After the COVID-19 pandemic, the “new normal” will force us more than ever to organize our lifestyle. One of the biggest of these regulations is education. The need for online learning options in education is increasing. However, with the right tools and modern technology, distance education is not only possible, but also offers the potential to expand the scope of education all over the world. The main tool the school needs to provide online lessons and distance education is a web meeting and video conferencing platform. This blog will highlight the main web meeting features schools use to create remote online learning solutions available on Grandstream’s IPVideoTalk Meetings platform.

Using Web Meetings and Webinars for Distance Education

Webinars: While a standard meeting room is a great tool for establishing personal communications, many teachers may find this distracting and instead want to think of their classroom like a webinar. This allows the teacher to control the classroom session alone, and as only he or she can speak, they can show videos, share screenshots or other content, record the lecture, respond to questions and answers, and more. The teacher can also give this permission to other students or teachers. Students can use the raise of hands so the teacher can recognize that the student has questions, comments, and the teacher can unmute and / or allow certain students to share videos or screens. At the end of the lesson, the teacher can unmute the students so they can have a live question and answer session.

Meetings: The standard meeting room is a great feature for a teacher to communicate with students one-on-one. This provides a special environment for the teacher and student to understand whether a weekly meeting is sufficient or if a student needs additional help with homework. Meetings can also be used for parents and teachers to chat about student development, group projects, small sessions, and more.

Recording: Another great feature of the online meeting platform for education is recording. Teachers can record a classroom session so students do not have to be online to watch. Perfect for families who do not have devices reserved for each student due to the high cost of such devices. It also allows teachers and students to create a library of classroom records for future review or reuse.

Activity Reports: A challenging aspect of distance education is being able to measure participation and attendance levels. Web and video conferencing platforms such as our IPVideoTalk Meetings provide meeting and webinar attendance reports to help teachers measure attendance. These reports, the teachers; it will allow attendees to verify when they joined and left, how interested they were, what questions they asked, whether they raised their hands, and even where they joined and what device they were using.

Sharing PDF Documents / Whiteboard: Recently enhanced features of IPVideoTalk include the ability to share PDF documents in IPVideoTalk meetings. For education, this allows teachers and students to work and draw or highlight directly on any document. The teacher can choose whether to allow participants to use the toolbar to draw or write on the whiteboard or document. Teachers can also use the whiteboard feature and drawing tools to show the content virtually. It includes the whiteboard toolbar, brush / brush type, text, eraser, background images, undo, recovery, whether to allow other participants to draw, and more.

IPVideoTalk Meetings: Grandstream’s video, audio and web conferencing platform provides a virtual meeting and webinar room where your colleagues, teammates, classmates or any group can come together to work. IPVideoTalk offers a powerful and secure online communication platform for education, with hundreds of features that any educator can customize to suit their personal classroom needs, including those mentioned above.

Using Video Conferencing Endpoints

Room-based video conferencing devices allow schools to use the physical classroom and broadcast for students to participate online. This is particularly important as schools adapt to hybrid models where some students are at home and others at school. Room devices also provide remote teachers with a dedicated video endpoint with much better video quality than a laptop or webcam.

Our GVC series Video Conferencing devices allow teachers to expand their classroom learning environment online by connecting directly to the IPVideoTalk Meetings platform or other cloud collaboration platforms for a seamless distance learning solution. A GVC device can be positioned on school premises or at home, allowing teachers to use their physical classroom resources hands-free. Teachers can adjust the camera and zoom as needed while connecting computers so they can share videos, documents and other important content.