WizIQ Virtual Classroom is much more fun now with the just-updated media player. In addition to error-free YouTube video playback, presenters now have better control on playlists through an enhanced user interface. Teachers and learners can now engage in a more stimulating sharing experience, facilitating improved learning.
What’s new?
Now play YouTube videos seamlessly. Simply copy-paste YouTube links and play directly
Queue as many files as you want to the class playlist
Add or play files from the content library
Presenter controls mute/unmute
Clear the complete playlist in one go
Smart navigation with improved interface
Go ahead, explore and enjoy the new media player. If you have questions about the media player, we recommend that you go through the media player help files here. If your question has not been answered, feel free to contact us on [email protected].
A few days ago we heard from the Des Moines Area Community Colleges (DMACC) that they will begin using the WizIQ Virtual Classroom this fall with a 150-room initial deployment. Community colleges are at the forefront of continuing and higher education and are absolutely key to expanding cost effective access to skills and knowledge nationwide.
As you might know, DMACC is one of the fastest growing community colleges in the country with over 700 faculty and serving over 70,000 students between its degree programs and extensive continuing education offerings. They offer online courses and small class sizes, experienced faculty, and innovative uses of technology. While they have campuses in and around Des Moines, Iowa, the communities they serve reach into very rural areas with long travel times to campus, making effective distance education much more important.
Chris Dawson, our Vice President of Business Development personally met Mark Steffen, the Director of Distance Learning for DMACC, who was thrilled with WizIQ. Mark said, “We were able to make WizIQ available to a significant percentage of our staff at a fraction the price of other virtual classroom solutions. We're going to be training our staff and then looking expand across the entire distance education faculty as we move to more synchronous course offerings."
We are really happy to be part of their continued push into high-quality, cost-effective learning, regardless of the distances involved for students and faculty. We want to thank all WizIQ members for extending your faith in us, which has empowered us to make collaborations like DMACC possible.
Our whole-hearted thanks to everyone for voting WizIQ to victory at the World Education Awards 2011 for the ‘World Education Public Choice Award’. As the name of the award suggests, this award is truly an outcome of the public choice that earned WizIQ this award in the category, “Best Innovation in Open and Distance Learning”. We look forward to more such participations and winning more such awards with your support.
Here are some pictures from the award presentation ceremony:
The flipped classroom concept comes from top educators’ extensive study and experimentation. Let’s take a look at what flipping your classroom entails, and how the WizIQ Virtual Classroom helps you get the most out of this technique.
What are flipped classrooms?
Flipping your classroom involves reversing how you look at lectures and “homework.” With a flipped classroom approach, students listen to class lectures at home, typically as pre-recorded (asynchronous) video or audio modules along with doing their pre-class reading assignments.
Then, when they come to school, they do their “homework” in class. This approach gives students immediate access to both teachers and peers as they work through the material. It also allows the teacher to focus on facilitating learning in truly collaborative environments.
Why are flipped classrooms so popular?
Teachers adopting the flipped classroom approach love how much more interactive their student time becomes. No more talking at people, watching them zone out during “stand and deliver” lectures. Instead teachers get to spend their time teaching, by answering student questions and helping them apply their new knowledge to their homework.
Students enjoy getting immediate help when they get stuck, more chances for hands-on learning and in general are more engaged by doing something active rather than just sitting and listening.
How is the WizIQ Virtual Classroom an effective tool for flipping classrooms?
Today’s technologies make flipped classrooms a truly practical, yet innovative option. In particular, the WizIQ Virtual Classroom offers a number of benefits for both teachers and students.
