A virtual classroom is essentially teaching without the teacher, an interaction between student and the teacher, via means of online technology interfaces such as massive open online courses in the form of online video broadcasting, notes, lectures, examinations etc., but virtual classrooms also pose various difficulties to their students. This little snippet written below tries to discuss the various limitations of these classrooms along with their impact on the students learning process and their development in real life. Virtual classrooms, although they may sound modern and revolutionary, still pose students with many problems in the process of learning or attending. Some of these problems are no face to face interaction, availability of resources or rather a lack of resources, authenticity of course and certificate malpractices, time limits etc. Students taking part in virtual classroom may not actually be gaining any knowledge, especially high school or college students who do these courses for extra marks and don’t actually pay attention. More over with lack of resources practical knowledge is not achievable. This article aims to bring out all the disadvantages and problems that students face while engaging in a virtual classroom so that it could help other students willing to take such course a prior general idea about them.
A virtual classroom in an e-learning platform is an educating and learning condition where members can collaborate, convey, see and talk about introductions, and draw in with learning assets while working in gatherings, all in a web-based setting. A virtual classroom is likewise now known as a virtual learning environment. A classroom or class does not generally require a functioning educator to manage understudies; in this setting, they can continue at their very own pace.
There are diverse kinds of virtual classrooms, one sort is the unsupervised virtual classroom where there are instant learning materials that the understudy can pursue with the assistance of a mentor. This makes YouTube the most broadly utilized virtual classroom. Another sort of the virtual classroom is the mentor driven classroom. This affirms to a progressively customary classroom definition, where the exercise is completed continuously at a particular time and date. Here understudies and coaches can communicate and effectively take part.
There are a few points of interest to a virtual class:
- Students are not constrained to the courses accessible in their geography.
- Learning is increasingly intelligent as its inclination powers the understudy’s consideration.
- Access to coursework from anyplace whenever one requires.
- Immediate criticism on tests.
- While expanding your insight and aptitudes in your general vicinity of study, you’ll additionally be sharpening your advanced abilities on the most complex internet learning innovation.
Maybe a couple of its drawbacks are:
- In the instance of directed classes, the date and time might be an issue to a few understudies.
- It is constrained by the mechanical limit of the understudy; those with slower equipment or Internet speeds are off guard.
Virtual classrooms stand ready to change the manner in which people and instructive establishments go about substance conveyance. With the supported intrigue shown by tech designers and partners alike, it is not long from now that virtual classrooms would be the standard for overall substance conveyance.
Getting deeper in to the topic, Virtual classroom has various definitions with its learning techniques continuously implementing new methods to provide hassle free education. While several University professors may approve of this method as beneficial for its students to expand their knowledge on their own, it is also opposed by many.
A professor from University of Sharjah, in 2015, states that online education had helped in bringing knowledge to people’s door stop, as for many that education may not be available in their native place. In modern age students prefer learning through digital media. But the technology used must be well maintained and managed as it is very important to provide good education and also that people take it seriously.
Meanwhile Debra Sharon of University of the West Indies had two views on this matter. One was as a graduate assistant where she found that students under her who took online courses seemed to be overloaded from work. Due to this they become uninterested to learn anything new and read only materials require to get minimum marks and qualify. Many times, the instructor creating the platform couldn’t utilize it to the fullest making these courses difficult to gain knowledge from.
The other one was as a graduate level student where she had most of the course online oriented which was a much better method of engaging and felt that she learned much more from the course, and finally concluded that it depends on the course instructor to determine the course’s working.
In this manner several professors from across the globe had both positive and negative views on the digitized method of learning about how it was either easy to access and available at doorstep or just a method of making money with no actual guarantee of students increase in knowledge.
About the Author
Ashwini Purohit, a tech-enthusiastic person currently working in ed-tech Industry is the Co-Founder of Winuall. It is a growing online platform that helps institutions and people preparing for examinations. He graduated from VIT Vellore and has been awarded Special Achievers award twice. Passionate about developer communities, he has lead communities like Developer Circles from Facebook, Google Developer Groups, Docker Community.
