Hello, everyone. I know this is a difficult and complicated time for everyone and our hearts go out to the people who have been most affected by COVID-19. The events of the last few weeks have significantly affected the delivery of education.
With the Behavioral First Responder online, we’ve come to know online education fairly well over the years so we wanted to take a few moments to share some of our favorite tools for you to utilize if you’re transitioning parts of your program to online education.
Flipgrid: This is a great tool for creating VLOGS (virtual blogs) or other interactive online education material. You can have students demonstrate skills, reflect on learning, and apply course concepts to real-world examples. This tool is completely free and has a great app for students to use on their phones. Learn More
Wakelet: Create beautifully curated content for your students using Wakelet. You can embed Twitter feeds, YouTube videos, articles, and much more right into one spot as you browse the web with Wakelet. By collecting content, you can keep your students current with the latest resources and fully engaged by this great content creation tool. You can also use this as an assessment tool and have the students create a Wakelet depicting a particular concept you’d like to assess them. Learn More
ThingLink: Trying to think of alternatives to voice-over lecture? ThingLink is a great way to present information to your students in an engaging way. First, you upload a photo or video. Then overlay this or embed information throughout to compliment the photo. This is great for providing visuals to complement your course material. Learn More
Embedding: If you’re unfamiliar with how to embed content, now is the time to learn. Embedding is the process of taking content from one spot and placing it inside a site or program in another spot. For example, you can take a YouTube clip, copy the embed code, and then place it inside your learning management software (Blackboard, moodle, canvas, etc.). Keep in mind that copyright implications apply when embedding content so when in doubt, get the author’s permission. Here’s a great tutorial on how to embed something. Learn More
These are all free tools you can utilize to start developing effective, interactive online content. There's a lot of great tools and content out there. Honorable mentions for this topic include H5P.org, Socrative, Mentimeter, Nearpod, Pearkdeck, Sutori, and Perusall.
If you need inspiration or tips for your Learning Management software, we would highly recommend checking out Dr. Michael Wesch's 10 tips for online teaching.