network World also noted “Connect also has the strongest features when it came to measuring audience engagement and supporting archival meeting content.” Other areas where Network World positioned Adobe Connect above other offerings were the recording options available, including the ability to record the chats and participants names, and its mobile client, noting its “consistent user interfaces and clean look.”

In addition, the review discussed persistent URLs for Adobe Connect meeting rooms, calling them “handy when a team is working over a period of time on a set of documents.” As our customers know, this feature is also useful for setting up last-minute, ad hoc meetings.

Another area the review considered was the audio options each service provides. Our own Alistair Lee recently blogged about our Universal Voice feature, which lets users leverage VoIP or their audio provider of choice.

We’re interested in what you have to say, though, after you give the roundup review a read. Let us know what stands out, good and bad, and what you’d like to see more of from us moving forward.

In October, we announced a major update to our DCO Connect Mobile app for Android devices, enabling anywhere, anytime mobile collaboration leveraging Adobe Connect web conferencing  across over 700,000 users at the U.S. Department of Defense.  Today, we’re very excited to announce that the DCO Connect Mobile app is now available for iOS, delivering complete hosting, presenting, and sharing controls to fully drive collaboration and fulfill the many different use cases DoD personnel have for collaboration while operating in a mobile environment.

The capabilities map to those of the standard Adobe Connect Mobile 2.0 app, and include:

• Start and end meetings (B)
• Start, stop, and manage meeting audio and teleconferencing bridge
• Invite others to the meeting
• Manage participants (B)
• Start and stop recordings
• Enable web camera rights for all participants at once
• Control all active pods (B)
• Switch between layouts in the meeting room
• Present content (e.g. advancing slides and animations) (B)
• Share content from share history
• Share content from Adobe Connect content library
• Share content from local device photo library
• Video conferencing with front and back-facing camera support (B)
• Use drawing tools (pencil, highlighter, shapes) on whiteboard and on top of shared files/video
• Use emoticons: Raise Hand (B), Agree / Disagree (B), Speak Louder / Speak Softer, Speed Up / Slow Down, Laughter, Applause
• Stepped away indication appears when multi-tasking away from app
• Device phone number detected and populated when joining audio
• Participate in breakout rooms

(Some features apply to tablets only; “B” indicates both smartphone and tablet)

DCO Connect Mobile (version 2.0) is now available for free download on iTunes Preview here.

(Note that this app pertains to those with a DCO account only; users who will not use this app in relation to DCO can download our Adobe Connect Mobile app here).

The app supports the following devices and operating systems on iOS:

- Devices: iPad, iPad2, iPad3; iPhone 4 and 4 S, iPod touch (3rd generation minimum recommended)
- Supported OS versions: iOS 4.3.x, 5.x, or 6.x (5.x or higher recommended)

For more information, please see these resources below:
Adobe Connect Mobile webpage
Getting Started Guide – Hosts and Presenters (Tablets)
Getting Started Guide – Hosts and Presenters (Smartphones)
Getting Started Guide – Participants (Tablets)
Getting Started Guide – Participants (Smartphones)

The Adobe Connect team is excited to announce that a newly updated version of the DCO Connect Mobile app is now available for Android devices! The latest update brings enhanced hosting controls for complete mobile-to-mobile collaboration and training, especially from tablet devices.

Originally launched in 2007, DCO (Defense Connect Online) leverages Adobe Connect web conferencing and instant messaging/presence via an XMPP client, to enable anywhere, anytime collaboration across over 700,000 users at the U.S. Department of Defense. Given the globally dispersed user base, and necessity to collaborate, train, and coordinate time critical efforts, it is not practical to expect users to be at a desk to initiate or drive virtual meetings or training. With this in mind, the updated DCO Connect Mobile app delivers even greater hosting, presenting, and sharing controls to completely drive collaboration and fulfill the many different use cases DoD personnel have for collaboration while operating in a mobile environment.

