In Part 1 of the Voki Classroom announcement, we introduced you to Voki’s classroom management system. We received some great feedback and we’d like to share more about Voki Classroom. In Part 2, we’re going to tell you more about some of the additional features you’ll have access to with Voki Classroom.

Last time, we discussed:

• Class Accounts
• Managing Students

• Managing Classes and Assignments
• Reviewing Student Work

Just a quick note – we wanted to let you know that we’re very close to the launch of Voki Classroom – it’s only a matter of weeks now. We want to make sure that we polish every edge, and end up with a product that is completely intuitive, easy to use, and foolproof for even the least tech-savvy user! In short, using Voki Classroom will be even easier than using Voki itself. And now, more about Voki Classroom:

Manage Classes & Assignments. Voki Classroom lets you add and manage your Classes, as well as Aassignments within each class. When you add a new class, a new row will appear (see below). You can then name your Class – i.e. “Spanish (first period)” and add Assignments to it.

.

To add an Assignment, simply click on the Notepad+ icon next tot he class name. Then, give your Assignment a name, and add a description. You can also customize the layout and coloring of each Assignment by clicking on the Configure icon. Each Assignment comes with an Assignment Page – a Web page where you can feature all of the approved Vokis created for that Assignment. Or, if you prefer, you can set the Assignment Page to Private and require a password to view it. If you have your own class site, you can still easily embed each Voki using the embed code.

Review Student Work. Review and approve your students’ Vokis within your Voki Classroom account, all in one page. You can view all students Vokis for a given Assignment (view “By Assignment”), or look up and review all Vokis created by an individual student (view “By Student”). You can also choose to view only incomplete, completed or un-reviewed Vokis.

Clicking the Preview icon (the little person button) will open a new window with the Voki scene. If approved, just click the Approve icon (green check mark), and the Voki will appear on the Assignment Page. To get the code, click on the Code icom (<>).

That’s all for Part 2 of our introduction to Voki Classroom.

Next time, we’ll discuss

• Student View
• Assignment Showcase
• Voki Classroom Support
• Voki Classroom Pricing

As always, we’re eager to get your thoughts – comments or questions – about Voki Classroom. Feel free to leave a comment below!

For the last several months, we at Voki have been working on an exciting and **top-secret** project, which we can officially introduce today. Very soon, we will be launching a major addition to Voki, something that will vastly improve the way teachers utilize Voki in the classroom.

Introducing: Voki Classroom! 

Voki Classroom is a classroom management system for Voki. We created Voki Classroom in response to numerous requests from teachers. Voki Classroom is designed to enhance the way you manage your students’ Voki assignments. In short, Voki Classroom helps students and teachers get more from Voki.

Without further ado, here are the main features of the new Voki Classroom. We’ve also included screen shots to help you visualize the new site:

Class Accounts. They are finally here! No longer will your students need to register with Voki to create their own accounts, using their own email addresses. Now you, the teacher, will be the one to assign each student’s Voki login information (created automatically). Since there is no need for students to register, you can spend more time on the lesson, and less time on creating accounts and helping students log in.

Added benefit: This feature will enable students of any age to use Voki without sharing contact information. If they can use a computer, they can use Voki.

Manage students. You can add and manage all of your students (up to 100) in Voki Classroom. Easily assign students to one or more classes, or review all of the Vokis created by a student. You can either add each student or upload a list of students.

Tip: In this view, you can also print login instructions for the entire class, or separately for each student.

Full disclosure: Voki Classroom is a paid service, and we know that teachers don’t have an unlimited budget. So, we are working hard to ensure that Voki Classroom will be very affordable. We can’t yet say exactly what the cost will be, but you shouldn’t have to sacrifice more than one Small Skinny Macchiato, per month. In addition to low cost, we’re introducing a couple of extra discounts, such as:

• Long-term discounts: choosing the longer term option (2 years vs. 1 year) will save teachers 25%.
• Multiple Accounts: to make Voki Classroom even more affordable, we’re enabling a multiple account discount for schools wishing to use 5 or more accounts. This discount will range from 10% (5 to 9 accounts) to 15% (10 or more accounts). This is in addition to the 2-year discount.

Wait – what about Voki?
We are very excited about the launch of Voki Classroom and all of the benefits it offers teachers. At the same time, we’d like to reassure you that Voki, and all of its great features, will remain Free to use. We will not be removing or decreasing any Voki features that are currently available for Free. 🙂

In Part 2, we’ll discuss:

So, what do you think? We’d love to hear your thoughts about Voki Classroom, the features we mentioned, and the features you’d like to see.