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Holding Online Tutoring Sessions Using Screenleap

We interview Julia Winter, a high school Chemistry teacher and the founder of OChemPrep.com, about how she helps her students prepare for their AP Chemistry exams by holding online review sessions using Screenleap.

Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you got into teaching?

I have been teaching chemistry at Detroit Country Day School for 20 years. A minister told me once that he went into preaching because he could not do anything else. I understand that. Teaching is what I was meant to do.

How did you get the idea for using Screenleap in your teaching?

It was the week before the AP chemistry exam. I wanted to give my chemistry students an extra problem-session to prepare. My inspiration was Jack Netland, my student-teaching supervisor. Jack would go on local cable access the night before a physics test and take questions via phone calls. I went to one of his physics review shows as a student teacher.

I loved the experience and wanted to recreate it in 2013 with a chat on my forum and an online white board program. My students and I were testing an online white board in school and it just did not respond fast enough for my taste—I write and talk pretty fast when teaching chemistry. In the middle of this very frustrating test, I received an email from the media specialist of our middle school with a link to Screenleap and a description of the application. I immediately tried the program and found it to be perfect for what I wanted to do.

How did you use Screenleap for the study session?

That evening, I used Screenleap to share my Wacom tablet with my students as they requested problems for me to solve or concepts for me to review. I saved all the image files and posted them on my chemistry forum. My students come from all over the Detroit metro area, so using Screenleap allowed me to interact with them without them leaving their homes. The entire discussion was saved on the forum along with all of the pictures of the problems worked out so even students who could not participate in the live problem-solving session could benefit. It was a great experience for everyone, and my students did very well on the AP exam!

ochem_prep

That’s great to hear! How else are you planning to use Screenleap?

In addition to my teaching at Detroit Country Day School, I have an educational startup called OChemPrep.com. My goal is to help students prepare for organic chemistry in college with online classes and support via my online forum. I intend to use Screenleap whenever possible to support the students by allowing them to ask questions on the forum. I am hoping these “Screenleap sessions” will be an easy method for sharing pictures and images with my students as they prepare for and move through organic chemistry.

What else do you like about using Screenleap for your review sessions?

The beauty of this method of sharing information is that it is SILENT! (I have a husband who goes to bed very early and is a light sleeper, and a terrier that barks whenever I use video-conferencing!) I have tutored a student for over an hour and there was never a vocal word exchanged. I could add an audio chat to the session, but at this point I really like the beauty of teaching without noise.

Thanks Julia!


Doing something interesting with Screenleap? Share your story with us and get profiled on our site.

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Limits For Anonymous Screen Shares and Benefits of Creating An Account

It’s been an exciting summer here at Screenleap: we recently launched our Screenleap Apps for Mac and Windows, which will make it even easier for you to share your screen since they do not require Java to be installed. We will be announcing several new improvements in the coming months that will make it even easier for you to share your screen so stay tuned.

New Limitations For Anonymous Screen Shares

In the mean time, we want to make you aware of some upcoming changes to the anonymous screen share feature. An anonymous screen share is a screen share that you start by clicking the “Share your screen now!” button on our site. They are designed to make it easy for you to try out Screenleap and to start a screen share quickly when you are in a hurry. To bring anonymous screen shares in line with their intended usage, we will be limiting them to twenty minutes per day and two viewers starting September 7th.

Benefits of Creating An Account

We want to encourage you to create an account since it allows us to provide you with the best user experience. Signed-in users will continue to be able to share for two hours a day with an unlimited number of viewers.

limitations

In addition to longer screen shares and high viewer limits, signed-in users will also get access to these additional features:

Personal URL: When you create a Screenleap account, you choose a handle which your viewers can use to view your screen (e.g. http://www.screenleap.com/YourName). No more cryptic codes.

Presenter Swap: Your viewers will see a “Become presenter” button. Use this option when you need to see something that’s on your viewer’s screen.

presenterswap

Customized Broadcast Page: Customize a message for your viewers. See last month’s blog post for more details.

Personal Avatar: Open Account > Settings and Preferences to choose an image to use as your personal avatar. Viewers will see this avatar with your broadcast messages.

avatar

 

Coming Soon
Chat is coming to Screenleap in September. When you sign in to a free account you will be able to activate a chat box for sharing simple messages with your viewers. Check back soon for more information.

chat

 

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Share Your Screen Without Java: Screenleap for Mac and Windows

We are excited to announce the launch of Screenleap for Mac and Screenleap for Windows—two new apps that now allow you to share your screen without having to first install Java on your computer. You can give the new app a try by clicking the button below:

Background

Our mission at Screenleap is to make screen sharing a hassle-free experience. We first made viewing hassle-free by removing the need for viewers to download or install any software. We next turned our attention towards improving the sharing experience: with the release of Screenleap for Mac and Screenleap for Windows, you can now share your screen without having to first install Java.

