Web Conferencing for Education

Web conferencing is a fantastic tool that businesses around the world use on an everyday basis. With that said, there are other uses for this technology within the education sector. In fact, it is possible to teach and store an entire semester’s worth of classes on a web conferencing platform. This holds the potential for a revolution in the conduction of online classes.

The Many Benefits of Web Conferencing for Online Education

Such a revolution will be able to take place because web conferencing software has made significant progress recently. The ability to share documents means that presentations are no longer reliant on screen sharing. This is excellent for classes because it means professors no longer need to worry about what is on their desktop or in their folders while teaching a class.

Additionally, it eliminates the time it would normally take to locate the documents. Web conferencing also provides an interactive environment that is ideal for use as a classroom. The chat system and raise hand feature make it easy for students to ask any questions they may have during the presentation, thus helping to eliminate any potential for confusion. Furthermore, the ability to pass presenter control allows teachers to easily pass control to their assistants during the presentation.

Perhaps the biggest feature that makes web conferencing software perfect for the classroom is the ability to record your meetings and post them online. This allows you to archive your classes for anyone who may have missed them live. Students can also take advantage of this opportunity to review material which they may feel is not clear or which they want to brush up on. As a result, students can take advantage of the opportunity to pace lessons according to their own learning style. This can help to greatly increase retention of the material presented, while increasing the success rate of students.

In Personal Communication with Web Conferencing for Education

Another great feature of web conferencing for the education sector is showing your webcam via desktop video conferencing. Students can actually see the teacher through the webcam. This can make it possible for the student to pick up on subtle nuances in a presentation that would not be possible through audio only, including gestures and facial expressions that can help to bring the material in a presentation to life.

This is also perfect for online classes where everyone often has different schedules. While they will not be able to ask live questions, students will be able to see all of the questions that other students asked live. This is much different than when watching a video of the lecture and not being able to see the thoughts of others.

If you would like to receive a free trial of our web conferencing product, R-HUB web conferencing servers, please visit http://www.collaboration-technologies.co.uk/. If you have any questions about this or any of our products, please dial +44 (0)1925 659523 or email us at rhub@collaboration-technologies.co.uk. We would be happy to help you.

HD Desktop Video Conferencing and Education Make a Perfect Team

How would the ability to conduct online classes all over the world benefit your organization or institution? While it might sound like wishful thinking, thanks to modern advances in video conferencing, it is now entirely possible to do just that. You can now use R-HUB HD desktop video conferencing technology to give students a virtual seat in any classroom, regardless of where they may be located. 

Every day, educators are developing more unique ways to utilize HD desktop video conferencing. Furthermore, most educators are now choosing R-HUB products to deliver instruction to their students. Below are just a few of the ways in which your school can use HD desktop video collaboration:

Take Classes on Virtual Field Trips - When budgetary issues or lack of time makes it impractical or physically impossible to travel, video conferencing can save the day.

Broadcast Administrative Policies and News Directly to the Classroom - With the assistance of HD desktop video technology from R-HUB, school-wide news can now be broadcast over classroom televisions rather than requiring students to attend assemblies, taking time away from the classroom.

Bring Experts to the Classroom Virtually - Inviting experts into the classroom is an excellent way to bring new meaning to a lesson. Unfortunately, busy schedules and job requirements frequently prevent such experts from making such visits. Fortunately, desktop video conferencing eliminates the time and hassle of travel, thus making it easy to practically beam subject-matter experts directly into the classroom from anywhere in the world.

Expand Access to Students in Rural Communities - In the past, students in sparsely populated rural areas frequently had no choice but to miss out on many opportunities their urban and suburban peers were able to take for granted. Given that being bussed to school can take hours, it should come as no surprise that education must take a back seat to other obligations.

Connecting rural students via video conferencing allows them the benefit of being able to attend school from home while also providing them with access to experts and field trips they might otherwise never have the opportunity to experience. Such opportunities can dramatically improve the quality of their learning experience and ensure they are able to take advantage of a public education.

Stream, Record, and Archive Sessions for Future Playback - For staff development meetings and classroom lectures, video sessions can also prove to be helpful by being recorded for students to view at a later date. Whether a student has missed class due to being absent or he or she simply wishes to review content during study time, the benefits are immeasurable.
At R-HUB Desktop Video Conferencing, we are completely committed to providing educators from K-12 schools to upper-level institutions with the solutions they need to adapt to an ever-changing and increasingly globalized world.

