What’s New is sent to everyone who took the Adobe Connect Instructor session with Contact North Learning Technologies.

Latest What's New Adobe Connect - February 2020

Adobe Connect and Contact North logos

Two New Tools Added: Countdown Timer and Doorbell Connect

Example of countdown timer

Countdown and Doorbell are third-party apps hosts can add to any or all of their layouts. Like HandsUp, Countdown and Doorbell can now be found in the Extra Pods folder.

Mobile users don’t see Countdown or Doorbell as with other pods these are greyed out or show as Unsupported Content.

Video tutorial: How to add Countdown and Doorbell to your Adobe Connect session

Countdown is a counting down timer hosts can use to indicate how long until the session starts, time remaining for break, or time remaining for an exercise.
Doorbell chimes when an enrolled participant – computer or mobile - enters the session or a guest attendee is accepted into the session. Doorbell is a helpful tool during online office hours and similar to Saba Meeting’s Audible Alert – the host doesn’t need to continue to watch the Attendees pod to see if anyone joined. Doorbell also provides a quick visual list of who joined the session and when (details also available in your session’s Attendance Report).

If there is too much ringing, the host can put an empty pod above the Ring for Service section or move the Doorbell pod to the Presenter Only area thus not visible to students.

Doorbell does not ring across breakout rooms. A student needing your assistance in another breakout room should continue to use the Send message to hosts option:

Screenshot of Zoom meeting. Sending a message

Like other pods, the host can Hide or Stop Sharing to discontinue use of Countdown or Doorbell:

Screenshot of Zoom meeting. Stop Sharing

Anticipated May 2020 version upgrade to Adobe Connect version 10.5 or 10.6

Contact North | Contact Nord anticipates an Adobe Connect version upgrade by end of May 2020 and will provide further upgrade information.

Adobe Connect versions 10.5 and 10.6 have the same in-session interface as our current Adobe Connect version 9.8 – you will not be surprised, your session will look the same !

Both of these new versions have provided better PowerPoint upload and conversion. PowerPoints having display issues or ejecting participants in our current Adobe Connect version did not have the same issues in versions 10.5 or 10.6

Workarounds for PowerPoint Display Discrepancies and YouTube Video Player Inconsistencies

An FAQ tab will be added to our Adobe Connect Help page to answer commonly asked questions and provide workarounds or suggested alternatives until a future version upgrade.

Screenshot of Adobe Connect Help page