30 Useful Apps To Teach Online
During the pandemic, schools closed and a lot of teachers tried to recreate the classroom environment thanks to a bunch of applications (and a good bandwidth as well).
True, everyone hopes going back to school, but we know that the “new normal” will probably be hybrid teaching, which means some students will be physically present in class and others will be attending online.
In this article, you will find 30 applications that will make your life much easier if you have to embrace hybrid or online teaching. There is everything you need to kick off this new challenging academic year.
1. Videoconferencing
Using video conference platforms for teaching online is a pretty obvious choice.
Zoom is much more powerful than Meet but Google plans to bring major updates thoughout the year to come.
💡 Tip
Have you considered recording your session so that students will be able to return to the day’s lesson in order to review it at their own pace? Of course everyone has to agree before you do that.
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2. Whiteboard
You may use the Zoom built-in whiteboard, the powerful Notability or JamBoard apps or even GeoGebra Notes.
Whatever your choice will be, in Zoom, go to: `Share Content` > `Whiteboard` or `Screen` (if you prefer Notability or JamBoard).
But consider those free alternatives. They really worth it!
💡 Tip
These three last apps are great when it comes to share content and work collaboratively. With Peer.school, students will see your face while you write on the board.
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3. Deliver content
Whether you want to communicate important announcements to students or deliver documents & assignments or you want students to submit their work, Google Classroom is the best option but a lot of teachers love to create their own website thanks to Google Site. Some others use Padlet to deliver their courses in a very simple and elegant way that does not require any code or password. For very young students, it’s really convenient.
💡 Tip
Want an easy way to make attendance? In Classroom, ask a simple question (like “Are you there? If yes tick the box.” 🙋🏻♀️)
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4. Give feedback
On a Google Docs
In order to produce a rich feedback, you may use these three Chrome add-ons. For instance, with Text Blaze, you create snippets of comments instead of writing the same thing over and over. You just type a shortcut and voilà!
On a PDF
You may prefer using PDF files you can annotate in Kami for instance.
💡 Tip
Why writing a long answer to a student’s question when you can record it in a lively and dynamic video? Use Loom to do that. And you know what? Loom is free if you are an educator. Go to Loom for education webpage.
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5. Check plagiarism
If you have any doubt about the honesty with which a homework has been done, you may be happy to find some plagiarism detection tools.
If you want to learn more about plagiarism detection tools, just have a look on this article which presents the pros and the cons of ten apps.
💡 Tip
Turnitin is a very flexible tool. You can use their website or an add-on for Google docs or even the iOS app.
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6. Foster collaboration between your students
Being online, respecting social distances doesn’t mean students have to work alone or separately. There are many ways to make your students work collaboratively and help each other. They may also want to talk to you even if you work from home. Please consider these few options.
- Of course, you may have a one-to-one videoconference (be aware of safeguarding issues).
- You can use Loom to record a feedback.
- Students can (and should) write comments in Google Classroom if they don’t understand something.
- You can create some kind of forum so a question (and, of course, your answer) benefits to the entire class. Google Groups is great for that.
- Get a backchannel with Yoteach.
- Create your own social media just for your class thanks to Qwiqr.
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7. Make use of some great online apps
There are so many online apps that can be used. For example, students can work together on a video project thanks to WeVideo.
- Flipgrid is an app that allows students to record short online videos. A great opportunity to work on oral communication.
- WeVideo (an online video editor).
- SoundTrap. This is the online GarageBand!
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💡 Tip
Don’t have time during a single period to hear everyone? Make your students record a video with Flipgrid.
8. Videos
Want to share a YouTube Video without ads or distractions such as suggestions or comments? Those apps down below will be very helpful.
💡 Tip
Use Edpuzzle to insert a quiz on your video to make sure pupils understood what they saw before going to the next step.
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9. Quizzes
Quizzes are a great way to ensure that something has been understood or to make surveys.
💡 Tip
Ask your students to create their own quiz! Not only will you see if they understood the lesson, they’ll have to work on their spelling, check if the questions are correctly constructed and so forth.
