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Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on December 28, 2011 at 5:59pm

Are you using Elluminate 10 or Collaborate 11?  What menu action are you using to upload the slides?

And just making sure:  do you have PowerPoint loaded on your computer?  

I'm not sure what is happening, but I do know that there is better slide reproduction if I export the slides to image files first, then import the image files.  Doing this might also provide you with a solution for your problem if you can't figure out what else is wrong.

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Permalink Reply by Mero on January 1, 2012 at 10:51am

Hi Eduardo,

Hints on ppt, pptx upload:

• Powerpoint must be installed in a version appropriate to the file format (say:for pptx files PPT 2007 or higher is required). 
• Powerpoint must be closed during the loading, as the Java converter requires exclusive access 
• The conversion produces a static bitmap (background) image per slide.

Preparing for online presentations, I generally suggest to

• strip animation and soundeffects from presentations to minimize error sources.
• reduce image size externally before importing into Powerpoint (it is not wise to load 12 Megapixel digital foto into Powerpoint with a 10% Size reduction setting)
• Interactive elements (Links, animated objects) should be stripped also and
  added later by using Bcollaborate´s great object oriented whiteboard toolset.

Further troubleshooting hints:

• Blackboard limits the total size used for conversion. It is often not clear if a load job hits that limit. An easy way to find out is to split a longer presentation into smaller pieces.
• Local Java ressource settings on your computer may also restrict capabilities to handle larger files. Blackboard support may advise you how to increase the memory ressources of your local Java installation.

Hope that helps

Mero

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Permalink Reply by Eduardo Mayorga on January 1, 2012 at 11:46am

Thanks. Still with problems. Help from Blackboard has not helped either. Started using "Adobe Connect" with no such problems and with what looks like better features. Probably will abandon idea of using "Blackboard"

Anyone sees any advantage of "Blackboard" over "Adobe Connect"

Eduardo

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Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on January 1, 2012 at 2:45pm

Sorry you've had this experience.  Have you tried on another machine--I wonder if that might give any clues as to what's happening...  I'm not the guy to do the comparison with Connect, but I usually do hear the opposite conclusion.  I'm going to see if anyone else can help out here.

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Permalink Reply by Eduardo Mayorga on January 1, 2012 at 2:48pm

Yes, tried it from another machine also

Thanks anyway

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Permalink Reply by Mero on January 2, 2012 at 7:20am

Eduardo asked:

Anyone sees any advantage of "Blackboard over "Adobe Connect ?

There is a lot to say and a lot has been said so. Did you read the discussion "Connect vs. Collaborate" on Learncentral.org ? Unfortunately it is gone, now, but for shure we will see this topic resurrecting here, (as "Connect v9 vs. Collaborate v12" at least) ;-)

Please let me answer your question focused on tech aspects, which are found more seldom in the web. I´m  over 15 years in the business of professional development of "learning organizations" as independant consultant and coach. During the years, I got a lot of experience with many products, as I had to deal with, what my clients decided to buy.

A new Adobe Connect installation (not the old 2006 code version sold by Cisco) can be tweaked to perform sufficient and satisfying for many purposes, even in an educational scenario.

But if I have the choice, I ever preferred the Elluminate engine, which is still the base of Blackboard Collaborate.My viewpoint are related to the gear technology, which is the cause for many effects making this engine preferable:

1. This product is based on Java, a standalone program layer on both client (Windows, Mac, Linux) and server platforms. Windows includes this OS extension from scratch. This mature Java basement brings advantages compared to Flash, which is the basement of Connect and many other VC products (which all show typical Flash caveats more or less). Why is Java better?
2. Java is a operating system extension, while Flash is a browser plugin (Adobe´s OS extension is called "Air", but Connect is not an Air program and probably will never be. Collaborate´s way of being "Browser-based" is to use an arbitrary browser for Java client startup (and for download at first time/in case of an upgrade). The browser is not needed for driving a Collaborate session. You can close it, load it , crash it - the Java client remains running. If Collaborate looses stability for some reason, it sends an exception report to the vendor and often continues to work (in this situation, I suggest to restart the client anyway) If Collaborate looses connection to the server, it restarts automagically. A manual restart is a simple two step: (click on CloseClientWindow, click on BrowserPageReload) A Java client crash does not crash the browser - unlike a FlashCrash. Newer browsers like Firefox implement a separate "Plugin container" to keep the browser alive, but for a Flash program restart, you have to restart your browser anyway.
3. Connect is running on top of the tower OS-Browser-Flashplugin . Flash "Player" was designed for playing videos in the browser, the main reason, why everybody installed it in the past (html5 will change this), But Flash was pimped from playing web content only to get  access to microphones and webcams. This extended functionality drills holes through the browser´s API down to the OS driver level (Java itself is near-OS).  You have to keep your browser healthy and Connect´s performance depends on ANY browser extension and the intensity of other web usage  during the session. Each participant may have a different configuration and this makes troubleshooting sometimes a very nasty job.
4. Many customers demand for a "Browser-Based" solution to get new prospects and participants online without special technical preconditions. A lot of products on the market do require the installation of a program file, which needs special administrator´s privileges. Adobe claims to be "Browser-Based", but that´s not true. If you want to share a Windows application, you need to install an EXE extension (Flash is not able to drill that very big hole). Teachers and every student in an active teaching role (learning 2.0) will benefit from the capability to share. For troubleshooting purposes I require EVERY participant to be able to share his/her desktop. In fact, Connect is browser-based for passive students (say "business presentation purposes") only.
   Java combines here the best of both worlds: It is OS independant, it is preinstalled very often, the client can be started within an arbitrary browser, BUT it is near-OS and does not ground on browser´s stability. Application sharing is implemented as a native Java function.
5. In the corporate and governmental environment (most schools are governmental too here in Germany) Flash connectivity is often reduced by firewall rules. It is sometimes hard for me to convince security admin to open Flash Realtime Transport ports for Connect participants sitting in their network. Flash is growing suspect due to many security issues. Regarding Java security, it is sometimes required to involve firewall admins once to enable secure Java proxy behavior, but I found this job done very often, as a lot of enterprise applications are based on a Java Client Server solution.
6. Bottom lined: Flash solutions like Adobe Connect are easy to implement at home and on closed inhouse-scenarios, while Java solutions like Blackboard collaborate are more easy to implement in intranets and all scenarios, where security really matters.

Mero
PS:Sorry Steve, should have been a new thread ..

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Permalink Reply by Eduardo Mayorga on January 2, 2012 at 7:28am

Thank you Mero for this extensive reply

Eduardo

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Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on January 1, 2012 at 2:43pm

Wow.  What a great reply!  Thanks for that.

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