Virtual Classrooms in Distance Education
Chapter from the book:
Baltacı,
Ö.
(ed.)
2023.
Educational Sciences Research I.
Synopsis
With the development of technology, many learning activities that were traditionally conducted in face-to-face environments can now be carried out in virtual environments. This has led to the frequent use of virtual classroom applications in distance education. Virtual classroom applications make the learning process more flexible and interactive for students, while also providing teachers with more efficient ways to manage their lessons. Through these applications, students have the opportunity to participate in classes more comfortably, access course materials more easily, and keep track of their assignments more regularly. Teachers, on the other hand, are able to prepare course materials more quickly and easily, evaluate students' assignments more efficiently, and interact with students more easily. However, there are also challenges associated with using virtual classroom technology, such as internet connectivity issues, technological limitations, and technical difficulties. Some commonly used virtual classroom applications include Google Classroom, Zoom, Blackboard, Moodle, and Edmodo. These applications are chosen for their features, ease of use, reliability, and tools for increasing student-teacher interaction. Distance education and virtual classroom applications play an important role in education, and their use is expected to become even more widespread in the near future. Therefore, research has been conducted to provide content for designing and implementing educational programs for distance education and virtual classroom applications, to create a theoretical framework, and to offer a perspective on technologies that can be used in distance education practices.