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  • Tools to support remote teaching and learning

Tools to support remote teaching and learning

Remote teaching creates huge opportunities for effective learning and collaboration outside the classroom. It is important to keep the following in mind before you explore the various online tools available:

  • The focus should be on pedagogy and learning, rather than technology.
  • All the tools still require the skill, experience and expertise of a teacher.
  • They may involve approaches and techniques that you would not normally use.
  • The tools you choose should be in line with any school eSafety policy.

Interaction and engagement

With remote learning there are real concerns about loneliness, welfare and lack of interaction. It is important to find a way of keeping everyone in contact. You could do this by running a discussion forum or chat group. If your school has a learning platform or learning management tool you could use this. It does not matter what the platform is – the impact is in how you use it.

Look for ways to establish routines that allow everyone to get organised and be engaged. Remember to motivate learners. Written feedback can sometimes come across as harsher criticism than spoken feedback, so are there ways to use video tools instead? How can learners overcome potential issues in responding? And how can you make sure nobody feels isolated online?

Individual and collaborative work

One of the most effective ways to support remote teaching and learning is to give every learner an opportunity to deliver a topic area. For example, you could divide up the current areas of study and ask learners to teach the rest of the class. This may be as individuals or in small groups. You could ask learners to hold a seminar and include online tools to engage their audience. They might, for example, deliver a short, interactive presentation covering key information and then follow that up with an online challenge to gather feedback and assess understanding.

There are different ways of approaching this. A class could meet online one day, share their challenges and then agree to meet a few days later to explore their findings. The role of the teacher is key to establish and drive the learning expectations. However, there is a huge opportunity to open up the work further to the learners themselves.

IT requirements

No specific hardware or software is required beyond an internet connection. Standard office software tools are particularly effective to collate ideas online and develop collaborative responses. Here learners will develop skills for their future working life at the same time as completing their school work.

Below we list some of the online tools available for different teaching and learning purposes. Take advantage of the opportunities for creative solutions. Do not let a lack of familiarity with the tools or approaches be a barrier to trying something new – have the confidence to try them out. Also, stretch your learners and ask for their suggestions and ideas. And finally, keep classes talking, sharing and collaborating.

Cambridge International is not responsible for the content of external websites. We are sharing the links below as useful examples only.

  • Tools with subject-specific content
    • There are lots of online resources, both free and paid-for, that you can use with your learners. The quality of the content can vary so it’s important to check any sites you recommend to your learners carefully.

      To find resources that we have reviewed (but not endorsed), go to cambridgeinternational.org/pathway and find your qualification. Next, select the 'Published resources' link on the left hand side. You will see a list of all the endorsed text books for your subject, plus other suggested resources which include online materials.

  • Tools that facilitate discussion and collaboration
    • These tools empower teachers and learners to continue their learning – supporting existing teaching methods yet also enabling new ways of delivering lessons. They include both synchronous (real time) and asynchronous (different times) opportunities online.

      • Flipgrid
      • Padlet
      • Kialo
      • Explain Everything
      • Educreations
  • Tools that allow you to create interactive learning quizzes and games
    • These tools help learners have fun and enjoy the learning experience. They are great ways of engaging remote learners to collaborate in real time using questions/challenges you have set. Learners can even use them to create their own micro assessments to share with others in the class.

      • Kahoot!
      • Breakout EDU
      • Socrative
      • Quizizz
      • Classcraft
  • Tools that allow you to create online learning content
    • Why? With these tools you can create bespoke learning activities based on your existing content. It takes time to build more complex activities, so ideally integrate them into an existing website or learning management system. It is even more effective to encourage learners to create their own.

      • Adobe Express
      • PlayPosit
      • EdPuzzle
      • H5P
      • Quizlet
      • Do Ink
      • Canva
      • Storybird
      • Pixton
      • Flipsnack
      • Piktochart
      • Visme
  • Formative feedback tools
    • These tools allow you to choose from existing questions and set online assessment tasks. You can track progress and identify specific teaching content that requires more support.

      • Yacapaca
      • Learning by Questions
      • Nearpod
      • Spiral
      • ClassFlow
      • Seesaw
  • Collating ideas and content online
    • This is an opportunity to use online tools to gather a range of ideas collaboratively. You could start this as part of an online discussion and then ask learners to complete it with follow-up tasks.

      • Coggle
      • Wakelet
      • Zotero
  • Survey/voting tools
    • These tools allow you to keep track of learner progress as you deliver lessons online. Ask for immediate feedback, gather comments and track engagement.


      Description Suggestions of how to use
      Crowdsignal This is a polling tool you can use to create surveys, reviews and quizzes. Free basic package. Reinforce or test learning with quizzes and encourage student reflection with reviews or polls.
      GoSoapBox This is a realtime student response system which can be used when delivering an online lesson. Free for classes of 30 or fewer. Students can let you know if they are confused, submit and up-vote questions they would like answered, respond to quiz questions and engage in short discussions.
      Poll
      Everywhere
      This is a polling tool with different polling functions. These can be integrated into existing PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides presentations. Free Intro package. Enabling you to ask multiple choice polls and open ended questions. Students can ask and up-vote questions, rank order options you provide and click on images in response to a question.

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