What is a Virtual Classroom?
The virtual classroom is the common meeting area for all students assigned to an online class. Each classroom has a unique name, which will be provided to you before the start of each course. Only students taking that particular class have access to that virtual classroom, thus ensuring privacy for a group of students in a course. You can view the virtual classroom at http://ol.baker.edu/.
The Blackboard educational software program includes a feature whereby all the students and the faculty person can meet online at the same time. In the virtual classroom a list of the student’s usernames are visible on everyone’s computer enabling all students to identify who has entered the virtual classroom. When a student or the faculty person types a question/answer/comment in the text box and clicks on “send” the same words appear on all of the students’ computers at the same time. This feature allows for the faculty person to give instructions, ask questions, or even deliver a small lecture to the entire class at the same time. While “raising one’s hand” to ask a question is a bit more difficult in a virtual classroom, agreed upon “virtual etiquette” allows for a class to function similarly to how a typical classroom would on a school’s campus.
The Virtual Classroom included in Blackboard is a fully featured chat room that offers a Whiteboard, a graphical area for the instructor to display pictures or illustrate by using different drawing tools. Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher and Java enabled is required to enter the virtual classroom. Users who cannot meet these requirements can participate in the chat session using the Light-weight Chat (feature reduced version).
The virtual classroom is the common meeting area for all students assigned to an online class. Each classroom has a unique name, which will be provided to you before the start of each course. Only students taking that particular class have access to that virtual classroom, thus ensuring privacy for a group of students in a course. The classroom will not just have soldiers in it, but also civilians from all areas and career backgrounds. This enables the courses to utilize everyone’s backgrounds to enhance the learning experience.
