Online Education Resources for Teachers

The internet has been a source of information for a long time now. That’s why people find it helpful to use the internet as a form of learning. There are a number of online learning platforms available today. These days, you can take a lot of courses online, and a few of them are even free.

Here are some guidelines towards acquiring educational resouces for teaching.

Remote Teaching Tools 

Familiarizing yourself with how the tool or platform that you use works, is as important as selecting the correct tool. 

Explore each tool and learn ways to maximize its utility to create a better teaching experience.  Your students will depend on you to instruct them on how to use the platform themselves.  

There’s a range of remote teaching software available out there, and from them, we have chosen the best ones and categorized them based on their primary purpose.

Online Communication Tools

Effective communication is the key to successful teaching and learning, whether in a physical classroom or a virtual classroom. However, maintaining online communication with not one, but over twenty students is undoubtedly challenging.

Communication platforms help overcome it; they enable communication with larger groups, with video conferencing, instant messaging, audio calls, virtual rooms, and more, with any device and from anywhere. 

Some of the tools in demand are,

For a better teaching experience with these tools,  

  • Create an agenda or a plan for each online class and share it prior to the lesson  
  • Clearly explain the online etiquette students should follow during the class and what is expected of them prior to or at the beginning of the lesson 
  • Have all microphones, except for the person who is speaking, muted. This helps cancel out the distracting noises and retain the focus of the students. Anyone who needs to speak can make a gesture to catch the attention of the speaker without interrupting them.
  • When delivering a presentation or sharing an image, document or file, give some time for students to take down notes, to view or go through them.

Online Whiteboards 

Online whiteboards or digital whiteboards help emulate the classroom whiteboard/ blackboard experience with the students. Most of these tools offer an infinite canvas with shape libraries for creating different types of diagrams, charts, graphs, and other visualization purposes (i.e. creating posters, graphic organizers, etc.).  

Creately is widely used by educators for a variety of purposes: 

Creately Editor - Creately for Online Teaching Tools
  • As an online whiteboard where teachers and students can collaborate on the same canvas as they visualize ideas, concepts, etc. Moreover, students and teachers can connect via in-app video conferencing and track changes each other makes with real-time mouse tracking and change previews. 
  • Create a variety of diagrams and visuals (i.e. dichotomous key diagrams, graphic organizerslesson plans, etc.) needed for presentations, lessons, assignments, etc.  
  • To share documents with students and colleagues for their output and feedback (with in-line comments) 

Work Planning Tools

Maintaining a work schedule is even more important when you are working from home; especially during stressful times, a solid routine can help maximize the use of your time. You can use time management and scheduling apps like Google Calendar and Calendly to streamline: 

  • Creating schedules to use in  your online classes or for personal use  
  • Creating schedules of online classes and keep everyone notified of dates and times.  
  • Scheduling appointments with parents and students; avoid double-booking a slot 
  • Inviting parents, students or colleagues for online events (i.e. webinars) 
  • Creating lesson plans and sharing them with students, administrators, and colleagues. 

Learn how to create a lesson plan using Google Calendar here.

Social Media Channels

Social media channels provide a great platform for teachers, students and parents to stay connected. 

Channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, etc. allow the creation of exclusive communities or groups teachers can leverage on to  

  • Communicate and maintain presence after online class hours  
  • Share and store important information, presentations, and resources related to lessons 
  • Conduct Q&A sessions 
  • Encourage students to maintain communication among themselves and engage with each other while studying or doing homework  
  • Conduct live events such as webinars (with Facebook or Instagram Live)

Document Management Tools 

From test papers to lesson plans, there’s an array of documents teachers have to maintain regularly. A central location to store, organize, and manage all these documents is essential to properly keep track of them, especially when you are teaching remotely.  

Tools such as GSuiteMS officeOneDriveDropbox, and Evernote simplify the process of maintaining the documents you own. 

  • Store all documents, files, etc. in the cloud which allows you and your students to access them with any device from anywhere 
  • Neatly organize documents in relevant folders and subfolders making it easy to retrieve them 
  • Quickly share files and documents with anyone with a single link or as a file. You can also adjust permission settings, changing them to Edit, View, and Suggesting mode on GSuite apps.
  • Collaborate with students on editing and reviewing documents, add comments and suggestions and track changes with version history

Online Video Tools

YouTube and Loom are great online video tools for creating and sharing videos with your students. You can use these tools in a number of ways; 

  • Record your online classes or lectures and share them with students 
  • Students can re-watch the videos if they were absent or during exam revisions. You can also have the video recorded prior to the lesson and have it shared with the students when you are on leave  
  • If you are teaching the same lesson to different classes, you can make use of a pre-recorded lesson to avoid repetitive teaching 
  • Encourage students to learn independently with pre-recorded video lessons. The chance of students learning a concept better is higher when they understand it on their own 
  • Share links to existing video resources online

Online Quiz Makers

Whether you are teaching online or in a physical classroom, quizzes are a great way to check a student’s performance.  Online quiz makers make it easy to, 

  •  Create, format, and share assessments online
  •  Create answer sheets which allows you to easily track and score answers of each student 

There is a plethora of online quiz makers that are both free and paid, starting from Google Forms.

Find more useful online quiz makers here.

Online Homework Platforms 

One thing that is most challenging when teaching from home is keeping track of students’ homework. 

Homework can come in different forms; essays, speeches, tests, etc.  You can use a combination of the platforms above to get students to submit their homework. 

  • Google Docs – for essays and other written assignments 
  • Zoom, Skype, and other video conferencing apps – for verbal assignments 
  • Loom, YouTube, PreziGoogle Slides – for videos and presentations 
  • Google Classroom – Distribute assignments, grade and send feedback.

Visme

online teaching tools - 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.

online teaching tools - weekly class schedule presentation template

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.

online teaching tools - lesson plan template

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.

online teaching tools - report card

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.

online teaching tools - teachers photography certificate template

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:

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.

online teaching tools - idea web mind map template

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.

online teaching tools - education presentation template history timeline

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.

online teaching tools - history timeline infographic template

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.

Watch the video below to learn more about graphic organizers and how to create one.

Conclusion

One of the most important goals in an online education is to make learning enjoyable. One way to do this is by making sure that students are finding engaging resources they can access anytime.

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