Microsoft"s Office platform is the cornerstone of productivity in the enterprise and classroom environments; it is also now available on the iPad. But it looks like Microsoft isn"t done rolling out new products as mix.office.com was recently discovered and it is a new tool for the classroom.
What is mix.office.com? It"s a new service that turns PowerPoint presentations into interactive, online lessons that you can share with anyone. In short, it"s a new way for educators to distribute and interact with their presentations. Microsoft"s FAQ about the service says that Office Mix does the following:
MIX allows you to turn your PowerPoints into interactive online lessons or presentations. We install an add-in that gives you the ability to record audio, video, and handwriting, and insert interactive elements like quizzes and CK12 exercises. There’s even a screen capture tool so you can record anything on your PC.
Once your presentation is ready just click “Create MIX.” We work our magic to mix in xml for an interactive document complete with analytics, and place it in the cloud. From there, just share the link, and your students can watch it on just about any device with a web browser. You can then check student progress online and see who watched the presentation, and how they did on your quizzes.
From the description, it"s quite clear that this tool is designed for the education sector and we can see how, from an educators perspective, being able to monitors students progression through a PowerPoint could be useful.
While the "Preview" does not appear to be quite ready yet, if you sign up using the link below, you can get on the wait-list for when the feature becomes ready for public consumption.
View: Mix.Office.com | Thanks for the tip H0x0d