What Virtual Meeting Software Do Educators Really Need?

There’s a big difference between holding a business meeting and teaching an online class. Yet, many educators are still using standard business virtual meeting platforms that weren’t designed for it. If you feel your current tools limit interaction and make active learning difficult, you’re not alone. These platforms often lack the specific features needed for effective virtual teaching. This article explores what virtual meeting software educators really need. We’ll uncover the essential features that separate powerful educational platforms from basic communication tools and active learning.

Table of Contents:

• Why You Shouldn’t Use Generic Meeting software for Teaching
• Types of Virtual Meeting Software for Educators & Trainers
• The 3 Levels of Features for Effective Online Teaching
• How to Choose the Right Virtual Meeting Software for a Teaching Environment
• What Criteria Should You Use to Evaluate Different Software Options?
• Unlocking Possibilities Beyond the Physical Classroom
• Get Started with inMeet

Why You Shouldn’t Use Generic Meeting software for Teaching

Many educators and trainers found themselves using online tools immediately as the world shifted to remote learning. In that initial rush, familiar online meeting platforms for business meetings – became the go-to solution for virtual classrooms meetings. They were available, familiar, and allowed classes to continue in some form.

But as we settle into online teaching, many educators feel these tools are not working. You might notice that students seem less engaged, and participation is hard to manage. If you’re feeling this way, you’re not alone, and it’s not your fault.

The issue is that these generic meeting platforms were never built as dedicated education software or with the unique needs of education in mind.

A business meeting, for example, is designed to share information quickly. A class, on the other hand, is intended for building skills and understanding. This difference in purpose creates a mismatch between what the software was designed for (a business meeting) and what you actually need (a learning environment).

General Meeting tools are great for one-way presentations. But they start to fail the moment you need active learning, real-time checks for understanding, or true collaboration. They simply don’t have the built-in features for student participation, in-class assessment, or effective classroom management.

This gap forces you to compromise. It makes teaching harder for you and makes virtual learning less effective for your students.

Types of Virtual Meeting Software for Educators & Trainers

Let’s understand what kind of virtual meeting software is built for your educational needs?

1) Customized Video Conferencing Platforms (Adapted for Education)

The first category is general web conferencing platforms adapted for the educational sector.

When major video conferencing companies realized that many schools were using their platforms, they have created a specific versions of their platform tailored for education.

The main advantage here is familiarity. You and your students may already know how to use the basic functions, which can make the transition feel less difficult. However, the main technology (being the business meeting tool) remains the same. They are great for talking to people, but they still lack the deep, built-in tools for real learning, engagement tracking, and classroom management.

2) Dedicated virtual classroom solutions

This second category includes virtual classroom software—platforms that were built for education from the very beginning. Such platforms were created with the specific needs of teaching and learning in mind. Their entire design is based on how a class works, not how a business meeting works. They are made to support active learning and teamwork, not just presentations.

What they offer:

• Designed for Teaching: All the features are created to support active learning and different teaching methods.
• Enhanced Interaction: They have advanced, built-in tools like multi-user whiteboards, sophisticated quizzes, and better-managed breakout rooms.
• Teacher-Centric Controls: You get more specific controls to manage the virtual classroom, much like you would in a physical room.
• Engagement Tracking: They can often show you real-time data on student engagement (like who is participating), not just an attendance list.

Which One Do You Choose?

The “customized” general platforms can be a solid choice if your school already uses that provider or if familiarity is your top concern. But if your goal is to create a truly interactive class in which students are participate, collaborate, and stay engaged, you need one of the dedicated online teaching platforms that was built for the job. And a dedicated virtual classroom platform is almost always the better choice in that case,

The 3 Levels of Features for Effective Online Teaching

So, what features actually make a difference for teaching? Let’s look at specific features you should actually look for.

1. First, Get the Basics Right

Before anything else, your platform must have these basics covered.

• High-Quality Audio and Video: All virtual meeting tools promise this, but educational use demands extreme stability. You need one teaching software that holds up for long class periods without lagging or dropping calls.
• Robust Security: You need security features like waiting rooms and strong host controls specifically to prevent classroom disruptions and protect student privacy.
• Simple Screen & Content Sharing: Besides the ability to share your screen, you need a way for students to share their work just as easily as the teacher.
• Reliable Recording: Most virtual meeting tools can record. But for teaching, you need more than that. The recording must be easy for students to find and access later.
• Works on All Devices: Virtual meeting software needs to be accessible. That’s why a browser-based platform is often better, as it removes the barrier of downloading an app just to attend class.

