WizIQ Blog

Schedule the same class multiple times - recurring class feature launched on WizIQ

Just launched on WizIQ: Schedule recurring classes. Teachers can save time by creating an entire, recurring series of the same class taught live, multiple times at regular intervals with the same (or even different) set of attendees. No more recreating the same class over and over for regular meetings!

Here are the highlights:

• Schedule a complete recurring series as per your preferred interval with advanced customization options
• Schedule a complete recurring series for up to 12 months in advance from the current date (the date on which you schedule the class series)
• Invite students to attend individual classes of the recurring series
• Change date and time of a single class in a series of recurring classes
• Cancel a single class in a series of recurring class. (However, cancellation of the complete recurring series is not possible)
• Add recurring series to your courses while scheduling
• Add recurring series to your courses from the class listing

Here are some benefits of scheduling a recurring class:

• The feature is useful when you plan to teach the same class multiple times. You can schedule the recurring class at one go without the need to schedule every time you plan to offer the same class.
• By scheduling a recurring class, your learners will know the date and time well in advance, so they can plan and attend at their convenience.
• You can add a series of recurring classes to your courses, as well as creating standalone recurring classes.

Examples:

 


To schedule a recurring class, you need to click on the ‘Want to schedule a recurring class’ link as shown in the image above. Now you can schedule a recurring class by selecting required options as shown in the image below.

Note: Currently, the recurring class feature is available for premium members only. We will be making this feature available for premium organizations and academic users soon.

For more information on the recurring class feature, please visit our help section

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WiZiQ Makes Teaching in Moodle More Exciting Now!

Now access content from your own Moodle site in WiZiQ's Virtual Classroom

Here's a very exciting feature update for WiZiQ's Live Class for Moodle module users. Where teachers had to wait for content to upload, and they had to upload the same content every time they held a class for the same topic, it now gets super easy with uploading content in advance and simply using the uploaded content again and again without having to wait for uploading and subsequent file conversion.

How it works

Now you can manage files and folders from your own Moodle site in WiZiQ's Live Class for Moodle module with ease. You can upload a variety of file formats to the content library -  maintain them, organize files in folders, and use them whenever you need those files in your Virtual Classroom sessions. Also, instead of uploading files directly from your personal computer to your Virtual Classroom whenever you hold a session, you can upload the files to your content library much in advance, store them, and use them in all your future live classes. By uploading content to your content library in advance, you are actually saving on file processing time, thus saving your own time. Below are some more details about file formats, and useful tips for managing content:

Here are some screenshots:

Figure 1

A list of folders and some files in the snapshot above.

Figure 2

From the image above, you can see a file organised inside the folder, IIT_JEE. Just click on the image for a magnified view.

Supported file formats:

1. Presentations : ppt, pptx, pps, ppsx
2. Documents : pdf, doc, rtf, docx
3. Spreadsheets : xls, xlsx
4. Video : wav, wms, flv, mov, avi, mpeg, wmv
5. Audio : mp3
6. Flash : swf

Single file size limit :

• Documents, Presentations, Spreadsheets : Less than 20 MB
• Audio and Video: 50MB
• Flash: 20 MB
• Each pdf document should be less than 100 pages

With this new feature added, a user can:

• Create and name the folders that are relevant to specific courses
• Upload files in appropriate folders
• Use the content in your live classes from the content library rather than uploading it from your desktop every time
• Delete folders/files when you don't need them anymore

Some tips for managing your content:

• Upload your content well in advance as the built-in software in WiZiQ's Moodle module takes some time to convert your files to Virtual Classroom compatible format
• Create folders and give names that are easy to remember and relevant to the subjects you teach. Naming content appropriately makes your browsing easy.
• Upload as many files as you want (please look at the 'single file size limit' section at the top)

'Schedule Now' option

Along with this new feature there is another update to the 'schedule class' section of WiZiQ's Live Class for Moodle module. If you have to schedule and start a class right away, you can now simply check an empty box that you see right opposite the 'Schedule Now' field.

