Abstract : For lecturers who are used to presenting face-to-face, facilitating online classes through a virtual classroom interface proposes several new challenges. At the same time the affordances of the media offer many opportunities to improve the quality of students’ learning. This paper outlines the pedagogical lessons derived from convening a first year introductory programming unit through a series of twelve, two-hour online classes. General virtual classroom strategies as well as those particular to computer science are described. Approaches to developing students’ virtual classroom competencies, approaches to groupwork, and the implications of virtual classrooms for professional development and research are also discussed.
? The artificial division between lecture, tutorial and laboratory class need no longer exist; conceptual presentations and practical demonstrations can be woven together seamlessly.
? It seems that this is hope for both teachers and learners to overcome all the problems existing in the traditional cleanroom and many people even are trying to use as much as virtual technology as possible in the real campus.
? Although the technology for anonymous polling could also exist in a typical classroom, this requires equipment not commonly available, while it is common in all virtual classroom environments.
? This is typical when technology is introduced in a practice which exists for many years.
? In a virtual classroom the ability to model programming skills using the screen sharing facility is available at all times.
? ‘Expert modeling’ allows computer science educators to impart attitudes, thought processes, problem solving techniques, and a whole range of other underlying skills that are not made explicit or at least not embedded in their context when other methods of teaching are employed.
? Developing student’s virtual classroom competencies not only improves their capacity to learn in the short term, but also develops generic online skills in negotiate meaning, sharing information, and collaborative problem solve online.
• We propose a theoretical model of teaching skills to enhance student engagement in a VC setting.
• As part of their responsibilities, one peer had to review the allocated student’s presentation and the notes before the actual activity and also the peer was to propose three questions to be discussed after the presentation.
• Goal-driven evaluation is consistent with this learning approach, which is based on the fulfilment of learning objectives by means of the proposed activities and exercises.
• Engagement is not something inner and static, but open to modifications as an effect of social relationships, the formative environment and the proposed tasks.
? Presenters can take advantage of the fact that there is no interference between text chat and their audio broadcast to receive feedback and questions from the class while they are presenting.
? As such, careful consideration is required to choose the mode of course delivery that promotes greatest cognitive efficiency.
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? This “dual coding” tactic has the added advantages of providing a marker in the text chat archive for the particular concept being addressed, allowing students to process discourse at their own pace, and catering to both textual and auditory learning styles.
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