You’re probably here because you aren’t sure what online tools will work best for you and/or your students. Who can really blame you? Online tools are popping up constantly, and it can be hard to keep track of them all. So here’s a list of free online teaching tools, organized by purpose, to help you save some time!
Besides learning, I love to teach. Ever since I started my blog, I’ve been sharing all the tips and tricks that I’ve learned along the way to help other bloggers grow their website. This is a very rewarding experience for me. Therefore, when it comes to online teaching, I am always looking for new tools to help me and my students learn more efficiently while providing the best online education to students from around the world.
StudyBlue Flashcards
This is a one-of-a-kind education app that benefits both students and teachers. It assists in making learning enjoyable and helps teachers ensure that teaching is productive and successful by assisting in the development of digital flashcards, notes, and other study content.
It allows you to keep track of your success, set reminders, and take quizzes, among other things. It also helps in the customization of study materials through the use of photographs and videos.
Features of StudyBlue Flashcards:
- Flashcards on a computer
- Personalize study materials
- Offline mode is available
- Profiles of individuals
Google Classroom
Google Classroom is the low-key most versatile online teaching tool available.
This Learning Management System (LMS) is part of G Suite, which means teachers can use Google apps to create lessons, quizzes and documents all inside Google Classroom.
To use the Google Classroom app, you’ll need a G Suite for Education account. Many schools and teachers transitioned to this LMS when schools were closed due to the pandemic.
For anyone using Google products regularly, Google Classroom is easy to tackle. Inside the app, educators offer the content for the lessons, quizzes, assessments, and tests. They can also communicate with the students and parents via message boards or email.
The best thing about Google Classroom is that you can create all the content for your classes with the software of your choice. For example, you can simply use Google apps to prepare lesson materials or import any visual created with Visme.
In 2020, Google Classroom is easier to integrate with Google Meet, the new version of Google Hangouts. This has made it even easier to conduct an online class.
A Web Whiteboard App
AWW App is the perfect solution for teachers that are used to having a board to write on during class. This is a digital whiteboard where teachers can annotate much like on a regular board.
The integration between AWW and Zoom makes it easier than ever to teach a class online. You can also import PDF and PowerPoint files into AWW. https://www.youtube.com/embed/sWCW2qt7y8M
This app is great for teachers that enjoy explaining things by showing how it’s done.
The boards can be pre-created before a lesson or written on during the lecture. The settings permit students to collaborate or “come up t
Google Slides
Google Slides, while more limiting than Canva, is another easy-to-use, free tool for teachers to use to make lessons, presentations and content for their classroom.
Part of the Google Suite of apps, Google Slides acts as your web-based presentation tool similar to applications like PowerPoint or Keynote.
With a free Google account, you have access to Google Slides and can create unlimited presentations to use in your classroom.
Simply go to Google Drive and make a new Google Slide presentation. You can choose from their pre-made templates or make your own.
Once you have made your presentation template you can add:
- Images
- Text
- Audio
- Video
- Shapes
- Tables
- Charts
- Diagrams
You can customize color, font and all the normal features of a presentation program.
Since it is part of the suite of Google Apps, you can have students create their own presentations collaboratively or individually.
Google slides can also be shared with others with ease of use or you can download them as PDF files.
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.
Calendly
Stay in control of who you meet and when with Calendly, a free calendar booking app. Calendly integrates with your calendar so you are never double-booked – a miracle when teaching – and allows you to save time when booking in your parent-teacher appointments or meetings with colleagues.
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.
Edmodo
No teacher is an island – join Edmodo’s global education network and connect with your fellow teachers and students now. Collaborate in groups, administer and provide educational materials, measure student performance and communicate with parents to create a more personalised and enriching learning experience for both you and your students.
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.
ClassDojo
A favourite among teachers, ClassDojo is a free school communication platform that teachers, students and parents can use every day to build close-knit communities by sharing what’s being learned in the classroom through home photos, videos and messages. Parents can track their child’s progress, and children can showcase their learning. There are also free class behaviour management tools system and lots of added features for teachers too. Check out this free beginner’s guide for teachers to learn what ClassDojo can do for you.
Starfall
Starfall is an online service that was initially designed to teach children to read. Its phonics-based learning model supports online games and print series, which can be downloaded for use at home and in the classroom. Now, it also features animated songs, movies, and mathematics activities for Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Grades 1 to 3.
Schoology
An award-winning learning management system, Schoology allows teachers to create a private social network for their students, parents and colleagues. Communicate with families and students, manage your classroom, collaborate with your colleagues, plus much more.
Asana
Asana is your personal teaching secretary all in one powerful app that gives you control over your tasks, projects and to-do lists.
Essentially, Asana is a productivity management solution for teams, individuals or anyone that needs more control over their tasks.
Teachers will enjoy Asana for a number of reasons.
Firstly, from a simple angle of gaining control over the multitude of to-do’s and projects that teachers need to manage, this app will do it all.
Some ways that teachers can use Asana in their teaching life can include:
- Creating lesson plan tasks with manageable subtasks that have deadlines
- Managing students’ information, progress and other important details
- Helping with teams of teachers to manage projects that need to be completed
- Create online lesson plans that allow teachers to see what parts of the lesson were and weren’t completed
This app is great for teachers in brick-and-mortar schools as well as online teachers who need to gain control over their schedule by focusing on what matters each day.
Additionally, if you are a teacherpreneur building your own online teaching business, Asana will be your go-to place to make sure that everything in your business is running smoothly.
With the free account, teachers will be able to create projects and tasks through a variety of different layouts.
Trello
Trello is another online productivity app that works similar to Asana but has some differences.
Trello is a collaboration tool that lets you organize your projects into boards.
It can tell you what’s being worked on and where your tasks are in terms of the completion process.
Of course, it also lets you add to-do lists, tasks and other similar features to Asana.
Quizlet
Quizlet is a free tool that helps teachers create learning activities for students, like flashcards, study material and interactive quiz games.
The amazing thing about Quizlet is that it can really be used at any grade level and any age! Students love the game-based feature of Quizlet and you are helping them get prepared for assessments without even realizing it.
So, let’s take a look at how it works:
- You, as the teacher, create study sets for your students.
- These study sets can be used as review activities or it can be a quiz game to help students review for a test.
- The student can log in and choose the appropriate study set, either created by the teacher or by others.
That’s it! It’s that easy.
In my opinion, Quizlet is great for students because it allows the teacher to:
- Differentiate instruction with the activities that you create
- Teach collaborative skills because students are working together
- Help prepare students for assessments and tests
Quizlet, while is a great free tool for teachers, does have limitations and should be used as one resource in your classroom among the many others that you have access to.
Canva
Canva is amazing! It is a free tool, although there are premium features you can pay for that lets you create just about anything for your classroom.
You can create and design all types of content within Canva using their free account that looks professional and can be used with your students in your virtual classroom, or brick-and-mortar classroom.
Think of Canva as your easy-to-use plug-and-play design assistant.
Do you need a presentation? Do you need a cover slide for something?
Let’s look at how teachers can use Canva as a free tool to create lessons for their students.
Canva lets teachers create:
- Worksheets
- Lesson plans
- Presentations
- Posters
- Virtual backgrounds (for Zoom, etc.)
- Documents
- Teaching resume
- Infographics
…and so much more!
Look no further than Canva for your go-to tool to design just about anything you need.
Conclusion:
If you teach an online course, you know how complicated it can be to track everybody’s activity. After all, it’s not like students will walk into your class to ask a question. Fortunately, many websites provide useful tools that can make coursework much easier to manage. You can use some of these tools to build assignments, to organize discussions and even to exchange messages with your students.