Bring Class to Life
Wimba Classroom 5.2, cornerstone of the Wimba Collaboration Suite, is a live, virtual classroom environment with robust features that includes audio, video, application sharing and content display.
Its pedagogical design and ease-of-use ensures that educators and students engage as if they were meeting face-to-face.
Advanced features such as polling, whiteboarding, presenter on-the-fly, resizable chat areas and participant lists, usage analytics tools, and MP3 downloads enable further dynamic interaction between students and educators.
To dig deeper consider the features, benefits, requirements, and Licensing Information of Wimba Classroom.
Benefits
Benefits for Higher and Further Education
Benefits for K-12
Features
Discussion & Interaction
• Break-Out Rooms
• Emoticons
• Public and Private Chat
• Follow-The-Speaker Video
• Multi-way Video and Audio (Voice over IP)
• Presenter On-The-Fly
• Polls, Quizzes & Surveys
Instruction & Reinforcement
• Robust Electronic Whiteboard
• Application Sharing
• Flexible Content Area
Classroom Management
• Content Upload and Storage
• Auto-populated Participant List
• Usage Insight
• Full-Featured Classroom Archiving
Convenient & Easy-to-Use
• Telephone Access
• MP3 Downloads
• Technology Appropriate for Online Education
• Accessible to the Impaired
• Seamless CMS Integration
• Robust, 24 x 7 Technical Support from Wimba
Functionality
Expanded Whiteboard Options
New highlighter and rectangle tools provide visual indicators with which teachers can reiterate and enforce learning concepts.
Presenter On-The-Fly
Students engage peers through leading discussions and giving presentations while teachers customize their instruction to the particular needs of students.
Resizable Chat Area and Participant List
Chat area and participant window can be resized to accommodate course content. Students who use closed captioning can expand the chat interface to support accessibility.
Usage Insight
With our analytics API tool, districts and schools quickly gain insight into student attendance, duration, and participation.
MP3 Downloads
Without the need for third-party tools, download the audio of an archived lesson or activity in a standard MP3 format.
Multi-way Audio (Voice over IP) & Video
Replicate the dynamic dialogue of a face-to-face class with real-time, multi-way voice and video. A speaker’s video is triggered by voice-detected switching, making technology invisible while allowing a discussion to flow naturally. A telephone dial-in feature allows users to participate when traveling or acts as a back up if network problems occur.
Public & Private Text Chat
Some students are more comfortable writing than speaking, and our chat messaging allows the shy student to communicate textually so they can participate with their more talkative classmates.
Flexible Content Area
The wide-variety of content shared within one class differs greatly from another, which is why our content area allows offers instructors the freedom to share files such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel, HTML, webpages, images, movie clips, PDF, Flash, or CMS pages.
Polls, Quizzes, Surveys & Electronic Whiteboard
Offering frequent classroom interaction is an instructional best practice realized through polls, quizzes, surveys and whiteboard exercises, which keeps students highly engaged.
Application Sharing
Application sharing facilitates collaborative that replicates side-by-side instruction or “over the shoulder” review as cursor movement is tracked—and even shared—from instructor to student.
Classroom Archiving
Classroom archiving preserves everything that takes place in during a class – capturing voice, chat, and content—for access and review anytime, anywhere.
Technology Appropriate for Online Education
Student hardware, software, networks, and IT skills vary enormously which is why Wimba Classroom was designed to operate effectively in the most challenging user environments. Our thin-client, low-bandwidth features allow for dial-up access, and our cross-platform support and intuitive user interface allow for virtually any user, on a PC, Mac, or Linux machine, to fully participate with minimal instruction and setup.
Accessible
Live and archived classes can be closed-captioned for the hearing impaired while keyboard shortcut keys, hot keys, and screen reader compatibility offers access of content and instruction to the visually impaired. These accessibility features help institutions meet many state and federal accessibility guidelines.
Integrated “Help”
Display contextual help information or contact Wimba technical support.
Requirements
Participant Requirements
• Windows 2000+, Mac OSX 10.3+* or Linux**
• 128 MB RAM (256 MB recommended)
• IE 6.0+, Safari 1.2+, Firefox 1.5 - 2.0 (Browser must be Java and JavaScript enabled)
• Internet access at 56k or above
Presenter Requirements
• Windows 2000+, Mac OSX 10.3+* or Linux**
• 256 MB RAM (higher recommended)
• IE 6.0+, Safari 1.2+, Firefox 1.5 - 2.0 (Browser must be Java and JavaScript enabled)
• Internet access at 56k or above (Broadband strongly recommended)
* Mac OS X 10.3 is not supported for Wimba Classroom 5.1.1+
* IE for Mac not supported
** Presenters cannot display content via Application Sharing using Linux. However, participants using Linux can view Application Sharing content
**Audio and Video is only compatible with Linux on Wimba Classroom versions 4.2+
Licensing
Wimba Classroom is licensed on an annual basis based on your institution’s Full-time Enrollment (FTE). Our ASP Services are attractive for customers who would rather have Wimba host, monitor and maintain their server but our solutions can also be deployed on a standalone basis for those preferring to have the server resides on their own network.
Contact a Regional Sales Manager to discuss the specific needs of your institution, system, or campus.