Skill Network Virtual Classroom allows instructors to conduct classes on-line and have full participation of the students in the class using webcam, audio, multi-user whiteboard and other instructional tools that make teaching real-time online sessions not just possible but effective.
Instructors also have the ability to record their online sessions for students to review later or to enable students who missed a class to catch up.
End Goal
By the end of this guide, your course's Virtual Classroom section should look like this:
1. Getting Started
For this guide we will assume you have a course and are familiar with configuring it.
First things first, we must be in the studio environment to configure our course. Once we are in studio we should see a view of our course outline like below.
2. Add a Unit
In order to create a Virtual Classroom, we must first create a unit within our desired course subsection. Once you click "New Unit" you should see a view like below.
3. Add the Virtual Classroom Module
Go to Settings > Advanced Settings and add the virtual_classroom module to your course's Advanced Module List
4. Add the Virtual Classroom XBlock
Click the green square titled "Advanced" and select the "Virtual Classroom" option.
Once you save your changes, you should see this error message.
This means that you cannot view the component in Studio. You must instead Publish your changes and click View Live Version to exit studio.
Using Virtual Classroom
1. Creating Your First Session
Click the “Schedule
a Session” button to start.
Fill in the
required information such as the session name, start time, etc…
Once you
reach the presentation field, you can provide a web URL to a PDF or image
resource you would like loaded in at the start of your session. To do this by uploading
your resource to your portal, refer to the next step.
2. Uploading a Presentation (Optional)
To upload a
presentation resource to your portal, head over to the studio environment in a
new tab. Once there, click Content > Files & Uploads
Upload the PDF or image you would like to use
for the session.
Once uploaded, you can click “Web” to copy the
web URL for the resource.
Finally, head back to your new session form and
you can paste the web URL to the presentation field. Always click “Check Link”
to make sure you’ve provided the right resource!
3. Finalize Your New Session
Read through the additional options and check the
settings you would like applied to your session. Once you’re ready, click “Save”
at the bottom and your Virtual Classroom should let you know you’ve
successfully created a session.
You can
click “Join Now” starting 10 minutes before your session is scheduled to start.
The button will disappear after the duration you set has run up.
If your session is scheduled to start in the
future, adding to your Google Calendar or iCal/Outlook is recommended by
clicking the blue buttons. 4. How do I View Virtual Classroom in a Student's View?
At the top of your screen, you should have a
dropdown available which controls your view of the course. Using this you can
switch to see how your students will see a session.
