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Wimba Pronto Owl Yarly

The State Board office will soon be offering ad-hoc training in the month of December and January for faculty preparing their Blackboard courses for the spring.

"Over 250 faculty--a quarter of those teaching in the MSVCC--have already downloaded and installed the Wimba Pronto program," says Terry Pollard, SBCJC eLearning Specialist, "so it seemed like an appropriate time to give this training method a shot.  It was designed for this."

The training will be delivered and administered through Wimba Pronto; Pronto delivers desktop sharing, two-way audio and video broadcasting, application sharing, a whiteboard, and chat communication.

The training will be offered by a ranging group of State Board staff and college trainers.  The goal is to assist faculty in answering questions related to these topics: 

• Blackboard content presentation,
• Blackboard course design,
• the Blackboard Grade Center,
• Wimba Podcasting
• Wimba Voice Tools
• Turnitin Grademark functionality

It should be noted that some questions cannot be addressed through the Help Desk, such as textbook store questions, course cartridges, and procedures specific to individual colleges.  "Given that all 1,000 faculty can view this Help Desk in Pronto once they install the program," says Pollard, "we need to scale back the level of service that we will offer.  Any kind of question might come at us, so we are focusing on the above list."

"This is intended as a help desk for ad-hoc requests from faculty who are preparing their spring courses.  We want to help faculty at the close of the fall semester, and if the program is successful, we'll deliver additional services throughout the spring.  Any faculty who tries to reach us through Pronto when the Help Desk is open will be prompted for their problem or issue before being helped.  If we cannot answer it, or if the answer is better suited to a particular college, we will refer that individual to the appropriate school and contact person."

Faculty should first install Wimba Pronto prior to attending any of the sessions.  Instructions for downloading Wimba Pronto and finding the help desk are located here.

Training Details:

1) Beginning Tuesday, December 8, 2009, faculty should login to Pronto during the day to see which topic will be covered in the Help Desk that day. Topics will vary depending on demand and level of interest and will be listed within Pronto by 10 a.m. each day; these will be listed in the Pronto schools tab.  We are hoping to assist each individual within a 5-7 minute timeframe. State Board offices are open throughout most of the Christmas break; Help Desk Hours, if closed for a day or series of days, will be published within the Pronto schools tab area each day.

2) The system will work best for faculty if they are not on a wireless network.

3) For general information on using Pronto, visit these tutorials here.

Belinda Russell Named MSVCC Instructor of the Year

From L to R: Dr. Howell Garner, MS Community College Foundation Chair; Dr. Willis Lott, MGCCC President; Mrs. Belinda Russell, NECC; Dr. Johnny Allen, NECC; Dr. Phil Sutphin, MACJC Technology Chair; Dr. Christian Pruett, SBCJC eLearning Director

Belinda Russell, a Speech Communication Instructor at Northeast MS Community College, has been named MSVCC Instructor of the Year.

"She was selected from a highly qualified pool of online faculty from across the state," said Dr. Christian Pruett, SBCJC eLearning Director.  "Each college nominated up to two faculty, and the team of college evaluators were impressed with all nominations.  Mrs. Russell is a pioneer and constant innovator.  She achieved the highest overall rating from our panel, and we are thrilled that she is our first recipient.  She is truly setting the bar."

Russell earned a $1,000 stipend with the newly created honor.  The stipend is funded with a ten-year commitment from the Mississippi Community College Foundation.

Russell has been teaching for 31 years at New Albany High School and Northeast CC.  She earned her Bachelor of Science degree MUW in English and Speech, and earned her Masters from the University of Mississippi in Secondary Ed with an emphasis in Communications.  She has also completed graduate level work above her masters at UM.

"The challenge in teaching in my discipline," says Russell, "is that most of my students have never gotten up in front of students to conduct a speech.  When I began teaching online, even though students had discussion boards and links to great speeches out on the web, the human element was still missing."

"I learned about podcasting as a result of attending the Creating Futures Through Technology Conference a few years ago.  I had heard of podcasting, but I had never been exposed to it in that way."

"Now, with the help of my college DLC Holly Melvin, among many others, they helped me get the equipment to make the podcast and to make the podcast come to life.  I put it together using Apple's Garageband program.  Part of my podcasts include instructions through video and audio, while other parts of them include what my students create.  I link to free instructional podcasts that students can use, and now, I have students write me, personally tell me, and email me saying that they never could have successfully completed this class without this podcast.  

"I can see and hear you," they say.  "You are real to me.  I know who you are."