Pedagogy-Based Design of Live Virtual Classroom for Large-Scale Training

Abstract

A major issue faced by the education system in highly populated countries like India is the shortage of experienced and trained teachers and trainers. In order to alleviate this issue, we describe how the e-Learning tool AVIEW is being used for large-scale online training and teaching. A-VIEW allows thousands of participants at various geographical locations to be trained and taught at the same time. In our years of research and development with large scale virtual classrooms, we have found that the basic online platform needs to be built with strong e-learning pedagogy considerations such as learner engagement, ease of use, various types of assessment and cost-effectiveness. To support these pedagogy principles, we have done research and built innovations in the form of several unique technical features which have been incorporated into the virtual classroom platform A-VIEW. In addition, the virtual classroom system needs to be operate in an environment with basic infrastructure requirements in order to be effective for large scale operations. Our current implementation with over 5000 colleges in higher education shows that large-scale training and teaching is working well in the field, the customized online platform A-VIEW has tremendous potential for India.