ICS Client Wins National Rich Media Award

Congratulations to ICS client, the UW-Madison Center for Financial Security, for receiving the Rich Media Impact Award for Excellence in Education from Sonic Foundry. Nicole Truog, associate director of the center, and Greg Cichy, ICS Teleconference Technician, accepted the award on behalf of the center and ICS.

The award recognized the center’s innovative use of the Mediasite webcasting technology for outreach to family financial planners throughout the state and nation. The UW-Madison Center for Financial Security and the ICS team work together each month to produce live webcasts and archive them for public viewing on the center’s webinar site. Since the webinar series started in 2010, more than 1,700 individuals from across the country have participated in 13 webinars on such diverse topics as “Public Libraries as Financial Literacy Providers” and “Payday Lending.”

Truog said, “Mediasite facilitates the dissemination of applied research to a national audience and has enabled the Center for Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to reach practitioners who are working to improve the financial lives of Americans.”

The Center for Financial Security (CFS) is an applied, multidisciplinary research center that seeks to inform practitioners, policymakers, and the general public on strategies for building financial capability and security over the life course. CFS research examines the role of specific products, policies and advice in helping individuals navigate the increasingly complex financial marketplace.

ICS has been a leader in instructional teleconference services since 1965 and is dedicated to helping organizations and individuals learn to use distance learning technologies and to continuously researching and testing new technologies and applications.

More information is available at the Center for Financial Security’s web site. The award nomination and the May 2012 awards ceremony also is available for on-demand viewing.

WisLine Audio: Upcoming Changes to Service Announced

New, Expanded Services to be Added

ICS is pleased to announce that effective May 21, 2012, all WisLine Audio bridging services will be migrated from an in-house hardware service to a cloud-based service. This change will allow ICS to continue to bring you new and improved conferencing services, and make it easier and faster for you to make reservations.

You will now have access to more phone lines for larger conferences as well as access to WisLine Anytime reservationless conferences, enhanced operator-assisted services, and 24 x 7 helpdesk support. Additionally, you will have access to an account dashboard which allows you to make reservations online, view and change your account information, view your usage, and create new reservationless hosts and conferences.

Below are some frequently asked questions, but feel free to email or call us if you don’t see what you’re looking for. We will send additional email updates with further information prior to the May 21 activation date.

Is there anything I need to do now?
Nothing, at this time. If you already have a WisLine Anytime account, beginning May 21, 2012, you will be given access to create reserved “meet me” conferences from your dashboard. You can also make new reservations by calling the NEW WisLine Audio toll-free reservation number or by submitting the reservation request form on the ICS website.

If you do not have a WisLine Anytime account, a new account will automatically be created for you. You will be sent your new account details by email and a followup postal mail after May 21. Your new account will still have the same account number, and will still be billed through our regular process.

What will change?
The dial-in phone number to access the WisLine service will change. That new number will be sent to you with your new account details. The reservations phone number as well as the help desk for audio conferences will also change except for customers who already use WisLine Anytime. The same toll-free phone number will now be used for making new reservations, and for accessing help. That number will be sent to you with your account details. In addition to new numbers you will be given access to an online account dashboard where you can use the self-help features to access your account information, make new reservations, or view your usage. The current online reservation request form will not change. Billing and billing help will remain the same.

What if I call your reservation line instead of the new reservation line?
Don’t worry. We can forward your call to the new reservation line, and we always love to hear from our clients.

What if I, or my participants, call the current dial-in phone number?
Not a problem. Your call will automatically be forwarded to the new dial-in number.

What if I, or my participants, don’t remember a passcode?
Not a problem. There are always operators on-hand who can assist with placing participants into the correct conference. Also, if you experience technical difficulties during your conference, you can always reach an operator by using the keyboard commands on a touchtone phone.

Have the rates changed?
The rates for our current WisLine Anytime and WisLine Reserved conferences will remain the same. Rates for reserved conferences which require a higher level of operator support (such as operator-dialed calls, reservations which require more than 150 lines, and other operator-assisted services) will be changed. New rates will be posted on the ICS web site at uwex.edu/ics/wisline/rates.htm.

What if I have a recurring WisLine reservation?
Current WisLine Audio reservations and phone numbers can be used until June 30, 2012. If you have currently have reservations which extend past June 30, 2012, we will be contacting you to assist you with changing those reservations to the new system.

