There are various options for schools to go Online Classes or virtual classroom. An Online Classes or virtual classroom is a teaching and learning environment where participants can interact, communicate, view and discuss presentations, and engage with learning resources while working in groups, all in an online setting
An Online Classes or virtual classroom enables students to access quality teachers anywhere on the planet so long as they both have a reliable internet connection. This can break down most of the common barriers to synchronous learning: cost, distance and timing.
Read: How Schools Can Start Online Classroom & The Benefits
Key Features of virtual classroom
- Video conferencing ability (so teachers and students can see each other)
- Audio conferencing(so participants can hear each other)
- online whiteboard
- Real-time text chat
- Interactive online whiteboard (so users can interact on the same online page).
- Library of learning materials (essential for providing more structured lessons)
- Teacher tools and controls (just like in a physical classroom)
Setting Virtual Classroom in your School with School Software Pro
In case you are looking for tips on how to create a virtual classroom learning for your school/ institution. Below are how you can set up virtual classroom for your institution in Nigeria for online teaching.
A classroom can be described as a system of communication which makes it possible for a group of people or students and teacher to come together to talk or learn about something. A virtual classroom is quite similar to this only that it is just different from the normal physical classroom. Web-based classrooms have their great benefits because you can teach just about anyone from anywhere around the globe.
Sign up an account
You first need to sign up for an account with the platform. For school (Primary, secondary, polytechnics and universities) in Nigeria can leverage in School Software Pro, a school management system that has majority of Virtual classroom features.
The good thing about the School Software Pro platform it is affordable and has student information management systems and school management system together with the Virtual classroom features for your learnings.
Setting up a virtual classroom on Google Meet using Google Calendar School Software Pro
There are three ways to access Google Meet to set up a virtual classroom for your students:
For teachers, we highly recommend using the Google Calendar route to set up your virtual classroom. Google Calendar can send out reminder alarms to your students shortly before class starts. For example, if you have a psychology class at 9:30 a.m. every Wednesday, you can input this into Google Calendar and the platform will alert your students at 9:20 a.m. to join your virtual classroom on Google Meet. This guide will focus on setting up distance learning using Google Meet/ Calendar.
Read: Free Online Video Conferencing Apps
Useful features on Google Meet for teachers and students
Google Meet is jam-packed with beneficial features that will enhance your virtual teaching experience and optimize distance learning for your students.
Adding captions in Google Meet
On the bottom-right corner, you can click on “Turn on captions” for students who may find captions helpful. The captions aren’t perfect, but they’re useful for students who may be hard of hearing, speak English as a second language or have attention issues.
Pinning in Google Meet
Pinning is a useful tool when you have a student presenting his or her project to the entire class. In the “People” section, you can hover your cursor over the student’s window and click on the pin. Google Meet will then make their window the center-of-focus for all the participants in your virtual classroom.
Using the Google Meet chat for Q &A sessions
If students have a question, they can click on the Chat button on the top-right corner and type in their query.
Recording your Google Meet classes
One of the coolest features of Google Hangouts Meet — and also a temporary post-COVID-19 perk that was once only for premium G Suite members — is the option to record your lectures. You can do this by navigating to the three-dot icon on the bottom right and clicking “Record Meeting.” Once you hang up from the video call with your students, the recorded lecture will be saved to your Google Drive.
Bottom line
As distance learning and remote teaching become our new normal, we’re becoming increasingly more reliant on technology to meet our educational needs during the disruptive COVID-19 outbreak.