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Open Source Virtual Classroom Software: Whiteboard, Breakout Rooms, Polls & More

· 7 min read
Bob Teng
Bob Teng
Developer Advocate
Chaboud Simon
Chaboud Simon
Community & Marketing Lead

When you search for virtual classroom software, you're not looking for another generic video meeting tool. You're looking for an online classroom where you can teach: explain on a whiteboard, split students into small groups, run a quick quiz, decide who can speak and share, and continue the lesson right inside Moodle or your school platform.

Generic meetings give you video tiles and chat. A real virtual classroom helps you teach the way you teach in person: show, discuss in groups, check understanding, take notes together and keep the class focused — all in one private room you control.

That's what plugNmeet is built for: open source virtual classroom software with shared whiteboard, breakout rooms, quiz-style polls, shared notes, waiting room, simple class controls and Moodle integration. Free to use, private by design, with your own logo and colors.

What makes virtual classroom software different?​

A meeting connects people. A classroom helps them learn. That needs a different toolset:

  1. Teach visually: a multi-user interactive whiteboard where you can write and mark over your lesson files, not just share your screen.
  2. Work in small groups: breakout rooms where each group keeps the same tools — whiteboard, notes, audio and video.
  3. Check understanding live: short quizzes and polls with instant results, not messy chat answers.
  4. Take notes together: shared class notes everyone can follow and review later.
  5. Keep the class focused: a waiting room, hand raising, and simple controls for sound, camera, chat and screen sharing.
  6. Stay in your course: launch the class from Moodle or your learning platform — with attendance and grades.
  7. Keep student data private: your classes and one-file-per-lesson MP4 recordings stay on your own system, not someone else's cloud.

Here's how plugNmeet covers all seven — no technical skills needed. Optional AI helpers just save time: type-to-diagram on the whiteboard and quick writing help in shared notes.

1. Interactive whiteboard the whole class can use together​

The whiteboard is the heart of any online classroom. Ours is a multi-user interactive whiteboard built right into the class — no extra window, no delay.

You can write, draw shapes, arrows and text, and open your lesson files (PDF, slides, Word documents) directly on the board. Show a worksheet and circle answers together, highlight key points on a slide, or let students draw and write with you at the same time. Need a diagram in a hurry? Just type what you want to show — for example a flowchart for your lesson — and the built-in AI helper creates an editable starting drawing you can explain and change together. Need quiet while you explain? Lock the board to view-only with one click. And it works the same inside small-group rooms.

Read more in the integrated whiteboard experience.

2. Breakout rooms where groups can really work​

Splitting a large class into small groups turns quiet listeners into active participants — pair discussions, group projects, peer review, problem solving.

With plugNmeet you create rooms in one click, split students automatically or place them yourself, set a timer, send messages to all rooms ("5 minutes left!"), drop in to help, and bring everyone back automatically. And every small group gets a complete mini-classroom: its own whiteboard, shared notes, polls, audio, video and screen sharing.

You can even send your whiteboard pages, notes and polls into the group rooms so nobody starts from a blank page. See mastering breakout rooms and anatomy of a perfect online workshop.

3. Quick quizzes and hand raising​

Asking "any questions?" in chat usually gives you silence. Simple class activities give you answers.

Make a quiz or poll in seconds, let students vote — anonymously if you like — watch answers come in live, then share a clear results chart with the class. Use it to check a concept before moving on, ask if the pace is "too fast / just right / too slow", vote on what to review next, or run an exit ticket. Pair it with raise hand for orderly questions — students signal without interrupting, and you call on them when ready.

Details: engaging your audience with live polls.

4. Shared class notes everyone can follow​

Take class notes where the class happens. The shared notes panel sits inside the room, so teacher and students can write summaries, key points, homework and links together — with clean headings and formatting, no extra document to pass around.

Running short on time? The built-in writing helper can continue your draft, tidy grammar, simplify wording, or turn long notes into a short study summary you can share after class. Every small group also gets its own notes page inside breakout rooms.

5. Simple class controls: waiting room and sound/camera rules​

An online classroom needs the same routines as a physical one: close the door, set speaking rules, bring focus back.

  • Waiting room: see who's waiting, let students in one by one or all together, and keep strangers out.
  • Simple sound and camera rules: mute the class while you present, pause cameras in big classes to reduce distraction, pause chat during explanations and reopen it for questions, and keep screen sharing teacher-only until a student needs to present.
  • Team teaching friendly: one person can welcome and manage students while another presents the lesson — great for large classes.

Start with our moderator guide to room lock settings and how to secure your online classroom. The full step-by-step reference is in the Moderator Guide.

6. Inside Moodle and your learning platform — with attendance insights​

The best virtual classroom lives where your course already is. plugNmeet opens directly inside Moodle as a class activity — same look, same calendar, same attendance and grades — and also works with other school platforms, WordPress and Joomla sites for courses and cohorts.

You can also see simple participation insights: who attended, who joined polls and whiteboard activities, who spoke, and whether a weak connection affected anyone. This is optional, private to your school, and off unless you choose to turn it on.

Start here: Moodle video conferencing guide, no-code video conferencing with Moodle, classroom analytics for educators, and docs for Moodle integration. Switching tools? See our BigBlueButton comparison and migration tutorial.

7. Private, with every lesson saved as one simple video file​

Student classes shouldn't depend on someone else's servers. plugNmeet can run on your school's own system with a simple setup, your recordings save as a single MP4 video file per lesson in your own storage — easy to replay, download or share — private 1-to-1 conversations stay private, and video quality adjusts automatically so lessons keep going on weak Wi-Fi. Our recording philosophy is simple: one file per lesson, and it looks exactly like the live class.

For privacy and setup details see the Security Overview and installation guide.

Conclusion: stop meeting, start teaching​

If you're comparing virtual classroom software, don't settle for video tiles with a whiteboard link. Choose an open source classroom that gives you a teaching whiteboard, complete small-group rooms, quick quizzes, shared notes, waiting room and simple controls, Moodle integration, participation insights and private hosting — in one room.

plugNmeet is free, open source and used in classes, workshops and webinars. The same simple room also powers open source webinars.

Ready to run your online classroom?