Students of all grades at GIIS Hadapsar and Balewadi campuses started their new academic session via Virtual Classrooms on 6^th of April. The parents of both the campuses were informed about the Virtual Classrooms and details of the new academic session through a webinar which was attended by hundreds of parents.

The Virtual Classrooms are being attended by students of all the Grades in both the campuses. Students are joining virtual lessons conducted by teachers through video-conferencing technology. They are using their home-based smart devices to connect to virtual lessons and join the interactive sessions where teachers are conducting subject-wise lessons.

During the interactive Virtual Classrooms, students can listen to the teacher, respond to questions, be heard by the rest of the participants and also write on the whiteboard.

The school has prepared a time table for each class which is put on myGIIS, the internal communication app for parents and students, along with details like link, username and password required to connect to the Virtual Classroom sessions. There is a dedicated helpdesk to assist the students in connecting to Virtual Classroom sessions and ensuring that it runs smoothly.

Watch this video to see some of the common questions and concerns that parents expressed related to Virtual Classrooms during the webinar:

The initiative by GIIS to offer Virtual Classroom sessions received a very positive response from the parent community who think that the step is hugely benefitting the children in starting their new term in a timely manner irrespective of the lockdown due to COVID-19.

Mother of two sibling students at Hadapsar campus, Ms Pradeepa K, said, “thanks to GIIS for ensuring that education is continued via Virtual Classrooms. My children enjoy interacting with their friends and teacher during the sessions. I am really impressed by the professionalism and presentation skills of the teachers.” Another parent said, “the school has done a tremendous job in creating an online learning environment and communication around it. I want to give kudos to the school for these efforts.”

The futuristic vision of GSF schools has made it possible for GIIS campuses all over the world to switch to Virtual Classrooms and start the new term irrespective of the fact that the students cannot physically come to the school due to lockdown. According to Mr Atul Temurnikar, Chairman of Global Schools Foundation, “education should be seamless and to make it possible our schools have totally adopted Virtual Classrooms across its campuses getting its entire 15,000 cohort onboard this new way of schooling”.

By pioneering virtual learning, GIIS has taken a strategic step towards delivering education online at the time when COVID-19 is causing large-scale disruptions in the education sector as well.

Watch this video to get a Virtual Classroom experience: