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With the onset of a new lockdown and the closure of schools, the online classroom has become indispensable. This probably raises many questions for you, such as: What are the possibilities of the online classroom? And what is the added value of the online classroom over on-site education? Be sure to read on, as you will be amazed at what is possible in the world of live online communication.
In addition to organizational benefits, live online communication has especially educational value. Hester Hooijen, LOL consultant at Learning Connected, has more than 15 years of experience in the field and explains the added value of the online classroom in great detail.
Live image communication in the online classroom
Children in home quarantine who can still attend school through live image communication in the online classroom. Professional football players from the VVCS Academy who, in addition to their busy training schedule, are able to follow a full training course in the evenings with online classes. Tutoring students in their own living room through the use of live image communication. These are just a few examples of how online 'can be done'! The use of live online video communication can eliminate many organizational problems and offers a solution when learning in the traditional classroom is not accessible or sufficient. The practical use of live image communication in the online classroom forms an added value within education, both for children, young people and adults.
Making small-scale education accessible
A second organizational gain is in small-scale education. Some specific training programs or courses are only of interest to a small target group. Experience shows that due to a lack of applications, such courses are often cancelled or only offered at one location where the students or participants have to come from all over the world, resulting in long travel times. Online lessons where everyone can follow the sessions from home and their own workplace are a solution here.
Live online contact beyond national borders
Live video communication makes it easy to bring knowledge and experiences live from abroad into the classroom. Experts, experts by experience and other interesting speakers from all over the world can use a video call connection to tell their story or even give demonstrations in front of the webcam without having to make a long journey. This makes responding to current events a lot easier. With live video communication you can literally be on top of the news, by making live contact with someone on the ground or an expert. Another added value of online image communication is the possibility of visiting places or experiencing events that are normally difficult or impossible to attend live. For example, visiting the police armory online, going on a guided tour of an oil platform in the middle of the ocean or witnessing the birth of an animal at the Artis Zoo! Okay, we're digressing here for a moment. But, this mainly shows that live online communication can be used for a variety of situations and purposes.
Educational value of the online classroom
In addition to the organizational point of view, the use of live online communication tools also has a lot of educational value. For example, it is relatively easy to bring "people with a story" into the classroom. What has been learned acquires more meaning because the participant knows the context. And more meaning = better learning! Live image communication offers extra possibilities for varied teaching methods, such as: question and answer with a professional, observing a live event, demonstrating a place or an object, assignments using multimedia, setting up competitions between different classes, schools, departments or teams and testing in practice. And we could go on like this for a while. An additional advantage is that live image communication offers more opportunities to actively involve parents, coaches or other stakeholders in the learning process of the learner by letting them watch lessons online.
Develop communication skills
Online image communication can also help develop participants' communication skills. Image communication has some limitations, such as distance between participants, narrow field of view, distortion and attenuation of sound, and possible delay. The positive side of this is that the learner is forced to focus and communicate effectively, think active listening, sharp phrasing, quick to the point come and keep appointments.
One final addition...
By now, quite a few organizational and educational benefits of the online classroom have been named! But we can add something more. The use of the online classroom makes it possible to schedule many but relatively short contact moments during a training course. Especially for companies where employees have to put what they have learned into practice immediately, this is a godsend. As a teacher you can give a brief explanation of the theory online (for example, at the start of the morning), then send the participants out on the work floor with a practical assignment, and at the end of the lesson log in together again to discuss their experiences. In this way we establish a much better link between theoretical learning and practice-based learning.
Are you convinced?
In short, the use of the online classroom adds value in many situations, both organizationally and educationally. Are you already using the online classroom or will you start doing so? Great. Then you must also be curious about how best to do this. Hold on, we'll get into it in the next blog!
