May 2005 Archives

Log in at http://tceblogs.tamu.edu/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi . The URL for this public blog is http://tceblogs.tamu.edu/mt/centra/

Try these ideas to encourage interactivity in a centra session:

Put 3-4 statements on a slide and go thru each one, asking participants to choose if each is true or false. They can click the green check mark if they think it's true and a red x if they think it's false.

Use breakout rooms to allow small groups to discuss a question or issue, then bring everyone back together to recap. Give each room one of your major points and see what they know about it. Then add anything they might miss.

Create a whiteboard with fill in the blank questions or statements and have participants answer (or fill in blanks) with the markup tools.

Get participants involved and active by building in interaction with questioning, surveys, evaluations and other centra tools

Communicate measurable objectives @ beginning and reiterate them @ end to make sure they were met

Focus on a few main points that participants should walk away with

Rephrase key points several times to reinforce

Demonstrate, don't just describe

When referring to topic already discussed, return to that slide

Use markup tools to emphasize points on each and every slide

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It can be helpful to delete temporary IE files & cookies when trying to get system check to work. And make sure the user has admin rights to be able to install.

Some errors we've seen recently are:

*Do you want to save or run *.jhtml (file)- which deals with user having appropriate rights (and java?)
*CentraOne launcher 'class not registered'- still under investigation ;)

Centra will not allow over-allocation of seats, so please be judicious and realistic when setting seat numbers for events. If your event overestimates, someone else may not be able to even schedule their event.

To check the number of available seats in centra before scheduling an event, use the Seat Availability Report.

Go to Manage Events, and click the Seat Availability Report. Then enter the date you'd like to schedule an event for, how long it will last and the number of attendees you anticipate and click View Report. You'll see what's scheduled and how many seats are allocated and available.

You can insert all kinds of files into centra, including PDF, and can do so a couple of ways.

If you insert a file to download, the attendees will see a link (when you get to that part in the agenda) that they can click on to open (and frequently print or save) the file. Or you can insert a file right into the agenda... from agenda builder go to Insert, File. You can delete everything out of the fileName box and replace it with *.* to be able to browse all types of files. Then pick the file and enter the info etc.

From inside the session I think you can also insert something like a PDF if you go to insert, PPT click choose a file to import, THEN put*.* to see all files and choose one.