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Teaching tips

Strategies for teaching online: the ultimate guide for educators.

• The Albert Team
• Last Updated On: March 1, 2022

With COVID-19 nearly overnight transforming our traditional classrooms into virtual ones, it can seem like distance learning has appeared out of nowhere. But, the truth is, education’s shift towards distance learning had been steadily growing long before this pandemic. And it’s here to stay.

What We Review

Why Distance Learning is Here to Stay

Nothing is perfect, and distance learning isn’t a solution to all a school’s problems. However, it does meet a variety of both students’ and school districts’ needs that traditional, brick-and-mortar classrooms can’t.

Fully virtual schools have been sprouting up across states for years, and only growing in popularity. While some families have realized that full-time distance learning doesn’t suit their personal lifestyles, for others it’s essential. Competitive student-athletes with rigorous training schedules, students with mental or physical ailments, and families who just want the flexibility in their day, to name a few.

Even traditional schools are utilizing fully virtual courses for their in-person populations. For example, say a district wants to offer a film studies course to their students but doesn’t have the funding or the student numbers to justify a full-time film teacher in every building. This district will instead hire one teacher to virtually run the course through an online Learning Management System, like Canvas or Moodle. Students across the district can now take this virtual course at any period of the day, in their school’s computer lab.

We see districts investing in virtual tools, digital subscriptions, practice software, and broadband. Digital citizenship courses are on the rise as a key component in school curricula.

For educators new to distance learning, it can be difficult to know what online teaching techniques work best, or even where to begin. In this comprehensive post, we detail effective online teaching strategies, easy-to-use tips, and provide a number of accessible resources.

The 3 Keys to Teaching Online Classes Effectively

While everyone’s teaching style is a bit different, successful educators all follow the same best practices in online teaching. These 5 simple principles are the framework for all of the top online learning strategies.

1. Clear communication with your students’ families.

Families want to hear from you often and regularly. It can be easy for students and parents to start to feel disconnected. Reassure them your “virtual door” is always open, and share your email and phone number early and often in multiple places. Clear, respectful communication is the key to building relationships and classroom community.

2. Vary your types of lessons.

Your teaching should be a blend of both synchronous (happening in real-time) and asynchronous (unscheduled and self-paced). Synchronous teaching through phone calls, video lessons, or live chats allows students to ask questions and build relationships with you and each other. Asynchronous activities, like discussion boards or recorded lectures, allow your students to complete assignments at their own time and pace. Both styles have their benefits and are necessary in their own ways.

3. Select the right tools for your class.

Your school’s Learning Management System or LMS will most likely be the primary tool you use for your direct communication and posting assignments. Familiarize yourself with it early, and don’t hesitate to reach out to your more tech-savvy coworkers with questions. You’ll also need a separate tool like Google Voice o r Zoom or phone calls, live lessons, and video chatting. 

Beyond these basics, there are a huge variety of educational technology tools to transform your teaching and engage your students. This is the fun part! Use the tips and tricks provided later in this article for discovering, experimenting, and implementing new tools in your classroom.

Return to the Table of Contents

What are the Most Common Strategies of Distance Education?

Encouraging student engagement while ensuring they master their course content can be challenging in any setting. We provide vital online teaching ideas on how to make your lessons more interactive and foster active learning. We discuss these five most common strategies in distance education in more detail throughout this article:

1. Adapt your lessons to work online.

Revamp your in-person lessons to the online environment with engaging discussions, screen recordings, and interactive tech tools.

2. Set clear expectations with students and families.

Share your expectations and due dates early and often to prepare students and families for a successful year.

3. Build a strong online classroom community.

Classroom community is just as essential in the virtual environment and can be fostered with video chats, purposeful free time, and class message boards.

4. Connect with parents and keep them involved.

Keep parents involved consistently with frequent and engaging communications like weekly newsletters and personal phone calls throughout the school year.

5. Find and utilize the right EdTech for your needs.

Collaborate with fellow educators and identify specific needs to find and implement the best tools for your classroom.

Strategies for Teaching Online: How to Adapt Your Lesson Plans to Different Types of Learners

We know you’ve already put endless hours into your lessons plans, tweaking and perfecting them. Don’t feel like all that work has gone to waste! There are a bunch of different online learning strategies to adapt your in-person lesson plans to fit the virtual environment. It just takes a little creativity and the right tools.

1. Add discussions to increase engagement and comprehension.

An unbeatable tool for asynchronous discussions is Flipgrid . Instead of typing, students record themselves answering your posted questions. They can view and respond to each other’s videos, as well. This is a great option for reluctant writers, a strong way to boost engagement, and promote active learning.

For written discussions, Google Classroom is a great tool. You simply post the assignment instructions, let students post their answer, and then they can read and respond to others. Check out How to Teach From Home with Google Classroom and Albert for more tips.

For synchronous discussions, chat rooms like YO Teach allow students to message back and forth in real-time. Fair warning- these chatrooms require active monitoring from the teacher side. 

2. Utilize screen recordings to pre-record yourself and your lessons.

For the Powerpoints you’ve already created, screen recording software like Loom or Screencastify allows you to record your presentation on-screen as you speak and click through your slides. It even has the option to include a little window with your face on the screen, so your students can still see you. These videos can be downloaded or shared via weblink. 

Beyond just lessons, you can also record yourself explaining assignment directions, for those students who do better when verbally told what to do.

3. Make your lessons interactive and engaging.

Nearpod is one way to make online classes more interactive. It’s a dynamic tool that allows students to follow along and participate in your lessons on their own devices. First, you import your pre-existing lessons pdfs or Powerpoints. You then can add in places for student interaction: written responses, drawings, quizzes, polls, collaborate boards, and more. You can differentiate the type and difficulty of assignments for different student needs.

Strategies for Teaching Online: How to Set Clear Expectations with Students

Strong classroom management is as essential in the online environment as it is in the traditional one. Even though you won’t be physically seeing your students every day, read on for 5 effective online teaching strategies to hold them accountable.

1. Post behavior expectations in every live discussion.

Make your rules/expectations crystal clear from the outset, especially in live discussions. You’ll probably find even the quieter students feel more bold typing in the chat- which is great when it’s positive conversations, but not-so-great when it gets off-topic or inappropriate. 

In your first synchronous lesson, spend time discussing with your students what you as a class want your “Online Classroom Norms” to be. Create a list of around 8-10 norms, including specific rules like “stay on topic,” “always be kind and respectful,” “raise your hand and wait to be called on before turning on your microphone.” After you create the norms, review and share the document before every live lesson.

2. Set and enforce consequences in live discussions.

The same in any classroom, it’s just as important to enforce your expectations as it is to create and share them. If a student is negatively participating, you can easily mute or remove him or her from the lesson. Then, follow up afterward with a phone call home to discuss the situation.

3. Find your positive reinforcement.

My students used to love cleaning the whiteboard, or getting small pieces of candy. But online, these rewards don’t translate. However, it’s still just as important to reward students to reinforce their positive behavior. Some ideas include:

• Public shoutouts : Recognize star students in your emails to the class, during synchronous lessons, or post them on a public board. A board like padlet can even let students post shoutouts recognizing each other.
• Private shoutouts : Send students and their families individual messages when they’ve done a great job.
• Student choice : Allowing students to make even seemingly small choices can be motivating. Let a student choose which song to play before the lesson starts or choose a fun image for your virtual Zoom background.

4. Set clear due dates.

Many students struggle with time management. Without a rigid school day schedule, it’s easy for students to lose track of time and fall behind on their work. Set due dates for everything, and send frequent reminders. By the way, check out our free teaching strategy discovery tool .

Where possible, chunk large assignments into smaller ones to help students keep on pace. For example, if assigning an essay, set a due date for the outline, the rough draft, and the final essay. This helps force the “wait til the last minute” folks to move forward at a steady pace.

5. Use acknowledgement forms.

In this online environment, you’ll find yourself inevitably wondering, “Does anyone even read my emails?” To guarantee your students read and understand any especially important communications, add a link to a quick Google Form where a student and/or parent will type their name to acknowledge they read and understood it.

Strategies for Teaching Online: How to Build Rapport and Community with Students

Without the natural opportunities to make connections in a traditional classroom, it’s important to create these spaces in the online setting. We share easy best practices in online teaching to build your classroom community:

1. Use interactive Flipgrid discussions.

With Flipgrid, you and your students can respond to topics you’ve posted with a selfie video. Students can view everyone’s responses and then post a video reply. Though these aren’t synchronous discussions, seeing and hearing you and their classmates helps to form a community bond.

2. Incorporate purposeful free time .

Allowing 10 minutes before a live lesson for students to enter early to chat with you and each other, is a great way to foster important, informal connections. If possible, host a half hour recess once a week, where students can log into a live meeting room just to hang out. If conversation lags or needs direction, you can facilitate topics with fun icebreakers and “would you rather” questions.

3. Have a regular show and tell .

The virtual classroom makes show and tell easier than ever! You set the topic (their pet, their favorite outfit, something from a fun vacation), and students can turn on their video cameras and microphones to share in a lesson. Alternatively, you can include your show and tell in the bottom of a weekly email update. Students can share videos or just pictures and a caption- whatever works best for you!

4. Utilize a class message board .

Padlet is a great tool for creating a collaborative class message board. Students can wish each other happy birthdays, share exciting events in their lives, or post shoutouts and encouragements to each other. You can adjust Padlet’s settings so that all messages have to be approved by you before posting.

5. Remember the value of a personal phone call.

Just reaching out and speaking with your student one-on-one builds an essential bond. It can be overwhelming if you have a large class, so set a goal to speak with a certain number of students each week to ensure you’re reaching everyone. If you don’t have a work phone, create a free Google Voice account so families don’t have access to your personal number.

Strategies for Teaching Online: How to Connect with Parents

We know that parent involvement strongly impacts student performance in school. Research shows the importance of teachers and parents developing relationships based on trust, respect, and solid communication. 

In the online environment, parent involvement looks very different. As the person physically with the student, parents are now responsible for making sure their child is staying on-task and logging into the computer each day to complete assignments. It can take some parents a while to adjust to their new role. As the teachers, we must find ways to connect and support our parents, provide online learning strategies for students, and keep them involved throughout the school year.

1. Send frequent reminders with Remind 101 .

This is a great two-way communication tool, that allows you to send both mass and personalized text messages. Parents who aren’t fans of checking their email or logging into their LMS account every day benefit from receiving timely reminders like these directly to their phones:

• Class events, times, and locations
• Due dates for upcoming assignments or test days
• Links to resources, videos, and articles

2. Share out weekly newsletters.

Newsletter emails help keep families informed and involved with the happenings in your class and the school. We recommend including pictures and highlighting student achievements to keep parents engaged all school year.   Lucidpress offers a number of different, free templates to choose from.

3. Be clear and consistent with your expectations.

Parents want to know what they can do to support their child’s learning, but don’t always know where to start. Having clear conversations about your goals and expectations for the school year helps. In the transition to online learning, we can discuss parent expectations like:

• Checking their child’s due dates and what they’ve submitted each day
• Checking the posted grades for each class
• Reading and responding to teacher emails and calls
• Reaching out with any questions or challenges

Strategies for Teaching Online: How to Find the Right EdTech Tools and Curricula Supports

With so many different tools out there, it can be overwhelming to find the one that’s best for you and your students. Our distance learning hub is a great place to start. You can also use these simple strategies to make your selection process easy and effective. 

1. Utilize these 100+ Distance Learning Tools .

We provide a comprehensive guide of 100+ distance learning tools and strategies for effective student engagement. If you’re unsure where to begin, or just want to explore new technology, start with this list. It’s organized by both instructional need and content area.

2. Collaborate with colleagues.

Even though you’re not seeing your coworkers in the hallway every day, they’re still one of the most valuable resources you can find. It can be easy to feel isolated working home alone, but remember to reach out and ask what your fellow teachers are doing in their virtual classrooms. They’re all researching and testing out new strategies and tools just like you are, and sharing your mutual findings benefits everyone.

3. Supplement your Curricula Needs.

When you need to supplement your curriculum with ready-made online activities, Albert has engaging, standards-aligned resources across grade levels and subjects. While many resources are free, educators are encouraged to try Albert for free . Tips for teaching English online using Albert include varying our leveled readings in STEM and across topics to generate interest among different students.

4. EdTech Digital Promise Framework .

This process helps educational leaders select and run successful educational technology pilots in their schools. The steps include how to identify a need, discover and select a product, train staff, and much more.

5. Always do a test run before using a new tool in class.

After you’ve selected the new tool to try, create a mock class to assign work to. Log in and test out your activity as a student, so you can truly see if this will work for your class. Also, you’ll be able to help troubleshoot common problems that you might not have noticed from just your teacher log-in.

Common Mistakes Teachers Make When First Teaching Online

There’s a few common mistakes even the best veteran teachers make when first switching to the online environment. Keep in mind these strategies for teaching online when you get started:

1. Not setting boundaries with students and parents.

Working from home, it can be tough to disconnect from your work. It’s even tougher when you have students and families reaching out to you at all hours of the evening. It can be tempting to answer the phone or send a quick reply, but resist. 

Share the hours you’re available with your families, and stick to them. Mimic your normal school day, like 7:30am to 3:30pm Monday to Friday. It’s important you give yourself the time to disconnect, and anything your student needs can wait until the next morning. Teacher burnout is real.

2. Not testing new tools a few times before rolling them out to your students.

We all know- technology is great… when it works. Inevitably, something won’t always go as planned. But, that’s okay! Just like in the traditional classroom, teachers adapt and move on if something goes wrong. It can be intimidating to try out a new tool for the first time, so we suggest setting up a mock class and using some willing colleagues or family members as your guinea pigs before rolling it out with students.

3. Rolling out too much too soon.

Be wary of assigning complex tasks and assignments without training your students on how to use the technology first. Families and students will be capable of handling this complexity at some point, if you build them up to it. You don’t want your student spending more time trying to decipher the instructions than learning the actual content.

When assigning a learning task using a new tech tool, consider that it may take your families an extra 30min to one hour to get the hang of using it. Provide clear instructions with common troubleshooting tips. Better yet, assign a “mock assignment” of something simple, before actually assigning a lesson. For example, if it’s a discussion board, have students’ first posts be about their family pet or what they did for fun that weekend.

Wrapping Things Up: Things to Remember When Teaching Online

We’ve covered a lot of online teaching ideas and strategies. To wrap things up, here are 3 key takeaways to carry into your virtual classroom:

1. Stay communicative :

Share your expectations for behavior early and often. Keep lines of communication open, using different tools like emails, Remind 101, phone calls, and class message boards. Weekly newsletters are a great way to build community with families.

2. Continuously adapt your classroom :

Use the lessons you’ve already created, and adapt them to the online environment with different ed tech tools. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel- take advantage of the great resources already out there. Albert has a huge library of standards aligned lessons and activities for all ages and subjects.

3. Keep activities interesting with students :

Use a variety of asynchronous and synchronous activities to keep your students engaged, and meet different learner needs. Build in purposeful community-building activities like Show and Tell and time for free chat to foster strong student relationships.

We hope you found this Ultimate Guide for Educators helpful. Remember, one of the strong resources educators have is each other! What are you doing in your online classroom? Share your favorite tips for teaching and online learning strategies for students in the comments below.

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like our post on 75 educational teacher websites , our viral post on distance learning tools here or our free 150+ teaching strategies discovery tool .

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Digital Learning & Design

Large course assignments guide.

Get Started

To start, consider how students will engage with the content in your course. What do you want them to be able to do by the end of the course, and how will they demonstrate it? The answers to these questions will determine your learning objectives and course assignments. Assignments should assess learning and performance, and give students key information to improve in these areas. 

We encourage you to consider these questions before designing assignments :

• What assignments will help students work towards the learning objectives? 
• How much time should students spend on the assignment? When will it be due? How does it fit in with the week/module? 
• How will my feedback impact student learning? 
• What does success look like? What are the criteria and expectations? Do I have examples to show students? Do students have the skills and tools they need to be successful? 
• Are there different ways students can demonstrate learning?

So, What Makes for Good Assignment Design?

