WizIQ Blog

New improved media player in the virtual classroom – better YouTube playback and much more…

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].

We look forward to your feedback.

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 was the Virtual Classroom Partner at the "Excellence in Higher Education" IIT Delhi conference

A conference, “Excellence in Higher Education” was hosted by the Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi, on 1-3 April 2011. WizIQ, was one of the official sponsors of the event and was chosen as the Virtual Classroom Partner to stream the conference live to attendees worldwide.

The Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi, regularly researches on issues of excellence in teaching, and has made significant contributions to the academic world. Any answers, questions and thoughts on the issue of furthering the cause of 'Excellence in Higher Education' are highly encouraged by the department.

The objective of this conference was to showcase the technological advancements happening in the field of education, which challenge three major issues that higher education face, namely reach, equity and excellence. Besides, this conference helped the audience understand the research, controlled experiments, experiences and best practices existing nationally and globally.

The conference turned out to be a grand success with over 140 members attending through the Virtual Classroom from various countries, and around a 1000 participants that included eminent educators, politicians, professors, practitioners, researchers, theorists, enterprenuers, etc. The conference had representation from all the states of India including the eastern states like, Sikkim and Meghalaya. The participants include 300 delegates from 192 colleges/universities including IIMs, and IITs.

Topics covered in the conference were not just restricted to the urban scenario, but also touched the concerns of rural institutes. The topics on Leadership, Curricula & Assessment and Andragogy, ‘Developing Industry Academic partnership’, ‘Inclusive Education’, ‘Transformational Teacher’ and ‘Innovation in Andragogy’ were well received.

WizIQ also launched an online course on the IIT conference, to make it accessible to anyone who wanted to access virtually and synchronously. This course provided a good opportunity for educators world-wide to discuss, share, and have their questions answered in the conference.

Here are some pictures from the conference:

IIT Delhi Conference - WizIQ Virtual Classroom

More PowerPoint presentations from Admin WizIQ

The next conference is slated next year in January with new topics and themes that have come out from the debates and discussions, which will see international participation as well. To know the details of this conference, or to see the presented papers and view their presentations, visit www.iitd.ac.in, or www.eduexcellence.org

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Connecting to New Learners? It's Super Easy on WizIQ

LearnerConnect is a great way to contact sincere students who have attended your public classes. See how Jane, an online teacher connects with her students on WizIQ:

Meet Jane - An online teacher...

More online PowerPoint presentations from WizIQ on authorSTREAM

With recent changes in place, it's easier now to connect to serious learners on WizIQ, as teachers:

• Can view contact details of the members in their contact lists
• Will get an auto LearnerConnect option whenever one attempts to attend a Public class
• LearnerConnect credits are now available for non-Premium members, too

Real value for your LearnerConnect credits

The best part of the LearnerConnect feature is that you can view the activity of members on the learning resources provided by you, and choose only those who you think are more serious in learning from you. This way, you will not waste your LearnerConnect credits and above that you will see the real value in the credits you spend for making new contacts through LearnerConnect.

Get in touch with more students

The key to pull more serious learners to your contact list is to create more, quality learning resources. Here are some tips:

• Create more public classes, tests, or courses
• Share WizIQ class, test, or course links on your own sites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites and forums. This will not only get direct traffic to your WizIQ page
• Participate in e-teaching community discussions and share links there, too

So go ahead and start teaching online on WizIQ if you are already not a member.

 

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What's for learners in an Online Course on WizIQ?

We often get asked what the difference is between a “course” and a “class” in WizIQ. After all, most people use the two words interchangeably. However, in WizIQ, as in most student information systems and learning management systems, the two words have distinct and important meanings. Essentially, a course is a series of classes around a given topic. Courses may also include Tests and Tutorials. Every time you meet with students enrolled in a particular course (say, for example, Learn Spanish from an expert Native Teacher), you are conducting a class. Many of these classes will be scheduled in advance, but the impromptu meetings, tutoring sessions, and small group work that WizIQ makes so easy and convenient are also called classes.

Teachers can set up and list both--online or offline Courses on WizIQ. This presentation shows how online Courses can help learners on WizIQ.

WiZiQ is for Every Teacher

WiZiQ offers a lot of options for teachers through different plans to suit every teacher's individual needs. Whether you are a tutor or trainer, or you run a tutoring or training organization, or you teach in the academia, WiZiQ has a plan for you.

We will be posting a few presentations about WiZiQ's offerings to inform users about available options and to help them choose the right service. It's more about demystifying our offerings and presenting them in an easy-to-grasp format. This is the first one highlighting features for individual teachers:

If you have any questions, you are very welcome to contact us on [email protected]