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Known Issues and Fixes for the New Virtual Classroom

The launch of the new Virtual Classroom has been very exciting for us with the team working last Sunday to deliver better technology to our teachers and students. We know that there have been some teething troubles and we are aware of the issues reported. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. We are sure that our teachers do understand that we want to upgrade our technology for the better - to make classes on WiZiQ the best ever that can be. We are working on all known issues on an urgent basis and will keep you posted on the status of the fixes. Here are some of the technical problems reported by users for the new Virtual Classroom. If you are facing a problem listed here and resolution is in progress, you can check back on this post to see if the status has been updated to "Fixed":

Issue: Delay in uploading content from your desktop in an online class
Status: Fixed.

Issue: Problem in accessing past class recordings
Status: Fixed.

Issue: Problem in pausing and resuming class recordings
Status: Fixed.

Issue: The error message “you are already signed into the session on another browser or system. Please sign-out from there and refresh”.
Status: Fixed.

Issue: Screen size is too big
Status: Fixed. Now PowerPoint, whiteboard, etc. will auto-fit to your screen size.

Issue: Problem in downloading class recordings
Status: Fixed. You can now start downloading your recordings.

Issue: Play/Pause button not working in SWF files
Status: Resolution in progress.

Issue: Missing embed code for classes
Status: Resolution in progress.

As you can see, most of the issues have been resolved and the remaining two issues will be fixed soon. If you encounter any other technical problems while using the new Virtual Classroom, please write to us at [email protected].

Also, some of the issues we see our users facing is because of lack of familiarity with the new Virtual Classroom. Although we have been informing our users to test out the new Virtual Classroom repeatedly over the last 6 weeks, we realize there are many out there who haven't. So we urge you to schedule a free demo of the new Virtual Classroom with one of our support personnel so you can give the best experience to your students, as we want to give to you.

We thank you for your patience.

Besides resolving the present issues, WiZiQ has been adding new features at the same time to enhance the quality of the new Virtual Classroom. So, keep visiting this blog post for new feature updates. Below are some features that are added recently:

• A new Eraser button has been added to the objects’ panel of your new VC
• The arrow has been replaced with ‘+/-‘ symbols to expand or collapse your folders in the content library
• Next/previous buttons added in your pdf/doc/xls files, just as in ppt
• Upload content directly to the Virtual Classroom in MAC systems up to 500 KB

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Facebook's "Like" is on WiZiQ!

WiZiQ embeds the popular 'Like' button, a plugin from Facebook to provide an easy way to learners and teachers to give their opinion on tutorials (content) on WiZiQ with a single click. The button is coming to classes and tests early next week. The objective is to improve the visibility of teachers' public learning resources on Facebook so that more learners and teachers can network with them on WiZiQ.

How is the 'Like' feature beneficial to teachers?

Teachers can reach out to a bigger audience across Facebook and get more visibility on their learning resources, which in turn can translate into more class attendance and sales. This feature also throws a challenge to teachers to make learning content more qualitative, as it will be rated by a wider audience outside WiZiQ because of its ease-of-use and viral nature. This feature brings a sense of competition in on WiZiQ and is a subtle appeal to teachers to schedule more classes, create more tests, and upload more tutorials and deliver them with optimum quality (coming to classes and tests early next week). 

The most admired and the most used feature - why?

Of late, Facebook's 'Like' feature has become the most admired and most used on Facebook and other sites, and has a good marketing effect (especially for teachers on WiZiQ), as it can make your Facebook friends curious about your ‘like’ comments and can also make them - like, unlike, comment and share the content in one go. It’s an easy way to get action from learners as it can be done in one easy click and with options to comment and share. If you have liked a tutorial, you get a comment box when you mouse over the like button. Here's a screenshot:

 

The Facebook 'Activity Feed' widget on WiZiQ

To complement the 'Like' button, a widget, 'Activity Feed', has been embedded in content pages in the right panel. This widget displays the most recent activity on WiZiQ by your Facebook friends - who recently liked, shared or commented on public learning resources on WiZiQ. For instance, if you click on the 'Like' button of the content, you will instantly find your activity in the widget:

 

We are sure that this add-on will help both teachers and students reach out to each other and help build your network on WiZiQ. So go ahead and get those tutorials on Facebook now! And if you like this post, go ahead and like it the way everyone else is doing it on the Web!

