Online teaching tools and resources make it easy to get your message out to potential students. It can also help you make a real difference here at home or in the classroom.The more you know about what tools to use, how to use them effectively and how they can help your students, the more effective you will be when teaching online. These example of online teaching tools will show you some options for finding those tools, learning how to use them effectively, and even making a difference in a sometimes lagging area of learning.
As a higher education professional, you are probably aware of free online teaching tools available to you and your students. These tools can be used in a variety of ways, either to increase the efficiency of classroom exercises or to create online learning opportunities for your students.
These online teaching aids can help prepare you for the many different possibilities that accompany teaching online. Not only are these tools helpful for students and teachers, but can also be accessed by local departments or used by instructors. Take a look at the many available options.
If you love teaching, incorporate these Online Teaching Tools at your lessons. For example, you can use blogs and social networking sites to engage students. You will notice a positive change once are done with your first lesson.
Uses of Online Teaching Resources
Here’s how the use of online teaching resources might look on a typical day:
- Present the class with teaching material using a series of examples. You can share a document, an embedded recording, a podcast or a combination of all three.
- Assign practice activities and give feedback. Online flashcards and interactive games are good ways to accomplish this step.
- Dive deeper into the topic. Have students interact on a shared blog or create and record dialogues and skits.
- Assign further practice and homework exercise. Consider an online worksheet aligned to your content standards.
Visme
Visme is an online design tool that anyone can use to create presentations, infographics, concept maps, schedules, reports and more.
It’s packed with tons of features, like free photos and graphics, customization options and an easy drag-and-drop editor that both non-designers and designers love to use.
Many tools are directed either at the educator or the student. In the case of Visme, our integrated design tools benefit both.
How Visme Can Help Teachers
Teachers are always creating content for their students to learn with. From slide presentations to fillable worksheets and more. With a Visme education license, teachers and students can use the tool together for a creative and interactive educative experience.
Below are some of the solutions Visme offers for educators at any level.
- Interactive content as presentations and infographics
- Visual posters and infographics
- Webinar materials
- Interactive schedules
- Syllabus and lesson plans
- Printable lists and worksheets
- Embed third-party content like quizzes and forms
- Share news about a class on social media or email
- Personalized report cards
- Personalized certificates
To help you get started, here are some handpicked Visme templates for teachers. Click on the button below each template to customize it for your own use.
Class Schedule Template
Create a class schedule in the form of a presentation and share it with your students to help them stay on track with their weekly lessons.
This class schedule template is designed with engaging colors and visuals to make it easier for students to remember the information.
Customize this presentation template and make it your own!Edit and Download
Lesson Plan Template
Use a template to create a fully visual lesson plan to share with your students.
Simply input all your information and download it as a PDF or image. It’s easy to then import into your LMS or send it to students via email.
Customize this template and make it your own!Edit and Download
Report Card Template
At the end of each semester, show students their grades by adding a little fun.
Use this report card template to input each student’s final results and inspire them to continue performing well for the rest of the year.
Customize this template and make it your own!Edit and Download
Certificate of Completion Template
If your course isn’t part of a school curriculum, you can still instill a sense of accomplishment in your students with a certificate of completion or achievement certificate.
Use this template to add your course information and personalize it with the student’s name.
Customize this template and make it your own!Edit and Download
How Visme Can Help Students
Visme also helps students get their work done for their online classes. Teachers can assign all sorts of assignments to be created with the tool.
Below are some ways students can use Visme:
- Book report presentations or infographics
- Research projects for any topic as presentations or infographics
- Graphic organizers for research and mind-mapping
- Venn diagrams for comparisons
Here are some useful Visme templates for students at the school or university level. Click on the button below each template to customize it for your own use.
Idea Web / Mind Map Template
Students thrive with graphic organizers and visual mind mapping tools. Visme makes it easy and fun to create idea webs, flowcharts and mind maps. This idea web template is perfect for finding similarities between two different topics.
