10 Best Virtual Classroom Tools / Platforms for Online Teaching
10 Best Virtual Classroom Tools / Platforms for Online Teaching. The year 2020 has been transformative for all the people across the world. That year, everything changed, including the way of teaching and learning. The rise of the pandemic instated social distancing rules and made online learning the priority of every school and university.
It also gives rise to virtual classroom tools or platforms that teachers can use for online teaching. However, the wealth of such tools makes the process of choosing one very challenging. Some platform specializes in course management and administration, making them complicated to use, while other are enjoyable to learners.
To make your selection process effortless, we have created this blog with a list of the ten best virtual learning tools that you can use based on your requirements.
So, without wasting much of your time, begin exploring the 10 Best Virtual Classroom tools and resources you need for the virtual class.
10 Best Virtual Classroom Tools / Platforms for Online Teaching
1. Jitsi Meet
Jitsi Meet is a video conferencing software that you use to have a group or one on one video chats with just about anyone. What makes it different from other video conferencing platform is that users don’t have to register and create an account using this service.
This privacy focused platform believes in storing and sharing no user information and tends to begin at the most basic level. When it does not have your information, how will it share them with anyone? Hence, we can say that it is the best option for those who do not want their email addresses shared with any third party apps.
Moreover, in terms of security, it still got you covered. It is already a completely encrypted and secure platform. Now, it has also added end to end encryption. It is very effortless to use Jitsi meet. Users can use it on desktop, iOS, or Android Devices without creating an account.
Pros of Jitsi Meet
- Jitsi Meet is a straightforward and efficient way of accomplishing several tasks at once. Hence, it is a useful resource for conducting business meetings and conference calls.
- It provides access to several tools like calendars, documents, spreadsheets and more.
- It enables web users to conduct or participate in a meeting without registration.
- It does not require regular updates.
- It also allows users to stream meetings and conferences on social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube.
- It has an effective chat option that is used during meetings and phone calls.
Cons of Jitsi Meet
- Jitsi Meet does not provide adequate security and privacy for the meetings that take place on its platform.
- In order to store and save meeting data offline, a large amount of storage space is required.
- It is not suitable for a broad audience and does not have the capacity to handle it as well.
- Meetings can only last for three hours.
- The video and audio quality of Jitsi Meet are relatively low.
2. Adobe Captivate
Adobe Captivate is a smart eLearning authority tool that helps you to create fully responsive eLearning content without the need for programming. It also helps you embrace your future by effortlessly designing modern immersive learning experiences, thereby leveraging virtual reality and 360 degree media assets. You can even amplify video based learning by efficiently adding interactivity to videos that you record yourself or drive up learner engagement.
It also enables you to create beautiful mobile ready courses within a minute. Using automated branching speeds up the course creation.
Pros of Adobe Captivate
- It enables you to create beautiful eLearning courses with numerous ready to go slides.
- Stream videos from external hosts or internal servers with ease.
- Software training videos and assisted simulations.
- You can also format the course rapidly to make it look exactly the way you want.
- It enables you to customize the styling of a VR hotspot and text caption and play video on click of a hotspot.
Cons of Adobe Captivate
- The video quality is not appropriate.
- Speed.
- Outdated UI.
- Users won’t be able to generate customized certifications without the help of customer support.
3. Kahoot!
Kahoot! is another tool, or we can say gamification app that introduces you to quizzes, polls, brainstorming in the classes or during training sessions. It enables both learners and attendees to work individually or in a group on their personal devices to complete their activities. It also allows them to include theme music and provide an array of fun options for designs and images.
In a nutshell, Kahoot! is a fun and easy to incorporate tool that learners can assess without stressing them out.
Pros of Kahoot!
- It is one of the perfect engagement tools for students. They usually enjoy its unique quizzes.
- It reduces monotony and boredom.
- 500M questions available in the question bank.
- Option to choose high quality images from the library.
- Download reports in a spreadsheet.
- It can be used as a tool of assessment for teachers.
- It increases student performance by increasing their attendance.
Cons of Kahoot!
- In Kahoot! Tracking the students’ progress level is relatively complex.
- It requires a sturdy WiFi connection to connect multiple players to the same platform.
- Users sometimes get distracted and stressed due to the background music.
- The availability of gadgets is also an issue sometimes.
4. Docebo Learn
Docebo Learn is an extensive Virtual Classroom Tool that is specifically built for enterprises that look for functionality geared towards targeting specific audiences and marketing. In Docebo, instructors can create unique training courses or import previous eLearning content from the LMS. Hence, it is that platform that supports a wide range of approaches to online learning, including webinars, gamification, virtual classroom and microlearning.
Having several suites of tools make it one of the best tool for enterprises that look for formalized training programs to customize and brand.
Pros of Docebo Learn
- It offers effective ILT Classroom features.
- It enables you to upload and share training materials in multiple formats, including PDT, PPT, video, SCORM, and Tin Can files.
- It also allows you to boost its effectiveness by smoothly integrating it with other third party applications you use.
- It provides both free and paid add ons.
- Progress tracking & certifications.
- It contains an eCommerce app where you can sell your courses.
Cons of Docebo Learn
- It does not have a richer API that offers access to all the objects on the LMS side and manipulates them.
- Small and medium sized businesses expect more features in their standard package.
- Training videos have a size limit.
5. Google Classroom
Google Classroom is both an LMS and VLE tool aimed at academic institutions instead of business training use cases. Every teacher working within a campus or department can have their own Google Classroom that they can use to add assignments, quizzes, and materials.
