Main Story

Vol 8, Issue 4
July 11 , 2007

Gwinnett County Online Campus Engages Online Students with ClassLive Pro

An Online K-12 School Leverages eCollege’s Synchronous Conferencing Tool to Keep the Attention of Atlanta’s High School Students

The nation’s largest district-level K-12 online school, Gwinnett County Online Campus (GCOC), uses ClassLive Pro’s™ Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and video capabilities to engage high school students who enroll in its online learning program. Rather than participating in an isolated learning environment, the students in GCOC’s fully online classes see and hear their teachers on the first day of class.

“Seeing their teacher’s smiling face during class orientation helps students feel at home in the online learning environment,” said Matthew Waymack, director of GCOC. “Often critics charge that eLearning is too impersonal to keep the attention of high school students. Using ClassLive Pro, powered by Elluminate™, Gwinnett County can now personalize the online classroom experience.”

Extended Learning with Synchronous Conference Tools
ClassLive Pro is a live VoIP and video conferencing tool for the eCollege platform. This version of Elluminate Live! ™ has been fully integrated with the eCollege solution, allowing online instructors to see and hear their students in an entirely virtual classroom with the click of a single button.

Beyond VoIP capabilities, the ClassLive Pro conferencing tool offers richer and more interactive features than any other whiteboard tool.

This real-time tool provides online teachers with an interactive, multi-dimensional classroom setting. The program makes use of two-way audio, direct messaging, live video, an interactive whiteboard, application sharing, breakout rooms, polling/quizzing and file transfer—all in pursuit of real-time online learning and collaboration.

Gwinnett County Online Campus
GCOC has been serving metro-Atlanta’s online high school students with the eCollege solution since 1999. The flexibility and availability of eLearning has continued to grow since GCOC’s first day of class. In the 2006 school year, GCOC supported over 3,000 enrollments. The virtual high school’s students have varied learning types, ranging from homebound learners to students seeking accelerated classes. In addition, nearly half of GCOC’s student population enrolled for the credit recovery opportunities provided by eLearning.

Every student enrolled in a GCOC class experiences the real-time environment of ClassLive Pro. Teachers at GCOC deliver their first day orientation lessons as a live Web conference. The ClassLive Pro tool allows teachers to display the class syllabus on an interactive whiteboard or as a PowerPoint presentation that can be seen by every student. As teachers review the tasks and topics required throughout the term, students can ask questions using their microphones or the tool’s chat window.

Reaching Students Lives with Live Conferencing
“ClassLive Pro is key to student success at Gwinnett County,” said Waymack, who also teaches multiple math classes at the virtual high school. In fact, Waymack uses ClassLive Pro as an optional, daily supplement to his Algebra and Geometry lessons.

“They’re difficult classes,” he said. “So, most online students can benefit from the real-time feedback I can provide in a ClassLive session.”

There are between 25 and 30 students enrolled in each of Waymack’s math classes. On average, Waymack interacts with 15 students in his daily, real-time sessions. Waymack uses a stylus notepad to write out formulas on ClassLive Pro’s shared whiteboard tool. In this way, students can see how he reaches each problem’s solution. Additionally, Waymack loads PowerPoint slides containing formulas for the class to perform during the session.

With a formula shown on the whiteboard or PowerPoint™ slide, Waymack asks his students to calculate their answers. As the students work, they use the Hands Raised button to directly ask Waymack questions. The moderator functionality of ClassLive Pro also allows Waymack to select which students can ask questions. Additionally, every ClassLive Pro session is archived in the eCollege System so that students can return to the lecture if they missed something.

“This innovative tool allows our teachers to reach their online students, quickly engaging them in the class’ objectives,” said Waymack. “ClassLive Pro helps Gwinnett leverage the flexibility of eLearning’s asynchronous environment, but still allows students and instructors to create a forum for synchronous feedback.”

Using ClassLive Pro, powered by Elluminate, provides a highly interactive element to any online course. The live video and voice conferences pull students into a community of online learners. Once students feel part of a larger community, they are engaged more fully in the learning process. ClassLive Pro creates the connections most students need for success in online education.