Withdrawal of Wimba Classroom and Bb Instant Messaging services
15 Jan 2013
Wimba Classroom and Bb Instant Messaging (formerly known as Pronto) will be withdrawn after the licence expires on 31 January 2013.
If you want to continue to use a web conferencing service but have not yet made the transition to an alternative tool, please discuss other options with your Faculty eLearning Team by contacting:
If you want to keep any of your archived material (i.e. audio or video podcasts) from Wimba Classroom, please download these files to your desktop before the end of the month. You can find more information at:
If you are interested in using a basic chat tool, the built-in Chat tool within Bb9 has now been enabled. You can find it under Course Tools/Collaboration in the Control Panel area. The Chat tool is a lightweight instant messaging tool that can be used from within Blackboard when real-time online discussion is required.
The Chat tool can be useful in supporting the following activities:
- Online office hours
- Revision sessions and study groups
- Question and answer sessions
- Small-group collaboration and brainstorming sessions
The tool is ideal for communication in low bandwidth situations, where users may not have access to a high-speed internet connection. It is also possible to record the chat sessions and make these recordings available to users who may have missed the online session.
Information on how to use this tool as well as guidance on how to make the chat function available to students will be added soon to the Knowledge Base.
If you are a current user of Wimba Create and Wimba Voice tools, please note that these services will continue to be available.