Elearning has become an increasingly popular way to deliver training to students and employees. While the originally “self-paced” model has shown some incredible results in terms of accessibility and effectiveness of this new technology.
With that said, the importance of a good instructor-led session cannot be overlooked. Thankfully, with a virtual classroom LMS (Learning Management System), even these can be conducted online.
However, the benefits of a virtual classroom software go beyond the benefits of a simple instructor-led session. Let’s look at what these are:
Replicate The “Classroom Feeling” Without The Classroom
By combining technologies such as audio/video conferencing, online whiteboards, feedback software and more, modern virtual classroom LMS has come very close to exactly replicating a real classroom session.
From one-on-one sessions to training presentations, virtual classrooms allow for real-time communication between the instructor and the learners.
Make Instructor-Led Sessions Accessible
Since this software completely depends on the internet to function, they have the ability to connect instructors, teachers, and students across the globe. All you need is an internet-enabled device.
Modern virtual classroom software can even be accessed on smartphones. That means learners and instructors can come together for a session virtually anywhere and at anytime.
A Scalable Solution
Many organizations have traditionally struggled with the additional costs involved in offering training to a larger number of students.
From corporates with a flourishing employee count to a language school that need more signups to thrive, the logistical cost of hiring more tutors, adding more classroom spaces, and other overhead costs have been a challenge associated with scaling their training abilities.
With virtual classrooms, this challenge is virtually eliminated. A single instructor can deliver a session to virtually any number of students, regardless of where they are from.
For language schools looking for ways to accommodate more students, this opens up a new world of opportunities. Not only can they easily deliver training to more students, but they can now create an online presence and connect with students from across the globe!
Similarly, corporates with a growing team can not only deliver training to their workforce at virtually no extra cost but can ensure a consistent training experience for their distributed workforce.
Better Knowledge Retention
As mentioned earlier, virtual classrooms are a step ahead of the traditionally “self-paced” nature of eLearning technology. By combining the traditional eLearning approach with virtual classrooms, the overall effectiveness of the training being delivered can be improved.
Virtual classrooms also allow for real-time feedback from the learners to the instructors, a feature that can be used to pinpoint difficult concepts and highlight them properly for students that are experiencing challenges.
Finally, instructor-led sessions hosted on a virtual classroom LMS can be recorded for later use. This way, a learner that has attended the session can go back to refresh their concepts before assessment. This feature can also be used to turn live sessions into training videos for learners that live in a different time zone.
Conclusion
As you can see, virtual classrooms offer the best of traditional instructor-led sessions and the “self-paced” eLearning approach. The best part is, with the kind of functionality they offer, this software is usually extremely user-friendly and requires little to no previous technical expertise to use.
However, it pays to remember that a virtual classroom may never work as well as a real classroom and extra effort is required from the instructors to bridge this gap. For instance, instructors can hold private virtual sessions for the students that are struggling with a concept that was explained in their last virtual session. This way, students that struggle will receive extra attention from the instructors, just like they do in traditional classrooms.
