6 Benefits of Using Live Chat in Education
There’s no denying technology has been the saving grace for a lot of the ways we have done things over the past year. One of those things is education and how students and teachers are able to connect without being able to communicate in person. There are tons of technologies to choose from when it comes to virtual learning, but one you might not have thought about is live chat in education scenarios.
Not only does using live chat in education work for students and teachers in the classroom, it has many incredible features you can use to efficiently connect with parents and students outside of the classroom. To help you gain an understanding of the full potential live chat in education has, we’ve put together this list of six amazing benefits!
Live chat makes virtual learning efficient
When learning first became virtual, one of the problems many teachers ran into was lost efficiency. It can be difficult to get a student to unmute, make sure everyone else is quiet, and then get them to ask their question without losing time.
Live chat makes virtual learning efficient as students can quickly ask questions in the chat box. This allows you to simply read them out and then answer them as they come in. You might also consider holding questions until the end of class at which point you can refer to the entire list of questions students have typed in.
Improve focus with one-on-one conversations
One of the great things about live chat is that it allows you to use multiple online chat rooms at one time. If a particular student has a question, they can ask it at the same time as another student.
This allows you to focus on one-on-one conversations during online learning, without having to take much time away from other students. In fact, many students will appreciate having a platform to contact you individually and efficiently. Navigate between a private chat with one student, while simultaneously interacting with another group.
Encourage shy students to interact
It’s very likely you will come across students who are hesitant or shy when it comes to participating in your classroom virtually. With live chat you can offer quiet students a way to voice their opinions and ask questions when they wouldn’t speak up otherwise.
They won’t feel scared to ask their question or provide an answer to a question when they can simply pop it into a group chat. This is not only efficient, but it improves classroom participation as well.
Quiet students will become a lot more satisfied in their online classes as they feel their opinion has been heard.
Engage with online visitors
Live chats are one of the most efficient ways to communicate with online visitors to your website. You can approach them as they’re browsing information about your program, and offer to answer any questions they might have along the way.
This is especially ideal for parents and prospective students who may have a certain question about the school but aren’t feeling like they want to go through the troubles of contacting you.
Live chat allows them to get their questions answered and for you to get warm leads. It serves as a way to keep them on your website instead of bouncing to another one to continue their search.
Do away with disruptive phone calls
Regardless of whether you’re in person teaching or teaching online, it can be frustrating to get bombarded with disruptive phone calls — especially for admissions centres. Employees can have multiple live chats going at a time which means they won’t be getting multiple phone calls in a row that they can’t answer all at once.
The library is also a great place for live chat as employees can answer inquiries without having to disrupt students. Things stay quiet and employees stay happy as they can better manage students and parents online.
Admin capabilities at your disposal
As a teacher, you might not always be able to rely on kids to put the “right” things in your live chat. Luckily, live chat makes it easy to manage each of your chat rooms quickly and effectively.
You’ll be in charge of adding names and information and even verifying the status for the users you choose. You can remove any users or comments that you don’t want to be seen by other users. This is especially important when you have students who may feel inclined to add silly or inappropriate comments to the chat.
Live Chat for Education with Swift
If a live chat sounds like the perfect integration for your online classroom, be sure to check out Swift Chat! Our platform offers powerful, stylish, and secure online group chat capability. Click here to try Swift Chat free today!