Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Planning Leverages Wimba Collaborative Solutions
Wimba Classroom™ and Wimba Pronto™ Central to Uninterrupted Communication and Teaching During Campus Emergencies
New York (PRWEB) May 27, 2009 -- Wimba® Inc., the education technology company that helps people teach people, announced today that colleges and universities are leveraging Wimba's collaborative software to prepare for and respond to crises that would otherwise disrupt communication or instruction. During instances of natural disaster, pandemics or security breaches where a physical campus may be closed, its infrastructure compromised or staff and students displaced, the ability to effectively communicate, deliver instruction and organize meetings without interruption is central to the disaster preparedness, recovery planning and financial safeguarding of universities and colleges.
Several customers have successfully activated their disaster recovery plans by leveraging Wimba collaboration and instant messaging technology in the unfortunate instances of fire, flooding, and pandemic preparedness.
Down But Not Out.
| | - In April, Valley City State University in Valley City, North Dakota relied on Wimba Classroom™ -- a virtual classroom environment -- to continue course delivery after the campus was shut down for a month following severe flooding from the Sheyenne River.
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| | - Last May, Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) in San Antonio turned to Wimba Pronto™ -- an academic-centric instant messaging system -- to communicate with students, faculty and administrators after a fire burned down its main administrative building, destroying the university's phone system.
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"We were only closed one day," says Raquel Moncado, Instructional Technology Specialist at Our Lady of the Lake University. "Classes resumed right away because of Lake Online, the name we gave our Blackboard system, and Wimba. Many professors conducted classes online from home. We had the tools and we knew how to use them, so we were prepared."
| | - In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, several nursing classes at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center relied on Wimba and other online course technologies to help deliver instruction to its students, despite the displacement of many and the fact that several campus buildings were completely non-operational.
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Staying Ahead of Disaster.
| | - The University of Utah recently produced and distributed a video entitled, "What If They Closed The Campus?" pointing its community to the tools available in the event of a disaster or outbreak such as Swine Flu. Available on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLdb0QWEfVs) it includes details about the use of course management systems and Wimba for uninterrupted communication.
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| | - Dalhousie University used Wimba Classroom for Nova Scotia's Chief Medical Officer to update 150 members of the province's medical community about the Swine Flu outbreak.
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"Wimba was the only technology that could ramp up almost immediately and be easily accessible by every physician in the province," said Phil O'Hara, Assistant Director of Academic Computing Services at Dalhousie University.
| | - The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) holds regular online meetings among its 14 campuses to discuss its disaster preparedness initiatives.
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"An increasing number of our customers employ Wimba's collaborative technology for use beyond teaching and learning, including professional development, departmental meetings and disaster recovery planning," said Carol Vallone, CEO and Chairman of the Board at Wimba. "The disruption of learning and potential financial implications of tuition reimbursement in the wake of disaster are too significant to ignore. Although we certainly hope no customer has to deploy its disaster recovery plan, we are pleased to be part of the solution when and if it becomes necessary."
The Wimba Collaboration Suite™ -- recently awarded the 2009 "Best Education Solution" CODiE award by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) -- enhances learning, improves outcomes and increases student retention. By combining interactive technologies such as voice, video, podcasting, instant messaging, application sharing, polling and whiteboarding, learning communities are empowered with a unique collaborative environment that fosters dynamic student-to-instructor, student-to-student and instructor-to-instructor interaction.
For information on the Wimba Collaboration Suite, please visit sign up for our free, online webinar entitled, "Using Online Technology for Disaster Preparation and Recovery"
About Wimba
Wimba is a company focused solely on education and dedicated to the principle that people learn more when they are drawn closer together. Wimba's collaborative software applications for the online education market enable institutions to bridge technology and pedagogy by supplementing course management systems with many of the proven disciplines of in-person learning environments. Wimba's intuitive solutions enable teachers and students to quickly and easily teach and learn live online, engage in live chat and instant message exchanges, benefit from oral content being added to text-based course content, and more. Teachers can also use Wimba solutions to convert Microsoft Word documents into accessible course content and to create and administer tests, quizzes, and exams. Our focus on education and collaboration with educators fuels our product development. Wimba. People Teach People. www.wimba.com
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