Collaboration | News

Inspiration Launches Online Brainstorming Service for College Students

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 04/28/11

Inspiration Software has launched a version of its Web-based brainstorming facilitation service, Webspiration Pro, for college students and other users. In January 2011 the same company launched a version of its application for students in grades 5 through 12.

The subscription service provides functionality for groups of users to collaborate in brainstorming and visually mapping ideas, planning projects, and maintaining information. The program stores files online and includes a chat option for real-time communication.

The company said it hosted a three-year beta program in which 200,000 users participated.

A K-12 edition, Webspiration Classroom, is intended for use by students and teachers. The company said this version is intended to help students use visual thinking and outlining techniques to develop writing skills and analyze, synthesize, and comprehend information. One example on the Web site shows a visual diagram for Beowulf, created by an English class in Trenton, IL. Another takes a theme from the novel To Kill a Mockingbird and diagrams its main arguments.

Pricing for Webspiration Pro is $39 per year per subscription. A one-year subscription to Webspiration Classroom for a group of 10 users is $110 and for 30 users is $300.