Engaging 21st century students, increasing administrative efficiencies, or developing disaster preparedness plans –learn how Wimba Pronto, an instant collaboration platform designed for education, is being used to support each of these, and other, initiatives at colleges and universities in the United States and around the world.
Abstract
Title: Wimba Pronto: Instant Collaboration to Support 21st Century Learning
Purpose, Objectives, Practical Application, Information & Relationship to conference Theme:
Whether the goal is to improve student engagement, increase administrative efficiency, or enhance security by bolstering disaster preparedness plans, Wimba’s Collaboration Suite supports academic and administrative operations across an entire campus and addresses the complex challenges facing higher education today. Hear from industry leaders partnering with Wimba to meet these challenges.
During this session we’ll explore how Wimba Pronto, the only instant collaboration platform designed for education, enables students and teachers to uniquely collaborate and learn in an informal “virtual venue,” replicating the exchange of ideas and communication that happens naturally in the hallways, cafeterias, or libraries of a physical campus.
With features like blended video and audio, application sharing, a state-of-the-art whiteboard, classmate lists that auto-populate from your CMS courses, queued chat for office hours, a Spanish language option, and personalized user profiles – your learning community can be transformed as it meets the requirements of 21st Century learners by delivering campus services, office hours, library services, or tutoring sessions online.
Students in online classes especially need courses that are designed to enable interaction between instructor and student, as well as among students. This interaction engages learners and faculty members, and encourages students to feel that they are part of a community. For off-campus students, access to supplementary services—such as writing centers and libraries—is also important. Wimba Pronto allows these students to enjoy and benefit from the same range of services as their on-campus counterparts.
Wimba Pronto is part of the Wimba Collaboration Suite, recently awarded the 2009 “Best Education Solution” CODiE award by SIIA.
Participants will garner perspectives on ways to augment existing tutoring, advising, office hours, help-desks, and other academic and administrative functions:
• Improving the overall quality of online programs
• Building online student/school community
• Increasing the number of online offerings
• Improving Online Student Retention
• Reducing Costs –
• Green Initiatives: fuel, travel, facility
There is a direct correlation between the TTIX theme of the technological advancement of distance learning and the Wimba product demonstration.