Once your learning objectives and teaching strategy are clear, you are ready to design the assignments for your course. We’ve put together a list of assignment types and design considerations. 

• Set smaller weekly assignments to gauge students’ engagement as they asynchronously interact with course material. 
• Spread out low-stakes opportunities evenly throughout the course to help students track their learning and progress.
• Make the purpose of the assignment clear to students: why are they doing it and how does it align with the learning objectives? If you have a single, longer assignment you may break down the assignment into smaller parts to be completed over a series of weeks. With a high student submission pool, it can sometimes be tricky to provide timely meaningful feedback before the next assignment is due. Plan the assignment stages and due dates around when you can get the most grading done.
• Provide a ‘how to succeed’ section in your course so students know what is expected of them. 
• Use appropriate technology and communication methods to help students complete assignments.
• Unless a course specifically requires papers and essays as an objective, try to convert some writing assignments - like essays or papers - to worksheets or templates. A worksheet or template essentially asks students directly about the required elements with a space to write the answer (which can be a brief statement or a paragraph), which is typically much quicker to grade and evaluate student efforts, and is often more straightforward for students as well.
• Assign several short writings with the goal of “write-to-learn.”
• Ask students to write exam questions and respond to them. You can use the student produced questions on an exam or for quizzes. 
• Provide written opportunities for students to reflect on and articulate what they've learned.

Group work offers a multitude of benefits in large online classes. When effectively designed, students practice collaborative working skills, learn from and with their peers, and build stronger social relationships. You can get to know how your students work and learn together, provide targeted feedback, and cut down on grading time. If you’d like to organize a group work assignment in your course, see our Designing Effective Group Work guide .

Well written, quality multiple-choice questions take time to write but can be graded quickly whereas essays can be written quickly but take time to grade.

• Take advantage of Canvas or Panopto for auto graded quizzes to check for engagement with material.
• Use Top Hat to deliver lectures with embedded questions and discussions.
• Create a backchannel or informal online space for engaging or sharing thoughts/questions after the lecture or throughout the week. 
• Design Just in Time Teaching ( JiTT ) activities –- like entry quizzes, surveys, or exit tickets -- with due dates to help keep students on track.
• Share and critique group presentations, articles, or other student-produced work.
• Ask students to demonstrate their learning by solving problems that are tied to the real world. University of Indiana’s Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning has a good resource on Authentic Assessments .

With weekly assignments, the potential grading workload can quickly become overwhelming. But you can reclaim your time by using tools and methods to automate or expediate grading and giving feedback.

• Use Gradescope to facilitate grading of assignments that cannot be autograded. 
• Consider low-risk assignments that have a low impact on student grades and mark them as ‘complete’ or ‘incomplete.’
• Develop and share rubrics for assignments to expedite grading and minimize questions from students. Rubrics should communicate expectations for quality and success criteria.
• Mention students’ names in feedback, discussions, and announcements to personalize communication and let students know that you are reviewing their work.

Knowing what you want students to be able to do is the first step in designing effective assignments. To determine what is right for you and your course, please contact [email protected] to meet with one of our instructional designers.

Lake, B. (2018). Best Practices for Large-Enrollment Online Courses, Part I and Part II. ASU Teach Online . Retrieved May 27, from https://teachonline.asu.edu/2018/09/best-practices-for-large-enrollment-courses-in-canvas/  

Lectures & Learning Activities: UNLV Teach Online Best Practices. UNLV Teach Online . Retrieved May 27, from https://www.unlv.edu/teach-online/best-practices/lectures-learning

Wilsmin, A. Teaching Large Classes. Vanderbilt Center for Teaching . Retrieved May 27, from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/teaching-large-classes/

Teaching Strategies: Large Classes and Lectures. Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at University of Michigan.   Retrieved May 27, from http://crlt.umich.edu/tstrategies/tsllc

Teaching Large Classes. The Center for Teaching and Learning at UNC Charlotte . Retrieved May 27, from https://teaching.uncc.edu/services-programs/teaching-guides/lecture-studio-and-large-classes/teaching-large-classes

McMurtie, B. (2020). How to Help Struggling Students Succeed Online. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved May 27, from https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-to-Help-Struggling/248325

10 Types of Assignments in Online Degree Programs

Students may respond to recorded video lectures, participate in discussion boards and write traditional research papers.

(Getty Images) |

Learn What to Expect

Experts say online degree programs are just as rigorous as those offered on campus. Prospective online students should expect various types of coursework suited for a virtual environment, such as discussion boards or wikis, or more traditional research papers and group projects .

Here are 10 types of assignments you may encounter in online courses.

Read or Watch, Then Respond

An instructor provides a recorded lecture, article or book chapter and requires students to answer questions. Students generally complete the assignment at their own pace, so long as they meet the ultimate deadline, Bradley Fuster, associate vice president of institutional effectiveness at SUNY Buffalo State , wrote in a recent U.S. News blog post .

(Jessica Peterson | Getty Images)

Discussion Boards

The discussion forum is a major part of many online classes, experts say, and often supplements weekly coursework. Generally, the professor poses a question, and students respond to the prompt as well as each other. Sometimes, students must submit their own post before seeing classmates' answers.

"Good response posts are response posts that do not only agree or disagree," Noam Ebner, who then led the online graduate program in negotiation and conflict resolution at Creighton University 's law school, told U.S. News in 2015. "When you read another student's post, you have the ability to expand the conversation."

(Ariel Skelley | Getty Images)

Group Projects

Just because online students may live around the world doesn't mean they won't complete group work. Students may use Google Docs to edit assignments, email to brainstorm ideas and software such as Zoom to videoconference. Katy Katz, who earned an online MBA in 2013 at Benedictine University in Illinois, used both Skype and a chat feature in her online classroom to communicate with classmates.

"That was a good way for our instructor to see that everyone was participating," she told U.S. News in 2015. "Any planning we did – if there were going to be changes to meeting times – we would communicate in that chat area."

(Dave and Les Jacobs | Getty Images)

Virtual Presentations

Students may also give either live or recorded presentations to their classmates. At Colorado State University—Global Campus , for example, students use various video technologies and microphones for oral presentations, or software such as Prezi for more visual assignments, says Karen Ferguson, the online school's vice provost.

Oftentimes, Ferguson says, "They're using the technology that they will use in their field."

(Westend61 | Getty Images)

Like on-campus courses, online courses may have exams , depending on the discipline. These may be proctored at a local testing center, or an actual human may monitor online students through their webcam. Companies such as ProctorU make this possible.

In other cases, students may take online exams while being monitored by a computer. Automated services including ProctorTrack can keep track of what's happening on an online student's screen in case there are behaviors that may indicate cheating.

(Dr T J Martin | Getty Images)

Research Papers

Formal research papers, wrote Buffalo State's Fuster, remain common in online courses, as this type of writing is important in many disciplines, especially at the graduate level .

While there are few differences between these assignments for online and on-ground courses, online students should ensure their program offers remote access to a university's library and its resources, which may include live chats with staff, experts say.

(golibo | Getty Images)

Case Studies and Real-World Scenarios

When it comes to case studies, a reading or video may provide detailed information about a specific situation related to the online course material, Fuster wrote. Students analyze the presented issues and develop solutions.

Real-world learning can also take other forms, says Brian Worden, manager of curriculum and course development for several schools at the for-profit Capella University . In online psychology degree programs, students may hold mock therapy sessions through videoconferencing. In the K-12 education online master's program , they create lesson plans and administer them to classmates.

(Tetra Images | Getty Images)

These are particularly useful in online courses where students reflect on personal experiences, internships or clinical requirements , Fuster wrote. Generally, these are a running dialogue of a student's thoughts or ideas about a topic. They may update their blogs throughout the course, and in some cases, their classmates can respond.

(vertmedia | Getty Images)

These allow students to comment on and edit a shared document to write task lists, answer research questions, discuss personal experiences or launch discussions with classmates. They are particularly beneficial when it comes to group work, Fuster wrote.

"A blog, a wiki, even building out portfolios – we see a lot of those in communications, marketing and some of our business programs ," says Ferguson, of CSU—Global. "You may not see as much of that in accounting," for example, where students focus more on specific financial principles.

(Nalinratana Phiyanalinmat | EyeEm

A journal assignment allows an online student to communicate with his or her professor directly. While topics are sometimes assigned, journals often enable students to express ideas, concerns, opinions or questions about course material, Fuster wrote.

(Yuri_Arcurs | Getty Images)

More About Online Education

Learn more about selecting an online degree program by checking out the U.S. News 2017 Best Online Programs rankings and exploring the Online Learning Lessons blog.

For more advice, follow U.S. News Education on Twitter and Facebook .

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Powerful Online Teaching Activities and Templates You Can Use Today

Updated on: 21 October 2022

Even experienced teachers sometimes find it difficult to overcome the hurdles presented by online teaching. Lack of in-person interaction, dwindling student motivation, and technical difficulties are just a few reasons. Then there’s an entirely different set of challenges posed by finding effective instructional strategies, or online teaching activities that are impactful in engaging students online. 

The good news is that there are a lot of pluses for online teaching too. If you incorporate the correct approaches, and tools that are proven to be effective and adopt them in your personal teaching methods, online teaching can be even more effective than teaching in-person. 

Here are 10 online teaching activities to enrich your students’ learning experience. 

The templates provided in this post can be edited online on Creately. If you want to give each student their own template to edit, simply duplicate it and share the link of the duplicated document with them. You can also add students as collaborators to one document and work on editing it together in real-time.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a great way to get students thinking and making connections between new knowledge and what they are already aware of. You can usually carry out this activity to introduce a new topic, evaluate student understanding of a lesson, and help expand their existing knowledge by collaborating with others. 

• Pose a problem or question or introduce a new topic to begin the session. 
• Based on the learning outcome, you can group students or let them perform the brainstorming activity by themselves. Or you can perform it as a class where you gather and record answers on a shared canvas or document as students present their ideas or solutions. 
• Give students time to present their thoughts and answers. You can call out each student’s name as you go around the virtual classroom.  
• Use a method like mind mapping to collect ideas in a more structured manner. 

• At the end of the session, you can analyze the answers provided by the students or their mind maps and discuss them in detail.

Q&A Sessions 

Even in the physical classroom, Q&A sessions are done frequently. They provide the platform for students to clarify areas in the lessons they are uncertain about and find solutions to any other problem they may have from the teacher or from peers. One question may lead to another, allowing learners to discover great new insights. 

Online it can be carried out synchronously as well as asynchronously. 

• Use video conferencing and live chatting to do this in real-time 
• Use social media groups, online discussion boards, and chatting for asynchronous Q&A sessions

Storyboarding  

Storyboards combine texts with pictures to give a rich synthesis of the information to both entertain and inform.  They are useful in helping learners understand and keep track of narratives, develop timelines, revise information, and brainstorm . Educators can use it to evaluate the reading comprehension of their students.

• Create a storyboard template or use the one below. Share it with students. You can ask them to take printouts or edit it online using images, illustrations, and clipart they can find online. To make it easier, you can already have the images placed on the side of the template on the canvas, letting students drag and drop them onto the correct box. 

• Ask the students to draw the main ideas of the story while you are reading it aloud or while they are reading it by themselves. Each drawing should contain a caption explaining the illustration. 
• Get students to share their storyboards with peers and discuss them. You can join in on the conversation and help them analyze which ideas are more important.  

Virtual Field Trips 

Virtual field trips are a great way to take students to amazing places allowing them to learn about history, discover science, visit museums or zoos, see world-class art, etc. from the very comfort of their own homes. With the current travel restrictions in place, it’s a great way to expose students to exciting new places while entertaining and educating them at the same time. 

Here’s a list of virtual field trips you can explore with your students from your online classroom.

Concept Mapping 

Concept maps provide a great way to understand a new concept in detail. Learners can use concept maps to discover connections between what they already know with the new insight they’ve gained.  

In your online classroom, concept mapping can be used for brainstorming , organizing information, and evaluating student knowledge. As an in-class activity, you can request students to draw a concept map (with a blank template provided by you or drawn by the students themselves) during or at the end of the lesson synthesizing the information discussed. 

Collaborative Worksheets

Using Google Docs you can create worksheets (containing multiple-choice questions, fill in the blank , explain a term, true or false, compare and contrast , etc.) for students to complete in real-time. As students type their answers you can leave your feedback with in-line comments or as suggestions.  Similarly, you can also create quizzes using Google Forms .

Building Activities 

Building activities are always fun to do and are a great way to help develop students’ skills. Plus they don’t require fancy or expensive supplies. 

Provide the list of items or ingredients needed for the activity the day before,  to give students the time to find them. During the class, you can guide the students with live demonstrations, or with shared video tutorials or infographics explaining the steps, students should take. This can be done with video on, which will give you a live preview of what each student is doing, hence allowing you to lead them as necessary.

Online Debates and Presentations

Debates are a great way to enhance online classroom engagement and stimulate students’ critical thinking skills. They also contribute to developing students’ interpersonal and teamwork skills. 

Online team debates can take place synchronously over video conferencing or they can be conducted over a discussion board where responses can be provided under affirmative and negative discussion threads.    

Likewise, you can involve students in creating their own presentations and presenting them online, either individually or in groups. These can help improve their understanding of a topic deeper as they would be involved in a lot of self-learning in the process of creating the presentation.

Timelines 

Timelines are a great visual tool for studying a brief period of time (i.e. a historical event, an individual’s life, a process, etc.) and are an effective alternative to the written narrative. They help actively engage the student in learning the sequence of events, helping them make connections between events and identify patterns.

• Provide a blank timeline template to students. 

• On one side of it, you can write the events (not necessarily in order) in boxes allowing students to drag and drop each in order onto the template. 
• If you want students to do the research themselves and complete the timeline, provide links to resources they can read and collect information from.  
• Or you can request students to type in important events as you read to the class online. 
• You can also add images to make the timeline more impactful.

Biography Graphic Organizers 

Biography graphic organizers are a great way to help students learn about significant characters from the books they are reading, movies they are watching, or historic figures. They help organize the information around a character and remember them better. 

Here also you can provide a blank template to the students prior to the lesson, allowing them to fill it out as you present. Students can also fill it out after the presentation is done. 

There are many other types of graphic organizers that you can use in various different ways to teach and engage students during the class. Find them in our Ultimate List of Graphic Organizers for Teachers and Students .

More Resources and Templates 

Here is a list of more teaching activities and templates you can use during your online lessons. 

• Word webs for learning new words or topics
• 5 W’s charts for noting down key information during lessons   
• Lotus diagram to brainstorm around new topics
• Star diagram to organizing characteristics of a topic
• Story maps to identify different elements of a story or book  
• Persuasion map to facilitate the persuasive writing process
• Hierarchy charts for understanding the hierarchical structure of elements in a concept 
• Genograms for understanding family relationships

What Are Your Favorite Online Teaching Activities?

In an online environment, it’s more important to create more engaging course material to ensure that the learning materials stick with the students. The methods and templates discussed in this post are a few of the many ways educators can use to simplify the online learning process and stimulate the students’ minds and keep them interested. 

Tell us about your experience with online teaching. What online teaching activities do you use in your classroom to engage your students?

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Designing Assignments for Learning

The rapid shift to remote teaching and learning meant that many instructors reimagined their assessment practices. Whether adapting existing assignments or creatively designing new opportunities for their students to learn, instructors focused on helping students make meaning and demonstrate their learning outside of the traditional, face-to-face classroom setting. This resource distills the elements of assignment design that are important to carry forward as we continue to seek better ways of assessing learning and build on our innovative assignment designs.

On this page:

Rethinking traditional tests, quizzes, and exams.

• Examples from the Columbia University Classroom
• Tips for Designing Assignments for Learning

Reflect On Your Assignment Design

Connect with the ctl.

