There are as many online educational tools and platforms as there are skyscrapers in New York. Want to use them, but don’t know where to start? Here is a list of the best platforms for eLearning you can start using now.
The idea is to explain what you can do with each of them so you don’t have to spend hours researching educational platforms. You can simply start getting the most out of them right away.
We have differentiated between platforms for teaching and platforms for learning, although they can all be used for both: Teaching and learning are two sides of the same coin. In the first section, you will find platforms to organize and enhance your work as a teacher. In the second, you’ll find online learning platforms.
Educational platforms to teach with
The basics: What is an LMS?
An LMS is a learning management system. It’s a platform used to manage the entire learning activity of a school or organization.
LMS are used in in-person, virtual, or mixed learning classrooms and create a space in the online world to connect an educational community. Through an LMS, the school, families, faculty, and students can communicate with each other about content, activities, qualifications, news, and more. If you are teaching or training, you may already be using one in your school or center.
As virtual spaces, LMS bring new possibilities to enrich teaching and learning. As a teacher, you can limit yourself to putting PDFs in your virtual classroom and making quizzes forever to evaluate knowledge. Or, you can take advantage of these possibilities to practice gamification, experiment with other formats such as videos, or use resources such as interactivity and animation. This way, you can connect with your students and have fun while they learn.
To create interactive and animated content, Genially is the best platform. Genially integrates with all major LMS, so you can easily insert your creations into Moodle, Canvas or Google Classroom. You don’t need to know about programming, just copy and paste.
Later in the post we’ll talk about other benefits of Genially but here’s a hint: You’re just a step away from getting more motivation and participation from your students.
Moodle
It’s the most popular LMS. It was created in 2002 by Martin Dougiamas, who besides being a computer science, is also an educationalist, and his interface was developed by a team of psychologists and teaching experts.
Moodle is based on constructivism, a process of dynamic, participatory and interactive teaching. It’s very useful in distance education, as it allows you to create a virtual social community.
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Canvas
Canvas is used in thousands of schools and universities to create online courses. Perhaps its strength is its advanced interface, which provides better usability than other tools.
This tool provides a variety of functions to manage the educational community. Faculty can create courses and add all kinds of content to support student learning. Yes, you can also insert your geniallys here!
Each teacher will be able to be aware of the students who access the courses, and evaluate their progress and adaptation, as well as communicate through the platform itself.
Google Classroom
It’s the Google tool of choice for managing online classes. It allows for more efficient processes, encourages collaborative learning, and boosts communication between faculty and students. Faculty can create classes, assign tasks, send comments, and view all information in one place, among many other options.
The classroom is completely free for schools and is included in the G Suite for Education package. It’s enough to have a free Gmail account to access Classroom. In addition, the shared space can be accessed from any device.
More tools and resources
MS Teams
It’s a digital center that brings together conversations, content, tasks and applications in one place, allowing you to create dynamic learning environments. Its main feature is the possibility of organizing collaborative classrooms and connecting with professional learning communities.
While much of the community might be accustomed to using Teams in a business environment, MS Teams incorporates many features that make it an exceptional and increasingly popular resource for the education sector. With this platform, faculty, students and teams can work collaboratively, creating content and sharing resources from one place.
Flipgrid
Flipgrid allows video discussions on a proposed topic and is very successful among students. The teacher proposes a topic, and the students participate with their answers, interacting immediately while recording their own videos. What do you want to discuss? You can record a video, add a picture, write a question, or insert a genially.
Flipgrid is available for free on both iOS and Android. It’s a great tool to energize the classroom and enhance student interaction.
Additio
From planning lessons to assigning grades, Additio App centralizes the management of your classes into a simple, easy-to-use mobile application. Used in more than 30,000 schools worldwide, this tool allows you to create a journal of classes focused on programming and didactic development.
It functions like a notebook where it’s possible to store and manage everything that a teacher needs to develop their classes and evaluate their students with ease.
Additio App helps teachers solve class planning and organization problems. It also makes the relationship between teachers more fluid, enhancing collaboration and content sharing.
Wiris
Wiris is a mathematical calculation tool with many functions where the user can perform their calculations and get an immediate response. This tool covers all the content of secondary education and can also be used in university education, as it includes content such as calculus, mathematical analysis, linear algebra, etc.
Wiris enables you to visualize abstract concepts and functions, making it easier for students to understand scientific, technical, and mathematical subjects, while increasing and improving spatial intelligence.
