What It Was Like Being in the Virtual Classroom – a Student Perspective

The CAFE is comprised of many talented team members but did you know we also have work-study students as well?

Many of our offices here at DC offer opportunities for students to work and gain valuable experience within the college. One such work-study student includes me, the writer of this article.

My title here at the CAFE is “Digital Content Developer,” which means if newsletters and/or training materials need to be written, it’s my job to do that.

Despite having a pretty cool job, I am still 100 per cent a full-time student. As such, I, too, am being impacted by the state of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has not only forced me to work for the CAFE remotely, but now all my classes are remote too.

I was slightly concerned by the idea of having to work completely online, seeing as how my program, Journalism – Mass Media, is hands-on and requires a lot of collaboration. All of our final projects require us to work as a team, which is more daunting if you’re doing it from a distance.

That’s where applications such as Bongo’s Virtual Classroom come in. If you’ve seen our new support page, then you would have seen that the Virtual Classroom is a new built-in app within DC Connect that allows faculty to host virtual classrooms from anywhere.

The virtual classroom can be fully visual – allowing the professor to share their screen so you’re able to view a slideshow lecture. While this is happening, your professor and your classmates can share audio and video materials so you can see and talk to each other during the lesson. This makes collaboration and discussion easier.

I was able to support my classmates ahead of time as I worked on a tutorial on how to join a class meeting using the Virtual Classroom. So, when it came time for my professor to host our first class, we were prepared.

Joining is easy and so is enabling your microphone and camera. You’re prompted right away as soon as you join the class to activate your mic and then the video option is in the bottom left.

Once everyone joins, your professor begins your lecture and can show you a lesson/slideshow in real time. The Virtual Classroom also features multi-user mode which allows for students to participate in the class.

It was extremely easy for me and my classmates – but we aren’t the only ones who share that sentiment.

One of my professors, Anne Marie Jackson, is a new part-time faculty member teaching Advanced Reporting and Visual Media VI in Journalism – Mass Media program. She found Bongo’s Virtual Classroom bridged the gap between her and her students.

“Bongo was an essential tool to bring my virtual classroom to life,” says Jackson. “Bongo was simple to use, highly effective and provided a unique collaborative experience.”

The virtual Classroom on DC Connect definitely has my student stamp of approval and I am excited to how else we can utilize it for education in the future.

Written By: Jacklynne Graves, Third Year , Journalism – Mass Media Student