Top 5 online tools for effective virtual teaching

 The sudden change to remote teaching has left many teachers and students with various challenges. Many of you may be searching to find the proper tools to conduct effective online teaching classes.

I have listed a few tools that you can use to enhance your experience with teaching online, or remote teaching as popularly referred to these days. You can go through the list and select the ideal online teaching tools for your remote teaching goals.

1. Remote communicating platform

From in-person teaching to online teaching has made communicating with students and teachers easier and more affordable than ever. Whether you connect using software, a mobile app or social media, here are few collaboration tools to consider.

Zoom :

This is an easy-to-use desktop platform and app that allows you to schedule, launch, and record virtual meetings with your team. These meetings can be held remotely from a computer or smartphone.

MS Teams :

This allows you to download apps like Excel, Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint to your computer or mobile device. Like G Suite, you also can use this general suite of tools to manage, share, store, and edit documents in team folders.

Skype :

Many of you would have already used Skype. Along with allowing you to host free small virtual meetings, Skype also enables you to create group chats. If you want to use the paid version of Skype, you can also have meetings with groups or make international voice calls.

Google Meet :

A budget-friendly platform that allows you to go online with integrated tools like Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slide, and all the resources can be easily stored in Google Drive .

WebEx :

It provides personalized video meeting rooms where users can to host and join meetings. People can use WebEx for team collaboration, webinars, training and customer support.

These are few popular video conferencing platform that lets you virtually meet other people across various hardware platforms like desktops, laptops, and mobile phones.

2. Learning management systems

In short LMS, is a web-based medium used to deliver educational courses, resources, etc. It gives the educator, access to track, monitor, and assign the materials to the students. Some LMS also provides inbuilt contents of various departments that are ready to use, here are few LMS to consider

Google Classroom :

Google Classroom is a cloud-based Learning Management System, useful for K-12 and higher education teachers and students. G suite and classroom are free for educational institutes. Teachers can create assignments, activities, handouts and post it in the classroom. These resources can be viewed by teachers, students, and other co-teachers. .

Canvas :

Canvas is an easy to use and for designing, Canva allows you to create team accounts where you can share design templates and assets with your colleagues remotely. This ensures you’re able to access and edit any design files or brand imagery you might need while working from home.

Blackboard :

Blackboard learn is used as a platform for students to send and receive school work. This program is operated by teachers as a web-based user software device to connect them to their students. It is incredibly important now due to the current world events regarding distancing.

Schoology :

Schoology LMS is created in collaboration with a blended learning environment for K-12 schools and higher educational institutions. It offers features such as creating, managing academic content, online curriculum, lesson planning, classroom management through attendance records and grading, online tests, quizzes, and assessment of student understanding.

Moodle :

Moodle is also one of the best education-based LMS applications. The LMS is fully customizable and extensible to perfectly fit your needs. The thousands of community-developed plugins will also allow you to add new functionalities.

3. Online whiteboard tools

There are few online whiteboard tools which can be used to represent diagrams, charts, slides, mind maps, graphs etc..

Google Jamboard – online virtual whiteboard
Google slides – a presentation tool
Mindmeister – mind mapping tool
Creately – to represent as diagrams and charts
Twiddla – an online virtual whiteboard

4. Interactive, Quiz and Assessment tools

Online tool which allows you to create forms, surveys and quizzes. You can also create, edit and share the forms, quizzes and surveys to other people. Educators can use these tools to assess your students in the class.

Answer Garden – Word cloud generator
JoeZoo – Google add-on for summative and formative assessment
Google Forms – Quiz questions with data exported to a Google Sheet
Kahoot – Quiz-style student-response game
Quizizz – Polls and quizzes

5. Educational online gaming sites

To make the education more interactive and joyful, you can find many games or activities for kids to use and to apply what they have learned in different subject areas like Math, Science, and Social Studies.Some useful gaming sites are –

Funbrain – Education Science, Math, skill development and problem solving
Kids.nationalgeographic – Educational animal facts and pictures
ABC Ya – Educational games for preK-5th grade students
Mangahigh – Educational math games
PhET Simulations – Science simulations

Visit the site through the respective links to explore the tools and find out which are more adaptive and are usable. If you know any other tools that are more user friendly and reliable you can mention it in the comments. You can also give your feedback and suggestions about this blog in the comment section to improvise, if any.

A detailed review for any particular tool will be given, if you want me do so.

Top 5 Benefits and challenges in online teaching

 All of sudden, the world around has changed and is totally out of our control. Students are learning remotely and teachers are in search of new tools and paths to face the challenges they haven’t faced before.

Changes that has happened

• From no mobile phones allowed in school, to learning only with mobile phones at home, is the change that has happened.
• You all had to unlearn and learn the new process of teaching online, a whole new process was adapted.
• All of you have to face the camera, and become tech-savvy.
• Figuring out the best online tool and class etiquette to be used.
• Society has started to try out online courses who were accustomed to the traditional face-to-face classroom interaction.

Top 5 Benefits

1. Students participation and engagement in the online class has increased. IT facilitates greater interaction, collaboration and psychological safety. You can see students often are very eager to share with each other. The students who used to hesitate to participate actively in class have also shown progress and have started interacting in the online class. You can have all videos, quizzes, powerpoints discussions and questions all in one place.

