As the pandemic turned the world upside down, individuals were forced inside the four walls of their homes. Corporates went remote and institutions went online. This gave rise to the need of virtual classrooms. No doubt that virtual classrooms for online courses were still pertaining, but this global emergency deepened its need.
As more time people are spending inside their homes, the more they are exploring the skills that they can adopt. Online courses became the real deal during this time. While some are looking for courses to upskill to find employment opportunities, others were looking to add more skills to their bag.
Virtual classroom software is what makes learners enjoy the feeling of being in a classroom but from the comfort of their homes. When you offer online classes with this tool, the engagement of your online course increases. This is because your learners get to enjoy the discussions, immediate feedback, as well as easy access to the course material.
This tool helps tackle several challenges. However, there are now plenty of virtual classroom solutions that are available in the market. So, how will you choose the one for you? Easy. By looking at their features.
Each virtual classroom has its own set of features and once you have your own list of required features, you can tally both and select the one for you after a quick LMS review. Below are a few of the top features that you should ensure that your solution surely has.
Table of Contents
Device compatibility
One of the best features of a virtual classroom is easy accessibility. But how can you make this more easy? By looking for a feature that shows the tool’s compatibility with an array of devices. When learners are studying from home, they have a wide range of electronic devices that they can use.
To make sure that they are motivated to attend your course and they stay engaged with the same, it is important to keep their convenience in mind. Thus, it is best to explore and select a device that offers compatibility with every device, be it a phone, laptop, a tablet, or more.
Cyber Security
Cyber Security is perhaps the biggest concern that anyone has. Privacy of their documents, personal details, and other important data is a major concern among the public. Thus, cybersecurity should be a feature that your choice of virtual classroom offers.
Make sure that no random person can join your sessions. For this, it is important that you authenticate your joinees. You can keep passcodes or passwords to keep your session secured. Moreover, both learners and teachers should have access to content etc., however, with different authorization privileges.
Live streaming capability
When your courses are just about pre-recorded lectures, the chances of ensuring that your learners are engaging with your content is less. Thus comes the need of live streaming. When you are initiating live-stream classrooms, even if it is once a week, you can ensure that your learners are reading their content before attending by hosting a discussion panel.
Hence, when you invest in a virtual classroom solution, make sure it allows good quality, HD live streaming of your sessions.
Screen sharing
Once you have a feature of live-streaming, it is only better to have the solution that even allows you to host live presentations. When you are capable of presenting your screen and the presentation to your learners, it can become more engaging as the learners would feel they are being given extra information to work upon.
You can use graphs, colorful charts, motions, and more to make your presentation more appealing.
This feature offers a better learning experience to students as teachers can physically demonstrate the concepts to them.
Conclusion
Virtual classroom solution is designed specifically to offer a learning experience similar to the traditional classrooms. These above-mentioned features are a few of those that help making this statement true.
