In today’s dynamic world where everything is going digital, education is not left behind. 2020 is the year that has taken our attention to the need for various learning management software. In this pandemic where the whole world is at a standstill, the learning process in schools and universities stayed mostly uninterrupted. This is because Virtual classroom software acted as a silver bullet here and helped us to stay connected during the times when normal office work and school teaching have become impossible.
According to UNESCO, the closure of educational institutions across the world due to the COVID-19 medical emergency has affected at least 290.5 million students. Millions of employees are also working from home. Though this is not something new that has been introduced now, it is an eLearning concept that allows teachers and students to communicate, interact, collaborate, explain ideas. It has helped students staying distant, especially remote students, to access quality teachers anywhere on the planet with a reliable internet connection. It allows students and teachers to exchange ideas via the audio/video stream.
Virtual classroom software supports online interactions and helps students and teachers to collaborate online. Choosing the best elearning solution is a big deal, as there are so many options available in the market.
Here are 6 top features to look for when choosing the best virtual classroom LMS for your online training course.
Video Conferencing Software
It is important to set up your LMS teleconferencing functions that will help the students to see their teacher and the content online clearly. It is always better to have teleconferencing integrated with the LMS as it uses less bandwidth compared to external apps like Google meet, Facetime, or skype.
Interactive Features
A virtual classroom LMS featured with a user-friendly interface and with a high degree of engagement is what the best classroom should have. An online whiteboard feature, screen sharing, and an online classroom environment make learning more interesting. It is important to think about how to customize your LMS content while maintaining the functionality available in a traditional classroom environment. There are many software development companies that can help you in integrating these features into your elearning software.
Instant Communication Tools
Online collaboration needs to have good communication tools like chat, open discussion boards, polls, multimedia content, and social media. These tools just not make the interaction between the students and teachers engaging but also helps in Q&A sessions, or for ‘live’ learner evaluation. This helps keep teachers and students engaged during the session and helps analyze the participation of the student during the course.
Storage Options
In a physical classroom, once the session is over and the learner is back home, there is no option to rewind and check with the lessons again. The lesson taught via live or recorded video can be reviewed in the future as well if selected LMS has automatically recording function enabled. These recordings can be reviewed later also even while you are offline.
Reporting
Activity Report, Course-wise Status Report, Course Completion Reports, Participation Reports, Evaluation Report, User Details Report, Course Accessing Time Log Report, Activity Report, and Quiz/Assessments Reports can help the organization to review how effective the courses are. Hence, ensure the learning management system (LMS) chosen by you generates reports.
Security and Privacy
It is important to check if the learning management system selected is secure from all aspects. As with all the updated features, LMS holds records of learners’ personal information that includes home addresses, phone numbers, email ids, and more. Hence, it is equally important to select LMS with security features like privacy controls, protected logins.
Take Away
The education industry is grooming and with the latest technologies, the virtual classroom is a trending subject now. Also, mobile learning is gaining a lot of popularity and most people prefer studying on their phones rather than using a laptop or a desktop. So you must choose the right kind of enterprise mobility services from a top-rated software development company as each organization has its own specific needs, and it is important to ensure what kind of a software you are looking for.