These are just a few of the ways in which HD desktop video conferencing can improve the scope and the quality of the education provided to your students. Think of all of the ways in which you can make R-HUB work for your facility and students.


Contact a R-HUB Desktop Video Conferencing Solutions Consultant today to learn more about how we can help you in this arena. Contact us today at +44 (0)1925 659523 or email us at ct@collaboration-technologies.co.uk

Collaboration Technologies announced today the appointment of a key Channel Reseller Partner, in Germany!

RHUB Communications Inc. and Collaboration Technologies Ltd announced today the appointment of a key Channel Reseller Partner, Germany based Fahr & Partner Ltd. & Co KG.

UK based Collaboration Technologies is a Northern European Master Distributor, for RHUB Communications Inc., and its award-winning TurboMeeting Web Conferencing and Remote Support solutions.

Germany based Fahr & Partner Ltd. & Co KG has been awarded Master Reseller, Gold Partner status with Collaboration Technologies. "Fahr & Partner Ltd. & Co KG is a very strategic appointment, not least because of their understanding of "All Things IT", and we are excited to welcome them aboard, said Phil Suter, MD of Collaboration Technologies.

CEO Helmut Fahr, Fahr & Partner Ltd. & Co KG added, "We are delighted with the rich functionality of RHUBs offering. We have been delivering collaborative solutions to our clients for 5 years, and RHUB is a major addition to the suite of technologies we use to develop our range of solutions.

RHUB's ease of use, and the excellent user experience, combined with its great pricing make it a powerful player in this rapidly expanding market. Especially the ownership of the appliances will give the company the skills to act on their market. The support we have had from Collaboration Technologies and RHUB in the US has been first rate, said Helmut Fahr".

RHUB's on-premise solution can be purchased for a once-only low cost price, with NO on-going fees, and can be Branded to that individual's company or organisation. Some of the standard features that come with our On-Premise solution are Web conferencing, Remote Support, Audio Conferencing, Video Conferencing, Remote Access and Web Seminar's, and much more, said Phil Suter.

About Fahr and Partner Ltd. & CoKG

About Collaboration Technologies Ltd 

About RHUB Communications, Inc.

PR Newswire Strengthens Agility Platform with Monitoring and Targeting Enhancements

• Improved workflow and results for media monitoring and precision media targeting
• Access to additional UK newspaper and magazine content from NLA media access

LONDON, 12th May, 2015/PRNewswire/- PR Newswire has successfully integrated media targeting, distribution, monitoring, reporting and ROI results into its Agility platform, providing users with an improved workflow and more comprehensive results. These are the latest updates as part of PR Newswire’s overall development strategy to make consistent enhancements to the Agility platform, driven almost exclusively by customer feedback.

Multimedia Gallery

Agility’s monitoring capabilities now include enhanced metrics and the ability to analyse trends to better inform future campaigns. Visibility Reports from newswire distribution and email ROI reports are now consolidated so that clients can see the success of their wire and email campaigns in one place. Email ROI has also been improved to show valuable information on delivery success and open rates of emails, links and attachments.

“PR Newswire develops Agility according to the needs and ambitions of our clients,” said Lisa Ashworth, CEO and President, PR Newswire EMEA and India. “We introduce new features every six weeks, each the result of continuous consultations with colleagues and clients all over the world. In an ever-changing marketplace, our aim is to offer customers a platform that is easy to use and meets all of their needs in one place.”

Another addition is that users of Agility’s monitoring service can now monitor UK copyright-protected articles from NLA media access, providing access to the online content from 1,400 national and  regional newspapers, over 750 magazines and 1,100 + news websites. With access to NLA’s content, licensed clients will be able to see where they’ve been mentioned across key UK publications, a critical component in measuring the success of their campaigns.

Agility’s new dashboard offers several new ways to customise data to make tracking and managing campaigns easy from one intuitive interface. By dragging and dropping customised widgets onto their Agility dashboard customers can keep an eye on several key topics and access monitoring and targeted email distribution reports to help them identify and participate in conversations around their brand. Each user on an account can personalise a dashboard so team members can narrow their focus to the information that matters most to them.

Agility

PR Newswire’s Agility platform is a powerful tool built to evolve with the industry it serves, developed in an agile manner that provides rapid and flexible responses to the needs of customers.