In addition to the existing features for tablets and smartphones (including hosting/attending meetings, participant management, 2-way video, VoIP, chat, and other interactive features), the updated capabilities include:

• Start, stop, and manage meeting audio and teleconferencing bridge
• Invite others to the meeting
• Start and stop recordings
• Enable web camera rights for all participants at once
• Switch between layouts in the meeting room
• Share content from share history
• Share content from Adobe Connect content library
• Share content from local device photo library or file storage (SD Card)
• Use drawing tools (pencil, highlighter, shapes) on whiteboard and on top of shared files/video
• Use emoticons: Raise Hand (B), Agree / Disagree (B), Speak Louder / Speak Softer, Speed Up / Slow Down, Laughter, Applause
• Stepped away indication appears when multi-tasking away from app
• Device phone number detected and populated when joining audio
• Participate in breakout rooms
(Most new features apply to tablets only; “B” indicates both smartphone and tablet)

Hosts can now whiteboard and annotate with the tip of a finger, change layouts, and foster interaction with a range of emoticons.

In addition to existing hosting controls (begin/end meetings, manage attendance, manage attendee roles – Host, Presenter, or Participant, etc.), hosts can now fully control meeting recordings, audio conferencing, and video.

Share presentations, videos, images and other content stored in your library in the cloud; in the image library; or on the device drive itself.

DCO Connect Mobile (version 2.0) is now available for free download on the Google Play Store.

The app supports the following devices and operating systems on Android:
- Devices: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1), Nexus 7, Samsung Galaxy Tab (10.1), ASUS Transformer, Samsung Galaxy Tab (7”) , Motorola Xoom, Motorola Xoom 2
- Supported OS versions: 2.2 and higher
- AIR Runtime required: 3.2 or higher

For more information, please see these resources below:
Adobe Connect Mobile webpage
Getting Started Guide – Hosts and Presenters (Tablets)
Getting Started Guide – Hosts and Presenters (Smartphones)
Getting Started Guide – Participants (Tablets)
Getting Started Guide – Participants (Smartphones)

A terrific case study on Adobe Connect’s widespread use across the U.S. Department of Defense was recently published by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), a nonprofit organization working to address challenges in energy and climate change. The U.S. government has come under pressure in recent years to achieve substantial cost savings and productivity improvements, due to severe budget constraints, as well as mandates to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gases. Jason Ye and Stephen Seidel from C2ES have published a full report on how the U.S. federal government is using information and communications technologies to address these challenges. The report includes a series of eight case studies around topics including shifting to cloud computing and redesigning workspaces, but most interesting to me was how the U.S. Department of Defense is leveraging Defense Connect Online (DCO), a service delivering web conferencing powered by Adobe Connect and instant messaging/presence via an XMPP client, enabling anywhere, anytime collaboration across over 700,000 users.

Leveraging DCO, the Department of Defense has been able to achieve benefits including a stronger system supporting continuity of operations (COOP), increases in telework, progress toward environmental and sustainability goals/mandates, and substantial cost savings with reductions in travel.

The report describes examples of some of the key use cases that DCO enables, such as command-and-control for military personnel to coordinate tactical battle planning, sharing information in real-time across ground, satellite, and air; and disaster relief scenarios, namely coordination of efforts during the 2010 Haiti earthquake across military units, non-profit organizations and multilateral organizations, to save lives and maximize relief an rescue efforts.

The complete report can be viewed here, with the case study of DCO available in pdf format here.

It is exciting to see such a powerful example of how Adobe Connect is helping to enable these types of achievements across the world. We look forward to working hard and enabling our customers to achieve greater and greater success.

Our newly released Adobe Connect Mobile 2.0 offers new and unlimited possibilities to take your web meetings to new levels.  This week we will take a look at how you can multi-screen your meetings.

One of the key trend in the digital home is multi-screen entertainment.  You can watch TV, but at the same time from a tablet or smartphone, chat or tweet with others watching the same program, or look-up some information about the players in the game or actors in the movie watched.

The same can now be done with Adobe Connect.  Log into your meeting from both your PC and your tablet for example  (Adobe Connect allows you to log as multiple hosts).  Set-up the meeting layout and manage the participants from the PC.  Control the slide changes from either the PC or your tablet.  But as soon as whiteboarding is required, use your tablet to whiteboard over the slides you uploaded from your PC.  You no longer need specialized equipment like a Wacom tablet to really be able to write complex math equations or draw complex objects faster: your finger (or a stylus) and a tablet will do the trick.

