Reading Time: 1 minuteMelinda Doesy is a faculty member at East Carolina University in Greenville.
The global pandemic and COVID-19 have dramatically changed the way professors teach students. Face-to-face learning has moved to online and remote learning, which has created challenges for the transition. Some students may not have access to the software they need, or computer labs might be closed on college campuses.
What do you do if you find out that your students have Chromebooks and Macs at home, but no way to complete their SAM project? Explore virtual machines.
What are Virtual Machines?
A virtual machine (VM), is a virtual system that acts as a virtual computer system. It has its own CPU, memory and network interface.
Melinda Doty is a Teaching Instructor at East Carolina University. She used virtual machines in her traditional classroom long before the pandemic. They have allowed her to seamlessly transition from traditional face to face courses to online.
Ask your IT department if they have a virtual desktop that you can use to support your students.
Other formats for online teaching
You can also teach your course online using other formats if virtual machines are not available.
MindTap and SAM allow for training and exams in a virtual office environment. These resources are accessible from any device. Students can also use Office Online Projects to create basic Word, Excel, and PowerPoint projects using the lightweight browser-based Office 365.
This webinar recording features Melinda Doty. She discusses virtual machines and how they can help with remote learning.
Additional information about the tools mentioned in this recording:
VMware Horizon Client: https://www.vmware.com/products/horizon.html
Cengage Mobile App: https://www.cengage.com/mobile-app/
