3 Elements of a Successful Virtual Experience: Overcoming the Challenges and Maximizing the Benefits of Online Learning.

Online class doesn’t mean just putting the class online.

It is more than just the textbook. It is more than just the video lectures. It is about interaction, collaboration, and communication. It is about bringing a classroom to the world.

In this age of information explosion, there are so many new sources of knowledge emerging every day. Information overload has become a big issue for students (and teachers as well). In order to cope with this issue, online learning can help students learn how to select correct information from hundreds of sources on the web and how to organize it in their own way. Students can learn how to use available tools for organizing their online learning experience better and more efficient. Online learning also provides opportunities for students to learn from other people around the globe and share their own knowledge with others as well. These are all new ways of thinking and working that will help students in their future lives in business, research, or academia no matter where they choose to go after graduation.

Follows these 3 key elements before you plan an online class:

The environment is the place where online learning takes place. It can be a virtual classroom, a website or an online application. The design of the environment has a huge impact on how people learn and how they interact with each other during the learning process. Like Airmeet created a social lounge to allow participants to meet each other by choosing different table to join.

Experience is what students feel, see and hear during their learning process. It is about how their minds and bodies react to different stimuli. Experience is all about emotions, feelings and physical reactions to different situations in life. Like butter, which is an alternative to Zoom, created a waiting room with music and a fun avatar for participants.

Design is the way that interactions in an environment are structured, organized and presented for interaction. In order to design a good experience for students, we have to take into account their feelings and emotions as well as their mental abilities. The design also includes all kinds of interactions between people in an environment such as communication between teachers and students, between students themselves or even collaboration between students from different countries around the world via the internet or other means of communication such as phone or video chat. Like EducationXR created a VR (now we call it Metaverse) environment to do STEM training.

To conclude, experience is what students feel, see and hear during their learning process. It is about how their minds and bodies react to different stimuli. Experience is all about emotions, feelings and physical reactions to different situations in life.

Think about it in a totally new virtual environment and stop just starting your zoom class. It is not the same.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.