Faculty Spotlight – Hasan Coskun

Dr. Hasan Coskun, Mathematics
Using Adobe Connect to Record Lectures

My main objective in distance education classes as far as content delivery is considered has been to closely simulate traditional lecture style while I integrate computer mathematics software into classroom instruction. I make use of mathematics and statistics software such as Mathematica, MATLAB, Geometer’s Sketchpad and R, jointly with Microsoft applications such as PDF Annotator and OneNote in my lectures. Some of these are free downloads. In mathematics classes, Power Point presentations are not very effective as we want to show students step by step how to carry out involved computations. A Tablet PC together with OneNote or a PDF Annotator software work just fine in that respect. Students develop more insight into the topics more quickly once they see the new idea presented in a variety of different ways: geometric, algebraic and numerical. The mathematics software listed above are ideal for that purpose. I also use Yawcam to keep a small picture at the corner so that students in the remote site can see their instructor as they follow the lecture. This also is a free download.

In Fall 2010, we started using Adobe Connect for both delivery of the lectures to the remote site, and for recording the lectures if need be. I typically upload the lecture video files to my website athttp://faculty.tamu-commerce.edu/hcoskun. The software packages we use make it possible for me to save the lecture notes and share them with students afterwards in pdf or other formats. We also use eCollege to share files with students besides for homework and grading.

This hardware/software combination has worked quite well for us, and students seemed to enjoy integration of technology into their mathematics and statistics courses. For questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at Hasan.Coskun@tamuc.edu.

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