Yesterday I was testing the brand new out of Beta 1:M (one to many) classes and I have to say: it was totally worth waiting for it.
First I was teaching a free German class to test the teacher’s view and after that I was attending a class with Jon Bischke, CEO of EduFire.com.Lets start with the teacher’s view.
- Setting up a 1:M class on EduFire.
The whole procedure of editing a 1:M class is really simple. Basically you- choose the topic
- give a brief description
- decide if the class shall be recorded or not
- decide if the class is for free or paid
- decide if you want to be paid in advance or not
Then you choose the day on the calendar and the time the lesson will take place.
Great feature here: You see all the different US time zones when you enter your local time. Great help when making the choice for the lesson time! Plus you can schedule classes for 6 months in advance and edit the classes afterwards with no hassle, too.All in all setting up a 1:M class is really simple and smooth. And as the cherry on the cake, EduFire offers you the possibility to add your appointments via iCal into your Google Calendar! Unique feature, don’t know why other platforms don’t offer this service!?
- Giving a class on EduFire.
EduFire uses the Adobe Live Connect Software for its classroom. This is a really mighty and complex tool with lots of possibilities. Before the class I was a bit unsure if with all these features the classroom would be too overloaded and too hard to handle.
Loading up the slides to the classroom was very easy and quick. All the items or “pods” of the classroom can be resized or closed as you like. I chose the attendee list, the chat, the video and the slides pod.
In my class I had 5 attendees. The classroom was stable all the time. My students said the quality of my voice was clear and crisp. Just some minor problems with giving microphone rights to the students to repeat the pronunciation. But so far, the voice quality was the best I ever had using an inside solution and not using Skype for the conversation.
Even with the minor problems with the voices of the students I have to say that 1:M classes are now a definite part of online teaching. It was fun, it was easy, it was successful. I already set up the next class for the coming sunday 
.
Now a review from the student’s view.
The class I signed up for was from Jon Bischke, CEO of EduFire himself. The class was open for 99 students (the maximum you can have in the classroom) and Jon’s class was “sold out” completely.
Jon decided for the video, attendee list, chat, a poll and a fileshare pod. There were around 70 students in the classroom all the time, using the chat extensively. Jon talked nearly one hour, showing his slides and the quality of his voice and video stream was stable and clear all the time. Amazing!
In the end, students were able to ask questions. Jon gave them microphone and webcam rights. There were some minor delays in voice and video but nothing really important.
This class was definetely the proof of the quality EduFire offers in software and hardware. I am looking forward to my next free class. If you like, you can sign up for it now.
P.S. And if you ever have the chance to attend one of Jon’s classes: DO IT! This guy knows something .
