I currently teach a few online classes at my college, Central Ohio Technical College. We are fairly new to offering online classes and I just began developing and teaching online classes last year. I have also taken dozens of online classes including quite a few from AIU Online. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with AIU online's classes and one facet I particularly loved was that they offer online audio/video conferences between the students and teacher. Well, when I began teaching online, I felt I would love to bring that to my online classes.

Our college recently went with the Angel LMS and is looking into purchasing the rights to an online live video/audio conferencing tool. But, being impatient, I poked around and found Dimdim. Dimdim is free with the limitation that you may only have 20 participants. The best part? You can record your sessions so students who cannot make the scheduled meeting time can watch. Participants also do not have to download any software (great for those students who may not be particularly computer savvy or using someone else's computer). They just click on a link you send via e-mail or post somewhere, sign-in with their name and they're in!

I've been using Dimdim for the two classes I'm teaching online this quarter and have had fantastic results. In both classes, students have expressed gratitude for me in offering this extra service. One student said the first time he logged in, "52 credit hours later and I finally get to hear a teacher's voice." It has been proven to be both gratifying and helpful.

Dimdim allows you to share presentations (Powerpoints or PDFs), your desktop, a whiteboard or webpages. You can allow your participants "mark-up" capabilities or not, let them share their screens/presentations or whiteboard and allow them to speak through their own microphone or by dialing in. It works like a dream, is Mac and PC friendly and is darn easy to use. And, you have control. No waiting for someone else to set you up, provide software, etc. And it's free!

I highly recommend you try it!