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=What is 'virtual' education?= (From Wikipedia)

Virtual courses – a synonym is online courses – are courses delivered on the Internet. "Virtual" is used here to characterize the fact that the course is not taught in a classroom face-to-face but through some substitute mode that can be associated with classroom teaching.
 * Virtual education** refers to instruction in a learning environment where teacher and student are separated by time or space, or both, and the teacher provides course content through course management applications, multimedia resources, the Internet videoconferencing, etc. Students receive the content and communicate with the teacher via the same technologies.

=How can I set up my own virtual classroom?= WiZiQ is a very simple and practical platform for online teaching, which provides a **free** virtual classroom environment for teachers to interact online and teach students in real time. Teachers can also build a profile, keep an availability schedule, create interactive questions and tests, interact in communities, and maintain a content library, which is associated with their profiles, by uploading PowerPoint presentations, Word, Excel, PDF and other file formats.

For more information, visit the WiZiQ wiki and watch the demo below. media type="custom" key="5439901"

Alternatively, you can use Skype, a software application to make voice calls over the internet. Skype is //not// an online teaching platform, but you can communicate by both voice and IM-instant messaging. Voice chat allows both calling a single user and conference calling.

Below is a screenshot of a class delivered on Skype:

== =More advanced e-learning platforms= (From Wikipedia )

Most virtual study programs use an e-learning platform ( Learning Management System– LMS) to administer students and courses and to provide learning content. Among them are [|Blackboard], [|WebCT], [|OLAT], Moodle, [|JoomlaLMS], [|SharePointLMS], [|Tadaros] and many others.

Second Life has recently whatever become a virtual classroom for major colleges and universities, including Princeton, Rice University, Pepperdine University, University of Derby (UK), and Vassar, the Open University (UK).[|[3]]. Language learning in virtual worldsis the most widespread type of education in 3D virtual spaces,[|[4]] with many universities, mainstream language institutes and private language schools using 3D virtual environments to support language learning.

If you are interested in having a go at Second Life, visit www.secondlife.com