Communication is an important element of any classroom for obvious reasons; transmitting information is, in many ways, at the heart of education, and it is also important for students and instructors to be able to understand each others’ expectations, confusions, and hopes for the class. These benefits of communication are just the tip of the iceberg, though. Collaborative learning brings a host of benefits, as do student-faculty interactions (see this study and this study). Communication could easily be one of the first things to go with distance learning and virtual classrooms, but to support student success, eduCATE is designed to encourage student-to-student and student-to-faculty interaction and collaboration.
Communication is an important component of every classroom; having students respond to questions, ask questions, and discuss with each other are all components of essentially every classroom. Virtual education is an emerging field, and as instructors transition from a traditional classroom to a virtual one, they must learn how to translate these pedagogical to the new environment.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, students and teachers across the country were thrown into virtual teaching with a new set of challenges. Consistent communication is one aspect of instruction plays a essential role in these virtual classrooms. Swan et al. identified frequent and constructive instructor-student interaction and lively discussion as two of the top three important components for a successful virtual classroom (Swan et. al, 2000).
eduCATE’s platform supports these features: the multiple modes of communication allow for frequent interaction between instructors and students, and discussion boards are built for student engagement.
