Learning Management Systems

WizIQ Rolls Out New Cloud LMS

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 10/27/14

A company that offers a set of online tools to help educators in K-12 and higher education create and deliver online and blended courses is officially going into the learning management system (LMS) business too. WizIQ's Virtual Classroom already allows teachers to interact in real time with their students face-to-face online. The new WizIQ LMS enables them to create assignments and tests, track course activities and, in the case of for-profit instruction, publish courses on a WizIQ network.

WizIQ's flagship service already offered many of the virtual learning features that have surfaced in recent years in other LMSes, including courseware management; file, screen and whiteboard sharing; chat; and the ability to create tests and quizzes. WizIQ LMS is distinguishing itself from traditional on-premises LMSes by offering cloud-based implementation that requires no dedicated IT support to set up; built-in video streaming; the ability to share content that students can view directly online; and optional implementation of WizIQ Virtual Classroom for offering live sessions.

The company, which claims 300,000 instructors and 3.7 million users, will continue to license Virtual Classroom as a separate option. A basic plan for that starts with a single instructor and up to 10 simultaneous attendees per live class for $190 per year. The LMS would be $192 per year. A combo plan that includes both that and the LMS functionality is $343 for the year for the same number of simultaneous students. In both scenarios, as the number of simultaneous students goes up, the price per student goes down.

The LMS platform is intended for the creation and delivery of self-paced, live online or blended courses and doesn't require third-party plugins or added costs to support advanced features, the company reported.

Shortly, the company will release mLearning, which will allow students to access the LMS functionality on their mobile devices; Analytics will also surface in the future with reporting that shows test scores, comparative score details and attendance data. Both sets of updates will be slip-streamed into the service at no additional cost to subscribers.

"Other learning management systems are not built for today's instant-information society, as most of these systems were designed over a decade ago," said CEO Harman Singh, who founded WizIQ. "Our next-generation WizIQ LMS provides educators with a comprehensive, hassle-free platform aligned with the latest best practices in online learning. It offers the lowest total cost of ownership of any LMS on the market today."