2. Features to Maximize Student Engagement

• virtual whiteboard: A virtual classroom needs a persistent, multi-page digital whiteboard where both the teacher and students can write, draw, and add media at the same time.
• Built-in Polls and Quizzes: You need a virtual tool that can ask different types of questions (like short answers) to truly check for understanding in real-time. This lets you see if you need to re-teach a concept immediately.
• Non-Verbal Feedback: Business meetings run on verbal turn-taking. Classrooms are different. Simple tools like a “hand raise” button or “thumbs up” emoji are vital. They give you a way to gauge the room’s energy and let students participate without interrupting the flow of the lesson.

3. Tools for Managing Your Online Classroom

Finally, here are the features that give you the control you need to manage your class effectively.

• Granular Teacher Controls: Generic tools give the “host” basic controls. But a teacher needs classroom controls. This is essential for managing focus and minimizing distractions.
• Deep LMS Integration: A virtual classroom must connect to your Learning Management Software (LMS). This saves you huge amounts of time. It can automatically sync your class list, schedule sessions, and—most importantly—send grades from in-class quizzes right to your LMS grade book.
• Actionable Learning Data: A true educational platform provides learning analytics. It can show you which students are engaged, who is participating, and how the class performed on a poll. This is data you can actually use to improve your teaching.
• Accessibility for All: Any virtual learning software for education must be built for all learners. This means high-quality live captioning, full support for screen readers, and the ability to navigate using only a keyboard.

How to Choose the Right Virtual Meeting Software for a Teaching Environment

Choosing the right virtual meeting software can be hard. Most people fall into the trap of choosing the platform that has the longest feature list. The problem with this approach is that you end up with a tool that does a little bit of everything but may not do the one thing you need really well.

The reality is, every teaching environment is unique. A tool that’s critical for one scenario is completely irrelevant in another. To make the right choice, you must first identify your priorities. This section will help you understand your specific needs and pinpoint the tools you absolutely cannot compromise on.

1) K-12 Education

Teaching children in kindergarten through high school online brings unique needs for virtual meeting software. Younger students often have shorter attention spans and varying levels of comfort with technology. Because of this, the most important thing to look for is simplicity above all. The software must be incredibly easy for kids to join and use, ideally by just clicking a link in their web browser, without needing to download anything or remember complex logins. Clear buttons and a simple layout are essential so that technology doesn’t get in the way of online learning.

2) Higher Education Faculty

University professors and lecturers need virtual meeting software that can solve two different problems at once: teaching huge lectures and running small, interactive seminars. The software must be powerful enough to handle hundreds of students in one live session without crashing or lagging, and it needs to create high-quality recordings for students to review later. At the same time, it must have strong breakout room features, allowing teachers to pre-assign groups for discussion and check on their progress. To save time and keep things organized, the tool must connect deeply with the university’s online learning management system (LMS) to automatically sync class lists and send poll or quiz grades straight to the grade book. Finally, the software must be fully accessible for all students by working well with screen readers, allowing keyboard-only use, and providing reliable live captions.

3) Corporate Training

Corporate trainers need virtual training software that focuses on business goals like onboarding, employee upskilling, conducting online training or running software training programs. The main challenges in remote training are keeping professional adults engaged and proving that the video training was effective and completed. For this reason, the corporate training software must have strong engagement tracking and analytics to show who participated in polls or finished the session. It also needs interactive tools, such as reliable screen sharing for presentations and software demos, plus breakout rooms that allow for group problem-solving or role-playing. To maintain a professional image, the tool should allow for company branding, like adding a logo or custom colors. Finally, high-quality recording is essential, both for creating a record for compliance and for sharing with employees who could not attend the live virtual training.

4) Professional Development Coaches & Consultants

Professional development coaches and consultants use virtual meeting software as a direct reflection of their expert brand when training clients from many different organizations. For this reason, the absolute highest priority is exceptional reliability and excellent audio/video quality, which is essential for projecting professionalism and ensuring a smooth delivery. The software should also feature a clean, professional interface, with branding options like adding a logo or custom backgrounds being a major plus. To deliver high-value training, they need strong interactive tools, whether it’s a versatile whiteboard for brainstorming, clear screen sharing for demonstrations, or effective breakout rooms for group exercises. Finally, the tool must be simple for clients to join—ideally from a browser without downloads—and provide high-quality recording for clients who want to review the session.

5) Small groups and one-on-one sessions

Facilitators, tutors, and therapists who lead one-on-one or small group sessions require software that makes virtual interaction feel personal and natural. In these highly interactive settings, the focus is on close collaboration and clear, back-and-forth communication. For this reason, the single most critical feature is often an excellent interactive whiteboard that is responsive, allows both people to use it at the same time, and supports different inputs like drawing and typing. To minimize technical problems and build rapport, the software must also provide exceptionally stable audio and video. It is also essential that the tool is extremely simple to join, preferably running directly in a web browser without requiring any downloads. Finally, easy screen sharing is necessary for tasks like reviewing documents or working through problems together.

