Attending Virtual Classroom Lessons
To view a lesson, first log in to the Orpacific server. Select the lesson you want to view from your modules. The selected lesson is streamed online to student. It is also saved to the local harddisk so that the next time you access the lesson, streaming will not be necessary, saving you internet bandwidth.
Lesson consists of video and voice of the instructor, plus the computer screen (synchronized with voice) of the instructor as would normally be projected in a physical classroom. This would include mouse cursor movement, writings or video playing on the instructor¡¯s computer.At the conclusion of each logical section of the course, typically about one hour, mini-quizzes on the content discussed in the last section would appear on the screen. The number of questions would vary depending on the lesson. The lesson is automatically suspended, when these quizzes appear.
Student would need to complete the mini quizzes, before lesson can continue with the lesson. The quizzes are set by the course instructor for formative self assessment.
The results of the quizzes would be auto-graded and included in the results of the course by Orpacific. Students can check their personal performance record (online) to know how they fare for the quizzes. The performance in the tests will be an indication if student is ready for the formal summative assessments.
Quizzes are not limited to MCQ. They can be opened ended questions that students need to answer verbally, or draw as shown in the figure.
Students may also ask questions through this interface. Questions can be verbal, drawings or typed written. Questions and comments will be uploaded to the course forum page for the instructor to answer. Other students may also join in the discussion.
Student may also ask questions by drawing on a white board. The whiteboard will be uploaded to the course forum. Finally student can navigate to any part of the lesson, or re-listen to any part of the lesson, by clicking on the appropriate bookmark.
While the student can navigate to any part of the lesson at will, Orpacific tracks the student¡¯s progress through the lesson. Beside the normal mini quizzes, there are also polling questions at regular interval to determine the student¡¯s attentiveness in the lesson.
The system produces at the end of each lesson a detailed map, showing which parts of the lesson the student had viewed and was attentive, which parts the lesson was played, but the student was probably not attentive, and which parts of the lesson the student had skipped.
Questions asked during lesson are automatically uploaded to the course forum, whereby a follow on discussion can take place at the forum site, or the instructor can grade.