UMB CCDE Online

Wimba Support Homepage

Wimba Classroom is a synchronous conferencing system embedded in the WebCT Vista Learning Management System (LMS) used to deliver UMass Boston fully online courses. Students and instructors access Wimba Classroomby logging into their WebCT Vista course sections. (UMB online course participants do not require additional accounts, usernames or login sequences to access Wimba Classrooms.)

Wimba Classroom provides learners with audio and text chat tools and provides instructors with the ability to provide slide presentations, and to share applications and document with students. Participants access Wimba sessions from computers (Macs or PCs) at their own homes, offices, and classrooms at times and on days designated by course instructor(s).

Wimba Classroom use is intended to augment otherwise asynchronous online courses by providing an environment for meeting in real time, on line. Typical uses of Classroomparallel the work done in a physical classroom in face-to-face classrooms. Within Live Classrooms, students and instructors can process and discuss learning materials explored by students independently with WebCT Vista, the asynchronous learning management system. Typical uses of Wimba Classroom in UMB online courses include the following:

Full Course Meetings

Faculty Office Hours

Group Project Work

Some UMB online courses use Wimba Classroom on a weekly basis; other courses use Wimba only occasionally. Not all courses use Wimba for full course meetings, faculty office hours and group project work. The mix of uses depends on the course objectives and instructors' pedagogical imperatives.

Students are supported in their uses of Wimba Classroom through the same 24/7 support system provided to students for WebCT Vista support. As noted on the WebCT Vista login page (at http://boston.umassonline.net), students can access 24/7 support in any one of the following three ways:

"Send email to bostonsupport@umassonline.net;
Call 1-800-569-6505; or
Contact support via live text chat by clicking on [a] link" provided on the WebCT Vista3 login page at http://boston.umassonline.net.

For full functioning in a Wimba Classroom session, each student will require a computer headset equipped with microphone. Students should test their access to Wimba Classroom and seek technical support to configure systems, as necessary, in advance of their first uses of Wimba Classroom. Instructions for testing and configuring Wimba Classroom access are available below and are often also posted by instructors in WebCT Vista course sections.

For questions regarding UMB CCDE Wimba Support for online faculty members, please write to Alan Girelli at alan.girelli@umb.edu or call 617 287-5419 during the business week.

For information regarding Wimba training options for UMB CCDE online faculty members, please visit http://www.dlvpc.umb.edu/workshops.htm.

Links to Wimba support documents useful to both instructors and students:

Getting Started With Wimba

AccessingWimbaThruWebCT.doc

AccessingArchivesThruWebCT.doc

Optimizing Wimba

TroubleshootingGuide.doc

Setting1MICboost.doc

Headsets, Headphones, and Microphones

WinXPmicrophoneVolumeTesting.doc

PopupBlockerConfiguration.doc

MultipleJavaFix.doc

RetrievingHWLogFiles.doc

Links to Wimba Classroom support documents for instructors:

WimbaTrainingOnline.htm

CreatingWimbaLiveClassroomsInWebctVISTA3.doc

Wimba Powerlink for WebCT Vista USERS GUIDE

IncreasingNumberOfBreakoutRooms.doc

OnBreakoutRoomsFromLiveClassroom50PresenterGuide.doc

OpeningArchivesInWimbaLiveClassroom.doc

UploadingPowerPointsInAWimbaClassroom.doc

AddManageContent4WimbaClassroom.doc

Below please find links to the new Classroom5 documentation. We are waiting for PDF versions of these guides from Wimba which we will then post.

The Presenter and Participant Guides are linked off this page:

http://www.wimba.com/support/liveclassroom/docs.php

They are also available via the following direct links:

Presenter Guide

http://www.wimba.com/webhelp/v5_0/LCPresenterGuide/LC_Presenter_Guide.htm

Participant Guide

http://www.wimba.com/webhelp/v5_0/LCParticipantGuide/LC_Participant_Guide.htm

Note: the Presenter Guide links to the RoomAdmin Guide (as does the SysAdmin Guide).

The RoomAdmin and SysAdmin guides are only available via direct links (and not linked from the website):

Room Administrator Guide

http://www.wimba.com/webhelp/v5_0/LCRoomAdminGuide/LC_RoomAdmin_Guide.htm

System Administrator Guide

http://www.wimba.com/webhelp/v5_0/LCSysAdminGuide/LC_SysAdmin_Guide.htm