Blackboard Collaborate, formerly known as Elluminate, is an online, peer-to-peer collaboration tool which the University of Stirling holds a licence to use. A Blackboard Collaborate session may have 100 users involved simultaneously, with up to 6 of them speaking and broadcasting a webcam image at the same time. Blackboard Collaborate sessions may be scheduled in advance, providing users with a URL which they can click on at the time of the conference to join in. University of Stirling staff must schedule the Blackboard Collaborate session but staff from other organisations may join the session, thus enabling collaboration between individuals at different institutions.
Guides to using Succeed Classroom are available on the Succeed Classroom page.
Flash Meeting http://flashmeeting.open.ac.uk/home.html is a video conferencing tool. It allows video and audio broadcast over the Internet. It allows a group of people to meet online from anywhere in the world. It does not require any download or installation. It works in a web browser with the Adobe FlashTM player. Flash meeting has been used for postgraduate researcher discussions, tutor moderated meetings, virtual seminars, web-casts of physical lectures, and project meetings. Please see http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=3101 for a quick start guide.
Cloudworks http://cloudworks.ac.uk/ is a networking platform for people interested in sharing, finding and discussing educational ideas and experiences. It is useful for researchers who have an interest, either formally or informally, in education. It can be used for asking a question of a community, discussing a problem, sharing ideas, showcasing your work, collecting related resources together and for finding inspiration
Some other tools you could also consider:
Skype www.skype.com
Googlechat www.google.com/talk
Zipcast www.slideshare.net/zipcast/
Second Life www.secondlife.com
Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ for recording and editing sounds
