In these modern times, everything is possible thanks to the internet. The internet changed our lives and our possibilities and thanks to it we can improve any thing in seconds. Learning has never been so fast and so easy. The internet is a big source of quality information and one of the most attractive fields of knowledge is teaching. There are a lot of things that interest me, but I consider it as one of my biggest passions in life learning new things.
If you are an ESL teacher or want to become one, you might be thinking about how to teach English in China or other countries. However, I am pretty sure that you do not know the detail information about getting teaching license and teaching certification. Maybe after reading the article, you would find it much easier.
Edmodo
Edmodo, this is an online teaching platform with an interface that resembles Facebook. Students can join class pages with a code distributed by the teacher. Within these pages, teachers can post updates, polls, worksheets, and other assignments for students. Since Edmodo is purely for educational purposes, students will not be distracted by irrelevant content while perusing the content on Edmodo.
To facilitate online discussions, teachers may post questions or videos and prompt students to type their opinions in the comments section.
In the folders tab, teachers can also organise and consolidate class materials for students.
Besides engaging students on Edmodo, teachers can also invite parents to the class group. From Edmodo, teachers can send updates and announcements to parents, thus enabling parents to be aware of their child’s progress in school.
Moodle
Moodle allows teachers to create and customise a free site for their classes. On Moodle, teachers can manage students and course materials across various subjects or modules that they teach.
Moodle is a powerful tool for teachers to track whether students are clicking through to view or download class materials. Moodle Analytics can also predict and highlight students who are struggling with course content.
When teachers turn to online learning, they worry that the lack of supervision will lead to lower grades among students. With Moodle, teachers can closely monitor the learning progress of students and thus offer their assistance whenever necessary.
Learnworlds
Best Course Creation Software for Interactive Learning ($24/month)
Learnworlds is a platform that’s best for course creators looking to interact in unique ways with their students.
Think quizzes, gamification, interactive videos, etc.
While the student experience isn’t as nice looking as a Thinkific course, it’s unique in that it offers students more interactive eLearning content.
Pros of Learnworlds:
- Interactive videos, e-books, gamification, and downloadable attachments.
- You can offer free courses.
- Can extract transcripts from your courses.
- A custom domain name and white-labeled content.
- Students can take notes and highlight important points.
- Certificates of completion.
- Custom mobile app on iOS for course.
- The ability to create coupons and discounts.
- Social media integrations.
- A new analytics platform to optimize your sales.
- The ability to create membership sites.
- A strong knowledge base.
- 24/7 support.
Pricing:
- Starter ($24/month paid annually): one admin, $5 fee per course sale, custom domain, unlimited courses, page builder tool, 4 payment gateways, coupons, and drip feed courses.
- Pro Trainer ($79/month): Starter features, plus no transaction fees, 5 admin accounts, subscriptions and memberships, custom checkout pages, live classes via Zoom and Webex, assignments, and affiliate management.
- Learning Center ($249/month): Pro Trainer features, plus a branded corporate academy, premium cloud servers, flexible invoicing, premium support, and premium account manager.
Edpuzzle
With Edpuzzle, you can create interactive video lessons with embedded audio notes, assessments, and quizzes. Its analytics tool enables you to track how students are watching your videos and if they understand the content.
WeTransfer
The answer to your prayers. Transfer large files easily to colleagues and keep your ideas moving. It’s free and does not even require you to create an account. Just upload files, enter the recipient’s email and you’re away.
Google Meet
Google Meet for teachers is another popular software application for online tutors, virtual teachers and anyone conducting classes online because of its integration with Google’s suite of other apps like Google Classroom and Google Drive.
Google Meet offers the following free options for its users:
- Share screen to your students
- Adjust your layouts
- Group classes up to 1 hour
- Chat with students in the chatbox
- And other normal features of a virtual video conferencing platform
Anyone with a Google account can create a video meeting or virtual class of up to 100 students (participants) and meet up to 60 minutes for free.
If you are conducting one-on-one tutoring classes, you can spend up to 24 hours together (but why would you?!).
GoToMeeting
GoToMeeting, as stated on their website, puts the “class in online classes.”
They are an up-and-coming competitor to some of the larger video platforms because of how they gear their functions to suit teachers and students in an online class.
