The Best Tools Required To Ace Online Teaching

Technology has witnessed immense growth in the past few years. The technological tools are really helpful in various fields such as medicine, education, design, and many more. Online teaching requires a lot of different tools to perfect the required knowledge needed by the students. Teachers use multiple online teaching tools to teach students by different teaching methods or techniques. 

Teaching students with the help of online teaching tools really help to make online classes more interesting and fun for the students.

20 Best Online Teaching Tools

There are various online teaching tools for teachers that they can use. Here are some of the best online teaching tools a teacher should know about.

Visme

Teachers are always caught up with making new worksheets, lecture presentations, results, and many other things in order to keep the interactions with students interesting and fun. Teachers can use Visme one of the online teaching tools to create infographics, slides, webinar materials, schedules, worksheets, lesson plans, quizzes, printable worksheets, report cards, and many more. It is available at no cost for teachers and is easily accessible.

Pros:

• Wide range of options in fonts, icons, images, backgrounds, and templates.
• Highly configurable
• Rich Analytics
• Safety and privacy
• Content database

Cons:

• Expensive in comparison to other apps
• Not easy to customize templates
• Can only run three projects together in the live version.
• The free version includes the visme logo in all projects. 

Animoto

One of the online teaching tools for teachers to create great quality videos. Animoto can be used by teachers to create video lectures for students. These are high-quality short-time videos that can be created through any mobile device. It is fun to work with it, and teachers can create educational content with this. It is free of cost tool for teachers and educators.

Pros:

• High Quality
• Unlimited video creations
• Downloads are unlimited
• No watermarks
• Unlimited social media sharing 

Cons:

• Cannot edit specific sections of the video
• Can’t make changes in one frame
• Limitations in text fonts and sizes
• Limited templates

Google Slides

Google Slides is an educational tool that helps teachers to create amazing presentations, edit presentations and work with others. It gives a wide range of features to work with, such as it can link multiple slides and having a huge collection of animations and transitions. Teachers can create amazing interactive presentations and make the classroom more engaging using such online teaching tools.

Pros:

• Free to use 
• Allows real-time collaboration
• No software required
• Embedding videos is easy
• Cross-platform availability

Cons:

• Google Account is required
• Limited options for transitions and animations 
• Lack of advanced features
• Limited file types for exporting

Microsoft Teams

Mircosoft teams is an application that allows teachers to connect with their students and conduct meetings or share any kind of information needed. Microsoft Teams allows teachers to work easily in online classes and conduct meetings without much hassle. It is freely available to use.

Pros:

• Helpful bots
• Chat addition
• Easy file search, collaboration, and sharing
• No Additional costs
• Easy backup

Cons:

• Similar and redundant tools
• Limited storage
• Confusing File Structure
• Not easily flexible

Pear Deck

It is one of the best tools for PowerPoint presentations. Pear Deck is basically an add-on to Google Slides. Teachers can access it through their mobile phones as well. Such online teaching tools give the teachers the authority to hide students’ comments or give them personalized notes to help them. It has both a free version and a premium version you can access as per your choice.

Pros:

• Helps to create an engaging site
• Content can be created both ways to show style and simple
• Presentations can be easily edited 
• Can collect a variety of data
• It’s free for educators 

Cons:

• Time-consuming
• A Google account is necessary 
• Difficult sharing 
• Isn’t engaging 

Talking Points 

Talking points is an application that allows teachers to communicate with parents in their language. This app breaks the language barrier of communication between parents and teachers. It has more than 100+ languages in it. Now teachers can tell parents about their children’s progress. It is free for teachers to use.

Pros:

• No language barrier
• Easy communication
• Easy work templates
• Easier to communicate with students beyond the deadline

Cons:

• Not 100% accurate
• Needs both the parties(sender and receiver) to have cell plans 
•  Difficult in scheduling message timings
• Sometimes additional charges

Classdojo

Classdojo is an online teaching tool for technological businesses that focus on education. It allows teachers and students to interact with each other more easily. Classdojo allows teachers to create feedback reports and portfolios for their students. It can be used free of cost by anyone.

