There are many online tools for learning, studying, and teaching. Indeed, there are online learning tools for students and teachers; there are also technological tools that provide live access to experts and instructors.
This article specifically focuses on what are online learning tools.
Blackboard
If an open-source K-12 solution is your goal, Blackboard may be your best option. Already a leader in providing assignment and grading tools for the college educator community, Blackboard continues to expand to meet the need for increasing digital elementary and high school student education.By signing up to try the Blackboard’s CourseSites open community, you can try out the Learn, Collaborate, SafeAssign, and Ally features. The streamlined delivery helps make this a top choice for teachers who want to learn within a supportive community before they go on to a paid learning management system (LMS).Cost of Blackboard:
- 30-day trial: Free
- Ongoing account: Contact Blackboard for a quote
Coursera
For high school students and college-ready learners who want to challenge themselves, there’s nothing like Coursera. This platform is a notable provider of massive open online courses (MOOC), and it even offers degrees and certificates in some cases. Stream a variety of on-demand lectures in a wide range of courses, including professors at Yale and company leaders at IBM and Google. This growing platform provides a new way to consume course material on some of the most challenging topics.Cost of Coursea:
- Free to colleges until July 2020
- Contact Coursera for details regarding high schools
Canvas
Canvas is a learning management platform that’s used by over 30% of higher ed communities. It’s becoming a top provider for K-12 learning, too. It’s also an open-source option, with several different built-in tools that handle the needs of remote students, teachers, and parents.This app-friendly system allows parents to see what assignments their kids need to do, and it provides data metrics for administrators to use for performance improvements.Cost of Canvas:
- Basic account: Free to students and teachers
- Full account: Schools and districts should contact Canvas for a quote
Edpuzzle
Edpuzzle helps teachers “make any video a lesson.” Use your own videos or source from a variety of websites, including YouTube and Khan Academy. Then, add commentary and comprehension questions to personalize it for your students.Students are assigned videos to watch, but there’s accountability and assessment integrity included, too. See who is viewing the videos along with their interaction with it.Then you can use that data to see who may need a little extra help. This service is free for teachers and students and is a solid self-paced option for students who can’t attend “live” sessions.Cost of Edpuzzle:
- Basic account: Free to students and teachers
- Premium account: Schools and districts should contact Edpuzzle for a quote
Khan Academy
This popular free learning destination is a hit among parents and educators. Get access to world-class courses with instructional videos in everything from 1st grade math to high school economics. Khan Academy even provides PSAT and SAT prep with standards that align with top colleges and universities.The video-based courses include practice questions and quizzes, along with guided placement to help struggling learners find the right course for them. Teachers can access the entire course catalog, then set up classrooms where they invite students. Grading is automatic, but teachers can create and customize assignment dates and learning objectives to meet changing classroom needs.Cost of Khan Academy:
- Free non-profit
- Donations accepted
Peardeck — is one of the mainstays of my synchronous classes. Engagement is in real time and responses from all students are immediately visible. The add-on tool is available in Google Slides, and Peardeck tools may be added to individual Slides. Another great feature is that the Peardeck platform saves class sessions. Teachers may revisit student responses and use them as formative assessments.
If you are new to Peardeck, students log in through joinpd.com and with a code created for each deck. After all students have logged in, the teacher clicks “start lesson.” The students respond using various tools like polls, drawing tools for matching, multiple-choice answers, and free response fill-in-the-blank. Students’ names are anonymous, but teachers may check student names later in the saved Peardeck session on the Peardeck site. (In a synchronous lesson, the Peardeck is screen-shared.)
One of the ways I used Peardeck recently with my ELD 2 (high intermediate students) was in a real-time class with a Google Slide word bank about our class mascot, my cat Bubba. (Bubba visits my at-home work space very often and has become quite a virtual celebrity.) On this particular Peardeck response, ELD students created short paragraphs with a focus on compound sentences and FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)—coordinating conjunctions.
As students wrote for 3-4 minutes, a screen-shared musical electronic timer counted down. My student timekeeper unmuted herself and called time. Then, also while screen sharing, I revealed the “hidden” sentences that students wrote and analyzed each one with the class responding either in the chat box or on mic. I asked questions like: “Do you see a FANBOY?” or “Why is this sentence correct?” “What is the grammar rule?” “How can we connect these sentences?” “Why is this a good example of a compound sentence?” As we “talked,” we gave feedback to the different writers, and students revised or corrected any errors on the Peardeck slide in real time for all to see.
(Included in the Peardeck link above (please make a copy) is my entire slide deck with the Peardeck Bubba word bank, which includes the slides I use to intro each synchronous class and a follow-up Peardeck slide of student-generated Bubba sentences. We corrected those the next day.)
“Keeping things simple”
Dr. Cristiane Galvão holds a master’s degree in applied linguistics from the University of Taubaté, Brazil, and a doctorate in higher education leadership from California Lutheran University, in Thousand Oaks, Calilf. She has taught ESL for 20 years and has offered professional-development courses to language teachers from all over the world:
Back in March, when the pandemic closed the schools, I had to learn about so many websites and online tools for “remote learning” that it felt overwhelming. A simple lesson plan became a one-thousand-piece puzzle. So, to make life a little easier, it became important to rethink how I would plan my lessons and make better use of my time.
Keeping things simple, I decided first to use whatever material I already had available, such as flashcards and books. Second, I limited the number of websites and online tools that I would use, creating a special bookmark in my computer with all the websites that I could access to teach ESL anytime and for different levels. Then, I created another bookmark section just with the “go-to” resources that I would definitely be using to teach my students. I knew that using familiar tools and resources would streamline my organization and facilitate my students’ learning process.
Bonus
Create quizzes, polls, and surveys
Crowdsignal Lets you create online polls, quizzes, and questions. Students can use smartphones, tablets, and computers to provide their answers, and information can be culled for reports.
Edulastic Allows you to make standards-aligned assessments and get instant feedback.
FreeOnlineSurveys Helps you create surveys, quizzes, forms, and polls.
Gimkit Lets you write real-time quizzes. And it was designed by a high school student!
Kahoot! A game-based classroom response system that lets you create quizzes using internet content.
MicroPoll Helps you create polls, embed them into websites, and analyze responses.
Naiku Lets you write quizzes students can answer using their mobile devices.
Obsurvey Designed to make surveys, polls, and questionnaires.
Poll Everywhere Lets you create a feedback poll or ask questions and see results in real time. Allows students to respond in various ways. With open-ended questions, you can capture data and spin up tag clouds to aggregate responses.
Poll Maker Offers unique features, like allowing multiple answers to one question.
ProProfs Helps you make quizzes, polls, and surveys.
Quia Lets you create games, quizzes, surveys, and more. Access a database of existing quizzes from other educators.
Quizalize Helps you create quizzes and homework.
Quizizz Guides you through designing quizzes and lets you include students in the quiz-writing process.
Quizlet Lets you make flashcards, tests, quizzes, and study games that are mobile friendly.
Survey Hero Designed to build questionnaires and surveys.
SurveyMonkey Helpful for online polls and surveys.
SurveyPlanet Also helpful for online polls and surveys.
Triventy Lets you create quizzes students take in real time using individual devices.
Yacapaca Helps you write and assign quizzes.
Zoho Survey Allows you to make mobile-friendly surveys and see results in real time
Conclusion
Online learning tools are essential to any course curriculum. These tools can help students explore the topic, challenge themselves, and allow them to easily share their thoughts with other learners.