Engaging Audiences Online: Webinar Best Practices and Tips from the Field

With the announcement of OSU Extension gaining access to Zoom hosted meetings and webinars, Jamie Seger, Morgan Domokos, and Brian Raison offered a “Webinar Best Practices and Online Teaching Tips from the Field” during the 2016 OSUE Annual Conference. Further training on recommended Zoom equipment, use, and teaching via webinar will be offered by the Ed Tech Unit and CFAES IT Services in 2017.

Questions about Zoom and teaching via webinar in the meantime can be sent to Jamie or Danae.

February First Friday Coffee Break with an Ed Tech: Social Media Image Templates

If you missed our First Friday Coffee Break with an Ed Tech this month, the webinar recording is now available!

What you missed:

  • Branded Social Media Image Templates
    • where to access
    • walk-through instructions demonstrating how to edit
  • Q&A on Ed Tech-related items and issues
  • InnovateExtension announcements
  • National eXtension Conference information

Click Here to View the Recording

 

Our next First Friday Coffee Break will be March 4th from 10:00am – 11:00am EST, topic TBD. Have a topic suggestion for a future Coffee Break? Comment below or email it to Jamie or Danae.

Editable Social Media Profile Templates

Social media branding got you down? Use our edit-friendly templates to create beautifully branded social media profile photos for your Facebook or Twitter account. We’ve developed templates in PowerPoint so all Extension staff can quickly and easily create OSU Extension branded profile images.

ANR ProfileVisit our Social Media Template Box folder to access the templates along with step-by-step instructions for creating your profile image. We’ve included two templates – one with just the block O bug and one with the block O bug and the scarlet Extension banner. Choose the template that makes sense for your social media account.

If you’d like help learning how to create your social media profile using these templates, join Jamie and Danae on the First Friday Coffee Break with an Ed Tech on February 5 at 10am (TODAY!).

Questions or comments? Let us know!

Announcing “First Friday Coffee Breaks” with an Ed Tech

The Ed Tech unit is very excited to announce a new “drop-in,” informal learning opportunity for OSU Extension professionals!

 

Beginning October 2nd, Jamie and/or Danae will be hosting virtual AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions via Carmen Connect. These “First Friday Coffee Breaks with an Ed Tech” will be held the first Friday of each month from 10:00am – 11:00am.

Colleagues are encouraged to join the Connect sessions as needed throughout the hour to ask questions, get recommendations, offer suggestions, ask for resources… anything! This will be a regular opportunity to informally connect with an Ed Tech and get real-time feedback.

Use This Link to Participate in each First Friday Coffee Break

Questions? Let us know in the comments below or send Jamie or Danae an email.

 

Even Easier-to-Use CFAES and Extension Branded Images!

We have great news and not-so-great news this morning. Yesterday, we shared the link to a Buckeye Box folder that housed easy-to-use branded images. The not-so-great news: we’ve deleted this Buckeye Box folder. The great news? = the reason why! What we didn’t realize, was that this resource already exists! CFAES Communications now offers branded college and University background images, art, in addition to logos in .jpg and .png formats.

This 4-H Background image is one of many image resources available on the CFAES Communications site.

This 4-H Background image is one of many image resources available on the CFAES Communications site.

We apologize for the confusion. As we had mentioned in the previous post, if you have trouble using an image in it’s current format, do not see a desired image available, or just have a general branding question, please contact Jamie or Danae and we will help or contact the appropriate parties within the college.

 

Quickly Create Modern Looking Graphics for Anything with Canva

Allergic to Photoshop but still want pretty looking images to share on a blog or social media page? Canva is a cool (and very new) web tool that lets you easily and quickly create images that you can save and/or share online. The best news of all? It’s free to sign up and Canva has thousands of images and graphics that you can use for free. The real kicker is that the extra cool photo that you might want to use will only $1. That’s right, if it’s not free, it’s only going to cost you a buck. Good news for those of us in Extension.

Getting Started

You’ll need to sign up for a free account to use Canva. Then, you get to choose a template based upon what you will use the image/graphic for – which I think is a great feature that makes Canva super easy to use.

By selecting what you'll be using your image for, Canva will automatically select the best formatting and size.

By selecting what you’ll be using your image for, Canva will automatically select the best formatting and size.

After you choose a design to get started, you’ll come to what looks like a “dashboard of sorts”. Honestly, if you take just a few minutes browsing the tools on the left side of the screen, you can get acquainted with Canva’s features rather quickly.

