Extended period of online learning has made it clear that teleconferencing software has trouble meeting the needs of quality online education. As a response, professional EdTech software, such as ClassIn, works out new modes to support similar virtual classroom designs among other education-centric affordances. Specifically, the combined use of video gallery and the 1v0 layout can effectively pave a way for better learning outcomes.
Video Gallery and the 1v0 Layout: How Does It Work?
In two easy steps, educators can achieve an effective virtual classroom as shown above by taking advantage of ClassIn’s video gallery in combination with the 1v0 classroom layout.
Step 1 (image on the left): When creating a new course, set the seat number to 1v0.
Step 2 (image on the right): Once you are in the classroom, go to the toolbar on the right, hover your mouse over the teaching tools icon, and click on video gallery.
For students, the 1v0 layout puts the speaker and the blackboard front-and-center, getting rid of distractions caused by the video display of fellow classmates. For teachers, they can supervise students with the video gallery that is only visible to the host. In our previous blog post and YouTube tutorial, we offered step-by-step instructions to detail the powerful affordances of ClassIn’s video gallery.
Considerations behind the Design of ClassIn’s Virtual Classroom
1. Keep Students' Attention
educators to help students stay attentive. In an interview with Education Week, Lee Xiong, a junior student at Luther Burbank High School in California, observes that “The biggest change I’ve seen in myself is becoming less focused with my school work…Being in a physical classroom is tremendously different from learning online. In a classroom, most of your focus is there; unlike virtually, the temptations are REAL!”
In the traditional offline teaching model, teachers can reengage distracted students by making eye contact and taking roll calls. Classrooms can also isolate students from the outside world, reducing the distractions caused by external factors and effectively enhancing students’ attention span. When students attend classes remotely from home, they are not only distracted by family members and objects around themselves, but also by all kinds of redundant information on the screen – this includes videos of other students. They are likely to shift their attention to the activity of fellow classmates or even interact with others through expressions and gestures.
When students attend classes remotely from home, they are not only distracted by family members and objects around themselves, but also by all kinds of redundant information on the screen – this includes videos of other students.
2. Trigger Students' Self-learning
ClassIn’s virtual classroom requires students’ higher ability of self-learning, thus gradually improving their performance. Stephanie Riegg Cellini, according to many academic studies, finds that traditional online instruction results in “lower student performance relative to in-person instruction,” particularly for males and less-academically prepared students. How to solve this problem?
ClassIn provides a fresh idea. That is, virtual classroom, exactly like the traditional in-person instruction, helps to keep students attentive. But more importantly, ClassIn tries hard to trigger students’ self-learning in the course of online teaching. After all, self-responsibility and independence results in higher student motivation and attention in online learning.
3. Provide Real-life Online Teaching
ClassIn’s virtual classroom is also designed with real-life teaching scenarios in mind. With the combined use of the aforementioned functions, teachers can easily direct students’ attention to course content, thus enhancing the efficiency and quality of teaching. For example, when showing slides or demonstrating the problem-solving process, turning off the video of other students can reduce the interruptions caused by students.
Instructors can take full advantage of the ClassIn affordances with a dual-screen setup. For instance, this feature proves useful when teachers need to monitor students during a test. They can effectively supervise students and check the test progress by displaying every student’s camera in a grid pattern on one screen, while ensuring that students are not influenced by others.
Related Resources
About ClassIn: https://www.classin.com/en/
*ClassIn is a leading edtech company that provides a one-stop solution for digital learning.
ClassIn software enables interactive classrooms, in-school social app, lesson scheduling, homework management, and school management dashboard, which start free and scale up to meet our customers' needs at any stage of teaching. Today, thousands of schools and institutions around the world benefit from ClassIn's powerful and easy-to-use tools to teach online and offline.