Virtual Classroom Interaction Management: The virtual classroom can be easily used for teaching a wide variety of subjects. You can interact with different age groups – from kids to adult learners. The online tutor should know how to manage the learning process in virtual environment. We`ve summarized the educational interaction forms that can be applied in a virtual classroom.
Participants in VEDAMO virtual classroom may be of any age and social origin, while study sessions can be of any topic – subject-based lessons, qualification courses, language lessons, workshops, lectures, consultations, etc.
VEDAMO virtual classroom is suitable for a variety of educational interaction forms:
- One-on-one lessons – one tutor works with one learner online;
- Group sessions – one tutor works with a group of learners online;
- A connection between parallel classrooms of different location;
- Seminar sessions with two tutors and a group of children;
- Blended learning – online learning is blended with real classroom learning. VEDAMO can be implemented into a traditional classroom by means of the tools for group and one-on-one working tools with no obligation to use an audio-video connection;
For each of these forms of interaction either the entirely synchronous form can be applied or the combined form of learning where the synchronous form (VEDAMO virtual classroom) is combined with the asynchronous (VEDAMO Learning Management System) and the learners prepare for their lessons in advance, after which they conduct online discussions or workshops. An example for this kind of learning can be the “flipped classroom”.
“The optimal study time for an online session is between 40 and 60 minutes.”
The optimal study time for an online session is between 40 and 60 minutes. For children at pre-school or primary school age it is recommended that sessions are shorter (approx. 20-40 min). If you are planning a long-term learning course, divide it into sessions and make a recess between them.
“Controls let the tutor manage the group dynamics in an easy and effortless way – an opportunity without an analogue in the traditional classroom.”
The tutor in VEDAMO virtual classroom has a control panel which gives an opportunity for very good group and one-on-one work management. The control panel enables the teacher to allow and ban access of participants to the system functionalities. (e.g. refusing or providing them the opportunity to speak, work on a common document, access to the chat, or the online whiteboard, etc.) In this manner, work scenarios can be set in advance and even better, be changed during the session according to the situation with the aim of facilitating the interaction between participants and the personalisation of study activities. Controls let the tutor manage the group dynamics in an easy and effortless way – an opportunity without an analogue in the traditional classroom.
Discipline in the traditional 20-30 students’ classroom cannot in any way be regulated at the click of a mouse – an action which is easy to complete just by means of the VEDAMO controls. This means that in the process of work in the virtual classroom discipline is no longer a factor and bears no importance for a quality learning process to take place unlike the necessary preparation and organization of a teacher in the traditional class. The teacher’s qualities such as classroom management, study activities facilitation and of course, their professional competence are a crucial factor for an effective learning process in class which makes their responsibilities in the virtual classroom more obvious and important.
