WiZiQ and Moodle Highlights of the Virtual Classroom It is free, both for teachers, and students. It works with Flash and so no downloads for students or teachers whatsoever. Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, and .pdf, .swf, .jpeg and .gif files can be uploaded to the Virtual Classroom. Animations are supported in .ppt and .pps presentations. Presentations from the public content library on WiZiQ can be imported into the Virtual Classroom for reference. WiZiQ The online Virtual Classroom on WiZiQ is a free alternative to expensive conferencing tools selling as online teaching/learning software. Distinctively, the prime focus of WiZiQ has been to create a user friendly online teaching and learning platform for the educational community. A minimal but useful feature set always works better to keep things simple. Thus our virtual classroom requires no download or installation and integrates perfectly in Moodle. WiZiQ's Live Class block compiles all the scheduled classes that you schedule using the WiZiQ Live Class activity module. After you successfully install WiZiQ's Live Class block, it can be added like any other block in Moodle. Once a class is successfully scheduled, it automatically starts showing in this block. Each scheduled class appears as a link here in the block that takes the participant to directly ‘launch the class’, if the class is still to go, or ‘view the recording’ after the class is over. WiZiQ's Live Class modules enable Moodle users to use WiZiQ’s web based virtual classroom equipped with real-time collaboration tools like live chat, 2-way audio and video communication, whiteboard and content (.pdf, .swf, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, and .pps) sharing. WiZiQ Live Class module enables Moodle users to use WiZiQ’s web based virtual classroom equipped with real-time collaboration tools like live chat, 2-way audio and video communication, whiteboard and content (.pdf, .swf, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, and .pps) sharing. Available as a non-standard activity and block, this module is absolutely free to use. WiZiQ Live Class enables you to schedule your live online classes for your course students. A single time sign-up on WiZiQ allows you to set up these live classes. You can schedule your live class for any date and time in your time zone and for any number of students. These classes are private to you and can be launched by you and your course students only. Additionally, with “Class URL” you can promote your live class through e-mail, in blogs and websites. WiZiQ offers the following features: Works in Flash format and needs no downloads 2-way live audio/video delivery Whiteboard with Math tools Synchronous Content sharing such as PowerPoint (retains animations and transitions), PDF, Flash, MS Word. MS Excel files and videos Records all sessions to be played back in Flash format (needs no downloads) Share PowerPoint presentations asynchronously even with narrated audio in slides Free Online Virtual Classroom WiZiQ's free Virtual Classroom is an online internet mediated classroom where the teacher and the students are connected to share a common workspace. In this online session, they make use of audio-video conferencing, text chat, whiteboard, and content sharing capabilities. There are no costs for using the virtual classroom. The sessions are recorded and are available online on WiZiQ, which can be accessed for later review or reference. Attendees can join a session with privileges to converse verbally with others; draw and write on whiteboard; and share Presentations, PDFs, Flash and Images. The teacher may withdraw or re-assign these privileges to the attendees. A Teacher can withdraw privileges from the attendee in terms that the attendee can not converse, or upload anything to share on whiteboard; in this case, the attendee is a spectator. An attendee can also request for rights, in which case, the teacher can click on the attendee’s name to transfer control. Features for Teachers Offers a complete online teaching management system to its registered teachers without installing any software. Teachers get their own virtual classroom at no costs. Provides the ability to schedule a session online through a calendar at teachers’ convenience. Teachers can interact with students through an online whiteboard to share text or documents, and through a two-way audio and text chat. Teachers can build their profile. Provides the ability to conduct one-on-one or group sessions online. Payments from learners can be accepted. Teachers can maintain a learners’ corner. Features for Students Students can find teachers Learn from home, live through the Internet through an easy-to-use and interactive browser based interface, without installing anything. Access tutorials shared by subject matter experts FAQ’S What is WiZiQ?WiZiQ is a platform for anyone and everyone who wants to teach or learn live, online. With a virtual classroom, educational content and a session scheduler, WiZiQ works best for anyone’s online teaching and learning needs. Try it out, it’s all free! Does it cost anything to teachers? WiZiQ is absolutely FREE. We do not charge anything from teachers for using WiZiQ for online teaching. In future, we will offer certain advanced features on WiZiQ for a monthly subscription fee. However, basic features on WiZiQ will always be free. Do the students have to