Recording lectures with the Adobe Connect Pro VC

Step 1: Equipment

  • You will need to purchase or borrow a good quality microphone, which will allow you to move around as much as you need to as a lecturer.

Most importantly, this microphone needs to be recognised by the computer you are using for the recording (which will also be the computer presenting your slides).

  • If you are able to take your own laptop into the lecture room, the best option might be a wireless headset with a microphone, which pairs to your laptop. The TUI Team can loan you a wireless headset to try out if you wish.
  • If you need to use the computer which is already in the lecture room, make sure that whatever microphone you use can be plugged into and recognised by that computer. You have a better chance of this if your microphone has a usb connection, rather than a jack plug.
  • If you don't have a microphone which will work in the room, the TUI Team can loan you a 'Darlek', and set it up for you. The Darlek (a nickname because it looks like the machine in Dr Who!) is is a powerful, standalone, microphone/camera which connects to the computer via a usb port.
  • Either put your slides onto a usb stick, or upload them to your personal drive, so that you can open them from the lecture room. We also recommend uploading your Powerpoint slides to the Sharing pod in your VC (see further instructions), as a backup in case the main sharing (see next points) has a glitch.

Step 2: The Virtual Classroom

You will need to create a Virtual Classroom on your course website (see further instructions).

When you create the VC, the system will produce a link on your course webpage, which will open an information page, with details about the VC, and a link to enter the VC space.

It is on this information page that your students will eventually find the links to any recordings you make using the VC (you can see an example below).

You will need to 'furnish' your VC so that it is suitable for a recording. Remember that when you record using Adobe Connect, the video will include all of the features which you have open in the classroom, so you need to get rid of any features which are not necessary.

For simple lecture recording, we recommend just including a Sharing pod to show your slides. Make sure that you expand the Sharing pod to take up the whole VC area.

Step 3: Recording the lecture

In the lecture, you will be displaying the computer desktop on the projector screen, putting your slides up as a slideshow on the computer desktop, and then sharing that desktop in the VC. This way, the VC will record each slide change, along with your voice.

1. Get to the lecture room early, to set up. Start up the computer in the lecture room and log in, OR if you are using your own laptop, connect it to the projector, using the connections in the lecture room.

2. Open up the file with your PP slides.

3. Connect up the microphone (or Darlek) to the computer or laptop and make sure that it is working (the Darlek will need two usb connections).

4. Open up the Internet Explorer browser (don't use Chrome), log in to the UniSA portal and go to the Learnonline website for the course.

5. Find the virtual classroom on the website, click on the green icon and then click on Join Meeting. This will take you into the VC in a new tab on the browser. When you go into the virtual classroom (VC), a series of 'tips' may initiate – just click on the cross in the corner to get rid of them.

6. First of all, you need to get the Adobe Connect Add-in installed, because you need that to share your screen. Click on Share My Screen. This will initiate the add-in. Allow the add-in and the VC will close and reopen again (you should see the AC green icon at the bottom on the computer task bar).

7. You now need to make sure that the VC recognises your microphone. Go to the Meeting tab at the top of the VC and select the Audio Set-up Wizard option, as you can see in the next image.

8. When the wizard opens, click Next to move to the next screen, and then Next again.

You should now be in the screen when you select a microphone. Make sure that you select the microphone which you will be using, as in the image above.

Now go to the next screen.

Click on Record and speak as loudly as you will be speaking to the class. You should see the blue level indicator move back and forwards. If the microphone is working, you don't need to worry about any of the other settings; just click straight through the rest of the screens to finish the wizard.

9. You now need to actually enable your audio. At the top of the classroom, next to the various menus, you should see four icons.

The speaker icon will be glowing green.

Next to the speaker icon is the microphone icon.

Click on the arrow next to the icon, then click on Connect My Audio (you can also adjust the microphone volume from here). The microphone icon should now be glowing green.

10. Now you need to start recording.

Go to the Meeting menu again, and click on Record Meeting ...This will open a box where you can give a name and a description to the recording (see more instructions).

Put the date and time as the name, and any information you want. When you click on OK, the recording will start automatically.

You should see a red button at the top. If you click on this button, you can pause the recording.

11. Your final action in the VC is to share your slides, which are on the desktop. To do this, you need to share the desktop in the VC. Once more, click on Share My Screen in the centre. Select the monitor, and click on Share.

The VC will now reduce in size to a small box and tell you that you are now sharing your screen (see more instructions).

This box will then reduce again to a task bar, which you can move around with your mouse. On the task bar, you should see the three icons glowing green: the monitor icon, the microphone icon and the speaker icon. The microphone icon should also have sound waves coming out of it when you speak.

12. Now set your slides to Slideshow and start the class.

Step 4: After recording

1. Click on the green computer monitor icon on the task bar to get the full box back, and then click on Stop Sharing. You will be taken back into the full sized classroom.

2. Click on the red dot to stop the recording.

3. You now need to make the recording available to the students. There are two ways to do this:

  • If you do not do anything further, the recording will appear in the recordings list on the VC Information page on your course website, and your students will be able to see the link. However, they MUST HAVE LOGGED INTO THE VIRTUAL CLASSROOM FIRST, OR THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SEE IT PLAY. Once they have accessed the VC just once, they will be registered to see any recordings made in this classroom.
  • If you make the recording public, anybody with the link will be able to view it. To make it public, click on the Meeting tab in the actual VC, and then select Manage meeting information. This will open up all the meta-data about this VC on the Adobe Connect server, in a web browser on your computer. Above the wide grey bar, you will see a series of underlined menu options. Click on Recordings. You should see your latest recording at the top of the list (check that the time is about right).

Select the check box beside the recording name, and then click on the Access Type button. Select the Public option, and click on Save.

You should see the padlock icon is now unlocked.

4. Last of all, close everything down, including your slides, and retrieve your usb.