The corona virus lockdown impacts the present and the future. The economy is in a shambles and is likely to take a long time to recover. Worse, education poses a huge question mark. The end of lockdown is not the end of Corona and the fear factor will persist for a long time. For how long can educational institutions remain closed? Parents are not willing to let their children attend classes and educational institutions do not wish to run the risk of being held responsible for spread of Covid-19 but studies must go on. Video conferencing solution is the answer to maintain continuity. Educational institutions can use conferencing solutions to conduct classes remotely. Then there are students who are pursuing courses on their own. Remote conferencing helps them to stay on schedule and complete courses in time. Besides, it is a good way for those who stay at home to learn something interesting in their spare time without setting foot outside.
It is just like being inside a classroom
The right video conferencing solution recreates the atmosphere of a classroom but remotely. This is how it works:
- The lecturer initiates a conference and alerts students about the time.
- Prior to starting the remote study session the teacher holds a “roll call” to know who is present and who is not.
- When a student joins or leaves the entry or exit is marked by a chime to let the moderator know.
- During the ongoing study session through conferencing, the teacher can have a private one to one talk with any student.
- A student wishing to ask a question can “raise hands” and the teacher permits the student to ask a question.
- Video conferencing is superior to audio conferencing in that it is easy for the teacher to show video within the video and make a multi-media presentation or use whiteboard in the same way they use the blackboard in a physical classroom.
- The session is recorded for future reference by those conducting classes and by students.
There is no risk or fear of Corona virus infection when you are safely cocooned inside your home and yet you study with peace of mind.
More features
Apart from the features described above, video conferencing offers more:
- Those in charge of educational institutions can organize phone book and schedule a conference or, to be more precise, a virtual online class, by marking specific students who have joined specific courses.
- Students can use their smartphones or desktop equipped with headset and webcam, connecting through the browser interface without the need to download any software.
- The conferencing solution displays whoever is the active speaker.
- The moderator may mute all participants. This comes in useful when a teacher wishes to converse privately with someone.
- It is possible for a teacher to record an entire lecture and then allow students to log in and access the recording at a convenient time.
- Reporting and analytics to help you refine learning process.
You need a conferencing solution that can be set up fast
- Given the current restriction on movement it is imperative to find a conferencing solution fast and one that can be deployed remotely. Find a vendor who can supply the video conferencing solution with tweaks to suit your specific requirement and install it fast.
- One important factor to consider is that users should not be required to download and install software or install any plugins.
- Another is that it should be capable to accommodating anywhere from 10 to 1000 simultaneous students for one course and allow several such classes to run concurrently. A multi-tenant conferencing solution fits the bill.
Multi-tenant is ideal
Educational institutions with various departments can set up conferencing to be compartmentalized using the multi-tenant feature. Each department becomes a tenant and maintains a separate account and student roster. Institutions that operate branches in various locations can use this feature to further categorize each location and departments within each location allowing granular control besides ease of use. A single conferencing solution would impose burden and create bottlenecks whereas multi-tenant operate in parallel channels but with centralized control and monitoring. This video conferencing solution can be the hosted type which means it is deployed in less than an hour without any upfront capital investment.
Lockdown should not interfere with or interrupt education. Conferencing is the vital tool that maintains continuity and ensures that the future of students is not affected.