New technologies have caused a paradigm shift in the way in which classes are taught and, in general, in the way in which courses are taken and training is attended.
Nowadays, anyone can turn to YouTube to learn how to program or improve their photography skills or choose platforms like Tutellus or Coursera to continue training, as well as take free courses launched by social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn.
Best options for teaching remotely
Although distance education was already a long-standing trend before the COVID-19 pandemic, confinement forced teachers around the world to use online tools to provide training.
If you find yourself in the position of having to teach classes remotely or are thinking about creating online training of any type, below we offer you some perfect tools for this:
-Moodle: Moodle is one of the main distance learning platforms and one of the most used by universities, institutes and teaching institutions around the world. It is free, it is constantly updated, and the interface is very intuitive and customizable.
Moodle allows you to share a huge amount of files, create user profiles with specific roles and has features for attendance control, sending and receiving assignments, grades, live classes, webinars and much more.
-Zoom: Although it is not a tool to provide training per se, it is one of the most used for online classes. Its features include the fact that each session has a personalized ID, options to record the session, share screen, display a virtual whiteboard and chat tools, as well as participant management. Zoom is also constantly incorporating new features.
-Google Classroom: Another widely used tool, especially by those centers or institutions that have contracted a Google Workspace plan.
This is Google Classroom, a free and very easy-to-use service, with online and in-person functionalities. It offers options to create and manage classes, assignments and grades, add materials (YouTube videos, surveys through Google forms and any element from Google Drive), bulletin board, appointment schedule, as well as the possibility of creating periodic communications between students and teachers.
-GoToWebinar: In this case, much more oriented towards the creation of classes and webinars, it is compatible with Mac, Windows, Android and iOS. It offers functions to send emails before and after classes, as well as to create live surveys, share files and presentations, and the possibility of screen sharing.
-Edmodo: It is an education platform with a functioning similar to that of a social network and completely free. It allows you to send and search messages, has a digital library, calendar for important dates and delivery of tasks, create and assign badges and achievements.
Edmodo also offers the possibility of giving live online classes and creating invitations for students’ parents. As a disadvantage, it is a tool focused on more personal than institutional use, since it is a closed platform.
