Teaching that feels
like being there

Emulating a physical classroom online

EtonX is an initiative that provides online courses to develop communication skills for students aged 13–20, using experts from Eton College. The Virtual Classroom is a video-conferencing website, equipped with tools to emulate a physical classroom — built to enable collaborative learning and problem-solving for a class of 8 students, 1 teacher and, if needed, 1 admin. My role was to understand and build this experience, working with Zeus Systems Pvt. Ltd.

The product — a browser-based classroom emulating in-person, collaborative learning.

Two very different users in one room

Students — 13–20, mostly non-native English speakers across the globe.

Tutors — UK-based graduate students, 25–40, trained on the LMS.

Put the tutor in control

In a traditional classroom, the tutor is usually in control and drives all the discussion. To emulate this, I designed the virtual classroom so the tutor has complete control over class activities and materials — letting them multitask while teaching. Crucially, the controls live in overlays, so they never disrupt the learning experience for the students.

Two views — the tutor's control-rich view versus the student's focused, distraction-free view.

The tools that make it a classroom

Based on the user stories and ideation, I decided on the features we'd need to build to address the needs of students and tutors, divided into two groups so they could be accessed easily.

Everything within reach, nothing in the way

With so many tools, navigation had to stay invisible until needed. I mapped how the tutor moves between rooms, AV controls, teaching tools, chat, options and layouts — each surfaced through an overlay so the live class is never interrupted.

A full teaching toolkit, in the call

The teaching tools bring the classroom to life inside the video call — whiteboard, screen share, polls, files, breakout rooms and synced YouTube — all reachable without leaving the lesson.

Teaching tools — whiteboard, share screen, polls, files, breakout rooms and YouTube in context.

Viewing modes for every moment

A lecture, a group discussion and heads-down work all need a different layout. The tutor can switch the whole class between Default, Presenter, Participant and Workspace views to match the activity.

Viewing modes — Default, Presenter, Participant and Workspace, switchable by the tutor.

More screens — chat, polls and synced-video flows across the classroom.

What this project taught me