Virtual Education Dr. S. BalasubramanianMr. S. Kannan Former Director – IPRResearch Scholar Anna University CoimbatoreAnna University Coimbatore CoimbatoreCoimbatore E-mail: s_balasubramanian@rediffmail. com Abstract Virtual education is a term describing online education using the Internet.
This term is primarily used in higher education where so-called Virtual Universities have been established. Virtual courses – a synonym is online courses – are courses delivered on the Internet. Virtual" is used here to characterize the fact that the course is not taught in a classroom face-to-face but through some substitute mode that can be associated with classroom teaching. A virtual program (or a virtual course of studies) is a study program in which all courses or at least a significant portion of the courses are virtual courses.
Instruction modes for virtual education Many virtual study programs are mainly text based, using HTML, PowerPoint, or PDF documents. Multimedia technologies have been investigated for many years and eventually found their way into practice.Today a wide spectrum of instruction modes is available, including the following: • Virtual Classroom: A virtual classroom is a learning environment created in the virtual space. The objectives of a virtual classroom are to improve access to advanced educational experiences by allowing students and instructors to participate in remote learning communities using personal computers; and to improve the quality and effectiveness of education by using the computer to support a collaborative learning process.
The explosion of the knowledge age has changed the context of what is learnt and how it is learnt – the concept of virtual classrooms is a manifestation of this knowledge revolution. • Hypertext courses: Structured course material is used as in a conventional distance education program. However, all material is provided electronically and can be viewed with a browser. Hyperlinks connect text, multimedia parts and exercises in a meaningful way. • Video-based courses are like face-to-face classroom courses, with a lecturer speaking and Powerpoint slides or online examples used for illustration.
Video-streaming technologies is used. Students watch the video by means of freeware or plug-ins (e. g. Windows Media Player, RealPlayer).
• Audio-based courses are similar but instead of moving pictures only the sound track of the lecturer is provided. Often the course pages are enhanced with a text transcription of the lecture. • Animated courses: Enriching text-oriented or audio-based course material by animations is generally a good way of making the content and its appearance more interesting. Animations are created using Macromedia Flash or similar technologies.
These animations help understand key concepts and also allow for better retention of learning. • Web-supported textbook courses are based on specific textbooks. Students read and reflect the chapters by themselves. Review questions, topics for discussion, exercises, case studies, etc.
are given chapterwise on a website and discussed with the lecturer. Class meetings may be held to discuss matters in a chatroom, for example • Peer-to-peer courses are courses taught "on-demand" and without a prepared curriculum. A new field of online education has emerged in 2007 through new online education platforms.Virtual Education is designed for future applications of virtual reality technology to the field of distance education. Virtual reality is being used for several education uses. Two of the most prominent uses are: advanced simulation training; and virtual education as distance instruction programs evolve with more higher-order Virtual Reality applied science.
Virtual reality is, even now, being used to train physicians, aircraft pilots, soldiers, and people in other professions. With respect to distance education, the virtual education revolution is, even now, underway.Distance instruction that started with basic text and image exchange, is evolving into educational programs that involve the human brain multi-dimensionally and interactively through several senses. While three-dimensional (holographic) virtual instructors do not currently lecture around the globe, this may happen some day in the not-so-distant future. Virtual reality can also help physicians to discern the borders of diseased tissue and extract it from healthy tissue nearby. VR-guided medibots enable microsurgical procedures on a much tinyer scale and with more accuracy than is possible with traditional surgical operations.
Macro scale motion by the robotic controls by a surgeon is translated down to micro movements of the robotic elements within the patient. In order be genuinely immersive, the camera component of a virtual reality system should instill the sense of detail and three-dimensionality. One way to make detail sensation is achieved using the geometry of an object's edges. An object's outer edges create its outline.
When an object's outline overlaps over that of another object, then it is perceived as nearer than the other object.Similarly, if the outline is larger compared to another object believed to be of similar magnitude, then it is seen as nearer than the second object. Lastly, when an object shifts a more distance in response to motion of one's head than other objects or the background setting, then it is seen as closer. Vision is probably the single most important sense through which human beings receive information about their setting, but interaction is bidirectional.
Not only do humans receive information from their setting, but people also affect their environment. This is true in artificially constructed worlds in addition to the real world.Vision may be dominant in communication from computing systems to people, but touch and motion (called "kinesthetics") currently dominate interaction from humans to computing systems. Human-to-computer communication based on hand and body motion is much farther developed than human-to-computer interaction built on eye motion. Virtual education refers to instruction in a learning environment where teacher and student are separated by time or space, or both, and the teacher provides course content through course management applications, multimedia resources, the Internet, video conferencing, etc.Students receive the content and communicate with the teacher via the same technologies.
Virtual education is a term describing online education using the Internet. This term is primarily used in higher education where so-called Virtual Universities have been established. Virtual courses – a synonym is online courses – are courses delivered on the Internet. "Virtual" is used here to characterize the fact that the course is not taught in a classroom face-to-face but through some substitute mode that can be associated with classroom teaching.A virtual education program (or a virtual course of studies) is a study program in which all courses or at least a significant portion of the courses are virtual courses. Many virtual study programs are mainly text based, using HTML, PowerPoint, or PDF documents.
Multimedia technologies have been investigated for many years and eventually found their way into practice. Today a wide spectrum of instruction modes is available. Virtual classroom A virtual classroom is a learning environment created in the virtual space.The objectives of a virtual classroom are to improve access to advanced educational experiences by allowing students and instructors to participate in remote learning communities using personal computers; and to improve the quality and effectiveness of education by using the computer to support a collaborative learning process. The explosion of the knowledge age has changed the context of what is learnt and how it is learnt – the concept of virtual classrooms is a manifestation of this knowledge revolution. Students in virtual education typically acquire knowledge in a uni-directional manner first (e.
. by studying a video, reading a textbook chapter). Subsequent discussions of problems, solving exercises, case studies, review questions, etc. help the students to understand better what they learned before. Electronic media like a discussion forum, chat room, voice mail, e-mail, etc. are often employed for communication.
Homework assignments are normally submitted electronically, e. g. as an attachment to an e-mail. When help is needed, lecturers, tutors, or fellow students, or a help desk are available, just like in a real university.The difference is that all communication goes via electronic media.
Video-based courses are like face-to-face classroom courses, with a lecturer speaking and Powerpoint slides or online examples used for illustration. Video-streaming technologies are used. Enriching text-oriented or audio-based course material by animation is generally a good way of making the content and its appearance more interesting. Animations are created using Macromedia Flash or similar technologies. These animations help understand key concepts and also allow for better retention of learning.
