Bridging the gap in online classrooms

When California began issuing lock down orders because of COVID-19, there was a great panic among myself and fellow educators. How would we finish out the school year and ensure our students continued learning without the ability for classroom activities to continue the rest of the academic year? Our school district used Blackboard but the interface was dated and had to functionality for uploading virtual classes in the form of a video. We planned on using Zoom to broadcast our online classroom sessions but it was met with push back from parents who's schedules didn't match ours.

Luckily I came across Flixout, it seemed like the ideal platform for complementing our hard material. Over a weekend, I was able to film and upload all the videos for the following week's virtual classroom including material. I setup each student's account and by Monday, everyone was able to access my new virtual classroom powered by Flixout! The platform is ready to go and so simple to use, anyone with no technical expertise can quickly create a virtual classroom.

Monitoring students participation and applying learned material

From the admin panel, I can easily monitor the progress of each student, ensuring that they are watching the virtual classroom videos and remain on track with our district's learning objectives. The built in quiz functionality is perfect for measuring each student's individual comprehension. I also like to utilize the comment feature for each video, having students ask questions and engage with one another virtually as they would in a real classroom setting. I feel my students are able to comprehend my lessons better in video form than they would by using Blackboard alone and that by interacting with one another virtually, they can build on the lesson socially as well.

"I feel my students are able to comprehend my lessons better in video form than they would by using Blackboard alone and that by interacting with one another virtually, they can build on the lesson socially as well."

Although I do miss interacting with my students in person, I feel at ease knowing that they continue to get a quality education on their own schedule and at their own pace from the safety and comfort of home. Flixout is a fantastic platform which any educator that faces the dilemma of meeting testing standards and matching the schedule of busy parents should consider. I do not know if we will be having in-person classes next year but I do look forward to continuing to educate or supplement my lessons with Flixout.