Design and Implementation of a Prototype Integrated Web-Based Virtual Classroom

The penetrating influence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education has over the last few decades revolutionized education by bringing some drastic changes to the methods of teaching and learning. Nevertheless, a number of challenges are still imminent for the African countries especially Nigeria and some other developing countries because very many of the institutions are still using the traditional classroom method of lecture delivery where course materials are given by the lecturer at the instance of time in a particular location. This situation more often than not, imposes a number of constraints such as time and place on both the instructor and the student, hence their inconsistencies in the pedagogy and learning style due to repetitive nature of teaching/learning. To this end therefore, this paper presents a conceptual approach to develop a virtual classroom system to enhance learning on campus, which we referred to as learning varsity in this work. The system was developed using PHP and MySQL as server- side programming and database respectively. The web-based virtual classroom provides a web enabled interactive learning environment in making education accessible and available to students by providing educational services.