Virtual classrooms are all the rage these days.

Of course, for a number of years, traditional educators resisted the idea of a virtual learning environment. Their main objection was that a live classroom provided the student with the proper focus. A teacher was on hand to administer lessons and offer assistance to any student. In reality what traditional teachers feared was the potential lack of control they would have over a virtual classroom.

However, modern technology allows teachers to exercise classroom control and to teach interactively via the Internet. Virtual classrooms (also known as webcasts or webinars) allow instructors to give their students everything they would get in a regular classroom. The main difference is that the class can be taken online.

Some of the features of virtual classrooms include:

Live Instruction: The instructor can lecture and include students in live participation. Again, modern technology allows instructors to write notes (viewable by all participants on the webcast) on a digital chalkboard. Students can listen in as the instruction is given and take their own notes or record the audio of the webcast to their computer. Another great feature is that the live instruction can be captured on the instructor’s recording device for replay.

Course Materials: A unique feature of virtual class instruction is that course material can be given in electronic format. Books, outlines, hand outs and other “written” material can easily be formatted in PDF and delivered before, during and after the class by email. In addition, the instructor has the flexibility to show power point slides, give surveys, send students to other relevant websites during the webcast, present material on electronic “flipcharts” and engage students with annotation tools to make important presentation points.

Student Participation: For the most part, students have the same ability to participate during virtual classroom instruction as they do during live instruction. Students can raise their hands, ask questions, answer polls and surveys, do exercises pertaining to the course material being covered and interact with both the instructor and among themselves.

As you can see, for the most part, the virtual classroom offers all the benefits and advantages of the traditional classroom. The main benefits to students is the distance learning feature. They don’t have to travel beyond their computer to attend classes.

There are, however, some disadvantages to virtual learning environments. For the most part, they have to do with technology problems that tend to creep up. Firewalls can interfere with data flow to your computer. Access to your network by the instructor may be blocked and require special allowance by your router administrator. VOIP quality and reliability is a problem on older personal computers.

Of course, these problems are easily fixable in most instances. Before starting a virtual education class, find out the technical requirements your computer needs to meet so you can fully participate. Make the necessary changes to your firewall, ensure your instructor’s IP has full access to your network and upgrade your computer.

The virtual classroom is the learning environment of the future. Take advantage of it to reach more people with your information. And, if you’re a student, take advantage of it to learn in a flexible environment that gives you all the benefits of traditional classroom education.