This opens a lot of brand new possibilities to take whiteboarding to a brand new level and make it much more useful to present information instead of relying to slides.

Happy whiteboarding everyone !

Welcome back from your labor day break !  I hope you had a great summer.  If you have not paid attention to some of the announcements made by Adobe over the summer in the e-learning space, let me recap them briefly:

- Captivate 6 was introduced in July with the ability to publish to HTML5 , in order to publish e-learning content that can work cross devices.

- Presenter 8 was introduced in July part of the new e-Learning Suite release.  Along with Presenter 8 came an iOS app available for free on the app store.   It enables to play back Presenter authored content on any iOS device.

- Adobe Connect 9 was launched in August with the ability to support SCORM content and to support HTML5 content like the one out-put by Captivate 6.  It also introduced a brand new registration catalog based on Adobe CQ leading web content management platform.

- Connect Mobile 2.0 app became available both on the AppStore and Google Play as a free app.  It enables not only learners to attend a virtual classroom from any device, but most importably teacher to teach a class from any device, with the ability to whiteboard, load documents, change lay-outs etc…

All these announcements mean that today using all the tools that make up our Adobe Digital Learning Solution, you can author content that will run on any device, add this content in structured curriculum our courses, deploy these courses live or on-demand across any device and report on the pass/fail score but also on the effectiveness of the content.

We will talk more about this end to end e-learning solution for any device that we released over the summer at our coming e-Learning Summit.  To learn more or register, please visit:  http://bit.ly/MYEW9J

We’re tremendously excited to announce that our latest version of Adobe Connect Mobile, version 2.0, is now available for iOS and Android devices!

With the realities of today’s business environments where employees and customers are on the move worldwide, it’s not practical to expect that opportunities to collaborate or train only arise while in the office or at a desk. An effective web conferencing solution needs to provide users with the flexibility to not just participate in meetings, but to fully host, collaborate, and drive meetings from their mobile device.  It needs to enable trainers to not just provide learner access from any device, but also deliver that training from a mobile device.

With this in mind, we bring you Adobe Connect Mobile 2.0, offering meeting hosts and participants complete confidence to engage in web meetings, webinars, and virtual classrooms on the move using iOS or Android devices. We’ve extended many of the capabilities of previous releases with powerful new features, particularly on tablets. For example:

Complete meeting administration

In addition to existing hosting controls (begin/end meetings, manage attendance, manage attendee roles – Host, Presenter, or Participant, etc.), hosts can now fully control meeting recordings, audio conferencing, and video.

Share content from the cloud or device

Share presentations, videos, images and other content stored in your library in the cloud; in the image library; or on the device drive* itself (*Android).

Enhanced presentation controls and interactivity

In addition to existing presentation controls (presenting content, advancing slides, taking shared notes, running polls, etc.), hosts can now whiteboard with the tip of a finger, change layouts, and foster interaction with a range of emoticons.

Adobe Connect Mobile 2.0 is now available for free download on iTunes Preview here, and the Google Play Store here.

The app supports the following devices and operating systems:

Apple:

-               Devices: iPad, iPad2, iPad3; iPhone 4 and 4 S, iPod touch (3rd generation minimum recommended)

-               Supported OS versions: iOS 4.3.x, 5.x, or 6.x (5.x or higher recommended)

Android:

-               Devices: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1), Nexus 7, Samsung Galaxy Tab (10.1), ASUS Transformer, Samsung Galaxy Tab (7”) , Motorola Xoom, Motorola Xoom 2.

-               Supported OS versions:  2.2 and higher.

-               AIR Runtime required: 3.2 or higher

Adobe Connect Mobile 2.0 is not yet available for BlackBerry Playbook, but please stay tuned for updates.  Our 1.7.5 version continues to be available here in BlackBerry App World.

For more information on Adobe Connect Mobile visit our Adobe Connect Mobile User Forum on connectusers.com. We look forward to your thoughts—in comments, on Twitter @AdobeConnect, and on our mobile user forum.

Cheers and enjoy,

Randah McKinnie, Principal Product Manager