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What is Wimba

Wimba’s Building Blocks allow instructors and students to access up to seven tools from within the Blackboard environment:

• Live Classroom: a live virtual classroom supporting multi-way audio, video, application sharing, polling and content display
• Voice Board: a threaded, voice-based discussion board that can also be used for one to one vocal exercises
• Voice Email: an e-mail with standard text, plus a vocal element
• Voice Recorder: a recorded message that a user can play back anytime, usually accompanying content within a web page.
• Voice Direct: a live voice and chat application
• Voice Presentation: a presentation consisting of web content alongside voice messages
• Wimba Podcaster: a tool that allows for the creation and subscription of podcasts

How to add Wimba Building Block Tools into Blackboard Course

From Control Panel

1. From the Content Areas section, select the Content Area where you wish to add a Tool.
2. On the Content Area page, a small drop-down menu is available in the upper right-hand corner. If it is not, click the words “Edit View” that appear in this location.
3. Click the “Select” drop-down menu. The Wimba tools will appear in the list. They include: Voice Recorder, Voice Email, Voice Board, Voice Direct, Voice Presentation, and Wimba Podcaster.
4. Select the Tool you wish to add to this Content Area.
5. Click the “Go” button to the right of the pull-down menu.

Tool Descriptions

Voice Recorder Creation

1. Record your message using the Voice Recorder controls:

• Click the Record button (circle icon) and speak in to a microphone or headset connected to your computer to record your message.
• Click Pause (two bars icon) to pause recording. Click this button again to resume recording your message.
• Click Stop (square icon) when you have completed your message.
• Click Play (triangle icon) to listen to your message. Click Record to re-record the message.

2. Title: Entering a fitting name for this applet.

3. Description: Text entered here will appear below the Title and above the Voice Recorder applet.

Voice Email Creation

1. Title: Give your Voice Email an appropriate name.

2. Description: Text entered here will appear below the Title and above the Voice Email form.

3. Audio quality: Adjust the quality of recording depending on the environment in which Voice Email will be used. The higher the quality is set, the more bandwidth that will be required. This setting can be changed at any time (messages that have already been recorded will be preserved within the archives in their original encoding. The default setting of Standard Quality (12.8 kbits/s) works well for most situations.

4. Max message length: Adjust the maximum recording length allowed for users to record messages.

5. Include Reply Links: If Yes is selected, students may reply to Voice Emails by sending another Voice Email. If No is selected, Voice Email recipients may only respond via standard email.  

6. Pre-fill Subject field: Enter a subject line students cannot modify when sending messages from this Voice Email form. This setting can be changed at any time, but messages that have already been sent will contain this subject line.

7. Email Recipients: Select the recipient of messages sent from this Voice Email form. You can specify All Instructors, All Students, or All (inclusive of All Instructors and All Students). The external email addresses of the recipient group you choose will automatically populate the “To” Field.

Voice Board Creation

1. Title: Give your Voice Board a relevant name.

2. Description: Text entered here will appear below the Title and above the Voice Board.

3. Audio quality: Adjust the quality of recording depending on the environment in which the Voice Board will be used. The higher the quality is set, the more bandwidth that will be required. This setting can be changed at any time but messages that have already been posted will play in their original encoding. The default setting of Standard Quality (12.8 kbits/s) works well for most situations.

4. Max message length: Adjust the maximum recording length allowed for users to post messages.

5. Display short message titles: When checked, the Voice Board will give less information in the title of the messages (length of the audio message, date of the posting...) making the display more compact.

6. Display messages in chronological order: When checked, the Voice Board displays the oldest messages first (at the top).

7. Allow students to forward a message: When checked, students will be able to forward messages from the Voice Board via email. The Voice Board will only accept addresses external to Blackboard.

8. Allow students to start a new thread: When checked, students will be able to start a new thread (a series of messages) on the Voice Board. Otherwise, only the instructor can start a new thread.

9. Make discussion threads private: When checked, students cannot view each other’s threads. The instructor can still view all threads. This is a powerful tool for creating private exercises, assessments, and other types of one-on-one exchanges between instructors and students.

Voice Presentation Creation

1. Title: Give your Voice Presentation a relevant name.

2. Description: Text entered here will appear below the Title and above the Voice Presentation.

3. Audio quality: Adjust the quality of recording depending on the environment in which the Voice Presentation will be used. The higher the quality is set, the more bandwidth that will be required. This setting can be changed at any time but messages that have already been recorded will play in their original encoding. The default setting of Standard Quality (12.8 kbits/s) works well for most situations.

4. Max message length: Adjust the maximum recording length allowed for users to post messages.

5. Allow students to comment on slides: When checked, students will be able to add vocal and/or text comments to each slide within the Voice Presentation.

6. Make slide comments private: When checked, students cannot view each other’s comments to the Voice Presentation. The instructor can still view all comments. This is a powerful tool for creating private exercises, assessments, and other types of one-on-one exchanges between instructors and students.

Wimba Podcaster Creation

1. Title: Give your Podcaster a relevant name.

2. Description: Text entered here will appear below the Title and above the Podcaster.

3. Display short message titles: When checked, the Podcaster will give less information in the title of the messages (length of the audio message, date of the posting...) making the display more compact.

4. Allow students to post to podcast: When checked, students will be able to add vocal and textual posts to Podcaster. (This option is useful if you would like individual students, or study groups, to have their own podcast). Otherwise, only the instructor can post messages.

5. Audio quality: Adjust the quality of recording depending on the environment in which the Podcaster will be used. The higher the quality is set, the more bandwidth that will be required. This setting can be changed at any time but messages that have already been posted will play in their original encoding. The default setting of Standard Quality (12.8 kbits/s) works well for most situations.

6. Podcast auto publish: By default, posts will be published (and therefore downloaded to the computers of subscribed users) after 5 minutes of creation. Only during this time may the author edit the text within the post and/or re-record the audio. You may adjust this setting to a shorter or longer duration.