The Sudden rise of Virtual Classroom Software

Why did virtual classrooms become such a rage in the L&D space recently? With disruptions due to COVID-19 crisis, it made sense to shift in-person classroom training to online training. In the wake of the pandemic, schools around the world have had to face the almost immediate rise of the fully virtual classroom. In this era of technological revolution, even the teachers have started to look for platforms where they can facilitate the best delivery of their courses to the students in the comfort of their homes. To help the spirited teachers who are excited to teach about the courses, as well as passionate about connecting with students online, virtual classroom software has been introduced. Among the many benefits of online education, you’ll find virtual learning allows you to enjoy a more flexible schedule, can reduce the cost of your degree, and can allow you to more easily develop your career alongside furthering your education.

What is a virtual classroom?

A virtual classroom is an online teaching and learning space where teachers and students can work in groups, present course materials, and interact with one another. It takes place in a synchronous setting and involves live interaction between the teacher and the students.

What is virtual classroom software?

A virtual classroom is a digital replica of a traditional classroom, the only difference is that it uses technical tools to interact with students in real-time. The virtual classroom software helps higher education institutions to manage classes remotely using interactive tools for collaboration, brainstorming, ideation, and discussion. All this is followed by instant assessments and results are published to measure the learning that happened in the session.

Advantages of Virtual classroom software?

Face to face and real-time sessions: Use it to have one-on-one lessons, presentations or webinars. With the Virtual Classroom Platform, you can connect with other students and instructors on real-time. It is definitely a better way to learn and collaborate because it simulates a real classroom session.

Record and share lecture videos: Virtual classroom software aids in recording online lectures in real-time. This helps the students to revisit as well as revise the lectures on their own as per their convenience. Even the instructors can edit the recordings at a later date with new information and can also share the same with another batch of students. Looking again at the recorded lectures gives the teachers feedback about their body language with the help of which they can improve their method of teaching for the next time.

Facilitates Using of Breakout Rooms: Online classroom software permits the students to collaborate in live sessions in separate e-rooms where they can interact with each other on a project or a discussion. Breakout rooms help in real-time to complete online project work. Thus a software promoting virtual classroom also helps in the interaction between the learners from all over the globe.

Teachers Can Assess As Well As Gather Feedback: With online classroom software, the teachers can administer polls to find out whether the lessons imparted by them are helping the students to assimilate knowledge or not. It also helps them to take feedback on the course, the effectiveness of the instruction that allows the teacher to get several ideas for making the course better.

Inbuilt notification facility: You can easily set reminders for upcoming events by scheduling notifications through emails and calendar sync. You get both audible and visual notifications, which can be enabled and disabled as per the requirement of the users.

Rise of virtual classroom software in COVID era

While countries are at different points in their COVID-19 infection rates, worldwide there are currently more than 1.2 billion children in 186 countries affected by school closures due to the pandemic. With this sudden shift away from the classroom in many parts of the globe, some are wondering whether the adoption of online learning will continue to persist post-pandemic, and how such a shift would impact the worldwide education market. With this realisation schools, universities and coaching centres are scrambling to provide online classes to their students so that they can resume academics without much gap, once the crisis is over. Of course, not all of them are equipped to do this but they are trying to learn fast with the help of already available e-learning platforms and tools. The whole education ecosystem is coming together to ensure that learners do not suffer during these times of crisis. While the educators are giving free access to their tools and technologies, learners are responding by utilising the opportunities in great numbers. While some believe that the unplanned and rapid move to online learning — with no training, insufficient bandwidth, and little preparation will result in a poor user experience that is unconducive to sustained growth, others believe that a new hybrid model of education will emerge, with significant benefits.

For those who do have access to the right technology, there is evidence that learning online can be more effective in a number of ways. Some research shows that on average, students retain 25–60% more material when learning online compared to only 8–10% in a classroom. This is mostly due to the students being able to learn faster online; e-learning requires 40–60% less time to learn than in a traditional classroom setting because students can learn at their own pace, going back and re-reading, skipping, or accelerating through concepts as they choose.

Current Challenges

Schools are under considerable pressure to swiftly invest in educational technology to support virtual learning. However, many are failing to consider whether the tech they are evaluating is the right fit for their particular needs. For technology to be effective, it must be evaluated against clear, pedagogical outcomes. Technology can feel intimidating and at times overwhelming to educators, to the point where it may even be rendered ineffective. Structured training will help tutors feel confident using technology. In part, fostering the right mentality and offering both training and support to teachers to equip them with the right knowledge to bridge the gap that can exist in the virtual classroom is important. In order to execute the proper usage of virtual learning systems, a good platform is necessary and here comes the perfect option, Mykademy. Tutors and learners can use the platform’s virtual classrooms to provide education that is delivered anywhere and anytime. The future education is certainly safe with virtual learning.