Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Virtual Classroom System

Despite the increasing growth in popularity of virtual classrooms and online-learning, some factors which include limited bandwidth for audio and video, poor transmission quality, poor collaborative work and limited feedback during virtual classroom sessions still need to be addressed. This paper presents the design and implementation of a virtual classroom system that focuses on collaborative learning between students and tutors at remote locations. The different components of the system allows students to engage in group activities and collaborate with instructors in a commonly shared windows on which text, audio or video objects are added and shared online. The system was developed and hosted on the web using Moodle, Elluminate, WAMP Server, Java Script, MySQL, PHP and Dreamweaver. A practical demonstration was carried out using an Undergraduate Course of the Department of Computer Science in the School of Sciences, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. The results obtained from the demonstration exhibit the suitability and adequacy of the virtual classroom system. The evaluation of the system based on selected indices also shows its level of performance and ratings.