Application sharing and whiteboard features are provided via Microsoft Corp.'s NetMeeting, which has been integrated into ClassPoint. We could also add private comments, not seen by students but visible from the instructor's display panel, which could serve as reminders to bring up certain points during the class. Using a Web browser to link to the ClassPoint server, we could create classes and invite specific students to attend or publish a generic user name and password, but ClassPoint lacks tools to help structure the course information, such as alternating between presentations and a quiz, or to upload the material to the ClassPoint server. ClassPoint lets instructors construct multiple choice questions on the fly and record the results, whereas Symposium and other online presentation tools require instructors to create questions before a session starts. However, we would like the ability to store prepared questions and still be able to construct new questions as needed.
All control is vested in the instructor.
We could even decide if tardy students would be admitted to class or kept out to avoid disturbing other students. As an instructor, we could see all students' video in a series of small windows, but only students granted the spotlight could transmit video and audio to the rest of the class. The instructor panel provided a handy list of which students requested the spotlight, in the order the requests were received. We could kick misbehaving students out of a class by clicking on the Detention icon in the instructor panel. During an interactive session, ClassPoint is limited in the amount of collaboration it offers.