Monitoring

Agility enables users to monitor topics across the web through interactive graphs that display topics over a period of time. Social posts, news articles, and blog posts are fed directly into a system that allows marketing and PR professionals to immediately engage with the content and influencers.

Targeting

PR Newswire’s journalist and influencer database is the most extensive in the industry.  Agility’s targeting tools help users to research previous articles, biographies, contact preferences, social profiles and even Klout scores to help identify relevant journalists, bloggers and media outlets.

Distribution

Agility allows users to easily distribute news releases, newsletters, and announcements. Subscribers can access PR Newswire’s industry-leading content distribution network, or build customised media outreach lists, personalised with recipient contact names.

Reporting

The ability to demonstrate ROI is always top of mind for PR and marketing professionals, and with Agility, users can prove value and understand the impact of their communications efforts with elegant reporting.  Customisable and shareable reports measure activity, engagement, sentiment and media trends to help understand the full impact of a campaign.

You are invited to learn more about PR Newswire’s Agility platform: Click here for a demo request.

About PR Newswire

PR Newswire (www.prnewswire.co.uk) is the leading global provider of PR and corporate communications tools that enable clients to distribute news and rich content across traditional, digital and social media channels in real time with full actionable reporting and monitoring.

Producing, optimising and targeting news and content across the world’s largest multichannel distribution network and offering the most accurate and frequently updated opted in journalist databases for over 60 years PR Newswire has a truly global reach serving clients across EMEA, India, the Americas and Asia-Pacific.

PR Newswire is part of UBM plc

Media Contacts:
Source: PR Newswire EMEA & India
Imogen Powell-Shaw, Marketing Manager - EMEA and India, PR Newswire.
Phone: +44(0)20-7454-5335
Email: imogen.powell-shaw@prnewswire.co.uk

Request a Demo here

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Enterprise Desktop Video Conferencing Impacts Major Industries

Desktop video conferencing is rapidly on the rise. Businesses are now increasingly understanding the tremendous power offered by enterprise desktop video conferencing, and now this technology is no longer viewed as something that is simply nice to have but has become a vital element of any organization.

Today’s increasingly disparate workforces often experience struggles with the ability to find time to connect and collaborate in a face-to-face manner. With businesses increasingly located around the far flung corners of the globe, face-to-face collaboration often means juggling schedules and dealing with exorbitant travel costs. Even so, with advanced desktop video conferencing solutions, such as those offered by R-HUB web conferencing servers, employers are now able to ensure that employees are able to connect with one another regardless of their location. Businesses can also leverage web conferencing to meet with clients from around the world, a tremendous advantage in today’s growing global economy. At one time, proximity was the most vital element for connectivity, but times have changed. Today, the most important factor for connectivity is technology.

Why Are Major Industries Using Desktop Video Conferencing Technology?
Beyond enhanced communication and collaboration, many factors that promote the increased use of enterprise desktop video conferencing across major industries.

Growth of Tablets  -  In recent years, the growth of tablet device sales has reached astronomical proportions. Not only are consumers using tablets for personal use, but also an increasing number of businesses are now using iPads and other tablet devices in the office in a variety of different industries. The crisp image resolution and portability offered by tablet devices lends itself quite well for such tablets being used to participate in web conferences. As a result, tablets are now contributing to the growth of virtual conferencing.

Popularity of Video Content - Today, we live in an online world that is increasingly content driven. The simple fact is that people love to watch videos and tend to prefer video content over text. As we live in a visual culture, video conferencing has made it possible for people to communicate with colleagues and clients via the medium they prefer the most—video.

Connecting Via the Cloud – Now that an increasing number of organizations are using cloud solutions for managing business networks, it has become more possible than ever for employees to connect with work and colleagues using any device. The availability of such technology has also resulted in an increase in the use of enterprise desktop video conferencing within business. This is primarily because employees prefer the option of being able to participate in conferences via their iPad, Android phone, or even work PC.


R-HUB Desktop Video Conferencing Solutions
If you have not yet implemented a desktop video conferencing solution in your workforce, there is certainly no time like the present. Call us at +44 (0)1925 659 523 or email us at sales@collaboration-technologies.co.uk to learn more about web conferencing and sign up for a free trial to experience the power of desktop video conferencing for yourself.

How Can Remote Monitoring Improve your Business?

