The current decade witnesses the peak of the usage of online learning apps due to the self-isolation that has been forced by COVID-19. Most people have been compelled to stay away from society as well as their work or their normal educational process. Thus, most teachers or instructors around the world have started to seek other ways to replace physical classrooms with virtual ones. However, having students fully engaged during an interactive virtual classroom is challenging for many instructors. It is quite hard to bring students to discussions especially if some of them are hesitant or introverted by nature. Furthermore, virtual learning is something new to students, especially those young ones. The following are interactive virtual classroom ideas on how to keep your students engaged by adding engaging activities during the virtual learning process.

read also: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Build a Virtual Classroom

1. Searching for Fun Apps to Be Used to reach an interactive virtual classroom

The usage of fun apps during virtual classrooms is essential to keep students engaged and excited to learn. Breaking the ice and fostering collaboration and self-confidence are key. Here are some features of fun apps that can enhance interaction and create an interactive virtual classroom:

  • The whiteboard tool:  Instructors can describe concepts visually, including drawings, making lessons more attractive and interesting, especially for kids.
  • Discussion Rooms: Instructors can divide students into groups for discussions. For instance, students can split into groups with funny names from movies or series, debate a topic, and compete for prizes.
  • Video Sharing: instructors can take their students on a virtual tour to a remote place and this tour will be related to a specific idea in their educational content. In an article titled “Observer Ratings of Instructional Quality: Do They Fulfill What They Promise?” the authors have highlighted the importance of videos to achieve interactive virtual classroom and control as they said:
  • Riddles: Apps that offer riddles related to the discussion topic can engage students in problem-solving.

read also: Best Way to Create a Learner-Centered Virtual Classroom

Interactive Virtual Classroom

2. Engaging Students in an Interactive Virtual Classroom 

To achieve an interactive virtual classroom, student engagement is key. Here are some steps:

  1. Presentability: Instructors should look presentable and choose an appropriate setting for virtual classrooms to avoid distractions. Creating avatars or emojis can make them more appealing to students.
  2. Learning Names: Calling students by name during sessions reinforces their value and increases self-importance.
  3. Setting Goals: Providing an outline or weekly plan helps students prepare for what they will learn.
  4. Storytelling: Using storytelling and historical examples can maintain student interaction
  5. Audio Variation: Changing voice tones in shared audio keeps students interested.
  6. Small Segments: Breaking topics into small ideas across sessions helps maintain engagement. Using videos or graphs instead of long texts can also be effective.
  7. Prizes and Badges: Offering rewards for correct answers during sessions motivate students.
  8. Feedback: Weekly feedback on performance, highlighting both strengths and weaknesses, helps students stay on track.
  9. Surveys: Regular surveys about the instructor’s performance and classroom preferences help improve the teaching process and create an interactive virtual classroom environment. Continuous adaptations during the course are essential.
  10. Interactive Chat: Allowing students to answer questions and comment in the chat room ensures active participation. As Paul France mentions in “Reclaiming Personalized Learning,” using chat tools helps gauge student understanding.
  11. Active Discussion: Heather Wolpert-Gawron, a Middle school teacher and project-based learning coach, has explained in her article titled “Extending Classroom Management Online” some ways of how to keep students engaged and that the instructor should be present all the time and she highlighted the importance of discussion as she said: “Make sure you and they are participating in discussion threads.”

3. An Interactive Virtual Classroom through Break the Ice Games

Break-the-ice games are a very important element during any learning process. These games encourage students to participate and stay engaged till the end of the session. Here are some suggestions for breaking the ice games that seek an interactive virtual classroom:

  • Ask each student to draw something that describes their personality and have them share their drawings with each other. This game breaks the ice and removes any stress the students may encounter at the beginning of the virtual course.
  • Send them “all about me” sheets the day before the session to print them out. These “all about me” sheets include questions that students have to answer about their personality. For example, these can be questions about their favorite food, hobbies, and favorite areas of study. Actually, this method will encourage students to talk about themselves, make them excited, and maximize their interaction during the virtual classroom.
  • Teachers can split their virtual classroom into a groups of three and have each group list their common interesting preferences and after a few minutes ask one from each group to share this list with the rest of the class. This will make students more engaged and willing to know each other and thus establish interactive virtual classroom relationships.

Storky app provides instructors with all the tools they need to create games and more interesting activities during distance learning to reach an interactive virtual classroom environment. Besides, instructors can ask the team to create any more features they may need during the online learning process. For more information, please check the website’s FAQs at https://storkyapp.com/en/.