6) Large Conferences and Webinars

Event organizers and marketers hosting large webinars or virtual conferences need software built to broadcast information to hundreds or thousands of attendees at once. The highest priority is broadcast stability and scalability, ensuring the platform can handle a large audience without crashing or lagging. Because direct interaction is limited, the focus shifts to audience management tools, such as a dedicated Q&A feature that lets moderators organize and answer questions, polling to keep the audience engaged, and strong host controls. These platforms also need built-in registration systems to sign people up and reporting features to get data on attendance and poll responses after the event. Finally, a high-quality recording is essential for distributing the webinar on demand to those who could not attend live.

What Criteria Should You Use to Evaluate Different Software Options?

Knowing which features matter in your specific teaching scenario is crucial. However, selecting the right virtual meeting software involves more than just matching features to your needs. Once you have a shortlist of platforms that seem suitable, you need practical criteria to make the final decision. Let’s look at such factors:

• Ease of Use (for Everyone): A platform might have amazing features, but they’re useless if it’s too complicated for you or your students to operate smoothly. So choose software that comes with simple and straightforward interface. Our recommendation is Conduct pilot tests with real teachers and students representing different technical skill levels to get genuine feedback on usability before making a commitment.
• Technical Support & Vendor Partnership: Technology isn’t perfect, and issues will occasionally arise. When they do – perhaps right before a crucial class or during an important training session – knowing you have reliable support makes all the difference. So evaluate the vendor’s who provides comprehensive onboarding assistance, readily available training resources, and responsive support.
• Security & Privacy Compliance: In any educational context, protecting student data isn’t just important—it’s a critical legal and ethical obligation. You cannot compromise on this. Ensure the virtual meeting software provider explicitly guarantees compliance with relevant regulations like FERPA, GDPR, COPPA, or HIPAA, depending on your context and location.
• Scalability & Future-Proofing: The software you choose today should support your needs tomorrow. Consider whether the platform can grow with your program or institution. we recommend looking at cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms, as they often excel in scalability and typically handle updates automatically.
• Pricing, Value, and the True Cost: Finally, you need to evaluate the cost, but be cautious—simply comparing monthly subscription fees can be very misleading. To understand the real financial impact, think about the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). This includes not only the license fees but also potential “hidden” costs like implementation charges, mandatory training for staff, IT support time, and the cost of any additional tools needed to fill gaps in the platform’s functionality. When comparing pricing models, we recommend exploring platforms that offer flexible options like concurrent licensing, where you pay only for the maximum number of people using the software simultaneously. This can be significantly more cost-effective than paying for every single potential user if usage varies.

Unlocking Possibilities Beyond the Physical Classroom Meetings

Moving forward, the most important thing is recognizing that the tool itself shapes the teaching. If you’ve felt frustrated by low engagement or the difficulty of managing your class online, the problem may not be your method, but the technology. Trying to force a generic platform to work for a class is exhausting. The right virtual meeting software doesn’t just replicate your physical classroom; it creates a true virtual learning environment and can unlock new possibilities. It allows you to instantly check for understanding, run multiple group discussions at once, and collaborate on a shared project in ways that can be even more efficient than in a physical room.

Get Started with inMeet

If you are looking for a platform that prioritizes simplicity for your students, powerful collaboration tools, and a professional look for your organization, inMeet can be your ideal choice.

It was built to solve the core frustrations of using generic software for a specialized task like education. The platform is built on WebRTC technology, which means it is entirely browser-based. This allows your students or clients to join a session with a single click—no downloads or installations are required, removing a major technical barrier.

To get started and see how a platform designed for education can change your teaching, visit the inMeet website to explore these features.

FAQs

What is a virtual meeting for educators?

A virtual meeting for an educator is an online classroom, not just a business call. It is a space built for teaching, active learning, and student interaction. This is different from a standard meeting, which is made for just sharing information.

Why is virtual meeting software important for educators and trainers?

The right software gives educators tools built for teaching, not just presenting. It provides specific features for student interaction, classroom management, and active learning. Generic meeting platforms often lack these essential tools.

What features should I look for in virtual meeting software for educators?

Look for more than just good video and basic security. You need interactive tools like multi-user whiteboards, built-in quizzes, and breakout rooms. Also, check for strong teacher controls and features that connect to your Learning Management System (LMS).

How can educators conduct effective virtual training sessions?

Educators can be effective by using tools that encourage participation. Use features like live polls and quizzes to check understanding in real-time. Use breakout rooms and shared whiteboards to get students to collaborate instead of just listening.

Which is the best virtual meeting platform for educators and trainers?

The best platform is one designed for education, not business. It depends on your specific needs, such as whether you are teaching K-12 students or training corporate employees. Look for a tool with features that match your teaching goals.

How can virtual meeting software improve student engagement?

The right software improves engagement by giving students active ways to participate. Tools like live polls, non-verbal feedback, and shared whiteboards let students get involved in the lesson. This helps them stay focused and interact with the content.