The year 2020 has been one of change. Everything has changed, including how children and college students attend classes. Most of the world implemented social distancing laws, 20-second hand washing procedures, and public mask wearing throughout the pandemic. It would be an understatement to suggest that this had an impact on how teachers and students interacted.
Millions of kids switched in March from traditional classrooms to home-based virtual learning environments. Teachers had to work quickly during the early stages of the pandemic to set up a virtual classroom that would keep their students interested. We've put together a list of resources you may use to make the most of your online teaching—or remote teaching, as it's more commonly known—experience.
1. Real-time sharing of video screens and sharing of videos
Zoom
Zoom is a platform that was initially created for online business meetings and for corporations to provide employees with space online. However, Zoom has evolved into a fantastic tool for use in a virtual classroom, and now businesses, universities, and individual teachers all use their programme.
Skype Video
While Skype is increasingly being used by businesses, it has long been incredibly popular for making video conversations with family and friends. As a result, Skype video is a great choice if you're trying to do both teaching and training online. By the way, Microsoft Teams and Skype work well together.
You can utilize Skype's personal version if you are an individual providing corporate training online (i.e., if you are self-employed). This is an amazingly simple and affordable approach to providing online classes and lessons 1-to-1. For scholars conducting Skype interviews for their master's and doctoral theses, it's a terrific tool.
Team MS
If you love Microsoft and currently use some of its products, like Microsoft 365, you'll probably adore its online collaboration tools.
Microsoft Teams is always simple, even for folks who are not used to working and interacting online, in my experience using it. In all honesty, I prefer "Zoom" for online teaching, however for team meetings and office discussions, this is comparable to the option.
2. Online Whiteboards
Online or digital whiteboards assist in simulating the whiteboard/blackboard experience in the classroom for the pupils. For constructing various forms of diagrams, charts, and graphs as well as for other visualization applications, the majority of these programmes provide an endless canvas with shape libraries (i.e. creating posters, graphic organizers, etc.). It is frequently used by teachers for a range of activities:
Serving as an online whiteboard where professors and students may collaborate while visualizing ideas, thoughts, etc. on the same canvas. In addition, teachers and students can communicate via in-app video conferencing and follow one other's edits with real-time mouse tracking and edit previews.
Create various diagrams and graphics (such as graphic organizers, lesson plans, and dichotomous key diagrams) as needed for presentations, lessons, tasks, etc.
3. Kahoot
You may use Kahoot to make your tests and assessments more engaging for your employees and to introduce new concepts. The quizzes, or "kahoots," may be accessed via a web browser or a mobile app, and they can be set up as a self-paced job for your team to complete asynchronously or displayed on a shared screen and answered concurrently by a group of "players." In order to discover knowledge gaps and provide feedback for a more thorough training experience, it also contains statistics and analytics.
Key characteristics:
Using study modes, you have the choice of learning on your own or with others. No matter if it's online or in person. Even in a group environment, you can use the force of "friendly" rivalry!
Smart study techniques like flashcard practice and self-testing will not only keep you focused but also speed up and shorten your learning time.
4. Meetup.com Online Groups: New Portal
For years, people all around the world have used Meetup.com to plan events, workshops, and get-togethers. In actuality, they have over 35 million users.
Now that Meetup has added an Online Groups feature, you can also plan events online through their system and even offer classes to teach online through meetup.com by using video conferencing. As you may have read in our piece on meetup.com for independent trainers, meetup.com handles everything. In other words, you can instruct anything, including yoga classes, book clubs, wellness clinics, and workshops on presentation skills.
5. Document Management Tools
Teachers must frequently maintain a variety of documents, including test papers and lesson plans. To adequately handle and maintain track of all these documents, especially when you are teaching remotely, you need a central location.
Maintaining your own documents is made easier by tools like GSuite, MS Office, OneDrive, Dropbox, and Evernote. Store all of your files and documents in the cloud so that you and your students may access them from anywhere and on any device.
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