Adobe Connect

Pros

We probably don't use 30% of the features during any given meeting, but it's nice to have the flexibility of breakout sessions, whiteboards, video conferencing, etc. Most of our sessions are simple PowerPoints uploaded into the room, utilizing integrated telephony and chat for communication. But the system is robust, offering just about anything you could imagine doing in an online meeting. We record most of our sessions, and Adobe offers good tools for editing the recordings, which can then be shared right from Adobe's platform. The pods available in the room allow for document sharing during the meeting, the playing of audio and video files, polling and surveys, and of course screen sharing. The new HTML client means participants don't have to leave the browser to engage in meetings any more, and there is a mobile client for joining meetings via Android or iOS. The admin interface offers branding so you can ensure all the meetings have your company's logo and colors. All in all, it's a pretty slick package.

Cons

My biggest gripe with Adobe Connect is the necessity of engaging a third party in order to achieve integrated telephony. This should be included. To be clear, VOIP is included. I'm simply talking about the ability of participants to call in to a meeting using a regular phone requires a third party. While it's not enough to make me seek a different webinar platform, it is shocking that Adobe has not addressed this glaring issue. The only issue I have with the platform is playing long videos during meetings never seem to work, and it has forced us to all but exclude video from our presentations.

Pros

The software is friendly and does what you need it to do. The interface is simple and can be picked up easily

Cons

Our biggest complaint about this product isn't the product itself - it's Adobe. Adobe's licensing scheme is very difficult to work with and not friendly at all.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Adobe Connect

Pros

I use this on a daily basis for online teaching and learning. Some of the features I found most useful are the different pods for students to respond in, providing interaction and collaboration. Students can draw on the whiteboard, chat in the chat pod, select from multiple choice questions created by the teacher, "raise their hand" using a button, and provide feedback by clicking the different status buttons (green check, red x, etc.). They can also turn on their microphones to answer questions. I am able to pull in videos, files, and presentations for teaching.

Cons

The program runs very slow as more students join. Large groups are not necessarily a problem unless you ask students to begin using microphones or the whiteboard. At that point, I have experienced delays and even crashes, although those are not as common as severe delays. In my experience, any group above 20 students delays the more interactive features (mainly the microphones and whiteboard). This is discouraging since interaction is important to effective teaching and learning. One feature that was taken away that I would like to see re-added is the entry message. When a student "knocks" at the door to enter the classroom, the teacher/user used to be able to save a message for the student to see, such as, "I am out of the office today." I think this feature must have been removed, but I found it extremely beneficial when needing to continue a lesson with one student and ask another to wait.

Pros

The software provides reporting capabilities on the timestamps of the attendees which makes the attendance reporting of a training class easier than to do it manually.

Cons

While the presenter can manage the microphone usage of the attendees, it is hard as a user to maintain a quiet background because as a user, I did not locate the noise cancellation option.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Adobe Connect

Pros

The best thing about Adobe Connect is its functionality. The software offers different pools, chats, file shares, and quizzes. In addition, there are multiple designs which are very useful for work. We are convinced that Adobe Connect service will help you to conduct online conferences, meetings, training classes or webinars much more successful. Adobe Connect is a web conferencing service with a help of which you can easily share data and multimedia files. With the assistance of this software, you can get back immediate feedback from hundreds of users. Moreover, with this tool, you can easily lead to webinars and online meetings.

Cons

There is no doubt that Adobe Connect has more advantages than disadvantages, but some issues should be improved. Firstly, it is a little bit hard to figure out everything connected with the interface’s features and options because of an interface itself a bit overloaded. It takes some time to sort out everything and learn all the necessary combinations. Moreover, the service can easily shut down or freeze without any reason.