They also share a unique code with their students that they can use to enter classes and access those materials. It also enables you to have teacher student messaging and user friendly integrations with the G suite ecosystem of apps and services. You can access it effortlessly from a smartphone, tablet, or laptop.
Pros of Google Classroom
- It is easy to use and accessible from all devices.
- It provides effective communication and sharing.
- It speeds up the assignment process.
- It provides efficient feedback.
- It has a clean and user friendly interface.
- It has a great commenting system.
- Everyone can access it effortlessly.
Cons of Google Classroom
- It is quite arduous to manage Google Classroom’s account.
- It has limited integration options.
- It does not have any automated updates.
- It’s learning to share is also difficult.
- It causes problems while editing.
- It is impersonal.
6. Blackboard
Another 10 Best Virtual Classroom Tools / Platforms for Online Teaching is Blackboard. It is an instructor’s app for easy to follow workflows, grading tools, and on the go course management. It also constitutes in built communication tools, progressing tracking, and anti plagiarism software. It also benefits students from announcements, push notifications, and synchronous collaboration.
Its video chat option with features like a digital whiteboard, polls, and breakout rooms, is considered highly beneficial for instructors for creative lesson planning.
Pros of Blackboard
- No setup fee.
- The online tasks and quizzes offered by this tool are straightforward to administer and grade.
- It is easy to maintain.
- Blackboard Learn is about submitting assignments electronically simple. Variety of built in Web based tools: wikis, blogs for students creativity.
- Tracking progress.
Cons of Blackboard
- Its mobile app or platform lacks stability and feature set.
- It does not integrate well with other software solutions.
- Blackboard Learn is expensive.
7. Skillshare
Skillshare is another choice for 10 Best Virtual Classroom Tools / Platforms for Online Teaching. It enables teachers to create a profile and develop and share their own resources and classes. It usually focuses on courses for designers, illustrators, writers, and other creatives. Other than that, it also concentrates on business categories like leadership, analytics and marketing.
It primarily includes video courses with which learners can access worksheets and assignments. Although the platform allows learners to provide feedback, it widely constitutes static and asynchronous courses with little interaction with the instructor.
Pros of Skillshare
- It offers quality courses.
- It contains celebrity instructors.
- Free Classes with class creation.
- Skillshare promotes and improves the imagination and creativity of the learners.
- Their affiliate programs for trial signups and paid memberships.
Cons of Skillshare
- Displaying students’ feedback is relatively slow.
- No quality control for instructors.
- The affiliate program distorts the reviews.
- Learning courses not fully accessible.
- Ad popups.
8. Moodle
Moodle is used for course administration and resource deployment that includes chats, forums, in platform quizzes, assignment grading, and surveys. It is one of the sturdy and highly customizable platforms that work as server based software. It requires the expertise of the IT level that is not available in every institution and business.
After you set up Moodle, you tend to acquire its learning materials, options for testing and assessments, and instructor forums, which together make it a great tool for facilitating teachers’ development.
Pros of Moodle
- It is an open source platform that offers a great community.
- eLearning
- On demand online courses.
- Live online learning
- Users can schedule and host live web-based classes, meetings, or training.
- Events, classes and training within the platform.
- Video learning
- eCommerce.
- SCORM compliant.
- It is customizable and widely available.
- It helps you sell content online.
Cons of Moodle
- It is not entirely developed to cope with big projects.
- The system does not work efficiently with larger schools.
- The more the students access the platform, the more it gets slow.
- The website also shuts down occasionally.
9. Edmodo
Edmodo has a Facebook style interface that when once you create a class enables you to create assignments and quizzes as well. It provides students a code for joining in. After joining the platform, they get complete access to the course, assignments, or activities.
It is also interactive as it helps students to ask questions and interact with their teachers. Unlike other platforms, it is a little comprehensive. However, it is user friendly and provides a great option for schools that don’t have the resource for a more complex platform in the system.
Pros of Edmodo
- Edmodo provides a small learning curve for anyone using popular social media and sturdy community and support.
- It is easy and institutive for all end users.
- Offers flexibility for teachers, students and parents.
- It allows for easy editing of profiles
- Allow teachers to share and house resources for others to use.
Cons of Edmodo
- Its user interface is usually busy for teachers. It displays a lot of ads.
- Some notifications that will constantly reappear even after being cleared.
- The mobile version is not as good as the web version and has technical glitches.
10. Wooclap
Wooclap is the last e learning engagement app that users use during classes and presentations to encourage learner participation with messaging, interactive communication, and activities with a dynamic word cloud.
Instructors often rely on this app for its assortment of question styles, competitive elements, and instant learner feedback. This way, they tend to add variety to their classes and reinforce understanding in a fun way.
Pros of Wooclap
- It has an excellent layout.
- People can use it to follow up with interest promptly.
- It provides amazing and useful support.
- Instant feedback for students.
- Quick and easy data collection and great to get audience to interact.
Cons of Wooclap
- The free version only offers 2 questions free.
- Poor technical support.
10 Best Virtual Classroom Tools / Platforms for Online Teaching Conclusion
Teaching online in a virtual classroom is relatively effortless. The only difficult part is getting used to it. However, when you select one of the tools from the list mentioned above, you would definitely have fun teaching learning sessions.
All software mentioned above are famous virtual classroom software’s. All have advantages and disadvantages. So, choosing the best virtual classroom software for your organization or school is a big deal. You will also need to understand what is important to you, your teachers, learners, or students.
The best way is to create a list of features that you absolutely “must have” along with a list of features that are “nice to have”. After narrowing down your list, you should download and try out their virtual classroom software for free. It is essential to test your virtual classroom software before making a decision.