For an IT admin, it can feel as though you are constantly trying to put out fires and there simply is not enough time to do it all. Once you have finally restored Paul’s data that he thought he had lost forever, Laura calls and says she’s going to smash the printer with a baseball bat because it won’t work. Somewhere else in the building, someone is shopping online during their break and at the same time downloading a malicious file, thus putting the entire IT security at risk without knowing it.

And, the only person who can solve all of these problems is the IT admin. Unfortunately, admins are often underappreciated while they work to ensure a stable IT environment for everyone. In many ways, the IT admin is the backbone of the entire company. Yet, the response they often receive is as if they are the root of all evil.

Most employees will wait until the last minute to call an admin in the hopes that they can fix the problem on their own. As a result, some time has usually passed since something went wrong and in the meanwhile, they have typically only managed to make the problem worse. This puts productivity at risk.

With R-HUB’s remote monitoring, it is possible to significantly improve the process while also reducing the amount your organization spends on IT administration.

Proactive vs. Reactive IT Administration

In most instances, there are indications that something is about to break or fail. Most employees will never notice those signs, however. As a result, the admin has no other choice but to take action after harm has already been done, provided that he or she is even alerted by the user that a problem exists. Having a remote monitoring solution in place makes it possible to actually predict such events before they occur. For instance, disks that are about to fail will usually begin reporting S.M.A.R.T. errors. With remote monitoring, it is easy to pick up on an indication like thus, thus making it possible for admins to back up data and avoid the unnecessary loss of data.

A system with peak memory and CPU usage will crash sooner rather than later. Usage that continually exceeds healthy thresholds signals admins that action is necessary. Remote monitoring helps to streamline IT administration in as much as it is not necessary to wait until something fails. Consequently, the role of admins becomes proactive and ceases to be reactive.

Time Efficiency

It is possible to prevent critical errors before they even occur. While, there might still be a minor bump in terms of work productivity, it is far less compared to the amount of time it takes to repair a crashed system. By combining remote monitoring and remote control, time efficiency is brought to an entirely new level. In fact, some computer issues can be resolved by simply clicking here and there.

Saving Costs: Putting More Money in Your Pocket

When justifying new solutions, saving costs is always a valid argument. In terms of remote monitoring, that is particularly appropriate. The automation and streamlining of processes makes it possible to increase the reaction time of admins while also placing their preventive actions before systems might eventually fail. Furthermore, taking measures to reduce or even eliminate threats and risks make it possible to prevent critical errors from occurring that could prove to be costly in terms of money or time.

Providing admins with the ability to manage their IT infrastructure remotely helps to reduce transit time within the office, between various buildings, locations, or even countries. Such an overall increase in IT management efficiency can be viewed as the primary driver in the reduction of costs: An increase in efficiency in administrative processes that helps to reduce the critical time required to fix and restore. At the same time, this can reduce the period of disruption, consequently raising productivity in administered departments.

With remote monitoring, it is possible to prevent data from being lost in the first place, as an IT admin is able to take preventive measures such as performing a backup and replace a disk in advance. Printing problems could be avoided by monitoring the processes necessary to recognize a print job and repairing it remotely when it stops working.


Try R-HUB’s remote support server remote monitoring for free and experience the benefits of having a single combined solution for remote control and remote monitoring. Contact us at +44 (0)1925 659523 or email us at ct@collaboration-technologies.co.uk for more details.

How Important Is HD to Desktop Business Video Conferences?

Desktop video conferencing has rapidly become a vital tool for businesses around the world. By reducing the need for travel, desktop video conferencing software offers a time-saving and cost-saving solution that allows businesses to connect with clients and partners from around the world. Additionally, it offers an opportunity to communicate in a more personal manner, while enhancing internal communication. While there is no doubt that desktop video conferencing offers a number of important benefits, you might wonder whether it makes a difference if your desktop video conferencing is broadcast in HD.                                                                                                                  

The Difference HD Makes to Desktop Video Conferencing

HD desktop video conferencing can enhance your business communications in three important ways:

Improved Client Meetings
Meeting a client face-to-face is an excellent way to form a long-term relationship and build the foundation for resolving any work issues. HD Desktop Video conferencing offers a high quality image and sound solution, ensuring that your video conferenced client meetings will feel as though you are actually in the same room with your clients. In this case, the difference between HD and SD is the difference between being able to communicate only adequately and being able to communicate in a way that generates long-term relationships between your business and your clients.

