The Use of Virtual Classroom Systems for Teaching, Learning and Professional Development Maurice Nkusi mnkusi@nust.na

Overview What is a Virtual Classroom Model? How does it work? – the case of Webex facilitating a Maths lesson

What is a Virtual Classroom Model? A virtual classroom is a combined set of tools for conducting classroom-like sessions live over the Internet; it is an online learning environment. Just like in a real-world classroom, a student in a virtual classroom participates in synchronous instruction, which means that the teacher and students are logged into the virtual learning environment at the same time (Schlusmans, Giesbertz, Rusman,Spoelstra, 2016). In it, students and teachers can communicate using voice, video, chat and whiteboard tools. They also have facilities like application sharing, polling, breakout sessions and quizzes.

What is a Virtual Classroom Model? It allows the teachers and students to participate in real time lessons and discussions where students can ask questions, draw on the whiteboard, and participate in small group discussion. (Almost) everything that can be done in a real classroom, can be done in a virtual classroom. Additionally, the whole classroom session can be recorded and made available for review afterwards (Schlusmans, Giesbertz, Rusman,Spoelstra, 2016).

REFERENCES Schlusmans K., Giesbertz w., Rusman E.,Spoelstra H. (2016). THE INTRODUCTION OF A VIRTUAL CLASSROOM INSTRUMENT AT THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF THE NETHERLANDS. Extracted on 19/09/2017 from https://www.ou.nl/Docs/Campagnes/ICDE2009/Papers/Final_paper_095schlusmans.pdf