The best free virtual classroom is for online teaching and learning. A virtual classroom provides a flexible way to engage students. In the online education arena, the use of virtual classrooms is becoming more popular. Virtual classrooms can be used to enhance traditional classroom experiences for both distance learners and traditional students, as well as provide a new type of experience for distance education students that may not have access to a physical classroom.
Virtual classroom software can make online teaching incredibly easy, especially for PowerPoint presentations. It allows you to upload your presentation slides to the software, where they are converted into a virtual classroom slide format. You can then share it with students inside the virtual classroom software platform.
Choosing the Best Virtual Classroom Software
First, several essential considerations need to be addressed before choosing the right place to take or teach virtual classes. These considerations are what will help you to adequately and smartly analyze the choices ahead.
So, below are some essential factors that you need to consider before choosing software for virtual classes.
1. Budget Considerations:
The budget should be the first factor that you consider since determining your budget early on will allow you to shortlist virtual classrooms quicker. In case you don’t opt for a free virtual classroom for teachers, your budget will have a significant impact on what solution you end up choosing. The amount charged on your platform of choice can either make or break your vision for either learning or teaching online. Ensure that you find a platform that your budget sustains, but one that can also assure effectiveness.
2. Accessibility:
Consider software that can be easily accessed over many devices such as smartphones and tablets, is user-friendly, and also caters to the needs of disabled teachers and students. Some important accessibility factors to consider when making a decision should be:
- Auditory accessibility
- Cognitive accessibility
- Neurological accessibility
- Physical accessibility
- Speech accessibility
- Visual accessibility
This makes it easier for both learners and teachers to meet more flexibly and interactively. In addition, the presentation of information on such platforms should be optimal, such that one will not struggle to get the information.
3. Security:
This is another extremely crucial and fundamental consideration, and it requires special focus on the platform’s SSL. A platform encrypted by a Secure Sockets Layer gives both the learners and instructors the confidence to interchange between essential data. When finalizing a virtual classroom, ensure that all classroom sessions have end-to-end encryption via SSL and that they work on standard 443 ports along with proxies and firewalls while maintaining encryption.
Platforms that have invested in these areas have seen significant positive results on their side.
4. Backup:
A backup feature is an excellent inclusion in any eLearning platform. It allows the teachers to store their students’ data as well as their performance. Moreover, recorded lessons can be saved and later accessed by students for reference. Such critical data should never be lost, and a great platform should ensure just that.
5. Optimally Interactive:
A good eLearning platform should have multiple interactive features to enhance both the learning and teaching process. Because the norm is out of the way, learning online should try as much as possible to offer the best interaction features in the classroom.
NewRow Smart
You can choose to use this virtual classroom for free or you can pay for it to get more advanced features. However, what it offers for free should be able to keep you satisfied for a very long time. You should know that the platform you choose should not just be easy for you to use and access but for your students too.
In fact, NewRow is such a platform that requires no download, plugins, or flash to access. Your students will not have trouble accessing it. Furthermore, it has features that make teaching very easy online. You get a whiteboard, screen sharing option as well to explain things live. In fact, you can upload videos and presentations as well. The platform also is compatible with most LMS and it will help you interact with your students through quizzes, texts, and more. It also gives you a report on the performance and progress of students.
BigBlueButton
If you are looking for a virtual classroom platform that has been there for a long time then the BigBlueButton may just qualify. In fact, it started way back when people weren’t very open to the idea of virtual classrooms.
It lets you share files and also share your screen. Furthermore, it lets up to fifteen webcams broadcast at a time. So, if you have a limited number of students, you can easily communicate with them on this platform.
This platform is also compatible with most LMS. And, the best news of all is that it is completely free.
LearnCube
If you do not want the students to download a heavy file to join the class then LearnCube is the way to go. In fact, it is a browser-based platform that lets you and the students access it without any other requirement. You can upload content on it. Furthermore, you can use the interactive whiteboard feature when teaching.
It also lets you record a class. The main benefit of LearnCube is that you can and anyone else can use it quite easily. Furthermore, you can use it for free using the Basic Plan.
WizIQ
Now, this is a name you will come across very often when looking for virtual classrooms. Of course, it has not reached such a state without valid reasons. WizIQ has many features that make online classes easy for the teacher and also the students.
Furthermore, it lets you customize things to some extent as well. You can try out live teaching along with interactive whiteboard facilities. As the name suggests you can set up quizzes as well. It has shared coding features with an integrated development environment. Your students will be able to access it easily as well.
Wazzcards
Wazzcards is a highly interactive eLearning platform for students, trainers, and tutors alike. It is a browser-based, real-time, free virtual teaching platform. The browser-based nature of this virtual teaching solution means that you don’t really need to download the app to be able to use it. Its highly user-friendly design makes it perfect for teachers and students alike. The platform offers two options, which include LMS and virtual classrooms.
