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 support@wiziq.com.
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.
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!
WizIQ has a special offer this summer to teachers. The commission on a course sale has been waived off! So far, more than a 100 teachers have setup their courses. Teachers just need to create asynchronous courses [any combination of videos, PowerPoint presentations, PDF files, Word documents, tests, recorded classes] on WizIQ, and they can avail this waiver on the first 50 students who enroll [a small transaction fee to process a payment will only be charged].
Why setup courses on WizIQ?
WizIQ courses may be a new WizIQ feature but it is already one of the fastest growing. It does not matter whether you teach languages, test prep, school subjects, professional topics, or hobby classes; WizIQ courses are perfect for you to showcase your expertise and get more students.
What you can expect from us?
Teachers just need to setup courses, and WizIQ markets, sells and administers their public courses. While WizIQ does all the marketing, teachers can focus on their teaching.
How to get a course listed?
Upload your course content on WizIQ, and
Provide some information about the course
How is an asynchronous course beneficial to students?
Freedom to access the course material from anywhere and anytime
Ample time to think and respond on the course material
Access to the archived recordings of the live interactive class (synchronous class) in case a student misses it
Tip: Teachers can promote their courses through their blogs, social media networks, web sites, etc., to get more mileage.
For more information on this offer and course setup help, write to us at support@wiziq.com.
Welcome to the annual Connecting Online 2011 (CO11), live online conference. You are cordially invited to participate at the live online conference starting from the 4th of February to the 6th of February, 2011.
Educators at all levels will find this conference very useful, as many eminent intellectuals from across the globe will be holding webinars (web based seminars) on a variety of topics that help you understand:
The importance of integrating technology into traditional classroom teaching
Social networking, digital learning and best practices
Moodle and other APIs that augment existing LMSs (Learning Management Systems)
Challenges that educators, administrators, students, and community members face in online learning/teaching
Independent e-learning strategies, etc.
This is a rare event and happens only once a year. This event is not only useful to educators, but also to administrators, students, and community members. So, we suggest that you do not miss CO11. Register for the webinars by clicking the title links below:
Now big and medium size organizations can benefit more with a new feature update in the recently released Virtual classroom solution for organizations. With this update, an administrator can set permissions (allow/disallow) for teachers, so they can schedule, reschedule, cancel the classes, and can also edit class information, like title, description, tags, etc.
How is this feature beneficial?
Though this feature update works with organizations of all sizes, medium and big organizations will benefit more, where the number of teachers are more. The task of managing multiple teacher accounts will be considerably cut down for the administrator, as s/he can allow teachers to manage their own classes.
Here's a snapshot of an administrator's console from where permissions for teachers can be managed:
Snapshot of a teacher's admin page for scheduling or editing classes:
Organizations can choose from different Premium plans and subscribe to the plans that best fit their needs.
