Global Indian International School has commenced offering Virtual Classroom sessions in all its campuses across the world allowing 11,000 students to attend lessons going on in school through online video conferencing technology. GIIS is the first school to deploy Virtual Classrooms on such an unprecedented scale and the initiative has received an overwhelming response from parents and students worldwide in view of COVID - 19.

GIIS campuses in Singapore and Japan were the first to roll out the Virtual Classrooms initiative. The school community in these countries is hugely benefitting from this path-breaking initiative especially as the Government has announced the closure of all the schools in Japan for four weeks and strict health guidelines with restrictions on public gatherings implemented in Singapore as precautionary measures against COVID - 19.

A GIIS Singapore student, Arnav Varshney, said, “ Today I could not go to school because I had a cold. So I joined the GIIS virtual classroom, and the entire experience was just like a real classroom as if I was physically present in the class. I could clearly see the whiteboard and also the teacher. I could ask questions in real-time and the teacher was able to provide responses then and there.”

GIIS Abu Dhabi and Dubai campuses are also offering Virtual Classrooms and the entire school community is benefitting from the interactive and collaborative classroom sessions. 

In India, GIIS NOIDA is the first campus to start offering virtual classroom sessions and the other campuses like Bangalore, Pune, Surat & Ahmedabad are soon following suit.

On the launch of virtual classrooms in India by GIIS, CBSE Secretary Mr Anurag Tripathi said, "By introducing Virtual Classrooms for all its students in India, GIIS is doing a great service to the student community. In aligning its education delivery during challenging times of Covid19, GIIS will bring big relief to the parents' community. We encourage all CBSE schools, as far as possible, to introduce similar innovative ways for their students to give them an uninterrupted learning experience.”

The Virtual Classrooms at GIIS are simple to operate and can be used by students from 5 years to 18 years old. The students have the flexibility to log in and participate in an on-going class in the school through their mobile phones or any other personal device. Screen sharing can be done mutually between the student and the teacher. Students who are logged in remotely are able to share their screens with the teacher as well as get full view of the concepts shared on the digital smartboard. 

The virtual Classroom feature is not only being appreciated by the students but also by the teachers. Dr Shivalik K Pathania, Head of Dept of English at Singapore campus, said, “ Virtual Classrooms are very interactive with fully equipped digital smart board displays, easy to use video conferencing, mics for clearer sound, which enable us to give greater flexibility to students in case they are unable to attend the class due to any reason. This keeps the teaching uninterrupted and all the students abreast of how the class is progressing.” 

GIIS Tokyo Principal, Ms Madhu Khanna, feels that virtual classroom sessions will largely help in continuity Plan (CP) for students & teachers to minimize the impact of the virus and disruptions in the learning.

Arjun Temurnikar, Asst Director of Technology at Global Schools Foundation, said: “At GIIS we have incorporated educational technologies that deliver maximum learning impact for every child, and the Virtual Classrooms are a great example of that. Virtual Classroom was activated in view of coronavirus within just 3 days, however, it has long-term benefits like the dynamic exchange of ideas and bi-directional interactivity which facilitates uninterrupted learning experience.”

The GIIS Virtual Classrooms are resulting in unparalleled benefits that are not limited to the present COVID - 19 situation. Students and teachers across classrooms can collaborate in project discussions from anywhere. The teachers can teach the entire class from the comfort of their staff rooms or home. The virtual classroom sessions can also be recorded and viewable by students and teachers for future reference, thus allowing them to recap and grasp the content they have learned with better efficiency.

GIIS has always been at the forefront of incorporating leading-edge educational technology for the benefit of its students.