According to a recent article on The Straits Times Singapore, it has been mentioned that in light of COVID-19, all schools will conduct one day of home-based learning a week starting from April 1. This pain can be felt by most folks working in the Training & Development department too.

It can be challenging for trainers to plan lessons online, especially when they are unable to see their participants physically. They will have difficulty gauging the students’ attentiveness or answering questions immediately. Furthermore, it would be a hassle to create online lessons that are both engaging and informative.

To save trainers the trouble of wrecking their brains to come up with creative contents, here are the top 4 online lesson planning apps/websites we have found:

1. CLASS FLOW

ClassFlow is an all-in-one platform that allows teachers to create and deliver interactive, content-rich lessons. They can choose from a variety of interactive options ranging from interactive whiteboard presentation and mobile-based quizzing, polling, and response.

Trainers can build lessons, create assessments, and manage their classes. Constructing lessons on ClassFlow is relatively similar to constructing a PowerPoint slide and they can be designed to be teacher-directed or individual student work.

No idea how to start on creating lesson plans? No worries! There are community lessons available (free and paid) in the Marketplace that can be used as-is, or adapted and personalized to suit you and your students learning pace.

2. NEARPOD

Nearpod is a handy tool for trainers to create interactive presentations and assessments. They can design engaging presentations in just minutes or draw from a large variety of pre-made lessons in their library.

There are many options of interactive elements available such as allowing trainers to upload videos, images, etc as well as embed multiple-choice quizzes, polls, and open-ended questions. To sync the presentations to all of the students’ devices, it is as simple as launching the presentation. Students will then input a code and their names to access contents.

At the end of their homepage, Nearpod has a link dedicated to COVID-19 home-based learning. They provide educators with relevant tools and resources to aid with home-based learning.

3. COPIA CLASS

An extensive content catalogue, interactive digital platform, and customised services are the 3 pillars of the Copia Class experience. With Copia Class, teachers can create a highly engaging lesson plan for their students.

In response to COVID-19, Copia is offering free e-Textbooks and learning tools to aid educators to move courses online. To ease the process of moving online, from now to the end of May, Copia is offering:

• Free access to their premium eTextbooks and integrated web-based materials
• Free one-hour consultation to help educators looking into digitizing their courses
• Ensure content availability based on Institutions’ LMS

4. IPAD FOR LEARNING

With these online lesson planning apps/websites, it definitely saves educators the trouble to create intuitive and engaging courses from scratch. However, for educators who want to make full use of the features available on a device like an iPad to create equally as interesting and educational, we have a website for you and it is called iPad for Learning!

iPadforlearning.sg is an online Professional Learning Community (PLC) designed for educators in Singapore to get lesson ideas that meaningfully integrate the use of SLS with powerful learning tools on iPad, share their own best practices and positive impact of teaching and learning in an iPad learning environment.

iPad for Learning offers resources such as:

• Lesson ideas for different subjects
• Instructional videos for home-based learning
• SLS design maps
• Sharing of lesson plans by other teachers

This is especially useful for educators who need an idea boost or a quick rundown on the various apps on the iPad to integrate into their lesson plans.

For teachers who are new to the functions of the iPad, no worries! iPad for Learning conducts FREE workshops to help educators develop proficiency in the features of the iPad, become confident with creating content using learning apps on iPad and cultivate good role models for purposeful integration of technology into learning.

P.S. We have also recently engaged their help in successfully running our first digital marketing class in Singapore with remote learning for our adult students!

Original article by Xue Min from Design For Good, an affiliate company of MAD School