Customize this infographic template and make it your own!Edit and Download
Presentation Template
Research projects and book reports have been assigned as presentations since we can all remember. Help your students create better presentations with our Visme templates for students.
Customize this presentation template and make it your own!Edit and Download
Timeline Infographic Template
Many assignments involve understanding how things happened over time. This type of visual can be apple to projects for history, literature, and social studies.
By creating a timeline infographic, students understand the process of the topic and enjoy creating it along the way.
Customize this infographic template and make it your own!Edit and Download
WIth Visme you can also create any type of graphic organizer from scratch using the free design tools that come built-in with the editor.
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.
Zoom
You might know Zoom from business meetings but did you know that it also works great for online teaching?
There are two ways of using Zoom; Meetings and Webinars. The most suited for interactive online teaching is Zoom Meetings, while Zoom Webinars is better for lectures. Teachers can choose with which to work at any given time.
Zoom Meetings have practical features that make online teaching easier, such as breakout rooms. These help teachers separate the students into groups, much like you would do in a normal classroom setting.
Each group can communicate with each other and the teacher can be notified to come in and help if needed. Since Zoom became so popular for distance learning, many other online teaching tools have incorporated seamless integrations.
Edmodo
Edmodo is an educational tool that connects teachers and students, and is assimilated into a social network. In this one, teachers can create online collaborative groups, administer and provide educational materials, measure student performance, and communicate with parents, among other functions. Edmodo has more than 34 million users who connect to create a learning process that is more enriching, personalized, and aligned with the opportunities brought by technology and the digital environment.
Socrative
Designed by a group of entrepreneurs and engineers passionate about education, Socrative is a system that allows teachers to create exercises or educational games which students can solve using mobile devices, whether smartphones, laptops, or tablets. Teachers can see the results of the activities and, depending on these, modify the subsequent lessons in order to make them more personalized.
Projeqt
Projeqt is a tool that allows you to create multimedia presentations, with dynamic slides in which you can embed interactive maps, links, online quizzes, Twitter timelines, and videos, among other options. During a class session, teachers can share with students academic presentations which are visually adapted to different devices.
Prodigy Math Game
Prodigy Math Game is an adaptive learning platform for grades 1 to 8. Aligned to curriculum across the United States and around the world, you can be confident that students will stay engaged and learning no matter where they are.
Use your free teacher dashboard to easily differentiate math practice, send home assessment and get real-time insights into how students are learning — no grading required.
Pear Deck
Pear Deck is a Google Slides add-on that helps teachers create engaging slides and support student interaction. Teachers can create presentations from scratch or add interactive questions to existing presentations.
Pear Deck has amazing features including a dashboard that’s available on a phone or tablet, the ability to show or hide student responses, features that let you send personalized notes to individual students and fun audio files to add to presentations.
Flipgrid
Flipgrid is a fun way to get a conversation started. Simply post a topic and foster discussions within your learning community. It’s a great way to get students interested in new ideas, excited to learn and engaging with their peers!
Transform Your Online Classroom into an Online Experience
It can be overwhelming to think of trying out all the new online teaching tools that come across your radar from year to year. But the best online teaching resources, like the ones mentioned here, will remain fresh and exciting for years to come. As a result, you can create more engaging activities that enhance the interactive element of online learning.
Conclusion
Learning online, whether as a learning volunteer or as a teacher, is a growing trend that is easy to get behind. Not only does it free up time for busy families and people with full-time jobs, but it provides an opportunity for individuals to learn at their own pace and in the words that make sense to them. In other words, there are several advantages to taking an online class or learning through an online program… the best part of all? You can leave when you want!
Fact is, not everyone can learn the same way or at the same time.Maybe you’ve had a class schedule where you’re learning in a traditional classroom setting-a place where students sit in rows and take notes on what the teacher is writing on the board or lecturing about. These are likely the kinds of teaching tools that many teachers are used to using like textbooks, worksheets, lecturing with slides and videos, and timed tests.