Will there be any training to help me learn more about this?
Yes. ICS is scheduling a series of brief training and Q & A webinars during the first two weeks of June to help you learn more about the new WisLine Audio and WisLine Web. There is no charge for participants. More information on the webinars will follow later.

How do I get more information?
We’ll post new information as it is available on our web site, http://www.uwex.edu/ics/wisline and we’ll be sending further announcements via email. We are available to answer your questions during business hours by phone at 608-262-4342 or toll-free 855-289-9177.

Who can use the WisLine Audio service?
Any UW System institution, State of Wisconsin and local governmental agencies, and non-profit organizations throughout Wisconsin and beyond are eligible to use any of the ICS-supported services including the WisLine Suite (audio conferencing, web conferencing, video conferencing, webcasting), web design and development services, digital media editing and recording, and on-site media services in The Pyle Center and The Lowell Center.

As always, thanks for your support. We are here to help you meet your virtual and on-site meeting needs.

The WisLine Team
Phone: 608-262-4342 or 855-289-9177
Email: wislineservices@ics.uwex.edu
Web: www.uwex.edu/ics

Nate Jorgensen Appointed to UW System Committee

ICS’ teleconference technician Nate Jorgensen has been appointed by the UW-Extension / UW Colleges Chancellor Ray Cross to serve as UW-Extension’s representative on the Educational Media Technology Council (EMTC). EMTC’s membership is comprised of one appointed representative from each UW System institution. It provides a forum for addressing educational media and technology issues that affect individual campuses and the University of Wisconsin System as a whole.

In appointing Nate to the committee Chancellor Cross noted that “Nate’s qualifications and experience at ICS make him well positioned to contribute to the council’s work.”

At ICS, Nate provides support for all of the ICS teleconference services and specializes in support for the WisLine Video bridging service. In addition to serving on the committee, Nate has also been elected to serve as EMTC treasurer for the upcoming year. Congratulations, Nate.

Wisconsin Supreme Court conducts first videoconference public hearing

Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson thanks UW-Extension Instructional Communications Systems for assistance

UW-Extension’s Instructional Communications Systems (ICS) recently supported the Wisconsin Supreme Court to successfully host the court’s first-ever public hearing using videoconferencing. Members of the Court needed to receive testimony and feedback from peers in other states, as well as from a law professor and staff of federal rules advisory committees. They chose videoconferencing with ICS’s WisLine Video service to help accomplish their goals.

The hearing, about improving the court’s rule-making process, took place on March 5, 2012, and included video connections with six locations across the country. ICS coordinated with remote sites to schedule services, test equipment and provide desktop videoconference software for a site lacking compatible equipment. The preparation ensured smooth transitions as the court took testimony from each expert.

In recent letters, Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson thanked ICS staff for their expertise and technical support allowing her and her colleagues to host the hearing, now archived on Wisconsin Eye at: http://bit.ly/GIUloC

“It was a terrific success because of your time and expertise,” Abrahamson wrote.

ICS Director Eddie Loo said that credit must be shared: “ICS working in collaboration with the Department of Administration’s Division of State Facilities really made this work. We are proud that we could partner with DOA and share the resources of the University of Wisconsin to serve the Wisconsin Supreme Court. That is part of our mission to carry out the Wisconsin Idea.”

Located in The Pyle Center in Madison, ICS provides tele-collaborative distance education services for educational, governmental and nonprofit organizations in Wisconsin and beyond, helping them to connect whether in person or at a distance. For information, visit http://www.uwex.edu/ics/.

WisLine Anytime User Guides Available

Have you tried ICS’s new reservationless audio conference service yet? If you have then you may have questions about how to use the online dashboard and the web conference add-on. To help answer those questions, we’ve just added a WisLine Anytime resources page to our web site and added two new user guides.

The WisLine Anytime 24 x 7 Audio Conferencing User Guide provides an introduction to the audio conference service and its features. In addition, there are step-by-step instructions for accessing your account online and using the online dashboard.

The WisLine Anytime Online Meeting User Guide provides instructions for using all of the Online Meeting features including launching a web conference, using the presenter console, desktop and application sharing, content publishing, text chat, and more.

Both guides are in pdf format and can be downloaded from the WisLine Anytime Resources page.

We’ll be adding more WisLine Anytime resources in the near future, and we’ll post those notices here. There is much more information about WisLine Anytime available on our web site at www.uwex.edu/ics/wislineanytime.