The sudden transition to remote learning has forced many teachers and students into a new setup inundated with a lot of challenges, from not having proper internet access to selecting the right tools to overcome the boundaries of online classes.
We recognize that educators are being challenged to think outside of the box to support their students the best way they possibly can, so we selected five tools to help enhance your experience with online learning.
Go through the list and choose the ideal online teaching tools for your remote teaching and learning goals.
Explain Everything
Explain Everything has everything you need to create presentations, videos, and sketch notes. It’s a complete online and mobile whiteboard app that works on Android, Chromebook, and iPad.
It has been proven that teaching and explaining concepts are more effective when done using interactive and engaging content. Below are some of the functions Explain Everything has to create lessons for students at home.
- Create a video format to assign homework with instructions
- Make a summary of a lesson by outlining the most important features, use different media formats, and add your voice as narration
- Make videos for students to better understand each lesson
Teachers will be able to encourage students more by giving them interactive tutorials and group activities. There’s a free version for teachers and students that includes:
- Usage in any device
- Collaboration with voice chat
- Sharing web video links
- Up to three projects
You can choose between two upgrade options in Explain Everything, both of which come with additional features.
Educreations
Teachers can benefit so much from using creative tools like Educreations so they can share ideas, collaborate with students, and also learn new things.
Start bringing engaging content to students by creating video tutorials and recording your voice. These are the features you can take advantage of:
- Sharing videos with students
- Automatically save videos to your account
- Embed videos on your website
- Display custom maps
- Insert any web page
- Import documents and pictures from your computer, Dropbox, or Google Drive
Educreation’s tools are built to support digital classrooms while also allowing students to make their videos to show their teachers what they’ve picked up from the lesson.
A basic subscription will give access to:
- Email support
- 50MB of storage space
- The ability to save one draft at a time
- Using basic whiteboard tools
- Creating and joining classes
- Sharing and recording lessons
You can upgrade your basic plan to Pro Classroom or Pro School, which gives access to:
- Increased or unlimited storage
- Unlimited drafts
- Importing documents, maps, and other files
- Exporting videos
FlexClip
FlexClip is a free tool that allows teachers to build creative visual aids or videos. Currently, it’s only available in Google Chrome.
You can use FlexClip’s online editor to make transitions, add text, videos, and pictures. You can make use of the ready-made templates too, or create a presentation from scratch if you will.
FlexClip is easy to use and versatile in functionality. Here are the things you can do:
- Select video assets from the media library
- Zoom and split videos
- Change the aspect ratio
- Merge videos
- Trim videos
- Add text and music
The free version includes:
- Maximum of 12 projects
- SD downloads
- Videos up to one minute
- One stock video per project
Upgrading your plan to Basic or Plan Options will give you access to longer videos, custom watermarks, and HD downloads.
Blendspace
Blendspace uses Tes Teach app-based tools for students from preschool through 12th grade. This tool helps teachers design interactive presentations, projects, and other digital lessons. Signing up for a free account is easy via Facebook, Google, or you can sign up manually using your email and creating a password.
To start making lessons, simply type your topic into the search bar and wait for Tes Teach to find images, videos, and other related content from a list of sources including Google, YouTube, and other Tes teachers.
Your search will turn up either paid or free teaching resources. Choose your topic and drag and drop it into your lesson. You can also upload files directly from your device.
To type directly into your lesson, simply use the Add Text button. The text editor has advanced formatting options. There’s also an Add Quiz option to include it with your lesson. Now you won’t have to do it manually.
After you’re done with your work, Tes Teach is there to help you keep track of likes, comments, and the responses of your students. There are lots of options to help teachers evaluate student performance and engagement.
Socrative for K-12
For teachers who don’t want to have a difficult time keeping their lessons in line with the K-12 curriculum, the Socrative app is the best way to go.
With Socrative, you can create engaging learning materials and incorporate different kinds of exercises, competitions, quizzes, and games. Here are the things you can do:
- Share quizzes with students using a unique code
- Create virtual classrooms to launch activities
- Save reports for a quick transfer, download, and email options
- Use the instant results to determine the next steps in instruction
- Review students to gauge if they understand certain topics
- See each students’ answers in real-time
The free version of Socrative includes:
- Space race assessment
- Instant questioning
- Launching one activity at a time
- One public classroom
- 50 students per room
Upgrade to Pro for $60 per year to gain access to:
- Importing an Excel or CSC roster
- A countdown timer for Space Race
- Launch up to 20 activities at a time
- Up to 20 private or public classrooms
Learning is fun when students are engaged in fun activities. With Socrative, teachers, and parents which students need more help. You can use it on any kind of device and students can access teaching materials from their laptops, tablets, computers, and even their smartphones.
Another version of Socrative for $100 is recommended for higher education and corporations.
Make Learning Fun
Continuing to guide students through lessons, particularly in ways that are entertaining and exciting for the students, is an important part of keeping the learning going while being home. These resources will help you build your online classes.
Remember to begin quickly and expand from there while using distance learning resources. With distance learning, you can be imaginative and give encouragement and fun lessons from home to your pupils. The options for entertaining lessons and immersive tasks are infinite, from embedding videos to live instruction.