Coronavirus causes a real threat to the continuity of the education process conducted by educational institutions around the world. In Poland lectures and classes for students, PhD candidates and other participants have been canceled. Many universities, wishing to ensure the highest quality of education, decide to conduct online classes.

Providing possibility for remote learning for all students in this situation is not easy either for large universities or for those smaller. We would like to offer you support in carrying out classes remotely during this difficult time.

PCG Academia, together with our technology partner – the American company Blackboard, are pleased to offer all Polish universities free access to Blackboard Collaborate, a modern video conferencing tool that enables remote learning.

All you need to use Blackboard Collaborate is a web browser. Blackboard Collaborate is an application that does not require installation, and therefore is quick to start using it across university. Using Blackboard Collaborate, you can conduct online classes for up to 250 logged in users simultaneously. This tool also enables parallel work in subgroups within a single class group and registration of an unlimited number of users and class sessions. Collaborate was created for the education sector and all its functionalities are developed to meet the needs of didactics.

ALong with an ease of use, what distinguishes Collaborate is a close integration with e-learning platforms, including Moodle. It allows for very quick launch of dedicated online sessions for individual study groups and easy management of the learning process in a remote formula.

Access to the tool will be completely free for the first month, with the possibility of extension for another three months on agreed terms.

If you are interested in using the Blackboard Collaborate videoconferencing tool, please contact our consultants:

Anna Warda–Ritzen, tel. +48 722 010 640, e-mail: anna.warda-ritzen@pcgacademia.pl

Marek Zawadzki, tel. +48 780 158 030, e-mail: marek.zawadzki@blackboard.com

 

We also cordially invite you to participate in webinars during which we will present you Blackboard Collaborate and its functionalities. The webinars will be conducted using exactly the same tool, so by participating in the event you can immediately get to know how Collaborate works in practice.

Webinars will be held on the following dates:

  1. 18th March 2020, start at 11:00
  2. 20th March 2020, start at 11:00

To participate in choosen webinar, all you need to do on a given day is just to open the following link in your browser: https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/f77b5ad5ef99426784ad87d767b995e5, enter your name and click “Join session”.

We really do hope that our service will prove useful in ensuring the continuity of your university’s courses and will help increase the security of your students and staff in this trying times.

We would also like to encourage your university’s employees to use free materials prepared by Blackboard that can assist in planning and conducting remote classes:

  • Blog and dedicated website with tips and best practices regarding the preparation of contingency plans and ensuring continuity of the learning process.
  • A series of webinars on the subject of preparation for the implementation of online classes, link to registration. The recording of the first seminar is available here.
  • Free access to the Collaborate course at Blackboard Academy (select “free courses” in the type of course from the left menu).