• Resources and References

Cite this resource: Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (2021). Designing Assignments for Learning. Columbia University. Retrieved [today’s date] from https://ctl.columbia.edu/resources-and-technology/teaching-with-technology/teaching-online/designing-assignments/

Traditional assessments tend to reveal whether students can recognize, recall, or replicate what was learned out of context, and tend to focus on students providing correct responses (Wiggins, 1990). In contrast, authentic assignments, which are course assessments, engage students in higher order thinking, as they grapple with real or simulated challenges that help them prepare for their professional lives, and draw on the course knowledge learned and the skills acquired to create justifiable answers, performances or products (Wiggins, 1990). An authentic assessment provides opportunities for students to practice, consult resources, learn from feedback, and refine their performances and products accordingly (Wiggins 1990, 1998, 2014). 

Authentic assignments ask students to “do” the subject with an audience in mind and apply their learning in a new situation. Examples of authentic assignments include asking students to: 

• Write for a real audience (e.g., a memo, a policy brief, letter to the editor, a grant proposal, reports, building a website) and/or publication;
• Solve problem sets that have real world application; 
• Design projects that address a real world problem; 
• Engage in a community-partnered research project;
• Create an exhibit, performance, or conference presentation ;
• Compile and reflect on their work through a portfolio/e-portfolio.

Noteworthy elements of authentic designs are that instructors scaffold the assignment, and play an active role in preparing students for the tasks assigned, while students are intentionally asked to reflect on the process and product of their work thus building their metacognitive skills (Herrington and Oliver, 2000; Ashford-Rowe, Herrington and Brown, 2013; Frey, Schmitt, and Allen, 2012). 

It’s worth noting here that authentic assessments can initially be time consuming to design, implement, and grade. They are critiqued for being challenging to use across course contexts and for grading reliability issues (Maclellan, 2004). Despite these challenges, authentic assessments are recognized as beneficial to student learning (Svinicki, 2004) as they are learner-centered (Weimer, 2013), promote academic integrity (McLaughlin, L. and Ricevuto, 2021; Sotiriadou et al., 2019; Schroeder, 2021) and motivate students to learn (Ambrose et al., 2010). The Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning is always available to consult with faculty who are considering authentic assessment designs and to discuss challenges and affordances.   

Examples from the Columbia University Classroom 

Columbia instructors have experimented with alternative ways of assessing student learning from oral exams to technology-enhanced assignments. Below are a few examples of authentic assignments in various teaching contexts across Columbia University. 

• E-portfolios: Statia Cook shares her experiences with an ePorfolio assignment in her co-taught Frontiers of Science course (a submission to the Voices of Hybrid and Online Teaching and Learning initiative); CUIMC use of ePortfolios ;
• Case studies: Columbia instructors have engaged their students in authentic ways through case studies drawing on the Case Consortium at Columbia University. Read and watch a faculty spotlight to learn how Professor Mary Ann Price uses the case method to place pre-med students in real-life scenarios;
• Simulations: students at CUIMC engage in simulations to develop their professional skills in The Mary & Michael Jaharis Simulation Center in the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Helene Fuld Health Trust Simulation Center in the Columbia School of Nursing; 
• Experiential learning: instructors have drawn on New York City as a learning laboratory such as Barnard’s NYC as Lab webpage which highlights courses that engage students in NYC;
• Design projects that address real world problems: Yevgeniy Yesilevskiy on the Engineering design projects completed using lab kits during remote learning. Watch Dr. Yesilevskiy talk about his teaching and read the Columbia News article . 
• Writing assignments: Lia Marshall and her teaching associate Aparna Balasundaram reflect on their “non-disposable or renewable assignments” to prepare social work students for their professional lives as they write for a real audience; and Hannah Weaver spoke about a sandbox assignment used in her Core Literature Humanities course at the 2021 Celebration of Teaching and Learning Symposium . Watch Dr. Weaver share her experiences.  

​Tips for Designing Assignments for Learning

While designing an effective authentic assignment may seem like a daunting task, the following tips can be used as a starting point. See the Resources section for frameworks and tools that may be useful in this effort.  

Align the assignment with your course learning objectives 

Identify the kind of thinking that is important in your course, the knowledge students will apply, and the skills they will practice using through the assignment. What kind of thinking will students be asked to do for the assignment? What will students learn by completing this assignment? How will the assignment help students achieve the desired course learning outcomes? For more information on course learning objectives, see the CTL’s Course Design Essentials self-paced course and watch the video on Articulating Learning Objectives .  

Identify an authentic meaning-making task

For meaning-making to occur, students need to understand the relevance of the assignment to the course and beyond (Ambrose et al., 2010). To Bean (2011) a “meaning-making” or “meaning-constructing” task has two dimensions: 1) it presents students with an authentic disciplinary problem or asks students to formulate their own problems, both of which engage them in active critical thinking, and 2) the problem is placed in “a context that gives students a role or purpose, a targeted audience, and a genre.” (Bean, 2011: 97-98). 

An authentic task gives students a realistic challenge to grapple with, a role to take on that allows them to “rehearse for the complex ambiguities” of life, provides resources and supports to draw on, and requires students to justify their work and the process they used to inform their solution (Wiggins, 1990). Note that if students find an assignment interesting or relevant, they will see value in completing it. 

Consider the kind of activities in the real world that use the knowledge and skills that are the focus of your course. How is this knowledge and these skills applied to answer real-world questions to solve real-world problems? (Herrington et al., 2010: 22). What do professionals or academics in your discipline do on a regular basis? What does it mean to think like a biologist, statistician, historian, social scientist? How might your assignment ask students to draw on current events, issues, or problems that relate to the course and are of interest to them? How might your assignment tap into student motivation and engage them in the kinds of thinking they can apply to better understand the world around them? (Ambrose et al., 2010). 

Determine the evaluation criteria and create a rubric

To ensure equitable and consistent grading of assignments across students, make transparent the criteria you will use to evaluate student work. The criteria should focus on the knowledge and skills that are central to the assignment. Build on the criteria identified, create a rubric that makes explicit the expectations of deliverables and share this rubric with your students so they can use it as they work on the assignment. For more information on rubrics, see the CTL’s resource Incorporating Rubrics into Your Grading and Feedback Practices , and explore the Association of American Colleges & Universities VALUE Rubrics (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education). 

Build in metacognition

Ask students to reflect on what and how they learned from the assignment. Help students uncover personal relevance of the assignment, find intrinsic value in their work, and deepen their motivation by asking them to reflect on their process and their assignment deliverable. Sample prompts might include: what did you learn from this assignment? How might you draw on the knowledge and skills you used on this assignment in the future? See Ambrose et al., 2010 for more strategies that support motivation and the CTL’s resource on Metacognition ). 

Provide students with opportunities to practice

Design your assignment to be a learning experience and prepare students for success on the assignment. If students can reasonably expect to be successful on an assignment when they put in the required effort ,with the support and guidance of the instructor, they are more likely to engage in the behaviors necessary for learning (Ambrose et al., 2010). Ensure student success by actively teaching the knowledge and skills of the course (e.g., how to problem solve, how to write for a particular audience), modeling the desired thinking, and creating learning activities that build up to a graded assignment. Provide opportunities for students to practice using the knowledge and skills they will need for the assignment, whether through low-stakes in-class activities or homework activities that include opportunities to receive and incorporate formative feedback. For more information on providing feedback, see the CTL resource Feedback for Learning . 

Communicate about the assignment 

Share the purpose, task, audience, expectations, and criteria for the assignment. Students may have expectations about assessments and how they will be graded that is informed by their prior experiences completing high-stakes assessments, so be transparent. Tell your students why you are asking them to do this assignment, what skills they will be using, how it aligns with the course learning outcomes, and why it is relevant to their learning and their professional lives (i.e., how practitioners / professionals use the knowledge and skills in your course in real world contexts and for what purposes). Finally, verify that students understand what they need to do to complete the assignment. This can be done by asking students to respond to poll questions about different parts of the assignment, a “scavenger hunt” of the assignment instructions–giving students questions to answer about the assignment and having them work in small groups to answer the questions, or by having students share back what they think is expected of them.

Plan to iterate and to keep the focus on learning 

Draw on multiple sources of data to help make decisions about what changes are needed to the assignment, the assignment instructions, and/or rubric to ensure that it contributes to student learning. Explore assignment performance data. As Deandra Little reminds us: “a really good assignment, which is a really good assessment, also teaches you something or tells the instructor something. As much as it tells you what students are learning, it’s also telling you what they aren’t learning.” ( Teaching in Higher Ed podcast episode 337 ). Assignment bottlenecks–where students get stuck or struggle–can be good indicators that students need further support or opportunities to practice prior to completing an assignment. This awareness can inform teaching decisions. 

Triangulate the performance data by collecting student feedback, and noting your own reflections about what worked well and what did not. Revise the assignment instructions, rubric, and teaching practices accordingly. Consider how you might better align your assignment with your course objectives and/or provide more opportunities for students to practice using the knowledge and skills that they will rely on for the assignment. Additionally, keep in mind societal, disciplinary, and technological changes as you tweak your assignments for future use. 

Now is a great time to reflect on your practices and experiences with assignment design and think critically about your approach. Take a closer look at an existing assignment. Questions to consider include: What is this assignment meant to do? What purpose does it serve? Why do you ask students to do this assignment? How are they prepared to complete the assignment? Does the assignment assess the kind of learning that you really want? What would help students learn from this assignment? 

Using the tips in the previous section: How can the assignment be tweaked to be more authentic and meaningful to students? 

As you plan forward for post-pandemic teaching and reflect on your practices and reimagine your course design, you may find the following CTL resources helpful: Reflecting On Your Experiences with Remote Teaching , Transition to In-Person Teaching , and Course Design Support .

The Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is here to help!

For assistance with assignment design, rubric design, or any other teaching and learning need, please request a consultation by emailing [email protected] . 

Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework for assignments. The TILT Examples and Resources page ( https://tilthighered.com/tiltexamplesandresources ) includes example assignments from across disciplines, as well as a transparent assignment template and a checklist for designing transparent assignments . Each emphasizes the importance of articulating to students the purpose of the assignment or activity, the what and how of the task, and specifying the criteria that will be used to assess students. 

Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) offers VALUE ADD (Assignment Design and Diagnostic) tools ( https://www.aacu.org/value-add-tools ) to help with the creation of clear and effective assignments that align with the desired learning outcomes and associated VALUE rubrics (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education). VALUE ADD encourages instructors to explicitly state assignment information such as the purpose of the assignment, what skills students will be using, how it aligns with course learning outcomes, the assignment type, the audience and context for the assignment, clear evaluation criteria, desired formatting, and expectations for completion whether individual or in a group.

Villarroel et al. (2017) propose a blueprint for building authentic assessments which includes four steps: 1) consider the workplace context, 2) design the authentic assessment; 3) learn and apply standards for judgement; and 4) give feedback. 

References 

Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., & DiPietro, M. (2010). Chapter 3: What Factors Motivate Students to Learn? In How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching . Jossey-Bass. 

Ashford-Rowe, K., Herrington, J., and Brown, C. (2013). Establishing the critical elements that determine authentic assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 39(2), 205-222, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2013.819566 .  

Bean, J.C. (2011). Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom . Second Edition. Jossey-Bass. 

Frey, B. B, Schmitt, V. L., and Allen, J. P. (2012). Defining Authentic Classroom Assessment. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation. 17(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.7275/sxbs-0829  

Herrington, J., Reeves, T. C., and Oliver, R. (2010). A Guide to Authentic e-Learning . Routledge. 

Herrington, J. and Oliver, R. (2000). An instructional design framework for authentic learning environments. Educational Technology Research and Development, 48(3), 23-48. 

Litchfield, B. C. and Dempsey, J. V. (2015). Authentic Assessment of Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes. New Directions for Teaching and Learning. 142 (Summer 2015), 65-80. 

Maclellan, E. (2004). How convincing is alternative assessment for use in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 29(3), June 2004. DOI: 10.1080/0260293042000188267

McLaughlin, L. and Ricevuto, J. (2021). Assessments in a Virtual Environment: You Won’t Need that Lockdown Browser! Faculty Focus. June 2, 2021. 

Mueller, J. (2005). The Authentic Assessment Toolbox: Enhancing Student Learning through Online Faculty Development . MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. 1(1). July 2005. Mueller’s Authentic Assessment Toolbox is available online. 

Schroeder, R. (2021). Vaccinate Against Cheating With Authentic Assessment . Inside Higher Ed. (February 26, 2021).  

Sotiriadou, P., Logan, D., Daly, A., and Guest, R. (2019). The role of authentic assessment to preserve academic integrity and promote skills development and employability. Studies in Higher Education. 45(111), 2132-2148. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1582015    

Stachowiak, B. (Host). (November 25, 2020). Authentic Assignments with Deandra Little. (Episode 337). In Teaching in Higher Ed . https://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/authentic-assignments/  

Svinicki, M. D. (2004). Authentic Assessment: Testing in Reality. New Directions for Teaching and Learning. 100 (Winter 2004): 23-29. 

Villarroel, V., Bloxham, S, Bruna, D., Bruna, C., and Herrera-Seda, C. (2017). Authentic assessment: creating a blueprint for course design. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 43(5), 840-854. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2017.1412396    

Weimer, M. (2013). Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice . Second Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 

Wiggins, G. (2014). Authenticity in assessment, (re-)defined and explained. Retrieved from https://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/authenticity-in-assessment-re-defined-and-explained/

Wiggins, G. (1998). Teaching to the (Authentic) Test. Educational Leadership . April 1989. 41-47. 

Wiggins, Grant (1990). The Case for Authentic Assessment . Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation , 2(2). 

Wondering how AI tools might play a role in your course assignments?

See the CTL’s resource “Considerations for AI Tools in the Classroom.”

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Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, the 5 best homework help websites (free and paid).

Other High School , General Education

Listen: we know homework isn’t fun, but it is a good way to reinforce the ideas and concepts you’ve learned in class. But what if you’re really struggling with your homework assignments?

If you’ve looked online for a little extra help with your take-home assignments, you’ve probably stumbled across websites claiming to provide the homework help and answers students need to succeed . But can homework help sites really make a difference? And if so, which are the best homework help websites you can use? 

Below, we answer these questions and more about homework help websites–free and paid. We’ll go over: 

• The basics of homework help websites
• The cost of homework help websites 
• The five best homework websites out there 
• The pros and cons of using these websites for homework help 
• The line between “learning” and “cheating” when using online homework help 
• Tips for getting the most out of a homework help website

So let’s get started! 

The Basics About Homework Help Websites–Free and Paid

Homework help websites are designed to help you complete your homework assignments, plain and simple. 

What Makes a Homework Help Site Worth Using

Most of the best sites allow users to ask questions and then provide an answer (or multiple possible answers) and explanation in seconds. In some instances, you can even send a photo of a particular assignment or problem instead of typing the whole thing out! 

Homework help sites also offer more than just help answering homework questions. Common services provided are Q&A with experts, educational videos, lectures, practice tests and quizzes, learning modules, math solving tools, and proofreading help. Homework help sites can also provide textbook solutions (i.e. answers to problems in tons of different textbooks your school might be using), one-on-one tutoring, and peer-to-peer platforms that allow you to discuss subjects you’re learning about with your fellow students. 

And best of all, nearly all of them offer their services 24/7, including tutoring! 

What You Should Should Look Out For

When it comes to homework help, there are lots–and we mean lots –of scam sites out there willing to prey on desperate students. Before you sign up for any service, make sure you read reviews to ensure you’re working with a legitimate company. 

A word to the wise: the more a company advertises help that veers into the territory of cheating, the more likely it is to be a scam. The best homework help websites are going to help you learn the concepts you’ll need to successfully complete your homework on your own. (We’ll go over the difference between “homework help” and “cheating” a little later!) 

You don't need a golden piggy bank to use homework help websites. Some provide low or no cost help for students like you!

How Expensive Are the Best Homework Help Websites?

First of all, just because a homework help site costs money doesn’t mean it’s a good service. Likewise, just because a homework help website is free doesn’t mean the help isn’t high quality. To find the best websites, you have to take a close look at the quality and types of information they provide! 

When it comes to paid homework help services, the prices vary pretty widely depending on the amount of services you want to subscribe to. Subscriptions can cost anywhere from $2 to $150 dollars per month, with the most expensive services offering several hours of one-on-one tutoring with a subject expert per month.

