The virtual classroom experience

Modern technology creates an imperative for increasingly diverse classroom experiences. Both students and faculty can benefit from the constant technological advances occurring today. Students expect their educational experience to include the use of current technology, multimedia presentations of subject content, and engaging learning interactivity. A dramatic benefit can be achieved by the use of diverse tools, such as a classroom Web site, email communication between all classroom participants, and other Internet-based technology. These tools enable educational representations in static, dynamic, interactivity, and multimodal formats to reach the different types of learners in academia. The virtual classroom experiences are linked to the synchronous and asynchronous interaction, the characteristics of online professors and students, and the convenience and flexibility of the virtual classroom. These primary topics and the challenges for the creation, maintenance and assessment of virtual classrooms are addressed in this paper.