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Virtual
Educational Classroom
Exploring the use of synchronous collaboration tools to boost effectiveness of the virtual educational classroom
October 11, 2006
By: Lynn Marotta
Unique learning opportunities have become available and
readily accessible using a virtual educational classroom
environment. As virtual classrooms become more and more
popular, companies are focusing on developing collaboration
tools that help boost the effectiveness of online learning
environments. These tools are referred to as synchronous
collaboration tools.
Synchronous collaboration tools have really helped bring
more collaborative and interactive elements to the online
learning environment. This article takes a more detailed
look at two of the more popular virtual classroom
collaboration tools available along with some of the
benefits they offer.
Elluminate
A company called
Elluminate is a leading provider of eLearning solutions.
They provide a product line called
Elluminate Live!, which provides the platform educators
need to conduct online courses. Some of the specific
features available in the Elluminate Live! suite of products
include online sharing of documentation, live webcam
demonstrations, guided web tours, and communication via text
chat, video, or full duplex audio. Whiteboarding and text
messaging are also provided for either small or large group
sessions.
Elluminate Live! helps foster the creation of online
communities and social networks to help enhance the online
learning experience. Teachers are also able to monitor
individual student's performance, conduct quizzes, or poll
students with Elluminate's moderator tools.
Elluminate Live! is available in three separate editions
with a varying range of features and functionality.
Elluminate also offers two ways to purchase their product.
You can purchase the software to install on your own
equipment, or you can allow Elluminate to host the solution
for you and pay a monthly fee to access. With 10- seat rooms
starting at $49.95, this can be a very economical option.
Horizon Wimba
Another company that markets a synchronous collaboration
tool for the virtual classroom environment is
Horizon Wimba. Horizon Wimba's product line also
consists of a number of classroom collaboration solutions
that enable live online classes, integration of oral
interaction, study group organization, and online
assessments and monitoring.
The three basic products Horizon Wimba offers for online
collaboration include
Live Classroom,
Pronto, and
Wimba Voice Tools. A brief description of each is
included below.
- Live Classroomm -- This product allows
instructors to add audio and video interactive elements to
their presentations along with application sharing,
polling, whiteboarding, and content display.
- Pronto -- This tool provides free instant
messaging and voice chatting capabilities. Pronto enables
instructors to meet online at any time.
- Wimba Voice Tools -- These tools allows
instructors to easily prompt and facilitate vocal
interactions during online courses. Wimba Voice Tools also
help increase student/teacher interaction and easily
integrate directly into other course management systems.
If you need to prepare virtual educational courses, you
really should consider giving one of these unique
collaboration tools a try. The benefits they provide can add
a completely new dimension to your courses.
About the Author
Lynn Marotta is a successful freelance writer and
contributor to Web-Conferencing-Zone.com. Your
definitive guide to
web conferencing services,
online collaboration software and
web meetings for business.
Also See: [
PowerPoint
presentation skills for effective PowerPoint presentations ]
[ Use the
full advantages of groupware applications to improve
collaboration ]
[ Definition of
groupware, what is groupware & the benefits it provides? ]
Home Page:
[ Web-Conferencing-Zone.com ]
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