Online teaching software- the basic tools you should know about 
                     Online teaching software: the basic tools you should know about
With no COVID-19 vaccine in sight, hundreds of colleges, universities, 
schools, training centers and tutors are moving their instruction to 
virtual settings – many, for the first time. Adapting teaching and 
ensuring a fluid learning experience will entirely depend on the 
technology chosen for the job, but a quick Google reveals EdTech to 
be an incredibly crowded space. So what Online Teaching Software 
should you use to make a success of virtual learning? What to look 
for in virtual teaching software.

Your virtual teaching toolkit will largely depend on the size of your 
student base and organization, your particular role and subject, and 
any additional learning needs. Budget will also factor in, with larger 
institutions being able to pay for more heavy-duty learning 
management systems (although there are some good free versions 
out there).

You should also consider  software performance,  user-
friendliness  and  equity  to try and reduce the anxiety surrounding 
learning a new technology. The last point – equity – is particularly 
important to remember: not all your students will have access to the 
same bandwidth, devices or privacy while at home. As such, you 
should look for ways to collaborate and learn outside of real-time 
video calls.

Finally, it’s important to remember that your virtual teaching toolkit 
shouldn’t just help you craft a great online lesson; it should support 
you in everything that happens outside of it. You’re entering unknown 
territory from an unstructured home environment, potentially with 
childcare responsibilities thrown in — with all the stress and 
additional workload that entails. Remember to choose tools that bring 
s t r u c t u r e t o y o u r d a y a n d m a k e i t e a s y t o 
stay connected, visible and in control.

Essential online teaching software

There are virtual teaching tools out there for every different teaching 
approach imaginable, catered to a range of different ages, needs and 
abilities. We’ve grouped together some of the basics – with options 
for individuals as well as institutions. They cover everything from 
colleague communication and video classrooms, to managing your 
schedule and sticking to your work hours.

•  Synchronous virtual classrooms

1. Zoom – for synchronous video lessons

The global COVID-19 lockdown has made Zoom a household name. 
But in addition to using Zoom to video call your family, it’s a useful 
tool for no-frills virtual classrooms and department meetings. Its free 
version far outstrips  Google Hangouts  and  Skype  in terms of 
participant size – allowing you to host up to 100 participants at once. 
It also lets you create several breakout rooms, share screens and use 
group chat for smaller discussions during a lesson. You can easily 
record calls too – useful for self-critique as you iterate your online 
teaching methods, and for sharing meetings with colleagues who 
couldn’t attend.

Price: free for 40-minute calls. Upgrade for $15/month for longer call 
durations.

2. Google Classroom – for a fully-baked free LMS

Learning management system (LMS) software provides a single 
space for all your organization’s admin, documentation, reporting and 
training needs, in addition to the tools to plan teaching, host virtual 
lessons and create assignments. As a tech giant dominating the 
virtual collaboration space, it’s unsurprising that Google can offer a 
nice free platform for all the above. Google Classroom brings 
together all its standard G Suite tools – like Docs, Sheets and 
Hangouts – to help you seamlessly manage and deliver virtual 
teaching.

Price: free with a G Suite for Education account. Upgrade to a paid G 
Suite Enterprise for Education account for premium tools.

3. Microsoft Teams – for a comprehensive digital learning hub

While stopping short of calling itself an LMS, Microsoft Teams offers a 
similar suit of virtual teaching tools as Google Classroom and is also 
happily free. It allows conversations, content and collaboration to 
happen in one unified digital space. Great for creating secure virtual 
classrooms, sharing assignments and feedback, and streamlining 
staff communication.

Price:  free for students and teachers with a valid school email 
address.

4. Blackboard – for top-of-the-range higher education LMS

Time to get serious – if you’re looking for a purpose-built higher 
education LMS with a modern and intuitive feel, check out 
Blackboard. It facilitates fluid, user-friendly digital learning 
environments with a ton of specialist solutions thrown in. These range 
from Blackboard Analytics for Learn, which helps you identify barriers 
to student success, to Blackboard Predict and Blackboard 
Intelligence which help keep students on track and let you optimize 
institutional performance. A great platform for delivering 
sophisticated, engaging online teaching experiences – and ensuring 
everyone gets the right support.

Price: aimed at institutions rather than individuals, Blackboard comes 
with a hefty license fee.

• Asynchronous support and communication

5. Slack – for peer and organization communication

Transparent asynchronous is the bedrock of all remote collaboration – 
it democratizes communication, allowing everyone to access 
department-wide conversations and talk when it actually suits their 
schedule. Many remote teams have already realized that email just 
isn’t the optimal space for that, and are instead using instant 
messaging platforms like Slack for the bulk of their day-to-day 
communication. Slack effectively breaks all team communication into 
thematic groups – called threads – allowing staff to dip in and out of 
conversations that concern them. It’s a great tool for building an 
online peer community – creating spaces for colleagues to share best 
practices, exchange ideas, share global updates and just check-in on 
each other.

Price: $7/month per person for their smallest plan.

6. Floop – for work questions and support

For students, Floop is the virtual equivalent of raising your hand in 
class. It was built by teachers to solve the challenge of providing 
tailored support and feedback to individual students learning 
remotely. Students can quickly send pictures of their work with 
anchored comments, so they can highlight exactly where they are 
stuck and raise questions. Teachers just need to reply to the 
comment to provide targeted feedback. A handy tool if you’re 
working with analogue or read-only digital materials – although you 
might want to prioritize using collaborative document platforms like 
Dropbox Paper longer-term.

Price:  free for now, but pricing will be announced for the 2020-21 
school year.

7. SmartSurvey– for feedback on remote teaching

Feedback is crucial for making distanced learning work – especially in 
the early days as you adapt your approach to an online setting. If you 
go in for one of the heavy-duty learning management systems 
detailed above, you’ll likely have a few options for posing questions 
and reviewing engagement data. But if you don’t, simple online 
survey platforms like SmartSurvey are a good alternative. Use it with 
students to see how well you explained certain concepts, as well as 
with teaching staff to surface admin blind spots and gauge wellbeing.

Price: free for sending a maximum of 15 questions to 100 people.

8. Edmondo – for centralized teacher-student communication

Primarily targeted at school teachers, Edmondo helps you centralize 
all tutor-student and tutor-parent communications. It’s effectively a 
social platform – with familiar post and direct messaging functionality 
– for classroom discussion and organization. You can use it to share 
assignments and materials, help students learn new virtual tools, post 
classroom updates or chat directly with individuals. A useful 
asynchronous teaching tool for students who may not always have 
access to a home computer or a strong Wi-Fi connection.

Price: completely free, with a paid “Schools” plan for larger 
organizations.