pay anything? WiZiQ is FREE for students too. Students can search for teachers and learn online from them. They may seek online help for homework or assignment queries. They can use WiZiQ’s virtual classroom to hold live discussions or sessions. How can I get learners? If you upgrade as a teacher, WiZiQ adds your profile to its teachers’ directory to let students search and contact you. We suggest you enter as much of your details as you can in the profile to make it more searchable. How would my learners contact me? The learners would contact you through messages routed through WiZiQ. We deliver these messages at your email address you used to sign up on WiZiQ. Additionally, you can choose to make your email address show up to your contacts to make learners approach you directly. How will I know if any learner has viewed my profile? Once you update your teacher’s profile, it gets searched and listed for your teaching skills and expertise. Currently, the system does not expose the member’s name and details who have viewed your profile. I am interested in more information about the use of WiZiQ for instruction. How to start on WiZiQ?   Getting started on WiZiQ is easy and simple. Invite your contacts to join WiZiQ or search for members who share your subjects on WiZiQ to invite them. After they register, they exist as your contacts. Schedule online sessions with them. Meet in the virtual classroom to share and exchange knowledge live and online. How is WiZiQ different from other learning tools out there? WiZiQ puts learners and teachers together regardless of the boundaries and enables live, online teaching for absolutely no cost to the teacher or the student. Learning live in a virtual classroom from a teacher of your choice, we believe, is the next best alternative to face-to-face teaching. Further, with all the “digital” benefits that computers offer us, teachers can explain concepts using 'learning assets' such as images, videos, PowerPoint presentations, documents etc. Unlike face-to-face classes, sessions get recorded so that teachers and students can revisit and even search for a certain topic. Real time interaction in the virtual classroom allows for live feedback from the students making WiZiQ a valuable tool for teachers. Another advantage of WiZiQ is that it is a discovery platform to find good teachers and high quality free educational content that is rated by the learning community. How many webcams and mics can be enabled at one time in one class? You can have mic enabled for a presenter and multiple attendees. Webcams can be enabled for 1 presenter and 1 attendee as video transmission consumes much bandwidth. With each additional video enabled you add up a certain bandwidth at not only the presenter’s end but for all the session attendees. Say, if enabling one video consumes 100kbps you are adding up a load of 100kbps to all the session participants that would require extra bandwidth to support live communication without any hiccups. Such bandwidth availability may be possible for a few users but is not the case with the majority. Thus we provide one presenter and one attendee live video at a time. We do have the feature of enabling simultaneous relay of 4-6 videos on our roadmap. Is there a significant lag in the video and audio? On a decent broadband connection users do not face any lag in audio and video. Problems like lip synch may happen due to a slower internet connection but audio delays happen only when sufficient bandwidth is not available at the presenter’s and attendees’ end. Does WiZiQ have desktop sharing or application sharing features available? In WiZiQ's virtual classroom, you can not share your desktop because that would require downloading software at the presenter's and the attendee’s end. For ease of use we have deliberately not provided this feature. What we assume is that teachers generally require this feature to share their documents with students. We already are providing commonly used file types (.doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .pdf, .swf, .ppt, .pps, .jpg, .gif, .bmp) to be shared live. We do understand that there are a few scenarios like software training where this feature is quite necessary so we have this feature on our roadmap too. Are there break-out rooms, so that I can group students and send them off to little "rooms" on their own during the live session and then bring them back as a whole class? "Break out rooms" are not available in WiZiQ's virtual classroom. We are working on it and we will soon enable our users to exchange private text chat with other session participants. But if you think differently here for break-out rooms we would like to know more about your perspective. What is the minimum bandwidth required? Depending upon variables the following bandwidths are recommended: One way audio with medium audio quality - minimum 44 Kbps (Recommended:56 Kbps) Two way audio with medium audio quality - minimum 88 Kbps One way video with medium audio quality: minimum 100 Kbps Two way video with medium audio quality: minimum 200 Kbps Does it work on all platforms - Mac, Windows, Linux, etc? Yes, the virtual classroom is multi-platform and multi-browser compatible. It has been tested for these: Operating systems: Microsoft windows (XP, Vista, Server), Linux, Mac Web Browsers: Internet Explorer 6 and above, Mozila, Mozila Firefox, Opera 8 and above, Netscape, Safari 4