What do you do when the physical presence of students becomes difficult or unnecessary? The answer is simple – Impart education with a smart classroom. Owing to the current Covid19 scenario, the concept of the smart classroom has become more relevant in today’s digital-first world. The process of designing one can be complex. So, here are 8 steps to guide you.

Step 1

Define goals

Make a list of why you wish to switch to a smart classroom. Ensuring all students have equal access to the lessons, facilitating better learning, reducing boredom, and increasing students’ participation are some examples of goals that you need to list down.

Step 2

Calculate your budget

Calculate how much money the institution has and if some external funding can be arranged if needed.

Step 3

Gauge the opportunities

Find out about the different virtual collaboration tools available in the market, their price, offers, quality and everything you can know about them. Visit their websites, read client reviews, and choose the best one according to your budget.

Step 4

Analyse the training requirement

Depending on the technologies you choose, find out how many of your employees will have to be trained for such tools and how many new ones will have to be brought on board.

Step 5

Install hardware and software

With the help of professionals, install smart devices such as the smartboard and various software and programmes that facilitate smart education. This is where AV integration companies come into the picture. Better the company, better the experience.

Step 6

Add content

Get e-books, videos, audio, and more from the internet, or simply make your own content and add as creative content as possible to make your sessions interesting and engaging.

Step 7

Start teaching

After everything is set, the next thing you have to do is, start teaching your students, some of whom are at home, by making the best use of the technology. Using the collaboration tools, make your sessions interactive and fun. You can even implement online assessments such as quizzes, tests, and other evaluations through a web-based form or an e-mail.

Step 8

Maintain and update

You need to make sure that you maintain the classroom and update it as and when needed. Also, you need to immediately contact your AV integrator in case of any issue and get it sorted for smooth functioning.

How to make the classroom design interactive and effective?

Just designing the classroom is not enough. The design needs to be interactive and effective too. Here are a few things to keep in mind for the same.

Have crystal-clear audio and video: HD audio and video can transform virtual classrooms into lifelike experiences for students and teachers/educators. Hence, use the best quality platforms and tools

Use platforms with the best collaboration features: Collaborating during, before and after sessions with group messaging, rich content and file sharing, video calls and more is necessary. Hence, use platforms that offer easy-to-use and effective collaboration features.

Integrate Learning Management Systems: If your school/institution uses Moodle, Blackboard, Sakai, Canvas or D2L, you can integrate Webex into your learning management system.

Ensure safe and secure learning: Use security that you can trust with data and content through strong encryption to meet the most stringent security requirements.

Capture every detail: Record sessions for on-demand viewing in easy-to-share MP4 formats.

Two-way engagement: Digital whiteboarding, co-editing, and interactive polling mean students and educators are always engaged, together. Use platforms that offer such features.

How to make learning collaborative?

An interactive smart classroom design is not productive if the curriculum and sessions don’t encourage interactions between students and teachers. Here’s how to ensure that the learning is interactive and collaborative.

• Train the students and teachers on how to communicate and collaborate effectively over different tools, such as Google Docs and Zoom
• Divide the students in groups for projects. It is advisable to divide them according to time zones so they all can be available at the same time
• Develop a curriculum that includes group discussions and give projects which facilitate interactions with teachers and other students. For instance, pick students and give them the responsibility to teach a part of a lesson to other students
• Encourage students to check each other’s work and progress
• Take constant feedback on ease of using technology, teaching methods and quality of learning through surveys to keep improving
• Give them enough breaks. Don’t go on with long sessions as that would negatively affect the quality of learning
• Don’t just talk about books or subjects but explore students’ personal lives through one-on-one interactions to have a good relationship with all

Now that you know how to Design a smart classroom, and not just make the classroom interactive but also make the learning collaborative too, all you need to do now is to bring the right partner to work with. At Telecraft e-Solutions, we have helped many institutions to make their virtual classrooms successful. You too can benefit from our expertise.

Contact Us Today!