The 5 Best Homework Help Websites 

So, what is the best homework help website you can use? The answer is that it depends on what you need help with. 

The best homework help websites are the ones that are reliable and help you learn the material. They don’t just provide answers to homework questions–they actually help you learn the material. 

That’s why we’ve broken down our favorite websites into categories based on who they’re best for . For instance, the best website for people struggling with math might not work for someone who needs a little extra help with science, and vice versa. 

Keep reading to find the best homework help website for you! 

Best Free Homework Help Site: Khan Academy

• Price: Free!
• Best for: Practicing tough material 

Not only is Khan Academy free, but it’s full of information and can be personalized to suit your needs. When you set up your account , you choose which courses you need to study, and Khan Academy sets up a personal dashboard of instructional videos, practice exercises, and quizzes –with both correct and incorrect answer explanations–so you can learn at your own pace. 

As an added bonus, it covers more course topics than many other homework help sites, including several AP classes.

Runner Up: Brainly.com offers a free service that allows you to type in questions and get answers and explanations from experts. The downside is that you’re limited to two answers per question and have to watch ads. 

Best Paid Homework Help Site: Chegg

• Price: $14.95 to $19.95 per month
• Best for: 24/7 homework assistance  

This service has three main parts . The first is Chegg Study, which includes textbook solutions, Q&A with subject experts, flashcards, video explanations, a math solver, and writing help. The resources are thorough, and reviewers state that Chegg answers homework questions quickly and accurately no matter when you submit them.  

Chegg also offers textbook rentals for students who need access to textbooks outside of their classroom. Finally, Chegg offers Internship and Career Advice for students who are preparing to graduate and may need a little extra help with the transition out of high school. 

Another great feature Chegg provides is a selection of free articles geared towards helping with general life skills, like coping with stress and saving money. Chegg’s learning modules are comprehensive, and they feature solutions to the problems in tons of different textbooks in a wide variety of subjects. 

Runner Up: Bartleby offers basically the same services as Chegg for $14.99 per month. The reason it didn’t rank as the best is based on customer reviews that say user questions aren’t answered quite as quickly on this site as on Chegg. Otherwise, this is also a solid choice!

Best Site for Math Homework Help: Photomath

• Price: Free (or $59.99 per year for premium services) 
• Best for: Explaining solutions to math problems

This site allows you to t ake a picture of a math problem, and instantly pulls up a step-by-step solution, as well as a detailed explanation of the concept. Photomath also includes animated videos that break down mathematical concepts to help you better understand and remember them. 

The basic service is free, but for an additional fee you can get extra study tools and learn additional strategies for solving common math problems.

Runner Up: KhanAcademy offers in-depth tutorials that cover complex math topics for free, but you won’t get the same tailored help (and answers!) that Photomath offers. 

Best Site for English Homework Help: Princeton Review Academic Tutoring

• Price: $40 to $153 per month, depending on how many hours of tutoring you want 
• Best for: Comprehensive and personalized reading and writing help 

While sites like Grammarly and Sparknotes help you by either proofreading what you write via an algorithm or providing book summaries, Princeton Review’s tutors provide in-depth help with vocabulary, literature, essay writing and development, proofreading, and reading comprehension. And unlike other services, you’ll have the chance to work with a real person to get help. 

The best part is that you can get on-demand English (and ESL) tutoring from experts 24/7. That means you can get help whenever you need it, even if you’re pulling an all-nighter! 

This is by far the most expensive homework site on this list, so you’ll need to really think about what you need out of a homework help website before you commit. One added benefit is that the subscription covers over 80 other subjects, including AP classes, which can make it a good value if you need lots of help!  

Best Site for STEM Homework Help: Studypool

• Best for: Science homework help
• Price: Varies; you’ll pay for each question you submit

When it comes to science homework help, there aren’t a ton of great resources out there. The best of the bunch is Studypool, and while it has great reviews, there are some downsides as well. 

Let’s start with the good stuff. Studypool offers an interesting twist on the homework help formula. After you create a free account, you can submit your homework help questions, and tutors will submit bids to answer your questions. You’ll be able to select the tutor–and price point–that works for you, then you’ll pay to have your homework question answered. You can also pay a small fee to access notes, lectures, and other documents that top tutors have uploaded. 

The downside to Studypool is that the pricing is not transparent . There’s no way to plan for how much your homework help will cost, especially if you have lots of questions! Additionally, it’s not clear how tutors are selected, so you’ll need to be cautious when you choose who you’d like to answer your homework questions.  

What Are the Pros and Cons of Using Homework Help Sites?

Homework help websites can be a great resource if you’re struggling in a subject, or even if you just want to make sure that you’re really learning and understanding topics and ideas that you’re interested in. But, there are some possible drawbacks if you don’t use these sites responsibly. 

We’ll go over the good–and the not-so-good–aspects of getting online homework help below. 

3 Pros of Using Homework Help Websites 

First, let’s take a look at the benefits. 

#1: Better Grades Beyond Homework

This is a big one! Getting outside help with your studies can improve your understanding of concepts that you’re learning, which translates into better grades when you take tests or write essays. 

Remember: homework is designed to help reinforce the concepts you learned in class. If you just get easy answers without learning the material behind the problems, you may not have the tools you need to be successful on your class exams…or even standardized tests you’ll need to take for college. 

#2: Convenience

One of the main reasons that online homework help is appealing is because it’s flexible and convenient. You don’t have to go to a specific tutoring center while they’re open or stay after school to speak with your teacher. Instead, you can access helpful resources wherever you can access the internet, whenever you need them.

This is especially true if you tend to study at off hours because of your extracurriculars, work schedule, or family obligations. Sites that offer 24/7 tutoring can give you the extra help you need if you can’t access the free resources that are available at your school. 

#3: Variety

Not everyone learns the same way. Maybe you’re more of a visual learner, but your teacher mostly does lectures. Or maybe you learn best by listening and taking notes, but you’re expected to learn something just from reading the textbook . 

One of the best things about online homework help is that it comes in a variety of forms. The best homework help sites offer resources for all types of learners, including videos, practice activities, and even one-on-one discussions with real-life experts. 

This variety can also be a good thing if you just don’t really resonate with the way a concept is being explained (looking at you, math textbooks!).

Not so fast. There are cons to homework help websites, too. Get to know them below!

3 Cons of Using Homework Help Websites 

Now, let’s take a look at the drawbacks of online homework help. 

#1: Unreliable Info

This can be a real problem. In addition to all the really good homework help sites, there are a whole lot of disreputable or unreliable sites out there. The fact of the matter is that some homework help sites don’t necessarily hire people who are experts in the subjects they’re talking about. In those cases, you may not be getting the accurate, up-to-date, and thorough information you need.

Additionally, even the great sites may not be able to answer all of your homework questions. This is especially true if the site uses an algorithm or chatbot to help students…or if you’re enrolled in an advanced or college-level course. In these cases, working with your teacher or school-provided tutors are probably your best option. 

#2: No Clarification

This depends on the service you use, of course. But the majority of them provide free or low-cost help through pre-recorded videos. Watching videos or reading info online can definitely help you with your homework… but you can’t ask questions or get immediate feedback if you need it .

#3: Potential For Scamming 

Like we mentioned earlier, there are a lot of homework help websites out there, and lots of them are scams. The review comments we read covered everything from outdated or wrong information, to misleading claims about the help provided, to not allowing people to cancel their service after signing up. 

No matter which site you choose to use, make sure you research and read reviews before you sign up–especially if it’s a paid service! 

When Does “Help” Become “Cheating”?

Admittedly, whether using homework help websites constitutes cheating is a bit of a grey area. For instance, is it “help” when a friend reads your essay for history class and corrects your grammar, or is it “cheating”? The truth is, not everyone agrees on when “help” crosses the line into “cheating .” When in doubt, it can be a good idea to check with your teacher to see what they think about a particular type of help you want to get. 

That said, a general rule of thumb to keep in mind is to make sure that the assignment you turn in for credit is authentically yours . It needs to demonstrate your own thoughts and your own current abilities. Remember: the point of every homework assignment is to 1) help you learn something, and 2) show what you’ve learned. 

So if a service answers questions or writes essays for you, there’s a good chance using it constitutes cheating. 

Here’s an example that might help clarify the difference for you. Brainstorming essay ideas with others or looking online for inspiration is “help” as long as you write the essay yourself. Having someone read it and give you feedback about what you need to change is also help, provided you’re the one that makes the changes later. 

But copying all or part of an essay you find online or having someone write (or rewrite) the whole thing for you would be “cheating.” The same is true for other subjects. Ultimately, if you’re not generating your own work or your own answers, it’s probably cheating.

5 Tips for Finding the Best Homework Help Websites for You

Now that you know some of our favorite homework help websites, free and paid, you can start doing some additional research on your own to decide which services might work best for you! Here are some top tips for choosing a homework help website. 

Tip 1: Decide How You Learn Best 

Before you decide which site or sites you’re going to use for homework help, y ou should figure out what kind of learning style works for you the most. Are you a visual learner? Then choose a site that uses lots of videos to help explain concepts. If you know you learn best by actually doing tasks, choose a site that provides lots of practice exercises.

Tip 2: Determine Which Subjects You Need Help With

Just because a homework help site is good overall doesn’t mean that it’s equally good for every subject. If you only need help in math, choose a site that specializes in that area. But if history is where you’re struggling, a site that specializes in math won’t be much help. So make sure to choose a site that you know provides high-quality help in the areas you need it most. 

Tip 3: Decide How Much One-On-One Help You Need 

This is really about cost-effectiveness. If you learn well on your own by reading and watching videos, a free site like Khan Academy is a good choice. But if you need actual tutoring, or to be able to ask questions and get personalized answers from experts, a paid site that provides that kind of service may be a better option.

Tip 4: Set a Budget

If you decide you want to go with a paid homework help website, set a budget first . The prices for sites vary wildly, and the cost to use them can add up quick. 

Tip 5: Read the Reviews

Finally, it’s always a good idea to read actual reviews written by the people using these homework sites. You’ll learn the good, the bad, and the ugly of what the users’ experiences have been. This is especially true if you intend to subscribe to a paid service. You’ll want to make sure that users think it’s worth the price overall!

What’s Next?

If you want to get good grades on your homework, it’s a good idea to learn how to tackle it strategically. Our expert tips will help you get the most out of each assignment…and boost your grades in the process.

Doing well on homework assignments is just one part of getting good grades. We’ll teach you everything you need to know about getting great grades in high school in this article.

Of course, test grades can make or break your GPA, too. Here are 17 expert tips that’ll help you get the most out of your study prep before you take an exam.

Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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Best Practices and Expectations for Online Teaching

The online learning environment presents a unique set of challenges that requires clear definition of instructor performance. The following best practices identify the minimum level of interaction and management needed between students and instructors to maintain a quality online learning environment.

As a course instructor, it is anticipated that you will…

• Follow the established course start and end dates. When students register for your course, they expect that it will start and end as stated in LionPATH. Schedule adjustments may, however, be needed to meet deadlines for graduating students and others with special circumstances.  
• Follow consistent guidelines for managing your online course. These guidelines identify tasks that should be performed on a daily, weekly, or semester basis. As you will see, the key to effectively managing an online course is to be consistently "present" in your online classroom. Regular contact with your students helps assure them that they are well-supported. As many seasoned online faculty can attest, the online classroom can become even more "personal" than the face-to-face one. Through regular communications with your students, observations of their discussions with one another in discussion forums, reading notes they share publicly with one another, and so on, you will likely be surprised at how you are able to connect with your students and learn about them as individuals in ways you had not envisioned!  
• Monitor assignment submissions and communication with students to remind them of missed and/or upcoming deadlines. You can help ensure a successful learning experience by practicing proactive course management strategies. Good practice suggests posting a message or announcement to your class at least once a week, to tell students what you will be covering in the coming week and to remind them of any due dates. One tool to monitor student activity is the "recent activity" stream in Canvas.  
• Early in the course, establish a regular schedule for when you will be logging in to the course and communicate this to students. Normally this is once per day. Many of the students studying via the World Campus are adult learners who have work and family responsibilities. These students tend to be more active in courses on weekends, so you may also wish to reserve time in your schedule to monitor courses at least once on weekends.  
• If you will be unable to log into the course for several days or more (e.g., during professional travel) , give prior notice to your students and to the administrative unit overseeing your course (e.g., your academic department for resident courses or your Dutton Institute learning designer for World Campus courses). Providing this information upfront will help to forestall many student inquiries. You should also consider finding coverage for your online course if you are going to be out of contact with students for more than a couple of days, especially if they are to be working on assignments while you are gone. If you will be away from the course in cases of personal emergency, you are asked to notify students and your learning designer as soon as possible.  
• Provide feedback to student inquiries within one business day. In other words, be accessible! Because online learners must manage their time carefully, timely instructor feedback is especially important to them. Without it, they may not be able to make progress on their course work. If you cannot provide a detailed response within one business day, it is good practice to respond to the student within one business day to let them know when you will provide them a more detailed response. Remember, sometimes the fastest way to provide a response might be the telephone! Real-time communication can be particularly valuable if a student seems upset or anxious. A quick phone call from you can help refocus them in a positive direction.  
• Provide timely and meaningful feedback on student work using clear and concise language . You have ideal "teachable moments" when providing feedback on student work in a timely fashion (i.e., soon after it is due so you can positively impact their next assignment). Simply telling a student "good job" or "needs work" does not give them the information they need to succeed. They need (and want!) more specifics. What was it that made the work good? (So they can do it again!) What needs more work and how can they improve the quality of their work? (Specifically!)  

Note that the end of the semester poses a particular challenge; University policy stipulates that "Grades are to be posted 48 hours after the final exam or final assessment of the course." ( Office of the Registrar: Grades ). Your learning designer can assist you with any questions you might have with how to accomplish these grading goals.

• Provide a teaching and learning environment that supports academic freedom, as outlined in University Policy AC64 . Penn State faculty are entitled to freedom in the online classroom in discussing their subjects. Students must also be free to express their opinions without fear of ridicule, intimidation, or retaliation by any instructor. Consistent with Policy AC64 "Faculty members are expected to present information fairly, and to set forth justly, the divergent opinions of other investigators that arise out of scholarly methodology and professionalism."  
• See "COURSE TECHNOLOGY"  
• See " GRADING "  
• Encourage your students to complete your end-of-course survey (typically, the SEEQ). Penn State uses an online version of the SEEQ. At the end of the semester, the SEEQ system generates an email to students to announce the availability of their SEEQs. This message includes instructions on where to complete them and how long they are available. Automated email reminder messages are sent to students who have outstanding forms to complete. (For more information, see " Assessment of Teaching Frequently Asked Questions .") Research has shown that the strongest influence on whether a student completes an end-of-course survey is you, the instructor! Please send your students a note that encourages them to complete the survey (including a link to the SEEQ ) and assures them that the information that will be used to improve the course is important.  
• Contribute to the continual update and improvement of the course content. When teaching face-to-face, it is expected that an instructor is keeping the content of the course current and is routinely "tweaking" the course based on feedback from students, peers, and administrators. Teaching an online course is no different! Because your course is online, however, as you update your course content, learning activities, and assessments, you'll need to also pay attention to spelling and grammar, as well as copyright, usability, and accessibility best practices to ensure compliance with legal requirements and Penn State policy.

Alexis Rhiannon

Updated Oct 23, 2020

5 Tips to Ace Your Online Classes

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If you’ve gone through remote learning in high school already, you may think you’re a pro.

But there’s a difference between remote learning during the depths of COVID-19 versus remote learning when in-person opportunities are available.

Remote learning can enhance your college experience—one survey conducted by Best Colleges found that 75% of students who took online courses said that online was better or equal to their on-campus studies. Here’s one of the economic benefits of remote learning: If you attend a four-year university, you can take summer classes online through your local community college to complete general ed requirements at a lower tuition rate. Taking classes outside of the academic year not only can save you money, but can save you time, accelerate your progress toward your degree, and provide more flexibility in your course schedule.

