Blackboard will terminate support for Wimba Create on 31 December 2014. While this will not immediately affect users of Wimba - because online tutorials produced using the software will continue to work - there are longer term implications.
Updating existing tutorials may become more problematic. Issues will arise as browsers and other related software continue to develop. When the University upgrades Microsoft Office to a version beyond v2013, Wimba Create will no longer be compatible. Although the University has a 10 year license for Wimba Create, without technical support from Blackboard it is unlikely we will be able to provide it for universal access after December 2014, although we will continue to make the last version of the software available to users on request.
However we have now completed the first phase of the Wimba Create Replacement Project, and are pleased to announce that eXe is now available for all staff to install and use on any university pc via the Software Centre. For more information on the Software Centre please see the IT Services Software self-service pages.
We developed a simple "Quick Start Guide" for eXe. A longer guide, built in eXe, will also be made available in October, when we also plan to start developing a simple guide for staff moving materials from Wimba to eXe.
In parallel, work began to scope the second authoring tool solution Xerte.
