Best Software Tools and Tips for Online Teaching

We will keep the presentation short. Circumstances are different, your classes have moved on the web, you have a great deal to adjust to, and timetables stay unaltered. We have assembled a rundown of significant devices and tips that can assist you with beginning with moving your base on the web. Take a gander at thusly, we have recently spared you 10 hours of online examination to minister the best instruments for online classes.

Explore a few tools from the list, create a sample session, see how it goes, choose one, and go!

Popular Tools for Conducting Online Classes

Free forms ordinarily have imperatives identified with time, number of individuals that can participate in a meeting, and explicit highlights. Make certain to survey these highlights before beginning. Here are a portion of the mainstream devices you can use for internet instructing.

Zoom
Skype
Google Hangouts
BigBlueButton
Facebook Live
Microsoft Teams
Cisco Webex
GoTo Meeting
Ring Central Video
Pexip
TeamViewer
eZ Talks Meetings
Apache Open Meetings
Join.me
KITABOO

What You Can Do with These Tools:
Add, delete, and manage participants
Have video-conferencing calls
Use chat to communicate with a participant individually or with the whole class together
Schedule recurring or one-off calls and sessions
Share screens, slides, and documents
Conduct polls
Allow participants to share questions and comments. Enables you to address these questions.
Some of these tools integrate whiteboards that can be used as you use whiteboards in class
Record and download calls
Share rights to present content in calls with other participants
Mute specific participants
Some applications enable you to have breakout rooms
Some have annotation tools that enable you to annotate screens when sharing them with students
Can be downloaded on the mobile

Other Software that Can be Used for Online Sessions

The following tools are some of the essentials that you can add to your sessions. They are simple, free, and allow collaboration. MS 365, Schoolwork, and uProctor require licenses or subscriptions. The other tools are free. However, explore them for limitations and constraints that come with free versions.

Bitpaper.io – This is like a whiteboard that allows you and your students to type/ collaborate on the bitpaper at the same time. Useful for solving math problems or creating mind maps, etc.
Google Docs
Microsoft Suite 365, especially One Note.
Schoolwork for Apple
Proctor U – for online exams (Paid version only)

Popular LMS Platforms
It is likely that your institution already has a platform to house the instructional material, schedule classes, and conduct discussions. Check with your institution about this and seek help for an orientation. If nothing is available and you want to get started quickly, here are some options:

Google Classroom (Free)
Canvas
Blackboard Learn
TalentLMS
Moodle
Schoology
Edmodo
Showbie
Brightspace

What You Can Do with These Tools:
Set up classes for the week
Schedule assignments
Set up discussion forums
Some tools allow questions and grading to be added
Structure your instructional material and other resources for easy access

Prepare
To make your online sessions as impactful as your classroom sessions, you need to pay attention to 3 things: the way you show up online, the way your content shows up online, and how you prevent students from checking out Instagram on the side.

Spotlight on You:
Sit in a spot where there is sufficient light, so your video shows well
Plan by investigating the conferencing apparatus, getting acquainted with highlights, for example, ‘Lift Your Hand’, and having your introduction prepared. Along these lines you don’t pass up significant time when you begin
Work on utilizing the Mute All catch to guarantee that toward the beginning of the class, you have all understudies quieted, and possibly you or they unmute themselves just later when you need to connect with them
You may decide to turn off your camera while introducing, so it doesn’t make you cognizant constantly; simply make sure to turn it on, when you begin interfacing with your understudies

Spotlight on Your Content:
Return to your introduction and include more pictures, infographics, or mixed media components to keep understudies drew in to the screen as you talk
Pose a couple of inquiries throughout the conversation to guarantee that understudies are tuning in
Take on a steady speed on the web with the goal that you don’t invest a lot of energy in one subject at the expense of the others
Keep your introduction deck up and prepared; share your screen ahead of time, test your sound, and you are a great idea to go!

Spotlight on Your Students:
Set up correspondence channels so understudies can connect with their inquiries after the meeting is finished
Get understudies to partake. Request that they share their introduction recordings, digital broadcasts or photos about a particular subject of the course, and so on.

Spotlight on the Experience:
Your online meetings need not be an undermined form of the homeroom experience. They can be intended to be strong, fun, and advantageous encounters for both you and the understudies. Nonetheless, this expects you to comprehend the online medium in which you will convey. (This is like the contrast between a story in a book and a story as a film. On the off chance that the medium is extraordinary, the story should likewise be unique.) If you need some assistance and course with this, it will assist with drawing in with an Instructional Design proficient.

More Gear
At some point, you may want to invest in equipment to enhance your online teaching experience. You may want to create videos or podcasts to supplement your sessions. Here’s a starter guide:

Webcam – Logitech C270
Tablet
Mic – Samson
Headphones – WH-1000XM3
Lighting
Cell-phone tripod for taking videos with cell-phone
Multi-function printer and scanner
Hard Disk (because back ups are imperative)

Conclusion
Know that it will get easier! Starting off in online teaching can be a challenge. There is a lot to learn and a lot to do at the beginning. Just realize that, once you have the heavy work of getting your course set up, it will be much easier going forward.

Watch this space for more! Contact us for more information on how to transition your classes online.