There are other advantages as well: Online courses can provide more flexibility in terms of location, structure, and subject. Professors may open up online classes for students at other schools, which can help you build connections across campuses and help you study niche subjects that may not have enough interest on one campus alone. Or sometimes, a professor may offer virtual small group sessions. These smaller groups can allow you to get to know your professor and classmates, interact more, and provide clarity on any topics that may have been confusing in a larger lecture setting.

Understand the Course Set Up

What do you need for class? How will the professor grade you? Will attendance be taken, or can you watch a class recording? What about study groups? Before you start an online class, a smart remote learning technique is to understand exactly what’s expected of you. Using the syllabus as a guide can help you anticipate projects and tests, and can help you effectively develop a plan to succeed. Remote learning may require you to be more independent about your learning and anticipate any hurdles before they happen. Setting up a small study group of students within your online class can help you keep on track.

Participate Actively

It can be tempting to turn your camera off in a lecture setting. But the more you engage, the more you’ll get out of the class—and the more fulfilling it will likely be for you. If you don’t feel comfortable having your camera on, don’t worry there are other ways to stay engaged. Type your questions or feedback in the chat box, and challenge yourself to raise your hand and participate in class discussions. Also, if the professor or teaching assistant offer optional office hours, take them up on it. Consider checking in with them early in the semester, rather than waiting right before midterms or finals to discuss your grades.

Take Advantage of Available Resources

Remote learning can be challenging. If you’re having a hard time adjusting to the virtual environment, consider chatting with your advisor or another on-campus resource. For example, some campuses have peer tutors or open study sessions.

There also may be specific virtual classrooms your instructor has set up—take advantage of any additional resources and apps. Sometimes, instructors may post additional materials within the virtual classroom. The same goes with communicating with your professor. You may have to take extra initiative, such as dropping in on virtual office hours or emailing them after class if you had a question or point that you weren’t able to cover.

Connect With Other Students

Making friends is one of the best parts of college. It can be a little harder in a virtual setting, but try to find opportunities to connect with your classmates—not only about class, but about what’s going on in your lives. Consider setting up a small group study session, either online or in person. You also might want to set up a text group for the class so you can share resources and questions among the class. Your professor may not set up these informal groups, so you might need to take the initiative and do it yourself.

Check In on Yourself

“I’d recommend that students try to look at one or two weeks at a time, and then do a brief self-assessment at the end of that period,” says Debby Schauffler, a 30-year teaching veteran. Ask yourself how you did, what you’re feeling, and what progress you’ve made in the past one to two weeks. Also, think about what’s working and what isn’t in terms of learning. “Remember that everything won’t fall on one end or the other of an imaginary continuum,” she says. “It’s okay if things feel just okay.”

Applying these tips can help you succeed in online classes. Remote learning can feel uncomfortable or awkward, especially at first, so try to be patient with yourself and others. Engaging, asking questions, and building community can help the course meet your needs.

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Related articles, what to know about banks and checking accounts for college students, 7 freshman orientation must-do’s, how to deal with empty nest syndrome, 6 questions to ask your roommate before you move in.

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30 Virtual School Activities That Students & Educators Love

Written by Laney Kennedy

Save time, engage your students and offer differentiated learning online with Prodigy Math game!

• Teaching Activities
• Virtual learning games & apps for online learning
• Traditional learning activities to bring online
• Fun virtual field trips to try
• Virtual first day of school activities

More ways to make virtual school fun

As a teacher, you know better than anyone how much the past year has transformed learning. And although our circumstances will continue to change, virtual learning is still a reality for many students and teachers.

No matter what teaching looks like this year, building a sense of community is so important for you and your students, especially if they’re learning at home . 

But with hundreds of virtual teaching platforms to choose from, how do you make sure your students are getting the best resources to learn and grow — and have fun while doing it?

We’ll help you narrow it down with a complete list of 30 virtual school activities for students of all ages. Whether you teach elementary school, middle school or high school, this list has your remote learning needs covered!

Try these virtual learning games & apps for online learning

Learning outside of the classroom can be easy and fun with these virtual school must-haves. Use these free virtual resources to engage students online and make your virtual classroom feel like home.

1. Prodigy Math Game

Price: Free. The optional Premium Membership provides extra in-game features for students and additional tools for parents, starting at $4.99 USD per student, per month. 

In or out of the classroom, math games are a great way to keep students excited about learning math — even when it comes down to tricky concepts. 

With Prodigy Math Game , you can keep math class fun wherever students are!

As your students create unique characters, explore virtual worlds, collect pets and enjoy all the fun in-game adventures Prodigy offers , they’ll also answer curriculum-aligned math questions . Plus, Prodigy’s adaptive algorithm is built to meet students where they are, so they’ll receive questions that match their progress level.  

Use your free teacher account to create a classroom and:

• View in-depth data on student and class progress 
• Create Assessments that align with your lesson plans
• Differentiate in-game content based on individual student needs

Parents can also sign up for their own account to view and support their child’s progress and motivate them even more!

Ready to make math an adventure this year?

P.S. Check out these free resources to help you use Prodigy in your virtual classroom!

• How to use Prodigy to fight summer learning loss
• How to use Prodigy in your everyday virtual teaching strategies
• How to benchmark student progress with Prodigy’s Test Prep tool

Price: Free or paid versions, with education plans for schools and classrooms. 

In the past year, Zoom has become a close friend to many of us. And it’s no wonder! 

Zoom is a reliable and accessible way to engage your class with virtual teaching. Use it to:

• Host online classes with video and screen sharing
• Engage your classroom with online polls, breakout rooms and virtual chats
• Host zoom games where students can join the fun from home or at school!

P.S. Want to add some pizzazz to your next online lesson? Try one of these custom Prodigy Zoom backgrounds !

3. Flipgrid

Price: Free

Come up with discussions that really get your class talking! Flipgrid offers over 35,000 conversation starters to spark student creativity. Students can respond to each prompt with their own videos, which are displayed on the response board for the rest of the class to see.

The best part? It’s filled with fun editing resources so students can add animations, emojis and text to create fun videos they can be proud of.

TEDEd was specifically designed to celebrate student and teacher ideas. 

You’ll find free online lessons in tons of subjects — including Earth School , where students watch videos, answer quizzes and complete quests to learn more about the natural world. 

Plus, the TEDEd program lets students create their very own TED talks to share what they’re passionate about with the rest of the class!

5. Google Classroom 

Encourage virtual teamwork with your one-stop-shop for lessons, assignments and class discussions. 

Google Classroom provides access to:

• Google Meet — Host video lessons and presentations online. 
• Google Forms — Host surveys and quizzes for your class to fill out.
• Google Calendar — Keep track of lessons and give students insight into the structure of their day. 
• Google Slides — Present lessons in a presentation format and include visuals to keep your class engaged.

Price: Free for the basic plan, with optional paid teacher or school plans starting at $10 USD per month. 

Start meaningful conversations and encourage student engagement with the online platform that “creates a powerful learning loop between students, teachers, and families.” 

With Seesaw, students have a digital space to share their thoughts and give you insight on how they’re learning. Plus, you can keep families in the loop with an exclusive space for home-to-school connections. 

7. YouTube Kids 

Price : Free

The good old days of TV stands on wheels are long behind us. Now, students can watch fun, educational videos no matter where they are!

YouTube Kids was built with kids in mind. This means the video content you choose to share with your class will always be safe and appropriate for their age group. 

Have students download the app or watch directly on their browsers, then assign them videos on art, science and everything in between!

Price : Free for the basic plan, with optional subscription plans starting at $8 USD per member, per month. 

See new ideas spark and virtual collaboration happen right in front of your eyes — and add a pop of color to make the day a little brighter.

Miro is an online whiteboard that lets your class collaborate through tables, flowcharts, sticky notes and more. Perfect for brainstorms or team projects ! 

Virtual learning can never be dull when you have this many fun effects and templates to choose from! 

Whether you’re using it for lessons or encouraging students to create their own, Prezi makes online presentations easy and fun with plenty of design resources and a user-friendly interface. 

Create presentation decks, videos, infographics, maps and more. Let student creativity take over and see the amazing results!

Ready to make learning an exciting adventure?

Boost engagement in your classroom with two captivating standards-aligned learning games for math and English!

6 Traditional learning activities to bring online 

In today’s digital world, virtual learning is more prevalent than ever. But that doesn’t mean we should say goodbye to our favorite in-class activities!

Here’s how to transform classic school activities into online activities that are perfect for distance learning. 

1. Digital escape rooms

No room needed! Bring this classic team-building activity online and transform your classroom or students' homes into haunted houses, pirate ships or even the North Pole! 

Try these: 

• Virtual Escaping rooms
• 20+ Free digital escape rooms 
• Build your own escape room through Google Forms

2. Two Truths and a Lie

Put a spin on this classic icebreaker game through online polls, presentation decks, or quiz platforms like Kahoot! . Compile student submissions into a quiz format. Then have them vote on each other’s options and see the submissions on-screen right away.

You can also use this game to supplement lessons. For example, add two truths and a lie questions during activities that review science concepts or historical figures. 

3. Virtual journal writing

Instead of daily journal entries on paper, encourage virtual journal submissions through an online platform like Google Docs. 

Or, take it to the next level and start a classroom blog . Students can compile their entries and reflect on each others’ submissions, then look back on their great work at the end of the year.

4. Virtual Scavenger Hunt

Create a checklist to bring your scavenger hunt online. Then have your students submit pictures to check items off the list.

Your list can include:

• Items they can find around their home ( find 3 items that have stripes )
• Information they can find online ( when was the telephone invented?)
• Information about one another ( find a classmate who is left handed )

Host one big scavenger hunt, or provide one daily checklist item for them to find by the end of the day.

5. Read aloud videos

Record yourself reading a book out loud, then send the video to your students and have them listen during class time. Or find author read alouds that introduce students to the authors of their favorite books, so they can hear the stories straight from the source. 

6. Virtual brain breaks

Brain breaks are an effective way to keep kids energized and ready to learn more. And there are so many options for online brain breaks! 

• Videos that encourage activity (like an action song or yoga video ) 
• Online games (try assigning five minutes of Prodigy time between class tasks)
• Fun discussion topics that prompt online chats (Ex. What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?)

Take one of these exciting virtual field trips

Even if they don’t happen in person, field trips can still be informative, exciting and hands-on! In fact, virtual field trips may be even better, because you can visit places that are hundreds or even thousands of miles away! 

Here’s how to encourage classroom community building and bring your students to brand new places, without ever leaving your home or classroom. 

1. Virtual zoo or aquarium

Lions and tigers and bears … and penguins and sharks and monkeys! Oh my!

A virtual zoo visit is super fun for younger students, or a great way for students of any age to learn more about animals and their habitats. 

• Videos from the San Diego Zoo
• Live cams from the Monterey Bay Aquarium
• 3D animals to turn students’ homes into their own zoo!

2. Virtual national park tours 

Your class can visit some of the most famous parks and learn more about nature without even stepping outside! Use Parks Through Your Screen to explore different parks and see them from a brand new perspective.   

3. Virtual walking trails

Let your class explore mountains, trails, forests or even the pyramids! These virtual walking tours from across the globe provide an exciting online escape along with plenty of learning opportunities.

4. Ellis Island tour

Provide students with a hands-on history lesson through this interactive online tour of the historic Ellis Island . They’ll find stories, photos and notable facts at each stop. 

4. Museums and art galleries 

Some of the most well-known galleries in the world offer amazing online exhibits anyone can enjoy. 

• The Louvre online tours 
• Google arts & culture collections
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art online

6 Virtual back to school activities for the first day of the school year

Back to school is the best time of year! And there are so many ways to make your first day of school activities welcoming and fun, whether they’re online or in person. 

1. Play virtual ice breaker games 

On the first day of school, it’s important for classmates to get to know one another, and for you to get to know them! 

Ask icebreaker questions through online chats, play virtual games (like two truths and a lie) or have students create quick online profiles that feature fun or important facts about them. 

2. Set expectations

Whether learning is remote, hybrid or in-person, it’s important that students know your classroom expectations and where to find everything they need. 

Make sure to: 

• Share your digital class schedule
• Let students know the best way to ask questions online
• Communicate classroom rules (try using Bitmojis to keep things light and fun!)

3. Send fun virtual questionnaires

Give students fun questions that will help them find out what they have in common and build community for the rest of the school year. 

Ask questions like:

• What’s your favorite movie?
• What’s your favorite thing about school? 
• What’s one thing you want to try this year?

Send them through fun online questionnaires through Google Forms, or create storyboards in Miro to display responses. Don’t forget to share your answers too!

4. Design virtual lockers 

Use a fun Bitmoji template and have students create virtual lockers to display their personal style or show off their favorite things. To take it a step further, create a whole virtual classroom where students can customize their own space.

5. Share summer stories

Encourage your class to get creative and talk about what they did during the summer in whatever way they’d like. 

This could be:

• Digital art
• Presentations

Or anything else they can think of!

6. Send out student learning surveys

Once you’ve shared your expectations for them, let students share theirs, too!

Send an online survey to each student asking questions like:

• How do you learn best?
• What’s your favorite way to learn?
• What questions do you have for me? 
• What do you want to learn the most this year?

We couldn’t forget these activities! Here are a few more ways to make your online classroom awesome. 

1. Encourage socialization 

Social emotional learning is critical for student success. 

And the best way to help students practice their social emotional skills? Provide them with plenty of opportunities to socialize and collaborate in fun, easy ways. 

• Assign social emotional learning activities online
• Have frequent breakout rooms for students to socialize in small groups
• Create a collaborative class playlist on Spotify or listen to music as a class
• Hold regular discussions with the whole class and allow students to use chat functions or speak out loud

2. Hold virtual morning meetings

Have a daily check-in with morning meetings where you and your students can share feelings, thoughts and ideas for the day. Then go through your schedule and make sure everyone has all the online resources they’ll need.

3. Host theme days

Have regular theme days where the class wears a certain color or accessory, or dresses as a specific character. 

For example, create a “color of the week” where every Friday, students wear as much of a specific color as they can find. Then let them show off their outfits in your online classroom! 

Get the most out of your virtual classroom

Online teaching can be a tough balance. But with such a wide range of virtual school activities to choose from, there’s no shortage of fun your class can have while they learn! 

Add a few of these activities to your online lesson plans to help students learn, play and collaborate — no matter where they are!

Looking for an online activity to supplement your math lessons?

Prodigy can help make learning math fun! 

Assign curriculum-aligned math questions that match learning progress and grade levels , easily track student data , and provide your students with a fun way to practice math online — all while they embark on new adventures and battle friends to win rewards! 

Create an Assessment for your Prodigy classroom today to keep students on track and differentiate for individual learning needs. 

Create Your Course

8 ways to make online classes more interactive, share this article.

Many online course creators struggle to make their classes sticky – so how can you make yours pop? One strategy is to make it more interactive. Here's how!

Forward-thinking course creators are turning to interactive and immersive student experiences. Getting the experience right can create invaluable moments of insight, deeper knowledge or skills acquisition, and, ultimately, an unforgettable student experience.

With the right tools and some simple tips and tricks, you can easily find ways to make your online classes more interactive and immersive. 

In this blog, we’ll share 8 ways to create more interactive online learning :

• Incorporate Active Learning
• Combine different media types into engaging learning scenarios
• Try running a cohort-based course
• Incorporate live lessons
• Use Microlearning
• Use storytelling methods of teaching
• Use Gamification
• Pause for questions and answer live chats

Benefits of making courses more interactive and immersive

For many students, learning is not effective when they’re listening to a lecture and simply taking notes. Learning for today’s students (from all generations!) is all about combining different multimedia and sensory experiences. Interactive learning scenarios that encourage participation, choice, collaboration, and discussion are much more engaging. In fact, interactive learning helps students learn six times faster than other learning methods. There are several benefits to this kind of learning:

• Improved emotional connections – Students are more emotionally connected and invested in a course when they connect with their instructor and peers. In comparison to in-person learning, where students physically interact with the teacher, purely digital environments can face barriers when it comes to creating meaningful connections among cohorts. By using interactive elements, such as a small introduction video from the teacher and students or an interactive meet-and-greet game for the community, students can feel more connected to you and your course.
• Enhanced learning outcomes – Students’ learning is accelerated when they’re actively involved and they’re thinking on a higher level. When your students are actively involved in a course, they become more interested and acquire new skills.
• Greater student involvement – Interactive elements promote higher-order thinking at a deeper level than passive learning . By adding interactivity to your online classes, you’ll stimulate students’ thinking and actively involve them in the learning process.
• Maintaining focus – Snap out of it! Interactive elements are game-changers for keeping students engaged and avoiding that tempting daydreaming session. In a virtual environment, it’s easy for your students to wander off-task. Use gamification and other interactive strategies, such as polls and discussion boards, to maintain focus on what’s most important.
• Accessibility – Many students have different learning requirements, such as a need for translations, while others may understand the content more effectively through a variety of media. Interactive learning with multimedia can offer ways to present the same information in a variety of formats.

