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With so much of education happening online these days for learners of all ages, having the right tools for teachers to tutor online is important. While there are a lot of options in the market in the form of software, programs and apps, not all of them are created equally.
If you are a teacher, school, university, or an EdTech business looking for a better alternative to virtual education, here are some of the most important digital tools.
We have compiled some of the best digital tools for teachers that we feel can really improve the learning experience, student engagement, information intake, and more in this blog.
Video conferencing solution or Zoom
Zoom is one of the best software to communicate with learners in real-time, especially when conducting one-to-one classes. It facilitates easy communication between users, with essential features to make the conversation more meaningful and personal. There are two different ways of using Zoom: for webinars and meetings.
While Zoom meeting is best suited for interactive online teaching, Zoom webinars are for lectures. Teachers can choose between the two based on the need at any given time. Zoom comes with practical features like breakout rooms that simplify online teaching. This helps tutors to separate the learners into groups just like they do in a normal classroom. Each student group can communicate with each other, and the teachers can join in when needed.
A whiteboard app
Online whiteboards are another important tool tutors need to help write notes during lessons, illustrate, draw diagrams and interact virtually with their students. Whiteboard allows both students and teachers to write, erase quickly, and rewrite concepts and offers a bigger space to brainstorm ideas.
A whiteboard allows teachers to take classes and turn them into interactive activities that engage students. A whiteboard is:
- Easy to use
- Helps in enhancing lessons
- Facilitates interactive learning
- Comes integrated with different technologies
Some examples of best whiteboards are Lesson space, Ziteboard, etc., which come with important features like audio and video calls, screen sharing, real-time chat, and other interactive features like drawing and annotating.
Authoring tools
It’s not impossible to create modern, engaging educational content with old-fashioned eLearning tools. However, teachers who are using InDesign and Microsoft Word are missing out on great features. Unlike traditional programs, authoring tools offer online tutors a centralized and extremely beneficial solution. One of the major benefits of content authoring tools is speed. It comes with an array of time-saving features, including ready-made templates to shorten the eLearning content designing process. Some of the best examples of authoring tools are Elucidat, Adobe Captivate, and Articulate Rise.
Learning management system
Teachers can keep track of students and manage everything related to tutoring using the tools separately when tutoring online. If you do not have many students, especially when you are just beginning, it works great as it doesn’t overcomplicate things. But if you are tutoring a large number of learners, you might have to use a learning management system or LMS.
An LMS helps teachers to create eLearning content and deliver it efficiently to students. It also allows tracking of students who have registered with the platform. LMS does everything from facilitating teacher-student communication to creating reports and managing payment. When it comes to LMS available in the market, there are a plethora of options with different levels of complexity and price ranges.
Course management software
Course management tools allow teachers to organize classes, post assignments and manage learners. Using generic software to manage course creation and other related tasks is not that efficient and could even slow business growth. That is when purpose-built course management software allows teachers to save time, crush sales targets, and improve the tutoring experience. It helps in presenting materials to learners, grade their work, take attendance, share lessons, and a lot more. One of the best examples of course management software is Arlo.
All-inclusive online tutoring software
While you can use all these tools mentioned above individually, you need to use different tools for different purposes, which can be daunting. What if we tell you we can have all of this in a single software? That’s what our last digital tool for teacher recommendation is all about. Instead of relying on multiple tools to cover each aspect of online tutoring, use an all-in-one online tutoring software to create your own customized online tutoring platform that comes with all basic and advanced features to run your tutoring business effortlessly.
And Pinlearn is the industry’s best online tutoring software that comes with all features and functionalities essential to running a successful and profitable tutoring business. Featuring, video conferencing, appointment scheduling, payment processing, and LMS functionalities, it is all you need to run your online tutoring marketplace.
Some of the features of Pinlearn are:
- Live online tutoring: Allows scheduling one-to-one online classes and group classes.
- Course management: Helps in uploading and managing online courses.
- Multiple dashboards: Separate dashboards for tutors, learners, and admin.
- Intuitive features: Online whiteboard, appointment booking, secure payment, and a lot more.
- The marketing features: Discount coupons, user analytics, appointment booking, and more.
Why is creating a tutoring website the best bet?
With Google searches for online tutors on the rise, building a professional tutoring website that is well-structured and functional can give you a great edge over your competitors. At the same time, there are several tools to make each task of creating online courses, scheduling classes, managing tutors and learners, processing payments, etc. Using individual tools for each task can become a hectic task.
Having an online tutoring platform that allows you to create online courses and host live online classes is the best investment. And using readymade tutoring software is a quick way to build a tutoring website or tutoring marketplace to grow your tutoring brand or establish an EdTech business.
Conclusion
In the digital world we live in, modern technology is literally everywhere, and it applies to the education industry as well. This is why digital tools in the online classroom are becoming more important. Using technology for online tutoring simplifies the whole process, boosts student engagement, and leads to better tutoring and learning experience.
We hope this blog has been helpful in introducing essential digital tools online teachers might require. If you know other useful digital tools for the online classroom, please share them in the comment section below.