Horizon Wimba Voice Tools Demo

Yesterday (Tues 27th March), Paul Higgins and Jessica De'Souza from Horizon Wimba visited Swansea University, to give a demonstration of their Communication products.

The purpose of this demo was to introduce us to their tools, to see if there was interest in such tools here at Swansea.

After giving a general overview of the company they got down to business.

There were 6 products in the communication tools range which they covered, as well as Coursegenie (which we already own).

1. Voice Recorder
2. Live Classroom
3. Voice Boards
4. Podcaster
5. Pronto
6. Voice e-mail

Voice Recorder - works inside Blackboard (and other VLES)- to leave messages, such as an Introduction to the course, extra information, task descriptions


Voice Boards - similiar to a discussion board, but allows for voice and text (its important to have the text option to provide a transcript for accessibility reasons.
- useful for a group introducing themselves, away at a distance, for practicing languages.
- allows for files to be saved from the voice board and as such, repurposed.
- can post, reply, edit, delete, forward, import, export (could import into podcasting tool), and publish - which allows a voiceboard to be embedded into a web page.
- This tool also works inside Blackboard (and other VLES), without needing to log in specifically to the tool.


Podcaster - allows for import into the podcasting tool
- allows for recording straight into the podcasting tool
- provides both the RSS option, and a 1click option (for subscription to iTunes)
- the instructor can restrict the length of recording
- works inside Blackboard (and other VLES)


Pronto - an Instant Messenger
- text and voice over IP
- is auto-populated with people from the courses that you are enrolled in on your VLE/Blackboard.
- allows for users to appear offline or invisible, and to send a message to other people while you have this status
- shows a pen mark to show that the person on the other end is typing
- logs all chat messages
- Client based, no web client (20mb installation)
- Free - (In future will also be a Plus product which can be paid for)


Voice e-mail - allows for voice messages to be recorded and sent as an e-mail
- can be sent to users who are not part of your Blackboard (or VLE) environment as well
- Student 2 Instructor
- Instructor 2 Student
- only sends out a link to the recording, no large file is sent
- provides Voice reply
- asynchronous
- can record up to 20 minutes
- can also restrict amount of time recorded to less than 20 minutes


Live Classroom - Live classroom is a virtual classroom environment which allows for video, presentations such as powerpoint slides (which can be pulled from your Blackboard course), chat, audio, application sharing, and polling.
- the session can be archived, the whiteboard can be saved
- the polling allows for anonymous responses
- there is an option for people to phone into the live classroom session
- When a powerpoint is imported into live classroom it comes in as individual slides, making it easier to navigate through in this type of environment
- can lock down text and voice tools, and allow certain people to respond when say their hand has gone up (virtual hand)
- can set up a Live classroom for entire class, for groups, for individuals to use.


Course Genie - The voice tools work with course genie, allowing you to embed the voice boards in course genie, and create other audio for course genie, using the voice recorder.

(If you wish to know more about using Course Genie itself, please contact Chris Hall in LIS)


The company offers unlimited storage and backups for their hosted solution. It is also possible to run a localised solution. They also provide support. And also training at a cost.

They will be providing us with a copy of their powerpoint, and further information shortly.

We will be asking for feedback from attendees as to their thoughts on these products.


For anyone who missed this and is interested in finding out more, there is an event at Cardiff University on April 12 from 12pm-3.30pm with lunch included.
There are limited places so please book if you wish to attend.


Extra Links:

• Voice Tools


• Live Classrom


• Pronto