Related: 10 Steps To Creating A Wildly Successful Online Course

Online learning CAN be engaging

When your course is self-paced, it’s difficult for students to stay engaged and focused, but there are strategies you can use to make your courses more interactive. While an engaging story is great for keeping learners engaged, it doesn’t help with their ability to retain information. Instead, try focusing on learning objectives and giving people time at regular intervals to test their knowledge of those objectives. To ensure that people are understanding your points, you can incorporate quizzes throughout your course, group discussions, and even tests at its conclusion.

The difference between active and passive learning is the level of engagement the student has throughout your course. For example, if you actively ask them questions, add a quiz or scenarios that means they are engaged through active learning. Passive learning is when your students are responsible for taking notes, asking questions and reading the course materials needed in order to succeed. 

The difference between active and passive learning:

Active Learning:

Active learning is a process where you directly engage students with the course by actively interacting with them. You could leverage problem-solving, group discussions, case studies, putting them into scenarios, testing their skills with a quiz and more. 

While it requires a little more creativity and thoughtfulness to build into your course, incorporating active learning will make your courses stand out from the crowd and deliver a much more engaging experience for your students.

Passive Learning:

Passive learning is where students receive information from the instructor and process it internally, like lectures. While it’s helpful for when you have a lot of material to cover, they tend to be a little less interactive and engaging. As a result, students might find it difficult to assimilate information and develop the skills taught in the course. 

Launch your online learning product for free

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8 Tips for creating more interactive online learning

1. incorporate active learning .

Directly engage students with the course through problem-solving, group discussions, case studies, putting them into scenarios. Active learning is proven to be a faster and more effective way of teaching because the students are actively engaged in the learning process and more. 

You can start by adding smaller, active learning-based activities like group chats on a certain topic discussed in your courses, or a short quiz. 

“Active learning, not passive [learning] makes it impossible to sleep through a class.” ERIC MAZUR , Professor of Physics at Harvard

2. Combine different media types into engaging learning scenarios

Students are continuously engaging with videos, photos, graphs, infographics, and 3D models, but we can’t be sure if they fully understand them the way we intended to.  To ensure they’re engaging with your content, try adding notes, links, or voice explanations directly to images. These interactive elements guide the learner and help them pay attention to the material we want to highlight.

With ThingLink , you can embed different interactive media types like videos, images, 360 media, and 3D models into your online courses. ThingLink integrates seamlessly with Thinkific. Head over to the Thinkific App Store and click on these interactive hotspots to explore different use cases of ThingLink in online courses:

Bringing these interactive elements into your online course materials can easily be done by embedding the finished design into your Thinkific course. ThingLink allows you to create virtual tours, infographics, presentations, and other types of interactive content by adding hotspots to multimedia files.

3. Try running a cohort-based course

Whether a classroom is real or virtual, nothing adds life to an experience like actual interaction with your peers. To that end, consider something called cohort-based learning .

In cohort-based learning, students go through the same syllabus as a group and graduate at the same time — together. There is an emphasis on emphasizes collaboration and teamwork rather than individual content consumption.   Students can check in with each other regularly and bounce ideas off each other. Not only does it make lessons feel much more real and immediate; it also encourages students to think critically about their work outside of scheduled sessions with instructors. To take full advantage of cohort-based learning, have your students meet regularly in Google Hangouts or a community within your course .

4. Incorporate live lessons

Nothing beats real-time interactions, Q&A’s and meeting the other students involved in the same learning experience.

The Zoom app available enables course creators to add breakout rooms right into the Thinkific experience. Not only does this help course creators run live lessons, complete with quizzes, discussions, and games, but students are able to engage with their peers in a whole new way.

5. Microlearning  

Break your course into smaller, digestible “ bite sized ” chunks with microlearning and add mini wins along the way. A great example of microlearning is LinkedIn Learning. They do a great job at adding milestones and different rewards after each stage of learning. Start by dividing your course into smaller chunks, and group them by milestones. Once a student completes a milestone you can add a quiz or another interactive activity that will reward their progress and keep them engaged.

6. Use storytelling methods of teaching

While online courses give you access to much larger audiences, many still don’t take advantage of new ways to teach in a way that’s engaging and interactive (thus helping learners retain information). By using storytelling as part of your course content, you can have students participate in an interactive environment without having them be physically present. Making online learning more engaging with storytelling has a faster learning curve because the student can associate your engaging story with a particular skill they’re learning. 

7. Use Gamification

Motivate students to learn & earn with gamification . Gamification is a word that’s used a lot these days. All it means is applying game-like mechanics, like goals, points, badges, to the learning experience. Students can earn instant gratification from their learning efforts and leaderboards will increase interactivity and engagement, too. Try adding gamification and competition to your course with apps like Motrain in the Thinkific App Store.

8. Pause for questions and answer live chats

Teach with, rather than at your students. Pre-recorded courses are great, but they leave out valuable opportunities for students to get their questions answered in real-time. You can take this element from teaching in-person, where students can ask questions when the teacher is lecturing and bring it to your online courses. By using interactive elements in their course, some teachers have seen 4x more engagement and interactions because students that are taking your course are genuinely interested in your knowledge and want to ask as many questions as they can.

Tying it all together

There are learning design methods, tactics, and tools that you can use to make learning more interactive. Just by reading this blog, you’ve made the first step to designing a more interactive learning experience for your students and making your online courses better. Apps like Thing L ink  and other interactive learning tools can help your online courses shine and increase student engagement and experience.

Check out the rest of the ways you can make your online course more interactive in the Thinkific App Store!

Director of Education, Culture & Partnership at ThingLink, Dog Parent and Ultra Runner! An educator of 20+ years Louise has always advocated for the positive use of technology to help make learning more contextually and culturally relevant. Louise can be contacted at [email protected] or Twitter @scotlandlouise

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Helping Educators Thrive and Lead with Excellence Online

Dr. Bethanie Hansen  

Educator and Coach

#26: Strategies for Effectively Grading Online Assignments

by Dr. Bethanie Hansen | Oct 7, 2020 | Best practices , Podcast , Teaching Online , Time Managment

This podcast and article were originally published on  Online Learning Tips.Com.

The COVID-19 pandemic  created a major shift in U.S. education . K-12 schools, colleges and universities switched from in-person classes to online education, a transition which was  challenging for many instructors and school administrators .

Grading assignments in online classes can be difficult and time-consuming due to the high workload and lack of support that’s often found in traditional classrooms. In this podcast, Dr. Bethanie Hansen provides a comprehensive strategy for online teachers to effectively grade assignments. Learn about FOCUS-EQx2, a teaching strategy to help online instructors streamline their grading and manage their time so they can provide students with effective comments, feedback, and evaluation.

Read the Transcript

Dr. Bethanie Hansen : This podcast is for educators, academics, and parents who know that online teaching can be challenging, but it can also be rewarding, engaging, and fun. Welcome to the Online Teaching Lounge. I’m your host, Dr. Bethanie Hansen, and I’ll be your guide for online teaching tips, topics and strategies. Walk with me into the Online Teaching Lounge.

If you’ve taught in traditional settings, traditional on-the-ground universities in live classes, you’ve likely used a lot of different approaches to grading your students’ work. Here are some that might be missing when you’re online teaching.

First of all, in a live class — especially at larger universities — there might be a testing center. A testing center is a place where your students can go — their identity is verified, they are monitored to ensure they’re doing the work honestly and without tools, notes, or other items, and then the answers might be run through an automation that grades it. For most online teaching, there is no testing center, especially if your students live far from the university or the college.

You might have a second tool like teachers’ assistants who took your class previously and now they’re back because you trust them. And those teaching assistants might’ve taken attendance or collected assignments and graded students’ work for part of the class or even much of the class. Teaching assistants have lightened the load for faculty to focus on teaching strategies and methods, so you can help your students learn most effectively.

Teaching assistants are largely absent in online education. I’ve seen some universities try this approach, and there are a few pilots out there doing it. But it really is a lesser-known model in online higher education, so it’s unlikely that you have a teacher’s assistant helping you grade your work.

Thirdly, you might’ve had peer-evaluation practices. On an assignment, this might help everyone improve and you might use an entire class session where students do sort of a workshop together. And when students see the assignment from an evaluator standpoint, they take on a new perspective and they might make some more connections to the subject matter.

Peer evaluations can be a really great way to help students improve their work while they’re lifting your grading load. And usually, this activity is done in real time and you’re guiding it and telling them what to do with each other and what to look for.

Now, this can be done online, but it does require a lot more guidance to be done well. That’s helpful to know; peer evaluation might not be totally absent, but it’s not as strong of a practice.

In your online teaching, it’s very possible that you’re missing these elements and so your grading load is a little bigger, but also we have the physical demand. And instead of writing just a few comments or a grade on the paper, giving it back to the student face-to-face, and talking about the general strengths and areas for growth to an entire class when they’re seated right in front of you, all that you need to tell the student must be typed on the essay.

It actually has to be typed somewhere, unless you’re using a really innovative strategy of providing something like video feedback, which can also be time-consuming. So there is a physical demand involved in online grading.

And lastly, the truth, right? Some teachers just don’t like grading, and it’s easy to put off. If you’re a person who dislikes grading and when you get a large number of assignments all at once, it can feel like a huge task to evaluate them quickly and to get them back to your students in a timely way.

Managing that time and the work of doing it is very challenging if your favorite part of teaching is the class, the face-to-face stuff where you’re helping others explore the subject.

With all of this said, I want to dive into the idea of effective online grading. And I’m going to give you a strategy today that I hope will really help you rein it in, put some limits on this and make it more manageable for you.

The problem is that grading assignments and online classes can be difficult and time-consuming. And if you’re typically a face-to-face teacher and now you’re teaching online, it’s also a big mindset change. There’s a lot that’s different about this.

Now, at a basic level, the work your students are going to submit does need some kind of grading and evaluation from you as the instructor, and this grading needs to be clear. There are a lot of different ways you might grade things, which could include rubrics, grading to a standard or a set of standards. You might have a pass/fail type of grade depending on the item, grading on a curve, and there’s also holistic grading.

Whatever approach you’re going to use, your students just need to know it up front before they submit their work. And they need to receive your grading clearly tied to whatever method or model you’re using.

For example, if you’re using standards in your grading, you would want to include these standards in the assignment description so students know it. If you use a rubric, you would provide a copy to students with the assignment description and then return a marked-up rubric with the graded assignment so they can see their performance in each area.

Understanding your grading is the most important thing here because if you give a student a B, or a C, or a D or whatever on their assignment, they definitely need to know how they earned it, why they got that grade, what they need to improve in the future, and so forth. All the different information that you need to give your students is in your grading and evaluation process.

For anyone who normally teaches live classes in higher education, when you begin teaching online and students are not coming to campus, your experience is missing a lot of those supports that used to be there to minimize the grading workload and to make it a lot easier.

Your online teaching experience is basically asking for much more from you in the grading and evaluation of students’ work. This is why grading assignments for online classes can be difficult and time-consuming, especially if you compare it to traditional experiences I’ve just described.

You might be feeling a little bit overwhelmed with the way your workload has changed and maybe some of the ways you need to evaluate your students’ work.

So let’s look at what will happen if you don’t give students the clear grading and evaluation of their work. First of all, they’re going to continue to make mistakes, or they will fail to grow in their learning. It’s difficult for a student to know if they’re even on track when they don’t get feedback. And of course, there’s the possibility that they will complain that you are not helping them, and they will eventually appeal the grades you give them and the final grade for the course.

Your grading and evaluation must be supported and without support, it’s very difficult to defend it. What will happen if you’re too thorough? Have you ever been too thorough when evaluating your online students’ work? I know I have, especially early in the game when I was first learning how to do this.

And if you’re too thorough, this takes a lot more time, and it can be overwhelming when you have many classes to teach and a lot of assignments to grade. Ultimately when you’re teaching online, you need some kind of strategy and you need a few tools to help you give your students effective, genuine guidance through your grading and evaluative feedback. And you need a system that’s going to help you have efficiency while you’re doing it.

Today, I’m sharing a strategy for grading online students that I’m calling “FOCUS-EQx2.” This strategy is going to help you effectively move through a student’s assignment while you provide the evaluation and feedback. The FOCUS-EQx2 strategy is going to give you specific areas to look at for truly effective grading, and it will help you focus your evaluation overall.

Now in a future episode, I’m also going to tell you about a few tools to help you become more efficient so that you can manage your time well and create a system that works for you. So we’re not talking about tools today; we’re talking about strategy.

Now, let’s dive into this strategy. I’ve been an educator for 25 years, and I’ve taught online for more than 10 years in higher education. I’ve managed hundreds of faculty at an entirely online university in two different schools and in six different departments.

I’m only sharing this background with you today so you know that there are a few details about my background really pertinent to this topic, and I have some perspective on these teaching topics and particularly grading. When I’m managing faculty, one of my roles is to evaluate them and I’m often looking at the quality of their grading and the type of grading they provide.

Now, I want to tell you a little bit about my early experience when teaching online. I struggled to know what I should include in grading comments. I really wanted to help students and I evaluated essays and pretty soon I was putting a lot on there.

It seemed to take me just a lot of time, and it was a lot of effort to provide all of those comments. Some were about grammar and writing and some were about the content and some were about the way things were organized, but it was really just all over the place. So I was making a lot of comments and thinking about a lot of different areas of grading all at once.

And I’ll give you an example of why this was such a big deal. I had one eight-week upper division writing class that I was teaching, and it had one written assignment every week. Each assignment built on each other until the final Week 8 essay, which was a 10-page paper.

Now, all of these assignments needed comments and guidance from me on the paper itself, and they all built on each other leading into that paper, so the feedback was critical. Now that final 10-page paper also needed detailed feedback. You can imagine with very many students this is a large load of grading, right?

Every week, this feedback had to be returned quickly. I was teaching several other online classes at the same time and I sat for hours at the computer; I found it to be really challenging. There were some really late nights and giving all of this evaluation was taking away from time I wanted to be putting into other parts of my teaching, like being in discussions and sending messages to less active students and all those kinds of things, and maybe even making some instructor videos or creative announcements or things like that.

I asked a colleague for tips about how to make this more effective; I really wanted to focus my strategy. She suggested looking at a few key areas and doing them well, and she listed them for me and I started to do them.

Since then, I’ve added to that strategy and it has made my grading so much more effective. This is going to reduce your overwhelming grading load, it really is, and it reduced mine. It also gave me a lot of focus to the process and made the whole practice of giving effective feedback much more streamlined and much more effective.

The strategy can easily be remembered through this acronym: FOCUS-EQx2.

Focus stands for formatting, organization, content, understanding and support. And EQ stands for editing quality, and it also stands for evaluation and qualitative comments. There are two EQs in this strategy and that’s why I’m calling it EQx2.

As you begin to read your student’s paper, you’re going to notice that each area of the FOCUS-EQx2 strategy is going to change. It’s going to be based on and the type of assignment that you’re looking at.

For example, if you have a formal essay or a research paper, we’re going to use all of these areas in detail. And if you’re a grading a multimedia assignment or just a short written reflection, maybe you’re only going to use a few of them.

Regardless, it doesn’t really matter what kind of assignment, having a helpful strategy like this is just going to help you keep yourself organized and avoid getting runaway with just one part of this process or ignoring things that you should really pay attention to.