 

Here are a few images I created in Canva to show everyone the possibilities of how those of us in Extension could use it:

COOKING Eat & Move-O-Matic (2)carrots

All of the above images and graphics could be shared on social media sites. You can also create PowerPoint presentations, posters, and marketing materials within Canva. 

How to Brand Your Images and Grahics

As for proper branding protocol when it comes to using Canva, you probably noticed that all of the above images use our scarlet color – one of the University’s primary branding colors. Anything that is created within Canva should include at least ONE of the primary branding colors, shown below. Scarlet is the preferred primary color, since it is the most recognizable color associated with OSU.

Canva branding colors

 

What do the numbers below the colors mean? This is where we’ll do a little walk-through in Canva to show you how to change color using the HEX color code (last line of text under each color above). We’ll use one of the graphics I included above as an example. When I first clicked on the template to edit it, the original color of the ribbon was teal. I needed to change this to a branded color. First, click anywhere on the color in your graphic or text that you need to change. Then, click on the “+” sign to open up the color wheel (circled in red below).

Canva changing colors

This will pull up a color wheel, with an option box to enter an exact color code. This is where the HEX color code is entered. The color code for our branded scarlet color is bb0000 (entered in the box circled in red).

Canva changing colors 2

This changes the color of the ribbon. To change text or any other graphic, simply go through the same process. Other logos such as the block “O” or our Extension strip at the top do not have to be included if you utilize any of the primary branding colors, as well as a branded font. In Canva, we’ll need to use Helvetica as the only font… which limits creativity I know. But it is required to be brand compliant.

brand

Want more info about Canva? The site features a great support blog that gives advice on how to create different layouts, work with color in your graphics, how to create infographics, and much more.

Still have questions or want advice on how to create something specific? Leave a comment and we’ll help!

~Jamie

 

Getty’s Gift: We Now Have Access to Millions of Free Images for Online Content

Well, until now! Getty Images announced this week that they have offered up hundreds of millions of images to content creators, for free. This was so unthinkable, that I didn’t believe it until Mashable.com confirmed it on Facebook. But their explanation makes sense – the images are being used anyway. With the good news, also comes some bad news however. Although you can use the Getty images to embed onto websites, blog posts, and social media posts, you cannot include them in PowerPoint presentations not intended just for personal use (and what PPTs are just intended for personal use, other than the ones my 4th grader creates?!), nor can you include them in any curriculum or resource materials that will be distributed to the public. [Cick here to visit the Getty webpage with info on how this all works.]

To test this process out, I went to Getty’s site and searched for a picture of a sheep. It did take a few minutes before I found a photo that I liked, and that I was “allowed” to use (the embed sign popped up with the other options). Here’s the image:

So there’s obviously some give and take here. While allowing users to embed certain images into their online content, Getty is also identifying the source of the content, and adding in some shareable buttons for good measure. If you don’t mind the way this might look on a blog post, or your website, then Getty could be a good new source of free images for you.

But there are other options out there! Pixabay / Flickrs Creative Commons  to name a couple. And their images are already free to download and use.

Do you use other royalty free image sites not mentioned here? List them in the comments!

~Jamie

 

 

 

 

 

New University Branding: How to Update Your Social Media Profile Pictures

With the new University branding came some confusion as to how those of us utilizing social media should update our Facebook or Twitter profile pictures to reflect the new logo… or if it was even possible. The University branding site now includes social media button and logo templates for you to download and use in order to update your pictures. (You’ll need to download the “Digital/Web” interactive assets). The only catch: you need to have a recent version of Adobe Photoshop Elements or Adobe Photoshop installed on your computer to pull up the images and edit them therein.

If you don’t have Photoshop, you have a couple options:

1. You can order Photoshop Elements 11 for less than $100 through Wired Out or  E-Stores. You’ll receive it as a digital download, meaning you won’t have to wait for a physical disc to arrive before you can start using it. Easy-peasy.

2. You may be able to have a colleague who does have Photoshop edit the logo for you, save as a JPEG, GIF or TIFF file, and e-mail it to you. If they’re Photoshop savvy, this shouldn’t take more than a few minutes as long as you know what changes you want them to make.

(If you didn’t catch the linked text above that takes you to the template site – here it is: http://www.osu.edu/brand/downloads.html )

Have questions about social media profile pictures? Leave a comment and I’ll answer!

– Jamie