With their free account, you can expect:
- Personal URLs for students to join the class
- Instant messaging, file sharing & screen sharing
- Powerful mobile capabilities for students
- Clean and simple interface with powerful functions
Unfortunately, their free version is quite limiting but it will allow you 40-minute classes/meetings but with only up to 3 participants.
GoToMeeting free would be perfect for independent tutors who have 1-3 students and classes under 40 minutes.
iSpring Free
iSpring Free is an eLearning authoring tool that allows you to turn boring PowerPoint presentations into mobile-compatible online courses with quizzes. The main advantage of the tool is its simplicity. Its intuitive interface enables any novice course developer to create an unlimited number of courses quickly and easily.
Kahoot
Kahoot is a game-based learning platform that lets you create fun learning games. You can make quizzes on any topic and in any language, and customize those quizzes with videos, diagrams, and images. Students participate in “kahoots” (games) by logging the game codes on their device or application.
Canva
A brilliant, free graphic design tool you can use to create educational visuals and infographics for the classroom. It couldn’t be more intuitive and is loved by both beginners and experts alike. We guarantee you’ll be hooked.
Zoom
Zoom is probably the most popular online software in the market for holding meetings, classes and online get-togethers, especially since the start of the pandemic.
Zoom offers the following to their users:
- Chat function to
- chat with your whole class or individual students
- Breakout rooms to separate students into groups for discussions
- Share screen function to share your screen or allow students to share their screen
- A built-in whiteboard with text and drawing features to share with your students.
The free version allows up to 100 participants, unlimited one-on-one meetings but a limit of only 40 minutes for group meetings.
Zoom is a great option for teachers who need a platform to teach their students since this app is used worldwide and most people are comfortable and familiar with its functions.
EdApp
EdApp’s new public microlearning courseware platform Educate All is free for teachers, students and anyone else on the planet who has a desire to learn. Together with UNITAR, EdApp is redefining what we mean by ‘team micro teaching’ by creating a true global village of educators.
EdApp’s authoring tool is an excellent way to effectively educate your learners with vital knowledge and skills. EdApp’s content library is populated with course topics ranging from addressing global challenges, leadership and entrepreneurship to hospitality and physical exercise. Powerful learner metrics are available for learner assessment, and EdApp’s Brain Boost spaced repetition feature is next to none. You can access EdApp’s mobile-based LMS for free!
Seesaw
Seesaw is a digital portfolio app that captures student work through the use of photos, videos, and audio. This free teacher tool enables students to showcase their work and collaborate with their peers. Using the Seesaw blog platform, students gain an authentic sense of authorship and are able to share ideas and feedback constructively in a safe teacher-moderated space.
The app is also a fantastic way of enhancing parent-school engagement (which we all know is a key factor in positive student outcomes), as they are able to sign in with QR codes. The reflective opportunities Seesaw provides is my favourite feature. By getting students to reflect on teacher feedback, it completes the learning loop—essentially promoting ‘feeding forward’ rather than feedback as an effective learning model.
Baamboozle
This is another free online game site. Its main advantage is that it’s set up so that students can play online in teams, but they don’t have to go into different breakout rooms. In other words, students can select a question to answer and talk among themselves in front of others to determine the correct answer (other students are waiting for their turn to choose another question). If that explanation is a bit confusing, it will be very clear once you go to the site itself.
Quizizz
This is a free online learning game site that is incredibly easy to use, has zillions of already-made games on just about every topic that are fun activities for reinforcement and formative assessment, and has recently added a simplified Nearpod-like feature (for those of you familiar with that popular tool) called student-paced “Lessons.” My students love playing Quizizz games in teams divided into separate Zoom breakout rooms. Unlike other game sites, students can see the question and the possible answers on the same screen and don’t have to split them into two.
Math Learning Center
This virtual manipulative website is a staple in mathematics classrooms where students interact with familiar manipulatives such as base 10 blocks. Teachers can customize the site by creating problems, saving templates, and sharing private links with students. The best part is that the tools encourage flexible thinking as students explore multiple ways to model their understanding.
Conclusion:
There are many free online teaching tools that enable you to do your part as a teacher in spite of the lack of funding and training at schools. Fortunately some innovative educational tech companies have emerged with amazing tools for teachers to use. How can online teaching tools and best platforms help teachers? These tools can be used to enhance the learning experience for both teacher and student.