Attention to Detail in Training
Corporate training is among the most useful methods for utilizing desktop video conferencing. With that said, if the screen does not provide perfect image and video quality, it becomes difficult for employees to learn in an effective manner. With HD desktop video conferencing, every employee you train will be able to see every element of their training, ensuring they are able to perform work tasks to the best of their ability.

Improve Internal Communication
Internal meetings are an integral part of every business, regardless of industry, because they offer a productive method for resolving business problems while providing a vehicle for steering campaigns in the right direction. Meetings facilitate improved working relationships because they provide immersive experiences. If SD desktop video conferencing is utilized for a meeting and there happens to be an image distortion or the sound quality is only average, it is impossible to replicate the immersive experience of an in-person meeting. HD desktop video conferencing provides a true in-the-room feeling for meetings, ensuring that business issues can be resolved and employees are able to be more productive.

Using R-HUB HD Desktop Video Conferencing
If you would like to improve the desktop video conferencing experience in your workplace dramatically, R-HUB desktop video conferencing can deliver the sharpest image quality and the clearest audio possible. Regardless of the industry or sector in which your business is involved, R-HUB can provide you with a video conferencing solution that will significantly improve your internal and external communication. Call us today at +44 (0)1925 659523 or email us at rhub@collaboration-technologies.co.uk to begin your free demo. We are confident that you will be amazed by the power of R-HUB desktop video conferencing in HD.

Improving Your Sales Training Using R-HUB Web Conferencing Servers

With R-HUB Web Conferencing Servers, you gain much more than just a collaboration tool. You might be surprised to discover that R-HUB Web Conferencing Servers can also be used for improving your sales training. Below are three ways that R-HUB can be used to improve your company’s sales training.

Recording Customer Demos
Turnover is a simple fact of life for sales organizations. Yet, bringing new sales reps up to speed usually cannot happen fast enough. Even worse, sales managers often assign a new sales rep to a tenured rep to listen to calls and demos, effectively tying up the time of two people. In a best case scenario, the new sale rep hears one or two decent calls. In the worst case scenario, the sales rep picks up some bad habits that the sales manager likely does not even know that his best reps are using. Or, the entire day could be spend unproductively as the new rep listens to someone simply leaving voice mails.
R-HUB Web Conferencing Servers offers the ability to record customer interactions, thus providing the perfect sales training tool. Customers love this option because they are sent a recording of the demo that can be shared with other key decision makers. Your company is able to handpick recordings based on your selected best practices. Any time that is spent listening to calls becomes 100% efficient and productive because you can be assured that every demo and call a new rep reviews is good. Perhaps best of all, you are able to maintain a consistent model for good calls, ensuring that all new reps receive the best examples during training.

Testing
You can also use R-HUB Web Conferencing Servers to test your sales team. Select pieces of demo calls and ask reps to then carry the demo forward based on the information they have heard up to that point. For instance, you can solicit recommendations for features to be shown to the client or to even highlight what was left out of the call. This helps to ensure that everyone understands the best practices to utilize for different demo scenarios. Choose to test on an individual basis or perform testing live in groups with teams, the choice is up to you. Both options provide critical insight into how much your team knows while giving everyone a chance to improve his or her sales skills.

Role Playing
While the ability to see and hear real calls can be tremendously helpful, much of this knowledge simply does not stick until it is actually practiced. Instead of running the risk of a new sales rep trying out their newly developed skills on real clients, you can take advantage of role playing to give your new sales reps real life practice. R-HUB allows you and your employees to role play utilizing the subject matter and scenarios you would like to highlight. You can also opt to stop a recording at any point as well as continue the call. This option can be particularly beneficial for the tricky parts of a sales call, giving you the chance to role play, and then play the remainder of the call to demonstrate how it should be conducted effectively.

Regardless of whether you have your own sales team or you know someone in this situation, R-HUB Web Conferencing Servers can help to improve sales training. Recording customer demos, testing, and role playing are just a few of the effective ways you can begin using R-HUB web Conferencing Servers to improve your sales training. 

To begin a 30-day free trial of R-HUB today, visit http://www.collaboration-technologies.co.uk/TryBeforeYouBuy.htm For a quick demo, call us at +44 (0)1925 659 523 or email us at rhub@collaboration-technologies.co.uk