Benefits for teachers
In the flipped classroom paradigm, WizIQ helps teachers get improved results from their students. Features that facilitate these improvements include:
Creating and recording lectures in the WizIQ virtual classroom for asynchronous delivery
Using the whiteboard tool for writing and drawing
Using the advanced math, text and drawing tools
Sharing a wide variety of content during your sessions, including word documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, slides, and YouTube videos
Teachers themselves benefit from the following WizIQ features:
Organizing lecture content in your folders
Getting student feedback and publishing it on your profile page
Though, remember that teachers can also deliver live, synchronous classes through WizIQ. Use the virtual classroom synchronously for:
Taking student questions
Guiding practice sessions
Guiding lab time
Etc.
Even better, you can record these sessions and distribute them amongst students for review, aiding those who missed class or want to review.
There are other side benefits as well. Imagine snow days no longer stopping classes. Instead, teacher and students can meet online!
Benefits for students
There are plenty of benefits to students in flipped classrooms when you choose WizIQ. They can:
Download and learn from recorded lectures at their own pace and time, including features such as pause, rewind, watch again, and review.
No more failure to complete homework that the student couldn’t finish without assistance, which is made worse when there’s no time to help the next day in class.
Much more time to “do” than just listen, allowing teachers to better address different types of learners.
What’s more, teachers can encourage students to schedule their own virtual classroom sessions with classmates. Students can use these sessions to tutor one another, collaborate, review for exams, etc.
Parents can view the recordings as well, letting them better understand each teacher’s approach to particular concepts, or to refresh their own skills as they help their children study. The next time parents ask “What did you learn in school today?” their children can respond with “Watch the videos” instead of the typical “Nothin’.”
Interested in learning more? Request a demo to assess the WizIQ Virtual Classroom, and experiment with your own ideas around flipped classrooms. The e-teaching community will be delighted to hear your WizIQ flipped classroom approach and thoughts. We look forward to brainstorming and learning with you!
We are glad to announce that WizIQ has been nominated for the World Education Awards, 2011. We would be more than happy if you cast your valuable vote for WizIQ and make it a strong contender for the World Education Public Choice Award at World Education Awards 2011.
Voting online is simple. Just follow the steps below to vote:
On clicking the link, you will see a form as shown in the image below. Fill in the form on the page and click on the submit button.
Please note that the screenshots below are just illustrations to show how the voting works. You would need to go to the voting page to cast your vote.
2. Check your email inbox for the voting link and click on it (check for the email with subject, “Link for World Education Awards Voting”).
The image below is a screenshot example of the email that you receive on submitting the form.
3. On clicking the link in your email, a web page with listed categories will appear.
Now go to the “Private Sector Initiative” category (4th section on the page) and click on the the sub-category (4th link from bottom), “Best Innovation in Open and Distance Learning”.
4. After you click on the the sub-category, “Best Innovation in Open and Distance Learning”, the voting form (below is an example) will appear.
Select the option for www.WizIQ.com and click on the submit button to cast your vote.
Note: Voting has ended.
We look forward to your participation in the voting.
We just opened a developer portal, from where website owners can integrate WizIQ Virtual Classroom in their websites, CMS/LMS systems using the WizIQ API.
WizIQ has supported web services for some time, allowing users to integrate the Virtual Classroom into any website or content management system that supports the education and training markets. New RESTful APIs are now fully documented on developer.wiziq.com. WizIQ will be providing more direct support through this site to users looking to leverage these APIs.
WizIQ will also be investing over the next several months in creating turnkey and/or well-documented integrations with such open source learning projects as Instructure Canvas, openLMS, Centre SIS, and openSIS. These solutions will become available on developer.wiziq.com and will complement our existing Moodle module, Building Block for the Blackboard LearnTM platform, as well as plugins for proprietary systems.
WizIQ's Virtual Classroom enables organizations, teachers and learners to connect live from anywhere, offering real-time collaboration and communication.
The WizIQ Virtual Classroom features include:
Activities from your own website - schedule, manage and conduct live classes
Live online classes to small or large number of attendees simultaneously
Attendance report
Co-brand WizIQ Virtual Classroom with your logo
Multi-way audio (any number of attendees can speak at the same time)