Wakelet
In Wakelet you can create collections or wakes, allowing you to locate, organize and modify a lot of educational content on a single platform. You can add any content you find on the web that seems useful to you for your class to your wakes.
The integration between Genially and Wakelet multiplies the power of both platforms to engage students. In the video, you can learn how it works.
Genially
It couldn’t be left off of this list. Genially is the digital tool for creating amazing interactive visual content quickly and easily. It’s currently used in more than 190 countries and is one of the favorite tools of millions of people in the teaching world.
At Genially there are thousands of templates and resources of various themes, with which it is very easy to create all kinds of educational content: infographic, presentations, mental maps, breakouts, headings, certificates, calendars, and more.
Genially takes full advantage of Interactive Visual Communication. Because the educational content created with Genially is interactive and visual, it is much more effective at capturing student attention, gaining participation, and making learning fun and memorable.
8 Platforms to learn with from home
Here’s a comprehensive list of platforms for elearning and other resources for all education stages, from elementary school to university-.
Khan Academy
A basic for distance learning is Khan Academy, which has become one of the most well-known organizations of this kind. It stands out for its diverse offerings in mathematics, science and economics. Do you think some subjects are more difficult? You’ll find that they’re much less difficult on this platform thanks to super-entertaining videos and resources.
Crehana
Crehana is the training platform for creative professions. From architecture to marketing to illustration to graphic design, Crehana offers courses to learn how to exploit design tools or methodology for managing creative projects.
With Crehana, you can set up your own training. If you want to go in depth into a topic, you can opt for a single course. The ‘Careers’ option brings together several related training courses and is ideal for getting started in one field. If you want to demonstrate your knowledge, you can use the ‘Certificates’ option. The price range of the courses is quite affordable. In short, there is no excuse to be out of date in this sector. And those who are interested in getting started have it very easy.
Domestika
Very similar to Crehana. Domestika is a creative community that allows Spanish-speaking professionals around the world to share knowledge related to creativity in all its fields.
This platform offers the opportunity to share your creative work through a portfolio linked to your profile. It stands out for its courses, in which the most reputable and relevant professionals in the creative scene generously reveal the best-kept secrets to success in each of their disciplines. In addition, course prices are very economical.
Coursera
The best universities offer their courses on this learning platform. From short courses (known as Massive Open Online Courses or MOOC) to advanced specializations and online degrees. The duration of the training usually ranges from six to ten weeks, and is always remote.
Since Coursera faculty come from universities and advanced specialties, the quality of teaching is high. You can find a combination of texts, videos, downloads and knowledge assessments. More than 900 courses on the Coursera platform are distributed free of charge.
Platzi
That the world of the Internet may become the setting for the professions of the future is no surprise to anyone. The most in-demand jobs are related to web development and derived activities.
Platzi has become a leader in training in this field thanks to his interesting engineering and development learning paths: From video games to mobile apps, to latest trends like the Internet of Things. This educational platform is complemented by specializations in leadership, direction, production and design.
EDx
Before, to study at Harvard, you had to get in and then move to its campus. That’s now over with EDX, a platform founded by Harvard and other prestigious universities, which has the advantage of being the only provider of open source, non-profit MOOCs.
EDX has one of the most extensive educational offerings, and offers different types of degrees, some of which are well suited to the greatest needs of the market. This platform is ideal for recycling or updating knowledge. Who said that distance education has to be lower quality?
Google Digital Workshop
The best option to stay up to date with all the digital skills required is offered by one of the Internet giants, Google, through Google Digital Garage. Here, you can learn about digital marketing, data, or skills for professional development and management in the online world.
Many people do these courses considering the strong influence Google has on the development of e-commerce and digital marketing strategies. Also, for its ease of access and integration with other tools like Google Classroom. In any case, Google Digital Workshop courses allow you to expand your knowledge and provide a solid foundation for growth in this area.
CK12
Basic training is also available on the Internet. Many people lack access to primary and secondary education for various reasons, which in the educational world is known as K-12. The CK12 platform was created with the intention of making learning these levels more accessible.
Science and technology are key players on this platform, but it also offers material related to humanities and other knowledge, including photography. One of its most interesting points is that the generated content is licensed under Creative Commons, making it a good repository for all kinds of online educational materials.
Where are you going to start? With this selection of educational platforms you can do a lot of different things, either to enrich your teaching work or to learn what you want. And remember, whatever platform you choose, inserted content can be interactive and is super easy to create with Genially.
Take advantage of all these awesome resources!