Pros:

• Allows to work remotely
• Easy sharing of lessons
• Plans classes easily
• Behavior tracking
• Provides activities for students 

Cons:

• Only for Elementary school students
• Communications only meant for parents and teachers 
• No in-app search feature
• Limited organizational/collaboration tools  

Canva

Canva is an online design tool that allows you to create multiple things, such as images, posters, infographics, thumbnails, video editing, and many more. It has a huge collection of templates for everything. Teachers can use Canva to create interactive images, banners, and social media graphics to make classes more interactive. It has both a free and a paid version known as Canva Pro that has access to all templates and images.

Pros:

• Pre-made size templates
• Variety of elements, icons, graphics, etc.
• Ability to add frames
• No watermarks in the free version
• Create wireframes for ease

Cons:

• No Source file
• Need paid version for good features
• Overuse of designs
• No local storage files 

Edmodo

Edmodo is one of those online teaching tools which promotes parent-teacher interactions. Teachers can use Edmodo to create an engaging classroom where they can encourage students to collaborate, and they can also share course information. It is a free tool that combines social media knowledge with a learning management system. 

It has multiple features that allow teachers to easily grade assignments, prepare results, and others. There are many features that can make the work easy for teachers. 

Pros:

• Easy and intuitive for all users
• Offers flexibility to teachers
• Provides a platform for immediate excess
• It is secured and simple 
• Allows customization

Cons:

• The user interface is busy for teachers 
• Needs better collaboration
• Difficult for first-time users 
• Expensive

Buncee

Buncee is an educational technology that allows teachers and students to come together and create projects they can work on. Its dashboard is accessible through Microsoft teams. It has multiple features, like creating QR codes so that your projects are easily accessible through mobile, and it has a huge library of animations, stickers, images, and many more. It has a 30-day trial plan with premium features. After the trial, the free version does not have all the premium features as the paid version.  

Pros:

• Easy creating presentations
• Has a variety of features
• Easily to use
• Teachers can create a dashboard

Cons:

• Boards get cluttered quickly
• Better features need a subscription
• Only 30 days free trial period 
• Difficult for first-time users

Google Classroom

It is an educational tool designed through which teachers can teach students from anywhere in the world, and students can reach them easily. Google has brought together many apps that make this work easy. In this, teachers can create separate domains and folders for each subject to add notes and assignments. It is completely free to use.

Suggested – 10 Effective Google Classroom Tips For Teachers

Pros:

• Free training and learning opportunities 
• Comes with google security
• Already integrated with google drive and other tools
• Easy to use
• Free of cost

Cons:

• Difficult account management 
• Editing problems
• No automated quizzes and tests  
• No Automatic updates  

Nearpod 

Nearpod is one of the best online teaching tools that allows teachers to create lectures through multiple templates, some of which are free, and some are paid as well. Here teachers can create collaborative content games and polls for students to engage with and contribute to the class. It is a really helpful tool for teachers.

Pros:

• Boosts accountability for work
• Easy feedback and reports 
• Behavior tracking
• Easy participations
• Fun templates to work with

Cons:

• Time-consuming
• Not easy to work with
• The content filter can improve
• Can improve the potential for the class environment

Zoom

Zoom gained major popularity during the pandemic. It was majorly being used for webinars. Its best features are its class capabilities, live classes, and social chat feature. It is one of the most widely used tools for conducting online classes, and it is free to use.

Pros:

• Collaborative whiteboard
• Easy participation
• Can hold large classes
• Easy screen sharing
• User friendly

Cons:

• Inconsistent cloud file size
• A large number of subscriptions and add-ons
• The download of the app needed
• No Comment control

Thinglink

Thinglink allows educators to create interesting and creative content that can be shared on multiple platforms, and teachers can create different teaching methodologies. Using creative content helps to increase students’ curiosity and encourages them to participate in online classes. 

