The rapid rise in popularity is justified given how virtual classrooms and online learning offer unparalleled benefits to students, like flexibility in learning, self-study opportunities, and many more. Furthermore, it benefits the instructor as well.
Compared to traditional classrooms, online classrooms offer a few distinct benefits, but both are significant in their own unique ways.
Let’s explore the benefits that students and teachers gain from virtual classrooms and online learning.
Benefits to Students
1) Learn From Any Location
This is the most significant benefit that virtual classrooms offer to students. Where a traditional classroom requires a physical presence, a virtual classroom eliminates that entirely.
Students can join live training classes and communicate with the teacher from any location with a good internet connection, whether they are at home, the library, the workplace, a coffee shop, or even while traveling.
2) Earn Degrees From Global Universities
One notable benefit of online learning is that students can pursue education from global and prestigious universities like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Oxford, and so on. Students can easily enroll in any course or study program without having to travel to foreign countries to pursue a specific degree.
Global universities offer a vast catalog of courses and even full degree programs. And they are usually less expensive than on-campus ones. All course programs are created by leading professors in their specific fields, like data science, machine learning, and more. Students can enroll and get access to degree courses & programs, and get ready for the global job market.
3) Eliminate Travel Expenses
With traditional learning, students often have to rely on public transportation like trains, buses, the metro, or cabs to reach the physical location of the classroom, which costs them a bit. But when students gain education from a virtual classroom, it completely removes their daily travel costs.
Even if a student attends in-person classes in a private bike or car, online classrooms still help them cut down on fuel expenses, saving them thousands of dollars.
4) Self-Paced Learning Opportunities
Online learning gives freedom and allows students to self-study at their own pace and convenience. It gives students 24/7 access to recorded lectures, course material, assignments, online quizzes, and more. Students can log in to the course whenever they find time, go through the content, and learn the subject matter at hand. They just need a laptop, tablet, or mobile phone.
This learning model is known as asynchronous learning, which allows students to re-watch lectures or re-engage with content until they fully understand the topic.
Learners can pause and restart recorded video lessons as needed, completing one chapter thoroughly, before moving on to the next. Through self-study, students can educate themselves at a time that works best for them.
5) Receive Quality Education from Global Instructors
One unparalleled benefit of online learning is that students have the opportunity to learn from instructors worldwide. Through online learning platforms like Udemy, Coursera, Skillshare, and edX, students can learn from a global pool of instructors.
On these platforms, experienced teachers and well-qualified instructors upload their courses in video format and let students access them at an affordable cost to study at their own schedule. After the course completion, the platforms offer certificates of completion, which students can add to their resume and LinkedIn profile to showcase to recruiters the specific skill they’ve acquired.
Major corporations like Google and IBM allow students to learn directly from industry professionals who are experts in fields like AI, data science, and cybersecurity. They help students gain practical, real-world experiences from industry professionals around the globe.
6) Lifetime Access to Learning Resources
When students enroll in a course or a degree program, they are often provided with material like video lessons, notes, an ebook, PDFs, presentation slides, and files that they have access to for the rest of their lives.
The lifetime access to these learning resources allows students to revisit the material, explore the important points, and revise them to reinforce topic knowledge.
7) Networking Opportunities with Global Students
Online classrooms eliminate geographical constraints, allowing any student, from anywhere in the world, to participate in a live online lecture. This empowers students to connect and interact with peers from across the globe.
A virtual classroom platform like Airmeet offers dedicated networking features like networking lounge and speed networking, allowing students to network and build relationships in a virtual setting. Students can communicate, interact, engage, share documents, share personal stories, and exchange contact information with ease.
8) Build an Alumni Network
Through an online education program, students get an opportunity to connect with alumni who share similar interests and have the skills, connections, and experiences that can complement their own interests.
Many universities and educational institutions conduct alumni events where students get an opportunity to interact and engage with alumni, increasing the chances of students landing job offers, internships, and finding the right mentors.
When students collaborate directly with alumni, they will learn what a particular industry is like and the skills needed for the job role. This personalized guidance empowers them to advance steadily in their careers.
9) Internship or Placement Opportunities
Internships and job placement are included in the offerings of many online educational programs. Just as universities offer internships and placements with certain on-campus degrees, students are provided with job placement opportunities with online degrees as well.
Several institutions also help students create a professional resume, cover letter, and online portfolio that highlight the skills they have acquired through the courses.
Universities and institutes have partnerships with numerous corporate companies, so students are assured of a stable future, for the most part.
Additionally, online universities often host virtual job fairs where students can connect with recruiters from various companies, enabling them to network with employers and potentially secure their dream job.
Benefits to Teachers
10) Educate Students From the Comfort of Home
Unlike traditional classrooms, where the instructor has to travel to the location and physically present to teach students, virtual classrooms are more flexible.
