My New Virtual Classroom… So Cool!

I am always looking for anything that might improve the way I work with my trainees… At the beginning of 2009, thanks to the 50 day public transit strike in Ottawa, I launched my online training service for public servants or future public servants living outside the National Capital. It did not even take 24 hours before I got several requests… I guess this type of online training was needed, but non existing! I doubt that anyone else is actually doing what I do: preparing people for the three PSC French SLE tests online…

For the past few weeks, I have been searching the web looking for a virtual classroom… Of course, I found many yet they were kind of too sophisticated for what I did intend to do: too many useless functions, too many buttons, not enough control left to the attendees, not enough whiteboard space… without mentioning the cost associated with the use of those platforms! It was kind of outrageous!

Thanks to my friend Phil in Canberra who is an avid Google searcher, has obviously more time than I have to browse the web and is always looking for good deals (great products for little money!). He sent me several links and I tried out a couple of platforms: some were okay, but did not look too professional and did not offer enough functions. On the other hand, when I did look at WiZiQ, I knew I had found exactly what I wanted… a dream come true? Exactly… This platform is designed for teachers and students to hold one-on-one sessions or group classes, therefore it really serves my purpose.

There are two versions: the free one and the Premium one… since I was not sure if I really needed to upgrade to the Premium service ($49.95 USD per year), Phil and I hooked up yesterday for a couple of hours. We explored all the platform possibilities and decided it was just perfect: a large whiteboard, a library content (wich allows uploading of documents, pictures and slide shows before class starts), a handy chat room, full writing/video/audio control on the attendee’s part, screen sharing, session recordings available for both the teacher and the attendee to view after class and much more.

Afterwards, I made the decision to upgrade… with the free version, attendees cannot download the documents (I would have to send them as attachments in an email) and I cannot give them full writing/video/audio control. Also with the Premium service, I can manage all my PayPal invoices and payments directly from the site… session recordings can be downloaded or burnt on CD/DVDs (very useful for the attendees)… I can brand my classroom with my business name and logo… I am entitled to full technical support without having to wait 24 hours for an answer and I think the price is ridiculously low for what I get!

What I like about this platform is that I can hold a class immediately… with no prior booking! All I have to do is launching the session and inviting my student to enter right away… and when there are five minutes left, I am asked if I wish to extend the session and, if so, by how many more minutes! Bottom line, my student and I can stay there for as long as it is needed. For instance, last night, I had booked a 90 minute session with Phil… we finally ended up spending more than two hours in the classroom.

What is also neat is that, after each class, the teacher is asked to provide technical support staff with feedback. Last night, Phil and I had some problems with the audio/video… on my end, sometimes, there would be a delay on both video (which occasionally froze for a few seconds) and audio… and I could hear friture through my headset. Therefore I reported those hiccups in my feedback comment. Not long after I got an email explaining why this problem had occurred: someone from technical support had checked the logs of my session and apparently latency had gone up to 5.7 seconds at Phil’s end which had resulted in the problem. The probable cause was slowdown of the Internet connection at the moment of our session. When I told Phil this morning, he said he had been quite unsatisfied with his Internet service provider lately having noticed that his Internet had been slower than usual. He is supposed to contact them today and, this time, he will have some concrete data to provide them with!

I was also told to let my students know that it was recommended to have a connection with minimum bandwidht of 512kbps for a good experience in a 2-way video session and around 256kbps for a 2-way audio session. Very useful information indeed!

Of course I will still use Skype with those who, for some reason, do not have the minimum bandwidth required… and, if ever everything goes down (like it happened with my own Internet service provider last week), there is always the good old phone!

“Vous reconnaîtrez votre voie lorsque vous la rencontrerez, car vous aurez soudainement toute l’énergie et toute l’imagination dont vous pourriez avoir besoin.”

Jerry Gillies