Pros:

• Uses the best aspects of social media 
• Easy student work tracking
• Fun visual learning experience.
• Easily accessible
• Helps improve teaching methods

Cons:

• Doesn’t work without registration
• Needs multiple social media platforms 
• Does not share all resources
• Has limitations of use

Edpuzzle

Edpuzzle turns any video into an educational video. One of the best features of the puzzle is that teachers can easily track the performance of their students. Teachers can add un-skippable questions for students to answer between the video and track their performance easily. This online teaching tool incorporates many LMS platforms and thus is a perfect accompaniment for both online and offline classes. 

Pros:

• Creates videos from quizzes
• Creates interesting designs
• Easily adds voiceovers 
• Easy comments 
• Resources are easily available

Cons:

• Difficulty in search
• No group video option
• Must have internet access
• Comprehending video is possible

A Web Whiteboard App

Many teachers have a habit of writing on the board while teaching. AWW, the app is really helpful for teachers that want to write on the board and explain to students. This tool allows teachers to add a board to the screen and write on the screen while explaining. PDF and Presentations can also be added here. It is a free online teaching tool used for teachers.

Pros:

• Flexible for teaching
• Easy to use
• Smooth screenwriting
• Can display presentations and pdf
• Free tool

Cons:

• Size limitation
• Works completely on the Internet
• Problems with light and display
• Expensive

Suggested – Comparison of Best Digital Boards for Online Teaching

LightSail

Lightsail allows teachers to create a reading lesson plan for their students. This application allows teachers to track their students’ reading and improvements as well. Using Lightsail helps to improve students’ literacy powers and interests.

Pros:

• Easy user interface
• Easy feedback
• Easy assessment
• Accessible options for readers

Cons:

• Simple Web applications
• Data-driven content does not please readers
• Not Fun for teachers and students 

Actively Learn

Actively Learn is a specialized platform that teaches ESL, Social Studies and Science. It is a great tool for blended learning. It’s easy and fun to use. It allows teachers to create lesson plans and further assignments as well. It is a free guided project.

Pros:

• Trial and error learning method
• Easier for teachers to create projects and assignments 
• Free of cost
• Focus on specific subjects 

Cons:

• Only a few subjects focused
• Time-consuming
• No tracking options for work
• Feedbacks are not available 

Remind

The Remind App is an advanced messaging app with alerts and reminders. It gives reminders for upcoming projects, lectures, and other assignments. It can make conversation through email easy with both parents and students, and direct messaging is also a benefit of this application, and it is free of cost to use.

Pros:

• Easy messaging 
• Alerts can be created for deadlines
• Easy connecting to parents and students 
• Free of cost
• Broadcasts one-way messages 

Cons:

• The message limit is 140 Characters 
• Only one-way message is possible; no replies
• No queries of parents and students can be cleared
• Only 150 people can join the class

Quizizz

Quizizz is a free online teaching tool for creating quizzes. Teachers can either create their own quizzes or choose from the pre-designed template. They can also create presets for it. The link to the quiz can be shared across multiple tools like google classroom, remind, etc. It is free of cost tool to use.

Pros:

• Large index of quiz options 
• can easily be added to google classroom
• Free of cost
• Flexible to use
• Students can only access their own questions; no cheating is possible

Cons:

• No queries can be answered
• Adding fun content is tiring
• Limited access
• Not much variety of content

Why is it important to use online teaching tools?

It is important to use online teaching tools because, in the virtual classroom, teachers are unable to properly track the progress of their students or make classes fun and interesting. 

• Using multiple teaching tools helps teachers to make virtual classrooms fun and interesting. 
• Using online teaching tools can help teachers to make classes more interactive and engaging. 
• It becomes easier for teachers to track down the growth and progress of their students as well and can help them further. 

Online teaching tools make it easier for teachers to manage all their chores easily and keep track of everything. They are a great help for teachers in the online teaching world. 

Final Thoughts

There are multiple online teaching tools that can be used to teach online, and we have curated a list of a few great tools that you can use to help and ease your work. You can ace your online classes by using these tools. If you need more help with managing these multiple tools, connect to Classplus, a platform that helps you create your own app with all your requirements fulfilled in it. To know more about it, take a demo!

Best Tools required to ace online teaching FAQs