Let’s talk first about formatting. For each assignment, your students are going to submit, there’s some kind of formatting involved. These are things like the appearance of the assignment and the heading that might be used, the way sources are formatted at the end, how the spacing is between the lines, those kinds of things.

To evaluate the formatting, you can just scan the visual appearance of the assignment. And if that paper should be double-spaced or have a heading in a certain spot, or maybe it needs to use a style like APA or MLA or Chicago, you can add a brief note to commend the student for their excellent formatting or give some guidance about their errors and how to fix them next time.

It’s really important to give this kind of feedback about formatting because we want students to keep learning throughout their education. And we also want them to know what academic writing or different formats that you might be asking them for should look like.

The truth is formatting is very superficial; it’s a really small part of any assignment and you shouldn’t overdo it here. You just want to give it some attention, make a comment, keep it brief and move on quickly.

Second, look at organization. As you start to read through your student’s assignment, you’re going to look for the way the information and the ideas are organized. You’re going to give some feedback here. And in the case of something like a formal essay, maybe the paper usually begins with a paragraph that introduces the topic.

That’s going to give some kind of thesis that tells the main point or the argument or the claim that you’re going to read about in the paper. There’s going to be a body paragraph or many body paragraphs, and each paragraph should be clearly about a topic or an idea that’s organized in a way that makes sense.

Most of the paragraphs in the essay should have a topic sentence at the beginning and the topic sentence really just tells what’s in that paragraph. At the end, there should be a closing paragraph or a conclusion that ties it all together, restates the main point, and brings the important ideas to bear.

When you look over the assignment to evaluate organization, thinking about this kind of structure, all you need to do is look at the opening paragraph and read the first sentence of each body paragraph, and then read the last paragraph to see the organization.

If you can’t find the flow of the topics or really get an idea for what the student is writing about just by reading the topic sentences, then there’s probably a problem with the overall organization of that assignment or essay.

Here you might need to make a suggestion. Maybe you want to suggest using topic sentences in the paragraphs, or you might have bigger advice to give about the overall way that the paper is laid out and organized. Either way, the organization will either be very clear or somewhat unclear, and you can give some commentary and some feedback about that without dwelling on it too long.

The third area is content. This is, of course, one of the bigger parts that you will be evaluating and this is what the student actually addressed. Did they use the right topic, for example? Did they use the academic words they’re supposed to be using? We call that academic vocabulary.

For example, if I’m teaching a music appreciation class, are they using words like tempo, dynamics, form? Are they using those words correctly? Are they actually giving enough description that I can tell what they’re describing? Is the scope of what was covered appropriate to what should have been covered?

Now, that area you want to really focus on because that is the main point of the assignment, right? To cover the content and the next couple of areas, understanding and support.

So when you start to make comments on the content you can do this by way of suggestion, you can make a statement; you can note where they actually covered the key points that you’re looking for. Either way, there should be some kind of comments you’re providing your student about the content.

The fourth area, the understanding, now this is where you’re going to find out the student’s ideas. There are many, many areas that they might go into.

For example, a student might describe something; they might discuss it. They might have analysis that they’ve created. They might make connections between two different ideas. They might show how they demonstrated their understanding and learning through what they’ve written, but what they understand about the topic that they’ve written about, it must be obvious and it needs to be clear.

If you have a student who is taking a lot of sources, they’re paraphrasing and they’re quoting a lot and there’s just not a lot of content they wrote, it’s very difficult to see what they understood. This area could be missing entirely or it might be incredibly pervasive throughout the whole assignment, but you want to look for understanding and evaluate it and give some feedback about that as well.

And then lastly, the support. Support is a tricky area. This is the details, the examples and evidence that were used to support their ideas. And it also includes sources — how they were used, how and where they were included — and potential plagiarism.

If a student uses a lot of supports without citing them and quoting them and all of that kind of thing and if it shows up high on your originality checker, whether it’s SafeAssign or Turnitin or something else, you definitely want to address that. Coach students, if necessary. Deal with the plagiarism concerns and so forth, so support is both about ideas and also about sources.

As you review each area, you want to find a way to at least evaluate and give a little comment about those things. You’re coaching the student in their academic learning, but you’re also mentoring them somewhat in the subject itself.

Now after you’ve reviewed focus, formatting, organization, content, understanding and support, the next area is the EQx2. And this is the editing and quality, and finally the evaluation and qualitative comments.

The editing would be just notes that you might make about writing errors. For example, if you think they’re not using capital letters, if they’re using texting lingo, if they talk about themselves in first person but it should be in third person. If there are just run-on sentences or fragments, things like that, I always suggest marking a few of them in the beginning paragraphs and not dwelling on them throughout the rest. It will take all of your time if you spend time editing a student’s paper; that’s not your job.

If you use something like Grammarly or if you use the features in Turnitin’s GradeMark suite, there is an editing area there and you can actually have students find the editing mistakes themselves. If there are a lot of errors you want to make some kind of comment about that, and you might even direct them to writing help or a tutor if those things are available to you.

The quality is the writing quality. So that also has to do with their tone, their language, the way they’ve presented their writing overall, and again, if necessary, a comment or two could be made there.

Now in the evaluation and qualitative comments, I consider these to be the summary comments you would give at the end of the assignment. So all the rest of these things that I’ve mentioned would be given on the body of an essay or an assignment, or depending on your learning management system you might actually have the ability to highlight, tag, or put little notes next to the paper.

There’s a lot that can be done nowadays in a learning management system, but also in Turnitin’s GradeMark suite. Or if you really want to download the student’s paper in Microsoft Word and just use track changes and put reviewer’s comments and bubbles on it, you could do that as well.

All of the things I’ve covered so far under focus would be brief comments made on the actual assignment. These last two, evaluation and qualitative comments, those could be done at the top of the essay or assignment just in a paragraph. Or they could be done in the grading feedback box when you’re returning this assignment to the student.

The evaluation is your overall statement about the essay. What did they do well, and where do they need to improve?

What did they do well is really important. As faculty and as teachers, it’s really easy for us to always be looking for mistakes. That’s also the default of the human brain; it’s a problem-solving machine so we’re often looking for what’s wrong.

When you give your evaluation, be sure to say something that was strong in the paper, even if it was only the topic choice and is a very weak paper overall. Give some encouragement through that evaluation, but also be specific and tell them what the main area is to focus on for improvement.

And then, the closing is the qualitative comments. That’s part of your summary and that would just be your pros, what you’re writing to the student. You want to say something encouraging and close it and wish them the best on the next assignment and move on.

When you use this method of FOCUS-EQx2 a few times, at first it’s going to take a lot more thought and effort to touch on each area, but soon this strategy is going to give you the effective grading and evaluation that you’re really looking for to help your students the most.

You also want to give structure in your approach to keep it organized and help your time stay in check, and this FOCUS-EQx2 strategy will do that for you. Although your online teaching asks a lot more of you in grading and evaluation detail, this is also an area where you can keep teaching and keep getting to know your students.

I encourage you this week to try the FOCUS-EQx2 strategy on your next round of grading, and I wish you all the best in your online teaching.

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21 Online Classroom Games, Activities & Ideas

By: Jessica Chen | Updated: February 26, 2024

You found our list of online classroom games.

Online classroom games are fun activities that teachers can play with their students over the internet. For example, Digital Scavenger Hunts, Virtual Pictionary and Online Bingo. The purpose of these games is to educate and entertain students, which also helps build friendships. These activities are also known as “online activities for students.”

These activities may include interactive games for kids , team building games for students , online art classes , online group games , team building exercises for students , and video call games .

Specifically, this list includes:

• fun games to play at school online
• online games to play at school
• online activities for students
• motivational activities for students online
• online class games
• interactive games for online class
• online games for high school students

Let’s get into it!

List of online classroom games

Competitions are a great motivator that gets people excited and invested in lessons. From creative challenges to debate-based matches, here is our list of online classroom games.

1. Digital Scavenger Hunt

Digital Scavenger Hunt is a game where the teacher compiles a list of items and activities that students complete by a given time. For an educational spin, teachers can match the items and activities to the lesson. For example, if you are a science teacher, consider adding simple experiments to the Digital Scavenger Hunt, such as putting Mentos in Diet Coke.

Here are some free virtual scavenger hunt templates and scavenger hunt puzzle ideas . We also have a list of apps for scavenger hunts .

2. Virtual Pictionary

Virtual Pictionary is an online version of the classic game, where one player illustrates a word, while teammates attempt to guess it. Split your class into two teams, and text the word to the illustrator using Zoom’s private chat feature. The illustrator can then use the video conference software’s screen share abilities to show their drawing, while the other team members guess. Teachers can use Virtual Pictionary to teach vocabulary, and develop creative skills.

Here is a list with more fun Zoom games  and virtual Pictionary games .

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• icebreaker games
• bingo cards

3. Virtual Trivia

Virtual Trivia is a fun way to test your class’s knowledge on a particular topic. First, amass a list of trivia questions and answers. Then, divide the class into teams, who will compete to answer the most questions quickly and correctly. Virtual Trivia is a fantastic online classroom game because it is an exciting way to confirm whether your class retained the knowledge they need.

Check out this list of virtual trivia games to get started.

4. Virtual Musical Chairs

Sitting in front of your computer all day to attend class can be draining. However, teachers can get their class moving through Virtual Musical Chairs, which adapts the idea behind the in-person game for a remote class. To play, broadcast a song, and have your students get up and dance. Then, periodically shut off the music. Once the music stops, students should rush to sit down. The last person to get to their seat loses the round.

Musical Chairs is an example of a virtual minute to win it activity .

5. Ambassadors

For classes that miss Model UN, Ambassadors is an educational game where students act as ambassadors of a randomly assigned country . Great for geography classes, players describe their country with facts, as everyone else guesses what country they represent. The winner is the student who guesses the most countries correctly. After a few rounds, your students will learn all sorts of fun facts about nations of the world.

6. Summer Book Club

To keep your students occupied over the summer, enlist your reading class for Summer Book Club, an activity where students log the number and a brief summary of pages they have read. The winner of Summer Book Club is the student who reads the highest number of pages by the end of the summer. To make winning more appetizing, prepare rewards for the winner. Teachers can also compile a suggested reading list to keep students on track.

7. Geography Puzzles

Another game for geography class, Geography Puzzles tests your class’s knowledge of the world. Send students a blank copy of a world map. Then, ask students to fill out the map as completely and accurately as possible. To make Geography Puzzles a collaborative effort, teachers can also pair up students and reward the team that finishes filling out their map first.

8. Virtual Game Show

Virtual Game Show is an online version of the popular show Jeopardy, where students attempt to guess the answer to questions. Using this Jeopardy builder or Google Slide template , assemble your board. Then, split the class into teams and share your screen to display the board. The team that collects the most points by the end of the game wins. Teachers can use Virtual Game Show as a lively way to quiz the class’s familiarity with a variety of subjects.

Check out our list of virtual game show ideas and this resource on how to play team building Jeopardy .

9. Alphabet Chain

Alphabet Chain is a terrific online classroom game for expanding students’ vocabularies. To play, choose a category. Your students then name words that fit that topic, except that every proposed word needs to start with the last letter of the previous word. If a student is unable to think of another word, then they are out. The last student standing wins.

10. Class Limericks

Limericks are a whimsical poetry form with a specific rhythm. Class Limericks is a wonderful game for online English classes that asks students to compete to write the most amusing limerick. Teachers can choose a particular subject or let students choose what they would like to write about.

For help explaining limericks to students, here are some guidelines on how to write a limerick .

11. Virtual Show and Tell

Suitable for younger classes, Virtual Show and Tell is an online version of the classic classroom activity, where students share an item with everyone and explain its significance. Teachers can set a theme for your show and tell to help students decide what to bring. This online activity can be educational, and also bring the class closer as each session reveals more of your students.

12. Would You Rather

Would You Rather is a simple icebreaker that gets students talking. To play, compile a list of prompts. Then, open the online lesson by asking students what they would rather do.

Here are some examples of great Would You Rather questions:

• Would you rather go back in time and experience the Revolutionary or Civil War?
• Would you rather live without gravity or the laws of motion?
• Would you rather go back to the dinosaur age or explore the depths of the ocean?
• Would you rather be a character in Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein ?
• Would you rather go on a pilgrimage with the characters from Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales or Wu Cheng’en’s Journey to the West ?

Would You Rather gives students an opportunity to divulge more about themselves, and liven up discussions. Because these prompts rely on prior knowledge learned in class, teachers can use Would You Rather to check students’ retention of information as well.

Here is a list of this or that questions for inspiration.

And here are more icebreaker questions for students .

13. Desert Island Intelligences

For teachers running an online psychology course, Desert Island Intelligences borrows from Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences , which include:

• Visual-spatial
• Linguistic-verbal
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal
• Logical-mathematical
• Body-kinesthetic
• Naturalistic

The premise of this activity is that a natural disaster strands eight people representing each intelligence on a desert island. Due to limited resources, the class must vote one person from the island each round by determining the intelligence’s value for survival. Teachers love Desert Island Intelligence because it adapts well virtually, and serves as a fun conversation starter.

Here are more problem solving games to try .

14. Rube Goldberg Off

Rube Goldbergs are intricate machines that people program to complete a simple task. Rube Goldberg Off is a challenging online classroom game for science classes that asks students to compete to design the most inventive machine. Teachers can set the parameters of the activity by instructing students to create machines to complete a certain task.

Building the machine is an example of a  hybrid activity .

15. Utilitarian Test

According to the University of Texas , utilitarianism is a philosophical concept that values the choice that brings the greatest amount of good to the group. Utilitarian Test is an online classroom activity, where students discuss the ethical nuances of famous utilitarian questions, such as the trolley problem , fat man, transplant surgeon, and Heinz dilemma . Teachers can use Utilitarian Test to get students to reveal the logic behind their decisions, and see if students truly understand the concepts.

Online instruction is a completely new experience than in-person lessons. To help bring your plans to the virtual classroom, here are some online classroom ideas to maintain your students’ productivity level, despite the distance.

16. Virtual Field Trips

A great way to have fun with an online classroom is to get out of the classroom. You can take your students on a virtual adventure of places like the Great Wall of China, Taj Mahal and Machu Picchu. Some locations of live facilitated options, while others are fully digital. Either way, virtual field trips provide an excellent and engaging learning opportunity for students.

Here is a list of the best virtual field trip ideas , and one with virtual tours for kids .

You could also participate in take your child to work day online .

List of online classroom tips

Here are some tips to improve learning and engagement in online classrooms.

17. Use entrance and exit cards

When students and teachers are apart, it may be difficult to keep students on track. To help set the tone of your lesson, use entrance and exit cards at the beginning and end of class. These cards consist of questions regarding the lesson’s content. The entrance cards prep students for your lesson, while exit cards check comprehension.

18. Collaborate both synchronously and asynchronously

An important virtual classroom idea is that learning is not restricted to the time when your students are online. Students can collaborate synchronously, which is when they are all online at the same time, or asynchronously, which is when they are not necessarily online at the same time.

Examples of synchronous learning include:

• Discussion in breakout rooms
• Listening to the same lecture
• Giving presentations together

Examples of asynchronous learning include:

• Discussions in forums or message boards
• Readings that students complete on their own
• Pre-recorded video content that students view on their own

Using both of these methods helps enrich your students’ learning experience, and lets students continue thinking about the lesson, even after the class video call ends.

19. Break up your lesson into manageable chunks

When people are not in person and rely on video for connection, their attention span shortens. To prevent students from becoming disengaged in class, break up your lesson into manageable chunks. As a teacher, try to avoid speaking to students for extended periods because your students will become disengaged. Instead, pepper in activities or challenges throughout your lesson to encourage participation.

20. Check understanding with the chat feature

Another way to maintain student engagement is to periodically ask students to answer simple questions through the chat feature on the class’s video conferencing software. Teachers can use these questions to check comprehension among students, and see who is still actively listening to the lesson.

21. Think, pair, share

For teachers, think, pair, share may already be a familiar concept since it is a learning strategy that is used in in-person classes. However, with video conferencing software’s breakout rooms feature, teachers can capitalize on this characteristic by having students collaborate in small groups before sharing answers to discussion questions. Using think, pair, share in an online classroom maximizes participation and keeps students focused on the lesson.