The virtual classroom software on Wazzcards comes with the following interactive features:
- Screen sharing
- Live stream
- Interactive whiteboard
- And file sharing
For teachers, Wazzcards has breakout room features that allow you to assign group work or assignments to students. The breakout room feature will enable students to break into groups like a brick-and-mortar classroom as they discuss with each other.
Additionally, Wazzcards also features a free template that enables teachers to design their virtual classrooms based on their preferences. Wazzcards is particularly ideal for teachers that are looking for a pre-built testing solution, one that also has features such as live interactivity learning tools.
Wazzcards can also integrate with other online platforms such as Google to enhance the learning and teaching process. Wazzcards allows up to 25 students only in their virtual classroom, which is about the standard number on most eLearning platforms.
Electa Live
Electa Live is a fantastic eLearning platform that has garnered significance over the time it has been operational. The platform is adequately designed to offer an optimal environment for both learners and teachers to progress smoothly with their respective activities.
The platform is interactive enough to offer a similar and more enhanced learning environment than brick-and-mortar classrooms. Electa Live allows you – the teacher, to create online tutorials and courses and fully organize online meetings, classes, and lectures.
As for the students, Electa live ensures that your learning experience is fully catered for with some of the most interactive features currently available on eLearning platforms. Such features include:
- Screen sharing
- Well-heard audio
- Online surveys and polls with predefined answers
- And a guided web tour for a better understanding of the platform
Like the first option, Electa Live also accepts only 25 students per class in a single month. This number makes the course more manageable and interactive as well.
Tutoroom
Tutoroom is also another leading eLearning platform that offers a state-of-the-art virtual classroom. The venue is well designed and suited for students, tutors, and even headteachers. This platform makes it easy to run your online tutoring business as an instructor, and the students also get an interactive interface as well.
Tutoroom comes with some of the best customizable features on the market that allow teachers and learners to forge virtual classrooms based on their preferences. As a result, tutoroom is highly praised and has received positive reviews from its users. A whopping 85%+ users have given Tutoroom complete five-star ratings, which show that it’s an eLearning space that can offer you good value for your money.
The following are some of the features that make Tutoroom one of the best eLearning software currently on the market.
- PDF Uploads
- Effective video interaction
- Fast messaging
- Whiteboard tools
- Multiple interfaces for every eLearning need
Tutoroom can satisfy both the learners’ and instructors’ needs, but it can still improve in terms of interface presentation.
ReadyTech
ReadyTech’s focus is to provide the best training delivery platform for both instructor-led and self-paced training. The company’s cloud-based applications make it easy for users to administrate, deliver, and attend training courses. ReadyTech solutions are used by some of the largest technology companies in the world including BMC Software, Esri, Google, KPMG, Mathworks, Okta, OpenText, and SoftwareAG. Our clients can choose from a number of hosting options, e.g. hosting labs with ReadyTech’s cloud or hardware-based infrastructure or hosting their own virtual machines through one of the three big cloud providers, AWS, Azure, and GCP. Product highlights: Self-Paced Portal: ReadyTech can handle everything from course registration and payment to hands-on labs, and course materials. Students can work through a class on their own time, start and stop labs, access training videos, and other course materials while keeping engaged with quizzes and polls. Instructor-Led Portal: a single web portal for instructors to access training materials, manage virtual classrooms, and connect to hands-on labs. RESTful API: Through ReadyTech’s API an LMS or CRM can be easily integrated.
ClassIn
ClassIn is dedicated to building classrooms for the future. 7 years ago, ClassIn started building a classroom online, a place where learners and educators can come together without regard to geographical barriers to learn and connect. In 2016, ClassIn launched the world’s first-ever virtual classroom solution designed purely for educational purposes. ClassIn virtual classroom is a student-centered environment where learners can connect with teachers, interact with educational content, and acquire knowledge through active learning behaviors. After 200 million hours of online sessions, ClassIn continues to empower over 60 thousand institutions, 20 million teachers and students, from 150 countries worldwide to collaborate and develop. In the future, ClassIn is going back to the classroom—back to the physical campuses that we have long missed, to build ClassIn X, a connected ecosystem where learners, educators, and institutions can communicate, interact and transfer knowledge seamlessly with the help of integrated hardware and software technology. With ClassIn X, classrooms are connected with teachers and students wherever they are, whenever it is. Learning activities form a continuity in which students can thrive and prepare themselves for a better future. ClassIn, engaging students, enabling teachers, empowering education worldwide
Conclusion
Virtual Classrooms are not so uncommon nowadays. As the name implies, they are classrooms without physical boundaries and where any student across the globe can connect, chat and learn under the supervision of a teacher and in complete privacy and safety. However, in spite of their increasing popularity in recent years, many people don’t know how to utilize their full potential. The biggest mistake learners and teachers alike do is to assume that just because you have a Virtual Classroom, it works automatically.