NEW YORK, NY — June 18, 2008 — Wimba®, the education technology company that helps people teach people, announced today that seven academic institutions in the United Kingdom have recently licensed the complete Wimba Collaboration Suite™, joining the growing number of institutions worldwide that leverage the suite.
The recent U.K. additions include:
• City College Norwich
• Coleg Llandrillo Cymru
• Liverpool John Moores University
• London College of Communication, University of London
• University of Winchester
These institutions will leverage Wimba to enhance education across their campuses and to provide new opportunities for non-traditional learners, including vocational training and distance learning courses for adults changing careers or re-entering the work force.
“Wimba provides a platform for those involved with distance or work-based learning to arrange regular ‘virtual’ meetings, or for lecturers to organise drop-in tutorials for all students, independent of their physical location,“ said Chris Boon, Senior ILT Support Analyst, at City College Norwich.
The Wimba Collaboration Suite is an enterprise platform that facilitates the use of online video, voice, chat, application sharing and white boarding for distance and blended learning. Many academic institutions rely on these tools to increase course offerings and deliver content to reach a diverse population of students including working adults, international students and niche populations – such as students specialising in vocation-centric programs.
“Wimba has enabled Winchester Business School to increase the number of students taking work-based learning courses and has allowed employers to provide more staff with higher education opportunities,” said Professor Neil Marriott Dean of Winchester Business School. “The University has a long tradition of responding to employer needs and the Wimba platform is a central to our future development.”
Many instructors consider personal interaction to be the most valuable element of teaching and learning. The Wimba Collaboration Suite allows faculty and students to build relationships by combining interactive technologies with conventional best practices – whereby faculty and students can listen and talk to one other, express emotions, ask questions and be part of a complete learning community.
“We look forward to supporting each of these institutions as they continue to push forward with their commitment to improving the learning experience for their students,” said Tommaso Trionfi, CEO of Wimba. “On the fundamental level, people learn better when they are tied closer together. The Wimba Collaboration Suite collectively joins students and faculty in a rich, natural, and functional educational environment that fosters improved student engagement and therefore increases student performance.”
To see a video and learn more about how UK universities are leveraging Wimba, please visit www.wimba.com/community/spotlight/londoncomp.php.
Products bundled into the Wimba Collaboration Suite include Wimba Classroom™; Wimba Pronto™, an education-centric instant messaging application; Wimba Voice™, which facilitates and promotes vocal instruction; and Wimba Create™. The Wimba Collaboration Suite works seamlessly within an existing VLE/CMS so instructors never need a new username or password, and never have to leave their familiar online course environments.