The best platforms for teaching and learning online. A guide for educators
While learning online, students stay safe at home, save their time, and thus have more opportunities to learn something new. With the right tools, it is possible to organize productive learning environments for various purposes, like language learning, online school lessons, lectures, or webinars.
Various educational platforms have become game-changers today, letting students gain knowledge remotely. For online courses, webinars, and lessons, a reliable platform and communication software are required. In this blog post, we will discuss not only platforms for online courses but also online tools for teachers.
Online teaching tools
Online teaching tools are a variety of applications that can help improve teaching effectiveness. They help engage students and present information. At the same time, with the help of online teaching tools, tutors can better organize their educational process, prepare useful materials, and create online courses. E-learning is a modern trend today. Thus, more and more teachers use online teaching tools to work with students. Let's see what kind of applications can become extremely helpful for remote learning.
Communication tools for online learning
Smooth and reliable communication is important for e-learning. At the same time, file sharing, group video chats, screen sharing, and remote control features are essential for online learning.
Zoom
Zoom breaks down geographical gaps and allows students to participate in classes from any location with an Internet connection. It offers a rich set of collaboration features such as permanent chats, screen sharing, breakout rooms, meeting recording, and interactive whiteboards. At the same time, it is cost-effective and offers a free version that allows video meetings up to 40 minutes.
Zoom has become very popular during the COVID-19 pandemic when users were looking for tools for remote communication, collaboration, and learning.
Virola
Virola is a corporate self-hosted messenger. It can become a secure and reliable communication channel for teachers and students. Virola offers video and audio meetings in private and group chat rooms, permanent conversations, file storage, screen sharing, remote control, and file sharing. Moreover, Virola has a native Task board for tasks and issues tracking. This way, teachers can use Virola not only to organize online classes, but also to assign and track assignments.
Google Meet
Google Meet can be a strong alternative to Zoom, especially for educational organizations using Google Workspace for their needs. It can be seamlessly integrated with Google Classroom and Google Calendar. Google Meet is great for users of Google Workspace, who want to use a browser app, without additional installations. Google Meet is an excellent application for teaching with all the benefits the Google ecosystem can offer.
Online tools for teachers
Teachers who practice online learning require special tools to prepare materials and make their lessons more engaging. For example, they need special apps to make infographics, presentations, and tests.
Canva for education
Canva is a great tool that inspires teachers to make amazing visual materials and engage students. It provides access to premium templates, videos, and images. With Canva, teachers can create virtual classrooms, manage assignments, and collaborate with students. It's an essential tool for teachers who want to make their lessons more engaging and creative.
Padlet
With the help of Padlet, both teachers and students can create boards where they can add images, notes, videos, links, and documents. It's a creative space for efficient collaboration, idea sharing, and group work.
Kahoot
Kahoot is a tool for interactive quiz creation. Teachers can create their own kahoots from scratch or use available ones in the question bank. Kahoot is perfect for homework, review sessions, or remote learning.
Online learning management systems
Various training providers, schools, and universities use learning management systems (LMS) to organize and track learning activities. Teachers can easily organize lessons, share video and audio materials, create assignments, and gather feedback. Today LMS are the digital backbone of modern education. They are used not only for e-learning but also for offline education and corporate training today, replacing paperwork with modern and intuitive applications.
Nearpod
Nearpod allows teachers to create lessons that students can participate in either live or at their own pace. Nearpod works across devices and can be integrated with Google Classroom or MS Teams. It helps teachers to share creative content, actively engage students, and create interactive boards.
Google Classroom
Google Classroom is a free browser-based learning management application. It is part of Google Workspace and integrates with Google Meet, Drive and Calendar apps. It allows creating classrooms and distributing there materials and assignments. Through Google Classroom, teachers can assign tasks, share feedback, and communicate either with a group of students or privately.
Moodle
Moodle is a free, open-source learning management app. Within Moodle, teachers can create quizzes, assignments, and discussion forums. With the help of Course Builder, teachers can add and arrange content, assign tasks, and schedule activities. Moodle also integrates with Kahoot and Zoom. This LMS is one of the most widely used in the world. Teachers and students like Moodle for its flexibility, scalability, and development driven by a powerful community.