Using a Debate Timer in the Wimba Classroom

Other eMarking, eGrading, Wimba Classroom, Moodle, and Mahara ePortfolios tips, hints and downloads are available from http://community.baker-evans.com

This is a very basic debate timer which you can display in the branding frame (see instructions below) of Wimba classroom. The presenter can restart the timer for all participants so they all see the same time by reloading the timer into the branding frame by clicking on the debate timer name in the list of slides or content. Each participant can also START, STOP and RESET their own debate timer using the buttons under the timer. The following alerts have been hardwired into the clock (but an interface may be created to make them modifiable):

Each user will need to click "OK" or press ENTER to close the alert box. An alert box was used rather than the sound of a bell as some browsers may not play the sound.

Other Wimba tools you might use

Other eMarking, eGrading, Wimba Classroom, Moodle, and Mahara ePortfolios tips, hints and downloads are available from http://community.baker-evans.com

You can embed the following pages into either the branding or content frame in Wimba Classroom

The JavaScript for the timer is based on code from http://hscripts.com

Adding an item so it is always available to display in the brading frame or content frame

  1. Enter the Room Management page. In Moodle you will do this by clicking Wimba Classrooms in the side Activity block.
  2. Click the link for the room you wish to modify then click the Content sub-tab.
  3. Click Default Content Folder then New Content then enter the URL you want to load e.g. http://www.usq.edu.au/users/evansp/browse/wimba/debatetimer/  then Add > when it is loaded set it to load into the Branding Frame or the Content Frame > click Folder list to return to the list of folders
  4. When you want to display the item in the Wimba session, click its name in the list of content. This will reload the page and in the case of the debate timer restart the timer for all participants

Setting the item as the default content to display

  1. Enter the Room Management page and load the item using the above instructions
  2. Navigate to the Start Content section at the bottom of the page.
  3. To view the slide currently set to appear by default in the Content or Branding Frame, click its link in the Slide Title column. The slide will appear in a new browser window.
  4. To change default content, click the Edit icon for the appropriate destination (i.e., Content Frame or Branding Frame).
  5. A new page that lists all the slides in your Default Content Folder appears.
  6. Select the radio button next to the slide you would like to select as your default content.
  7. Click the Save Changes button.