It’s always been a vision of mine to teach a class completely at a distance. I feel that this is the ultimate test of a curriculum and its planning. This is because the learner must rely on the material and assessments to learn the content. As an instructor, I cannot just “wing it” by relying on my personal gifts of the gab. Sure, I can stand up in front of people and entertain them with some humorous anecdotes, and perhaps even illicit some from the crowd. It’s like Night at the Improv. However, Distance Learning is where the real “metal meets the road” in the sense that I must rely on the educational materials and construct assessments that really give an accurate measure of the students’ proficiency.
WiZiQ (http://www.wiziq.com/) will help me to realize that vision by providing a free virtual classroom to experiment in. Once you’re signed up, you can hold virtual class sessions with all the screen sharing, media playing, video chatting, and session recording you can handle. These classes can be scheduled or can be made available immediately. One only needs the email addresses of the attendees to make this successful.
However, there is a whole other financial aspect to WiZiQ. By paying for a Premium Membership ($50/year), you can develop actual courses. You can design and distribute tests. Attendees only need a link, with no sign-up required on their part. You can then set up the course fee anywhere from Free to $999. WiZiQ will gather a 5% commission fee, but handle all the registration and payment logistics automatically.
Now, if I can only think of a course where I can charge $999….
I liked your final comment about finding a course you could charge $999 for. I guess the other thing about that is accreditation. If you offer a self-improvement course where a person knows they are not earning credit,but learning something they want to know, that is one thing. But people would probably think twice about paying money for a course that isn't good for professional development or some sort of high school or college credit. You'd have to find something people really want to know, have a hard time finding out on their own, and are willing to pay for without credit, I think.
ReplyDeleteI loved how you presented the tool and gave an insight on exactly what you thinking as you were using it! This made me want to check out this tool only because of this presentation. I think the thought of a classroom or course management portal that is simple and easy to use is an awesome idea and something that the students will need to be prepared for as they move on outside of high school. You can try looking into Schoology @https://www.schoology.com/home.php. This is something that I have been dabbling around in to see the functionality of it with the teachers and students and while it doesn't have the same functions as WiZiQ it has potential and could be pretty powerful. Thanks for the post and the presentation.
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