“I love the smell of a new book!” I know many of us do so!
Perhaps, that’s a common start-point of the ‘serious’ educational journey for all of us; it starts with a book in hand! Whatever curriculum or medium we followed in our academic lives, the school year always started with a bag full of books. This was then fol- lowed by classroom study with teacher who would make sure we understood even the most arcane concepts in the books. Not to forget the endless hours of brainstorming sessions with peers until the concepts were well understood.
Every year ended with examinations to evaluate our knowledge.
The conventional teaching-learning process
Interestingly, we can easily break the above process in four parts: 1. Books or notes 2. Classroom Teaching 3. Revision through discussion 4. Knowledge-evaluation through tests. The mix-n-matches of these four steps cover our experiences of learning and teaching across the ages! Even in the previctorian period the teaching-learning used to happen in the similar flow with perhaps different nomenclatures in practice; nonetheless, the Victorian model of education (which is currently adopted, world-wide) follows the same flow at large.
Replicating the academic-cycle Online
In recent years, internet has had a significant impact in the way we teach and learn. Learning is no longer confined to the four walls of the classrooms or behind books, it’s anywhere and anytime. e might want to admit finally that ‘technology is disrupting education’. Who said it means abolishing schools and colleges? It means using hardware and software to improve education and finally learning outcome. It means supplementing learning by moving the four-way teaching-learning process, online via cloud based libraries, virtual classrooms, online or offline peer-to-peer discussion sessions and online tests.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms are a respite for teachers and institutes as these do not require high-end understanding of technology, and these are highly user-friendly in nature and can seamlessly be integrated with existing systems.
A few example of SaaS-based online teaching tools
Teachers can use platforms like authorSTREAM.com, slideshare.net and scripd.com to upload their notes or content files and share with students via internet. For real-time teaching, live virtual classrooms are available from basic to advance level, viz platforms like gotomeeting.in, webex.com and bigbluebutton.org. Facebook-groups is a useful addition in the respective social networking site supplementing online teacher-to-student discussions and student-to-student discussions in a closed group setting. There are many platforms that teaches can use to build online tests like taotesting.com, kryteriononline. com, exambuilder.com, etc.
The only problem with all the above platforms is they are not all inclusive. A teacher might end up using 5 different platforms to teach one class. That’s cumbersome and painful because all you want to do is teach.
The one-stop solution
Unlike, solving the problems of academic delivery in pieces, WizIQ.com took the challenge to solve it holistically! WizIQ’s cloud based content library supports varied file types. You can upload, share and access from anywhere and anytime.
WizIQ believes teachers can never be replicated by technology, teachers should be supported in the process to enhance the learning outcomes. The advanced Virtual Classroom technology of WizIQ does it all! It creates an environment where teachers and students interact live with each other. The classes are recorded and archived as well.
A community based discussion-fo- rum amongst the course learners and teacher supports the post-class discussion, online, asynchronously.
The advanced test and assignment features of WizIQ allows teachers to conduct MCQ and subjective type tests for students. It also provides test-analytics to assess and compare the performances by the students. WizIQ is used by regular colleges, distance learning colleges and also by test preparation institutes with ease of execution.
Reach the author
In case you have any query or interest to adopt WizIQ in your teaching, you can reach out to at kalyan@wiziq.com or academics@wiziq.com