Final Thoughts

Teaching online is a tough adjustment to make that requires teachers to think deeply about how to best adapt their methods for distance learning. With these online classroom games, activities, and ideas, you can take your lessons to the next level and increase student productivity.

Next, check out our list of free online group games for more fun ideas.

We also have a list of virtual graduation tips , and virtual birthday party ideas for when it is time to celebrate a student’s birthday.

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FAQ: Online Classroom Games

Still stuck on how to engage your students virtually? Here are some frequently asked questions about online classroom games, activities and ideas.

What games can you play in a virtual classroom?

Adapting in-person games for a virtual setting is entirely possible with some resourcefulness. Some examples of games you can play virtually are the digital versions of scavenger hunts, Pictionary, trivia, and Jeopardy.

How do you make a virtual classroom fun?

To make a virtual classroom fun, break up your lesson into manageable chunks with exciting online classroom games and activities. By mixing things up, you prevent your class from becoming bored and disengaged.

What are the best virtual classroom activities?

The best virtual classroom activities are extensions of ideas you have already taught in class. By tying in your lesson to the activity, students can play, while also applying principles you taught them. This method leads to a better absorption of the lesson.

Author: Jessica Chen

Content Expert at teambuilding.com. Team building content expert. Jessica has a double major in English and Asian Studies, and experience working with teams across cultures; including 3+ years in Taiwan.

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18 Virtual Classroom Games and Activities

Here is our list of fun virtual classroom games and activities .

Virtual classroom games are fun online activities or events teachers can organize for their students. Examples include Simon Says, Scavenger Hunts, and Hangman. The aim of these activities is to promote student interaction and make online lectures interesting.

Classroom games and activities are similar to virtual games for big groups , Zoom party games , and virtual minute to win it games .

This list includes:

• games to play during online classes
• virtual classroom activities
• interactive online games for students
• online activities for students on Zoom
• online teaching games

Here we go!

List of virtual classroom games & activities

From Charades to Find the Differences to Draw a Monster, here is a list of fun activities for virtual classrooms.

1. The Survival Game

The Survival Game is a thrilling game that promotes critical thinking and helps students build problem-solving skills.

To organize this activity:

• Create a scenario where students must brainstorm solutions to survive. For example, ask students to explain how they would survive in the desert with one stick, a stone, and half a glass of water.
• Each player must give realistic responses to the scenario.
• The player with the best survival solution wins the game.

This exercise is one of the best games to play during online classes because it encourages students to brainstorm and think critically.

2. Name, Animal, Place, and Thing

Name, Animal, Place, and Thing is a fun word game where players come up with words in different categories.

• Meet over a video call.
• Choose an order in which to play.
• The first player will choose a random letter from A to Z.
• Set a timer for 20 seconds.
• All the participants must write words starting with the chosen letter in each listed category. For example, if a player selects the letter B, then all the players must write a name, animal, place, and things starting with B.
• The first player to complete all the categories before the timer runs out wins the round.
• Repeat steps three through six until all the players have a turn picking a letter.

This game is a simple way to create a fun learning environment for students. The players may also get to learn exciting new words.

3. Draw a Monster

Draw a Monster is a simple drawing game that students can engage in during online classes.

• Meet using video conferencing software, like Google Meet or Zoom.
• Use the in-app collaborative whiteboard feature.
• Invite the students to take turns drawing monsters following a set of prompts. The teacher may tell the students to draw the monster using specific numbers and shapes. For example, the teacher might ask the students to draw the monster using only circles and the number four.
• The best drawing wins!

This game is a fun way to test scholars’ creativity and teach them to follow instructions. Participants can also play this game in teams to promote healthy competition. To play in groups, split the players into small teams, and players will take turns adding to the drawing until it is complete.

4. First Letter, Last Letter

First Letter, Last Letter is one of the best interactive online games for students. In this game, participants must think fast to remain in the game.

• Meet on a video call.
• The teacher will choose a random letter.
• The first player must find a word that starts with the given letter.
• The next player must then find a word that starts with the last letter of the previous player’s word. For example, if the first player chooses Cat, then the next player must find a word that starts with the letter T.
• Players must respond quickly. Any player who stalls or does not respond immediately is out of the game.

This fast-paced game is a simple way to promote laughter among students and create a fun learning environment where players must think on their feet.

5. Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger Hunts are fun activities where students race against time to find different objects. In this game, the teacher will give the players a list of items to find within sixty seconds and set a timer.

Participants must rush off to find these items and place them in front of the screen before the time runs out. Examples of objects to find include toothbrushes, red socks, and pink crayons. The first player to find all the given items wins the game. This exercise is an excellent way to keep students active and engaged.

Hangman is a simple word game where players must guess the letters of a word to escape the hangman’s noose.

• Meet using a video conferencing tool.
• Split the players into groups of four or five.
• Each group will nominate a player to think of a word.
• The player will draw blank spaces for each letter in the word using the whiteboard feature.
• Other members of the team must guess what the word is.
• The player will write down every correct letter.
• For every incorrect guess, the player will draw a stick figure body part from a noose.
• If the player completes the drawing of the hanged man, then the team loses that round.
• Each team gets a point for every correct guess.
• The team with the highest points wins the game!

This activity is a great way to encourage teamwork and promote interaction between students online.

7. Find the Differences

Find the Differences is a fun and simple game that teaches students to pay attention to detail.

• Players will take a look at each participant’s space or environment.
• Set a timer for 60 seconds.
• Each player must turn off their cameras.
• Participants will use this opportunity to remove, readjust, or add items to their space.
• When the timer runs out, the players will turn on their cameras.
• The students will take turns noting the differences in their classmates’ environments.
• The players get a point for each correct guess.
• The player with the highest point wins.

This exciting activity is an excellent way to help students develop good observation skills. To make this game even more challenging, players can change clothing, open windows, or remove their glasses to see which of their classmates will notice.

8. Charades

Charades is one of the best virtual classroom activities for students. This game promotes collaboration and teamwork.

• Split the players into two opposing groups.
• Each team will nominate a player to lead the game.
• Team A will send a word to Team B’s designated player via the chat box.
• Set a timer for 30 seconds.
• The player will act out the given word while their team members try to guess it.
• The team members must guess the word before the time runs out.
• The team wins a point if they guess the word correctly.
• The actor will then choose a word for Team A.
• The game will continue in this fashion until each team gets several turns.

This activity is a great way to improve interaction among students online and encourage players to become friends.

9. Virtual Trivia

Virtual Trivia is a great game for students. This activity allows players to learn new facts on a wide range of topics.

• Create trivia questions on topics such as science, history, geography, and literature.
• Meet via video call.
• Split players into teams of three or four.
• Ask students questions and give each team 30 seconds to answer correctly.
• Each team gets one point for every correct answer.
• The team with the highest points wins.

This activity is a great opportunity for teachers to quiz students on previously taught topics or assignments. Trivia questions also help improve cognitive skills and brain performance.

10. Simon Says

Simon Says is an engaging game that tests how well students listen to instructions.

• Meet using video conferencing software.
• The teacher will assume the role of Simon.
• The teacher will say “Simon Says,” followed by any prompt. For example, Simon says close your eyes.
• Each participant must close their eyes.
• Players who do not do as Simon says immediately are out of the game.
• If the teacher says a prompt without the words “Simon Says,” then any player who follows the prompt is out of the game.
• The game will continue this way until only one player remains.
• The last player standing wins.

This simple and interactive game can be the perfect icebreaker activity for online classes. Students can play this game at the start of their online lectures to lighten the mood.

11. Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a fun science game where students guess the name of doctors and scientists in different fields. For example, the teacher may ask, “What do you call a doctor who takes care of children?” The answer is a pediatrician.

This game is one of the best online teaching games because it helps children recognize several scientific fields and appreciate doctors who handle different health-related issues. To make this activity even more engaging, you can give bonus points to students who can spell these words correctly.

12. The Lottery

The Lottery is an interesting game that speaks to players’ characters. In this game, the teacher will inform students that they have won the biggest lottery ever.

The players will get three options, including:

• give half of the money to charity
• buy the best cars and houses in the world
• build hospitals to save lives

The players can only choose one answer and cannot change their options after choosing. You may give players different options to test their wits, character, and courage. You may also create imaginary emergencies to test if players are willing to part with their newfound wealth to help those around them.

13. Virtual Show and Tell

Virtual Show and Tell is a fun activity where students share items with great sentimental value. For this activity, participants will meet on any video conferencing platform. The students will then take turns showing off items, gifts, pets, or stories that mean a lot to them and why. Students can also share their favorite books, poems, songs, or movies and tell classmates why they like them.

This activity is a great opportunity for students to get to know each other better, share interests, and build good relationships.

14. Virtual Mannequin Challenge

Virtual Mannequin Challenge is a fun game where players have to freeze mid-action when a particular song plays. This game is an imitation of the viral mannequin challenge.

• Create a playlist of trendy songs.
• Students will pick a specific song as their “freeze song.” Whenever their freeze song plays, the participants must pause mid-action.
• Play the songs in the playlist in no particular order.
• Have students move around and dance.
• Play the freeze song randomly.
• Any student who does not freeze is out of the game.
• Students who move or shake while the freeze song plays are also out.
• Players can move freely and dance when other songs in the playlist come on.
• Switch to the freeze song at random times when other songs play.

This game will test students’ endurance and patience. This activity is also a great chance for students to listen to and enjoy their favorite music.

15. Funny Days

Funny Days is a hilarious activity where students attend online classes dressed in funny costumes to match a chosen theme.

• Set a theme for different days of the week. For example, funny beard day or weird shirt day.
• Meet on Zoom.
• Students will attend class dressed to match the day’s theme.
• Classmates will then vote for the funniest outfit.

This activity is one of the easiest online activities for students on Zoom.

16. Online Talent Show

Online Talent Shows are fun activities where students can show their best creative performances. For example, participants can paint, dance, or sing.

• Choose an order in which to perform.
• The students will take turns showing off their best talents.
• The best performance wins!

Talent Shows are great ways to nurture students’ creativity and encourage scholars to pursue what they enjoy.

17. Complete the Lyrics

Complete the Lyrics is a fun musical game where players must finish the lyrics of a song.

• Curate a playlist of trendy songs.
• Meet using any video conferencing tool.
• Play a song and pause it at random.
• The player must complete the lyrics from where the music stopped.
• If the player fails, then the next participant must complete the lyrics.

Complete the Lyrics is an easy way to check how well students know their favorite songs and boost engagement between scholars.

18. Countries, Capitals, and One Word

Countries, Capitals, and One Word is a fun and educational game for students to learn about different parts of the world and their cultures.

• Create a list of countries.
• Meet using any video conferencing software.
• The teacher will name different countries, an students will take turns sharing the capital of these countries. For example, Ethiopia’s capital is Addis Ababa.
• The student must then share one word or a few words that best describe the Ethiopian people, culture, or land.
• Students who identify with these countries may share stories about their culture, tradition, and foods.

The students may name local dishes or the colors of the country’s flag. This activity teaches students about diversity and is a great way for attendees to embrace other cultures.

Virtual Classroom games and activities are fun activities that promote learning, boost student interaction, and improve communication between students in online classes. These games keep students entertained and help create a fun learning environment.

Teachers can use these activities as a chance to get to know their students better and also give students a chance to build good relationships.

For more fun ideas for the classroom, check out our lists of virtual group tours and online field trip ideas .

FAQ: Virtual classroom games & activities

Here is our list of frequently asked questions about virtual classroom games and activities.

What are virtual classroom games?

Virtual classroom games are entertaining, educational activities that make online classes fun and engaging.

What are the best games for online classrooms?

The best games for online classrooms include Virtual Trivia, Doctor Who, and Simon Says.

What are some good activities for virtual classrooms?

Some good activities for virtual classrooms include Virtual Show and Tell, Complete the Lyrics, and Virtual Mannequin Challenge.

How do fun activities help online students?

Fun activities help online students engage and interact with classmates, reduce boredom, and ease anxiety. These activities create a fun environment where students can enjoy learning.

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The best places to learn to fly a drone online in 2024

May 3, 2024 Caroline Dobrez 0 "Best" Guides ,

Interested in mastering drone flight? While there are plenty of in-person drone courses , the convenience and affordability of online learning are hard to beat. Many online drone flying courses are available at a fraction of the cost of traditional in-person sessions, with some even being free.

These online drone flying courses are not only affordable but also flexible, allowing you to easily fit learning into your busy schedule.

Whether you’re seeking a structured program led by professional instructors or self-paced videos, online platforms offer a variety of options to suit your timetable and budget.

We’ve compiled a list of the best places to learn how to fly a drone online in 2024:

The best places to learn how to fly a drone online in 2024

Drone launch academy, pilot institute, fearless drone academy, free drone flying courses.

Drone Launch Academy , known for its Part 107 course (and flashcards! ) for drone pilots seeking commercial licenses, also offers a Drones 101 course.

In this course, you’ll learn about the basic components of drones, current drone applications, and eight practical flight exercises you can practice at home.

The course is divided into 9 lessons, each containing multiple videos and a quiz at the end. With video durations ranging from 2 to 7 minutes, it’s easy to fit into your busy schedule.

The self-paced course costs $49 for lifetime access , or you can join the Drone Launch Connect community for $29 per month to access all 19 workshops. There’s even a promotional offer—your first month is just $1 with coupon code ONEDOLLAR.

Prefer structured group learning but struggle to find in-person options? DARTdrones offers a live 4-hour virtual course covering safe drone operation and flight practice assignments.

You’ll have access to an instructor to address any questions, as well as a 1-hour self-paced course and a recording of the workshop after completion. However, these virtual courses are infrequent, with only one scheduled in the next 3 months.

The course costs $220 , significantly cheaper than attending an in-person DARTdrones course .

Pilot Institute , known for its ‘ Private Pilot Made Easy ‘ online flight course, also offers a Drone Flying 101 course.

The course provides 2 hours of video content covering drone legality, basic flight maneuvers, weather considerations, how to become Part 107 certified , and more. Additionally, it includes basic and advanced photography lessons, distinguishing it from other online courses. 

Taught by drone and airplane pilot Greg Reverdiau, the course aims to enhance safety in both manned and unmanned aircraft industries.

Enrollment in the Drone Flying 101 course costs $99 for lifetime access.

UAV Coach, creator of Drone Girl’s top-recommended Part 107 course , offers a drone pilot skill builder course.

Designed for both new and experienced drone pilots, the course consists of 6 lessons covering drone flight training and FAA airspace authorization application. Taught by UAV Coach founder Alan Perlman, the self-paced online course costs $99 and includes a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Feeling nervous about your inaugural flight? Fearless Drone Academy is designed for novice drone pilots experiencing fear and overwhelm.

The course includes video tutorials, guidance from a drone expert, a pre-flight checklist, and access to exclusive events. 

Throughout the course, you’ll be guided by Australian drone expert and YouTuber, Dan Davis from DansTube.TV , addressing common beginner queries like flying over water or selecting appropriate apps.

The self-paced course comprises 15 sessions, ranging from 3 to 20 minutes each, and also includes a learning app and regular giveaways for students. The course fee is $100.

Use the code SALLY20 at checkout for 20% off Fearless Drone Academy’s drone course .

For those on a tight budget, several free online options are available. UAV Coach’s YouTube channel offers a wealth of free information for beginners. This video on flying a drone for the first time is a great place to start.

Additionally, the FAA’s TRUST test , a prerequisite for all novice drone pilots, is free after completing a short online course.

Pilot Institute also provides a free course covering drone regulations and flight safety. You’ll get considerably fewer video lessons than the Drone Flying 101 course, but it’s an excellent way to test out Pilot Institute’s courses.  

For those seeking specialized knowledge, such as DJI Mini 4 Pro or Autel Evo Max 4T , Pilot Institute offers courses tailored to specific drone models.

Where do you recommend as the best places to learn how to fly a drone online in 2024? Share your secrets in the comments section for fellow Drone Girl readers!

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