New York, NY and Shrewsbury, MA – (July 21, 2006) – UMassOnline announced today that it has selected Horizon Wimba’s Live Classroom to be the platform for all live classes and meetings across its five campuses. Additionally, UMassOnline campuses will use Live Classroom to offer live, online office hours and group work that will enhance its current asynchronous programs by providing interactivity and more connectedness between classmates and instructors.
After an exhaustive evaluation, UMassOnline chose Horizon Wimba’s Live Classroom for several reasons. “We primarily selected Live Classroom because of its superior integration with the Blackboard Learning System - Vista Enterprise License; the integration is superb,” said Brian Douglas, Chief Technology Officer and Director of Operations, UMassOnline. “Also, our testers found it was the easiest system to get up-and-running quickly.”
Douglas cited numerous other reasons for UMassOnline’s selection of Live Classroom, including:
· “Very strong” functionality in areas like audio tools and presentation tools
· Thin-client and cross-platform support
· Accessibility
“Through integration with Vista, we will enable faculty to use Live Classroom as they see fit for their programs and courses,” Douglas added. Live Classroom integrates so thoroughly with Vista that it practically appears as a native Vista tool. From within Vista, faculty can access Live Classroom, integrate Live Classroom with their Vista Calendars, manage and add content directly from Vista File Manager, edit settings, and track polling and attendance.
Several UMassOnline programs find live interaction critical to their success. “For UMass Boston’s Online RN-BS in Nursing Program, the synchronous environment is crucial to building strong student communities that have the personal touch of sharing the relationship between concepts and practice with voices and personalities,” stated Kathleen Polley, Coordinator Online RN-BS Program. “Horizon Wimba enables students to easily engage in group projects, conduct lively discussions and offer presentations to the rest of the class in way that facilitates a higher order of learning and a greater sense of community,” concluded Polley.
UMassOnline is one of the largest distance education programs in the world, annually supporting more than 21,000 local, national, and international students enrolled in accredited educational programs via interactive, Internet-based learning systems. With more than 60 of the University’s degrees and certificates available online and 1000 online courses offered annually, UMassOnline helps busy professionals, lifelong learners, and students worldwide continue their educations, enhance their careers, and enrich their lives no matter where they’re located. Primarily serving 25-to-45-year-old professionals who work and have family pressures, UMassOnline’s courses allow its students to earn degrees conveniently, in the privacy of their homes or while traveling for business.
Live Classroom will support many of the system’s professional programs, such as the RN to BS in Nursing and the Masters of Counseling programs which have previously seen success using synchronous tools. Douglas says these programs, which are geared toward high-touch, high interactivity professional areas, are better taught through the combination of the virtual classroom and an asynchronous tool.
Horizon Wimba’s Live Classroom continues to be deployed at and supported by education institutions across the globe because Horizon Wimba is able to help schools overcome the problems they typically face when adopting new technologies. For example, Horizon Wimba knows faculty and students prefer to use tools that work with the technologies with which they’re already familiar. Therefore, Horizon Wimba’s tools feature industry-leading integrations with course management systems such as Blackboard Learning System - Vista Enterprise, the CMS used by UMassOnline.
“While we’re enormously proud that a program as celebrated as UMassOnline selected Live Classroom to be its synchronous provider, we know this is just the beginning in terms of helping UMassOnline’s students achieve the academic and professional success they deserve,” said Tommaso Trionfi, CEO of Horizon Wimba. “We will work tirelessly with the UMass system to ensure success for all parties, as we understand that the success of an online program doesn’t come from features, but from the total solution provided to the institution.”