Effective immediately, the Wimba Voice Tools and Live Classroom building blocks are a permanent part of the UMBC Blackboard course management system. Since 2005, OIT has partnered with Modern Language & Linguistics (MLL) and other organizations to pilot this “building blocks" plug-in to Blackboard.
"Voice Tools" provide faculty and students with an easy tool that can record their voices in formats such as a Voice Email, Voice "discussion" Boards, Voice Direct for live conferencing, Voice Recorder, for recording messages or assignments for students, and Voice Presentation, for posting web sites in a slide format with text and audio narration.
"Live Classroom" allows faculty to conduct "live" classes online with the use of a white board, powerpoint and website presentation system, as well as live voice and video components. The tools can be found under the course "Communications" link and as a content type on all content pages.
If you have questions or want training on how to use the tools, please visit the Wimba website. OIT also has a link to online help under the "Blackboard Help" tab.