Screenleap for Mac

Using Screenleap for Mac app requires a one-time download and installation. Once installed, the Screenleap icon will be added to your menu bar and your screen share will automatically start.

Screenleap for Mac Installation

When you end your screen share session, your computer screen will no longer be shared but the Mac app will continue to run. The next time you need to share your screen, you screen share will start instantly (you will not have to download or install the app again). You can start a new screen share by either a) visiting our website and clicking on the Share your screen now! button or b) clicking on the Screenleap icon in the menu bar and then clicking on the Start Screen Share option.

Share Your Screen Using Screenleap for Mac

Give it a try:

Screenleap for Windows

Screenleap for Windows needs to be downloaded and runned each time you share your screen, but the entire process only takes a few seconds since it is a very small download. We will be releasing an enhancement in the next few weeks that will make it so that you only need to download the app the first time you use it.

In addition to all the features of the Java-based app, the Windows app comes with a bonus feature: the Windows app allows you to select a specific window to share (such as an Excel window).

Give it a try:

What’s Next

We will be releasing some enhancements in the next few weeks that will make sharing using the apps even more hassle-free. Our goal is to make one-click sharing and viewing a reality for everyone. With this release, we get one step closer. Please stay tuned for more!

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API Customer Success Story: TechChange

We love to hear all the amazing ways that companies and organizations are making use of the Screenleap API. We highlight TechChange today in the first of our API Success Story series.

techchangeTechChange is a Washington, DC-based organization that provides technology training to humanitarian aid and international development workers. Their interactive e-learning platform has been used by more than 600 students from more than 70 countries. Through their courses, students have learned how to use technology to foster collaboration, transform conflicts, fight diseases, monitor elections, distribute food, and more. Their story has been featured in The Economist.

We got the opportunity to catch up with TechChange’s CTO, William Chester, to discuss the company and how they are using Screenleap to extend the real-time capabilities of their online learning platform.

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your role at TechChange?

As CTO of TechChange, I am responsible for development of the online learning platform. I took a somewhat circuitous route to this position. I’ve always been fascinated by computers and technology: I had the good fortune of having an older brother who would take apart all the electronics we had at home. I’d need to put it back together again in order to use it and I learned a lot about how things worked in the process. After studying International Relations and Chinese as an undergrad, I spent two years working at a foundation in China. I then moved back to DC and joined the TechChange team, where I draw on both my background in technology and my experience in international development.

Why did TechChange decide to build its own e-learning platform?

We researched the existing online learning platforms, but didn’t find any that met our needs. We saw an opportunity to create an online learning platform that was more engaging, social, and interactive, so we decided to build it. Our current platform puts a strong emphasis on live engagement with subject matter experts, practitioners, and other course participants.

How did you learn about Screenleap?

We initially used an alternative solution for screen sharing but found their Flash-based technology and lack of deep integration and customization a major frustration for our experts and participants. We began an exhaustive search for an alternative and found Screenleap. We were immediately drawn to Screenleap’s API integration and HTML5 technology stack.

Why did you decide to integrate with the Screenleap API?

Our former screen sharing solution required no less than six steps for a presenter to launch a screen share. This was often cumbersome, confusing, and frustrating. Even when it did work, it relied on Flash, which we found to be buggy, resource intensive, and generally unreliable. We use Screenleap’s API to implement a one-step solution that integrates seamlessly with our existing architecture. Using the powerful API, we have much greater control of our screen shares. The fact that Screenleap is built on HTML5 technologies and does not rely on Flash has greatly increased the flexibility and reliability of our system.

In addition, Screenleap’s support has been outstanding from the very beginning. We’ve always received prompt, detailed, and informative responses to all of our inquiries. For all of these reasons we are thrilled to be using the Screenleap API in our platform.

What are you doing with your Screenleap integration? What problems are you solving with the API?

Incorporating global guest expert presentations into our courses is integral to our learning model. Because we draw on participants and experts from all over the world, we need a flexible solution that allows presenters to engage with our diverse user base in real-time. In a typical course we will invite 5-15 speakers to present to our participants about specific topics we’re covering in a course. Participants can follow along and ask questions via text chat or audio/video.

The power of Screenleap is allowing technology experts to seamlessly demo their projects, tools, and platforms for a global audience. We also set up virtual office hours where course participants can drop by and view interactive demos from TechChange staff about how to use the latest tech tools for development. The ability to demonstrate these tools and approaches using Screenleap has been an invaluable addition to our platform and the learning outcomes of our participants.


Doing something interesting with the API? Share your story with us and get profiled on our site.

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