The Future of Virtual Classroom: Using Existing Features to Move Beyond Traditional Classroom Limitations

TL;DR

This paper explores how virtual classrooms can be enhanced by better utilizing existing features, distinguishing between basic and advanced functionalities, and highlighting the gap between potential and actual use through expert interviews.

Contribution

It classifies virtual classroom features into basic and advanced groups and presents best practices and successful examples for extending traditional education.

Findings

Experts underutilize advanced features

Virtual classrooms have untapped potential

Best practices can improve engagement

Abstract

This paper argues that the true potential of virtual classrooms in education is not fully exploited yet. The features available in most environments that have been incorporated as virtual classrooms are classified into two groups. The first group includes common features, related only to the emulation of a traditional classroom. In this group, the practical differences between traditional and virtual classroom are discussed. In addition, best practices that could aid the professors to make students feel like participating in a typical classroom are presented. The second group comprises of advanced features and practices, which extend the traditional classroom. In this group, examples of successful practices which could not be performed in a traditional classroom are introduced. Finally, a qualitative study with interviews of 21 experts from 15 countries is presented, showing that even these experts are not fully exploiting the advanced features that contemporary virtual classroom environments are offering.