Clear .NET Interview for Only $70 (Rs. 3200) - Get training on WiZiQ

.NET programming as a career

Nowadays .NET has become a mainstream programming platform. Not only is this profession highly rewarding, it pays well, and it's fun! It’s popular not only among computer professionals but also students who pursue humanities or social sciences as career options.

How much can you earn as a .NET Developer?

After a three year training and investment of about $30,000 in US or Rs 1,20,000 in India, a .NET Developer can easily start at a salary of about $50,000 in US and Rs 3.5 lacs/year in India respectively. The career curve in this profession is quite steep in about 7 years, .NET Developers can earn a salary of $100,000+ in US and about Rs. 14 lacs in India.

Why are .NET interviews critical for your career?

The issue here is that even after the right training and skill, not many .NET Developers reach to this level--mostly because they fail to showcase their skills in job interviews. Formal courses by the famous/general institutions do equip them with the expertise and knowledge but the final skills of presenting their expertise/knowledge do not develop during those formal trainings. This gap is filled by .NET interview preparation courses.

.NET interview preparation courses and classes at WiZiQ

Some of these courses/classes are being offered on WiZiQ by expert .NET trainer, Mr. Shivprasad Koirala from Questpond. For only $70 (Rs. 3200) you get the required real environment exposure and skill to showcase your knowledge, which guarantees you a better job or promotion and certainly big bucks. You can take the course or join individual classes from Questpond as per your requirement:

Full Course:

OOP, ASP.NET, SQL Server and .NET Interview Preparation Course: $70 - Starts May 16, 2010. You would need to register in advance.

Classes :

You would need to pay $20/class

OOP Interview Questions: May 16, 2010

ASP.NET Interview Questions: May 18, 2010

SQL Server Interview Questions: May 20, 2010

.NET Interview Questions: May 22, 2010

AD0.NET Interview Questions: May 24, 2010

.NET 3.5 (WCF, WPF, WWF, LINQ, Silverlight) Internet Questions: May 26, 2010

Design Patterns, MVC, MVP and MVVM: May 27, 2010

SharePoint Interview Questions: May 28, 2010

Project Management Interview Questions (Agile, SDLC, Estimation, Project): June 1, 2010

Online Classes Updated - More Reasons to Celebrate

More reasons to celebrate :-) We are excited! The promised upgrade to Online Classes has just been released. For those who have not seen this presentation yet, here's what just changed:

New Classes Interface on WiZiQ

Uploaded by Harman-Singh on WiZiQ Tutorials

To elaborate what more a teacher gets with this new version:
Improved interface
The new look interface now has:

• A "Quick Links" section for easy navigation
• More organized class information
• Statistics, like minutes a student spent in class, number of recording views and downloads, etc.

Schedule paid Public / Private Classes
This section gives teachers more control on resources, and convenience in scheduling the class. The enhancements will enable the teacher to:

• Set up Public / Private class fees and students can enter the class only after making the payment
• Reschedule the Public / Private class that was already set up before
• Allow (with ‘Mark as Paid’ option) a student if s/he makes an offline payment, like cash or check

Resend invite to members
A teacher can resend invitation to the students as many times as required.

Choose a contact list
Teachers can group contacts, save them as separate lists, and use these lists to send invitations.

Change Class Date and Time
A teacher can now reschedule the Private Class that was already set up before, and the attendees who paid for that class will get an instant automated email about the change.

Set Recording price
Once a class is concluded, the teacher can set a price to grant access to the recording.

Recording access permissions & statistics
Teachers can allow/disallow attendees to download/view recordings. Besides, teachers can also view statistics on number of views & downloads by the members.

View Attendance Report
A teacher can view the number of minutes each student spent in the class.

Manage Class Comments
Invited students can post their comments and they get published instantly on the Class Details’ page of the teacher. The teacher can moderate to delete, report abuse, reply or keep the comments.

Review Class Feedback
A teacher can choose to display any feedback on the Class Details’ page or remove it from there.

Track your class payments
A summary report of all the payments made by students along with the details of net amount that can be withdrawn and WiZiQ’s commission are also available.

We look forward to your feedback and comments.