Visual Engagement: Why Co-browsing and Video are Essential in Education?

Education no longer looks like it did just a decade ago. With so many digital tools supplied by technology, teachers are revolutionizing the way knowledge is delivered to learners. This strategy is beneficial because it makes knowledge delivery truly engaging and fun.
In this new system of education, visual engagement is essential. It includes any technology that helps to encourage learning and makes it easier and interesting. Moving away from textbooks to visuals may be a key to better education quality, because 65 percent of people (and learners) are visual learners.

Image Source: Pinterest

In the digital world we live in today, learners are more engaged on a visual level than ever before, so embracing the visual frontier is something that teachers need to do, to help improve the learning and educational outcomes of the students.

What is Visual Engagement?

It’s been said, that a picture is worth a thousand words. This is exactly right in education, where visual engagement has been playing an increasingly important role. This concept is defined as the use of technology that helps educators visually interact with learners and help them understand vital information.
Visual engagement tools come in many forms, including video, co-browsing, screen sharing, screen annotations, and WebRTC. They help educators to enhance classroom experiences and interactive learning opportunities.
For example, interactive technology can make the process of learning truly engaging, so learners’ desire to learn doesn’t decrease.
A smart board is an excellent example of how visual aids make educational process more engaging. There are many ways in which smart boards are used in the classroom; one big advantage is that it accommodates different learning styles and is easy to maintain – meeting the needs of all learners and the teacher. Besides, it’s really fun!

Source: Kevin Jarrett via Flickr

Benefits of Visual Engagement in Education

Unlike abstract words that are rather difficult for our brain to retain, visuals are more easily remembered. A group of scientists from Washington University in St. Louis found that college students who were provided with visual aids before a science lecture, demonstrated a deeper understanding of the lecturer’s content.
As a result, introducing them to education opens up a wide range of educational opportunities for learners and improves the quality of assignment help provided by educators.

Co-browsing in Education

Visual engagement provides many benefits for learners in the classroom. Let’s take co-browsing as an example. It’s a technology that allows to instantly see someone’s web page (similar to screen sharing). It can assist teachers in the following ways:

1. A teacher can remotely move with learners on any web application – Instant access allows teachers to navigate, teach web tools, platforms, solve problems immediately and highlight important parts of learning. This results in a more productive learning experience.
2. Students with Low Vision- Co-browsing can be beneficial for students who are visually impaired. With the help of co-browsing, teachers can transmit content on the whiteboard (from the teacher’s laptop) directly to the student’s laptop or tablet – enabling them to adjust the screen angle, contrast, color and magnification settings on their device.
3. Education in Remote Areas – Remote teaching has been gaining momentum around the world in the recent years, improving the quality of education for children. Children in remote areas may not enjoy the same quality of education as their peers in the cities. Co-browsing and video chat are helpful tools here because they can bring education to those living in rural areas.
4. Collaboration on Group Projects – Teachers may use co-browsing to facilitate collaboration, problem-solving, communication skills and creativity among students in the classroom. If a group of students is assigned a specific group project, they can communicate, work more efficiently, and deliver the task quicker
5. Online Training – As it was mentioned above, tools like co-browsing and video chat are great for training because they provide the same quality of instructions while removing the need for the physical presence of an educator.  Co-browsing, for example, is suitable for creating interactive online training sessions. By using this technology, students can learn apps and tools needed for their future professions.
6. Remote Tutoring – Another critical application of visual engagement tools is distance learning. Using video chat enables students to connect with teachers regardless of their location. This could be a lifesaver for those students who need to improve their knowledge in specific areas before exams and tests.

Video chat in Education

Another important tool in visual engagement is video chat. Video has been instrumental in teaching just about anything in colleges and universities, and is widely used in corporate learning as well. The uses of this tool in the classroom are the following:

1. Co-browsing with video chat facilitates collaborative learning. A group of learners can use these features to connect and engage in discussions and other learning activities. It can also be used to tutor an individual student. All one needs is a digital device like a laptop or a smartphone.
2. Video chat brings guest speakers to the classroom without their physical attendance. If for some reason a person cannot come to the classroom, he or she can give a speech or a lecture using the co-browsing and video chat. Geography is not a deterring factor here, either.

In school, video chat can also be used to connect with parents. It is a perfect tool to create a parent-teacher conference without having to invite parents to the facility.

Video chat and co-browsing continues to grow as a part of the educational revolution. It is readily available through tools like Surfly (Video chat with co-browsing), Google Hangouts, Skype and others.

Conclusion

Visual engagement in the classroom is important for a number of reasons – it helps to increase the interest of learners, meet their needs, and incorporate technology. As a result, it lifts a lecture or a lesson to the next level.

To find out more about visual engagement tools and to understand which tool you should invest in 2022, you can access the full Frost and Sullivan report for free.

Lucy Benton is a writing coach, an editor who finds her passion in expressing own thoughts as a blogger. She is constantly looking for the ways to improve her skills and expertise. Also Lucy has her own blog Prowritingpartner.com where you can check her last publications. If you’re interested in working with Lucy , you can find her on Twitter.