Wimba at Southern Miss
The University of Southern Mississippi is in the process of implementing Wimba distance education tools to provide a richer online experience for all Southern Miss students and faculty.
Wimba Live Classroom is a “web-based collaboration software designed for online education, language learning and live interactive communications.
The collaborative applications enable learning professionals to fully embrace the new wave of teaching and learning opportunities afforded by the internet; regardless of geographic location, bandwidth or operating system. Wimba classroom collaboration solutions enable faculty to conduct live, online classes, meetings, office hours and other collaborations, and the language learning tools add oral interaction directly into course content, webpages, study groups and assessments. With simplicity and power, Wimba adds new dimensions to online, accessible education, enhancing the learning experience for both students and instructors.”
While this new online delivery tool offers many possibilities, the business processes and policies are yet to be determined. The Distance Education Committee and the IT Governance Committee will be working over the next two months to develop and recommend policy and procedure that best serves the needs of the students and faculty, while also taking into consideration necessary resources and support systems at Southern Miss.
The tentative launch date for implementing Wimba is January 2007. If you would like additional information about Wimba and how it may fit into your existing or potential online course, please contact the Learning Enhancement Center at 266-5518 or by email at lec@usm.edu.
Visit the Wimba website at http://www.wimba.com/ to learn more about the product. Training and support materials are available.