As a modern teacher, you’ll by now be bored of the old, traditional methods of teaching, and will constantly be on the lookout for the newest and best ideas.

As more online and digital resources have come available, teachers have started to integrate these directly into their lessons. Now, though, as many pupils have access to computers at home, teachers have the freedom to explore digital learning as an asset in and out of their lessons.

What to Consider

When looking for an online learning platform, key features to consider are whether it uses summative or formative assessment, whether it provides regular praise and feedback to your pupils, and how well it informs you of the activity of your class and areas of weakness within the subject.

Consider what advantages you want the learning platform to give you – do you want it to save you time by reducing your marking workload, or is it more important that you can consistently use it as a homework tool?

Using Learning Platforms in the Classroom

Any teacher would agree that every second counts in the classroom. As a teacher, you are able to provide high-quality lessons which are highly efficient for whole class teaching as standard. Learning platforms do not provide teaching in the same kind of way, so are often best used as a secondary measure, to be used when pupils haven’t fully understood a topic the first time around.

In the age of digital, technology steps in when regular teaching has been pushed to its limit.

Learning Platforms and Homework

If you are considering using an online learning platform for homework, you may want to consider running an introductory lesson, to help pupils become accustomed to the system.

Online learning is a revolution in the digital world – and can ease your workload tenfold. In the modern day, there is no need for you to while away hour after hour marking piles of worksheets, when you can have everything marked automatically (and immediately) online.

Once you have used a learning platform as homework to assess pupils, you have the power to split them down into groups, and provide 1-2-1 sessions based on gaps in pupils’ knowledge. You will also be able to identify topics which would benefit from whole-class teaching or another learning style.

Informing Your Teaching

An essential feature that you should look for in a learning platform is a reporting function, which will allow you to check what your pupils have been working on and what topics they have found difficult.

Whilst online learning platforms are no replacement for quality teaching, they can be integrated into your classroom life to save you some time, help you understand your pupils better, and enable you to tailor your future lessons to cover the topics that your pupils really need to work on.