Thanks to the online classrooms, instructors can educate students from the comfort of their homes, while still replicating the teaching experience of an in-person classroom.
With a computer or laptop and a reliable intranet connection, teachers can teach lessons, interact with students, and engage them remotely. The instructor can draw, write, and point out things just as they would on a physical whiteboard, allowing them to collaborate on the same canvas.
11) Boost Student Engagement
In a virtual classroom, even though students are not physically present, teachers can still effectively engage them and boost participation levels. Virtual classroom software offers interactive tools that enable real-time and asynchronous interaction, keeping students actively engaged throughout the live session.
The following is a list of features that contribute to engaging students in virtual environments:
- Virtual whiteboard – This is one of the most common engagement features used in virtual classrooms to keep students engaged and interested in the topic. It fosters two-way communication and allows instructors to write, draw diagrams, highlight key points, and brainstorm ideas so they could better explain the concepts.
- Live chat – This feature allows students to type questions or comments in the chatbox. Suppose a teacher is delivering a presentation on a topic, and a student has doubts or questions. They can type in their questions in the chatbox without interrupting the teacher’s speech, allowing learners to ask questions as they arise and clarify their doubts promptly.
- Real-time poll – It is a fantastic tool that allows teachers to conduct live polls to gather instant feedback from students. Using the poll feature, professors can ask single-choice, multiple-choice, and open-ended questions.
Suppose the teacher has finished their lecture on a subject matter and wants to know if students have grasped it well or not, they can simply launch a poll and know the students’ level of understanding of the topic at hand.
- Breakout room – Using the breakout room feature, the teacher can split a large number of students into smaller groups and allow them to engage in group discussions or collaborative activities, just like in an in-person classroom.
A student who is hesitant to speak in front of others will be encouraged to speak freely in breakout space as well as express their opinions, and feel encouraged to interact with classmates because there will be fewer students in the room.
- Networking – This feature gives students a dedicated virtual space where they can network with other students and build relationships. The networking feature in a virtual classroom creates an experience of in-person networking. It makes students feel like they are communicating with their peers in person.
- Gamification – It is a powerful feature that gamifies the learning and creates a fun and entertaining environment. Leaderboard, points system, badges, and challenges are some of the game-like elements that spark students’ curiosity and make the learning enjoyable. Since students learn in a gaming environment, it helps them better retain their knowledge.
12) Educate a Broad Number of Students
Because virtual classrooms are not limited by physical location, teachers can teach a larger number of students, even those from across the world. Space in physical classrooms is limited, so it can only accommodate a certain number of students in one go.
Virtual classrooms remove this barrier and can handle 100 to 1000 students at once. A teacher can train as many students as possible because there is no limitation on the number of participants in online learning spaces.
13) Build a Side Hustle
Through online teaching, teachers can gain extra income and build a passive income stream for a lifetime.
Teachers who are subject matter experts can create courses on it by recording video lessons & assignments and sell them through platforms like Udemy, Skillshare, and more. When students buy this course, the instructor is paid a certain amount for each purchase.
Additionally, instructors can create a YouTube channel and upload lecture videos, & tutorials, and earn money through ad revenue once they meet the specific number of subscribers and watch hours. This platform is completely free, allowing instructors to educate their target students in different styles and a unique manner.
Final Thoughts
Virtual classrooms and online learning have transformed the way education is delivered. They not only give students freedom to pursue education from anywhere and engage with their teachers remotely, but also allow them to network with global students and seek mentorship from alumni.
Furthermore, they allow students to pursue online degree programs from internationally recognized universities and acquire global internship or job opportunities. Online education also offers benefits to teachers, allowing them to instruct a large number of students from the comfort of their own homes, while also earning extra income by making and selling video courses.
FAQs
Students can be engaged in various ways in a virtual classroom:
- Using a virtual whiteboard, a teacher can write and annotate objects as well as invite students to draw, share ideas in real-time
- Through multimedia content like images, videos, and infographics, teachers can capture students’ attention and create a visually appealing experience
- After the presentation, the instructor can use interactive tools like live chat, real-time poll, and Q&A, and encourage students’ ask questions and participate in the poll
- Using a breakout room, a teacher can divide students, assign them a group task, or allow them to engage in group discussions
- Trainers can use gamification elements like leaderboards, point systems, and badges, and make the learning fun and exciting, gamifying the learning and making a memorable experience for students
Virtual classrooms eliminate the need for both to travel to a physical location, saving a lot of travel time and cost. Without physical presence, both instructor and student can interact, communicate, and collaborate with each other remotely from anywhere.
Virtual classroom and distance learning are best for:
- Students who want to study at their own schedule and at their own speed
- Students who want to pursue a degree from a global university
- Students who live far from a college or university campus and can not travel to the physical classroom
- Students with physical disabilities or health issues
- Students who want to pursue courses which specifically designed to learn in an online environment