2. One of the best part about teaching online is you can do it from home. This means that spending time and energy on travelling from one place to another is reduced. Which can be used productively on other works.

3. You can teach more efficiently with the use of proper tools and skills. Your work and the students’ work are properly saved and there is no fear of that getting lost or damaged. You will be able to share useful and timely resources with all the students by posting it in the LMS. Course materials in one place are an excellent resource for students. They will be able to find the materials and resources they need in one place.

4.. The paper waste was difficult to control. Printed books, assignments, resources were wasteful, extra copies and drafts which were always left over all had to be controlled. Now that you are paperless, there is no waste of papers being printed or left over. You will not have unnecessary printing and photocopying work. Sometimes, at the last moment the printer may not work. The photocopier may be jammed, so all these frustrations are not there.

5. The materials prepared can be reused and the students and they can revisit the resources as many times as they want until they understand the content.

Top 5 Challenges

1. Lack of computer literacy is the major issue among teachers and students today. There are multiple modalities and lot of great technology available, which confuses the students. And due to the availability of many technology the students may lack motivation. It is, at times difficult for you to choose which is suitable for the students and can be of good use to them. You may need to spend a great deal of time to prepare the resource and materials.

2. Though submission of tests is of great benefit to both students and teachers. The correction and evaluation part becomes difficult. And the answers written are also not reliable, they may view their notes or Internet for answers. Even online assessment, we are not able to track the progress of them. We are unable to find in which area they could need improvement or a little help.

3. Students get excited about technology, but it should support students with learning and interactions, not replace it. Most of the students have smartphone, laptops or tablet to participate in the online course. But this may not be accessible for all students depending on their financial situation. Many students do not get the high bandwidth or good internet connection to attend the online class.

4. Switching from traditional classroom – face to face, to computer based or virtual classroom makes the learning and teaching experience different. The resistance to change doesn’t allow them to adapt to the online environment. So it takes time for them to get accustomed.

5. Parents attending the class alongwith the students is the most difficult part of it, where they have started judging and commenting on the quality of teaching. Maintaining discipline is really a challenging task for every teacher, when the parents are around. .

Conclusion

You can use a variety of Technology in your online classroom, which will help you completely streamline your teaching. You have many benefits and areas for improvement with the use of online class.

Online classes are good new, but at initial stage the limitations have to be addressed and if we start thinking differently and having an innovative approach to this new world we are going to experience a new world.

If there is any other challenge you are facing, as a teacher, when teaching online and remotely, let us know in the comments below.

Tips To Choose The Right Online Course

 Staying ahead with market trends and constant up-gradation of skills and knowledge is what is required as a successful tutor. With the world on a digital platform both professionals and students are opting for online learning. In the competitive world, the more skills you have, higher are your chances of scoring a good opportunity. Here are some tips to help you choose an online course:

1. Identify what you want to learn

Ask yourself some honest questions – What is it that you need to stay abreast with the market ? Will this skill satisfy your requirement ? Does this skill assist you in job progression? Once you answer these questions, you will know exactly what new skills you need to learn to improve yourself and add value to your professional capabilities.

Also read: Soft skills – to be an effective tutors

2. Determine the way that suits you

Some prefer watching videos; others like reading and few like just listening to the context. And there are different ways in which the courses are delivered like – recorded videos, live webinar, microlearning, etc. You need to determine which way of learning you enjoyed the most, and which ones were a waste of time for you, before you sign up for any course.

Also read: elearning the Future of Education

3. Establish how much time you have to learn.

Decide on how you will manage your job and studies together. Make sure that you have enough time to complete the course fully, there is no point in just signing up for a course and you have no time to finish it. Few online courses often don’t have any deadline to complete them. But still make it a point to complete the course fully within a specified time limit.

4. Take some time to read the course descriptions carefully.

Make sure you understand what the course is about, syllabus and how it will benefit you. Read the review and the testimonials of the coach. Watch the preview videos to check whether the language used by the coach is understandable to you. And verify few other coaches who offer the same course and their reviews. Courses with industry-relevant content and an advanced learning platform helps you to interact live with your faculty, which are more effective for working professionals.

5. Calculate how much you have to invest.

Every course comes with a cost and a major factor to look into before signing up. Do the calculation on how much you will be able to invest in the course. Few online courses are available for free also for you to give a try, to test on the quality of the contents, before going for a paid one.

6. Check the Institution’s Credibility

Online learning platforms having affiliations with reputed Private Indian and International Institutions/ Universities for certifications is of prime importance, which adds value to your profile.

7. Top Digital Learning Platforms

Skillshare:

Skillshare offers a varied collection of courses to enhance your creative side, as well as enrich your business goals.

Upgrad :

Merging the latest technology, pedagogy, and services, upGrad is creating an immersive learning experience – anytime and anywhere.

Udemy :

Udemy also offers a great mix of expert resources on the latest e-learning trends, including e-books, webinars, videos, infographics, and case studies that will benefit you.

Coursera :

Coursera provides universal access,partnering with top universities and organizations to offer online courses.

LinkedIn Learning :

If you are looking to improve your professional development skills, LinkedIn Learning is an excellent place to start.

Whatever it is, there are plenty of platforms which offer you the courses you require. I hope these tips help you choose your course wisely.