September 07, Vol. 6, Issue 8

THE STORY OF WIMBA
The use of synchronous tools in online teaching and learning environments - especially web conferencing software with shared audio accompanied by PowerPoint presentations, whiteboarding and desktop and link sharing, - is growing stronger these days. In many instances, the use of such synchronous tools has proven to be more effective than relying solely on asynchronous online teaching and learning tools in fully online courses, as well as in hybrids. The short story is that web conferencing tools, such as those provided by Wimba, are enabling many educators to more easily conduct live teaching and learning events online than they have in the recent past. What follows in this issue of Educational Pathways is an overview of how online synchronous tools are being used in higher education, with a focus on Wimba and a few of its customers. We begin with the obvious: a look at Wimba the company and its products. MORE

DESKTOP LECTURE SERIES STILL GOING STRONG
Many of us in the online education industry know Matt Wasowski. He’s the familiar voice and, as Wimba’s Director of Communications, the driving force and creator of Wimba’s popular Desktop Lecture Series, a free online conference that has brought many expert educators to our desktops. Wasowski has hosted numerous live web conferences with Wimba Classroom, going as far back as 2003, when the series was first hosted by HorizonLive. MORE

ARABIC WITHOUT WALLS COURSE UTILIZES WIMBA VOICE
One of the more interesting implementations of Wimba Voice is happening inside an online Arabic Without Walls course that was created through a collaboration between the University of California (UC) Consortium for Language Learning & Teaching, based out of UC Davis, and the National Middle East Language Resource Center, headquartered at Brigham Young University. MORE

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA ADOPTION OF WIMBA TOOLS BRINGS BENEFITS
The University of Georgia (UGA) Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) has been a long-time instructional design and training support arm for Wimba products, and much more, at the university, going back to 2001 when Sherry Clouser, CTL’s coordinator of instructional and distance technologies, along with staff from Enterprise Information Technology Services (EITS), conducted a market analysis of synchronous online teaching and learning tools. CTL, which is responsible for advancing instruction at UGA, and EITS, which is the campus-wide information technology division of UGA under the Office of the Chief Information Officer, jointly support Wimba at UGA. MORE