How to Use Online Resources?

Online resources range from newsletters, articles and webinars to instructional videos, discussion forums and digital software. No matter what the medium, the ultimate goal of any online resource is to support the research and practice of professors.

Educational resources like articles and webinars provide professors with expert insights for developing as an instructor. Some resources also offer news and updates for staying current with recent industry happenings. Others provide professors with peer-to-peer networking opportunities.

Apps For Educators

Canva

Subscriptions and Cost: This platform is free for Canva for Education subscribers. Create a Canva account with your education email address, or upload proof of your teaching certification and employment.

How to Use it: Canva provides educators with editable content templates, including lesson plans, infographics, posters and videos. You can invite students to share, review and manage their work together in Canva. Canva for Education also connects with classroom tools including Schoology, D2L, Moodle, Blackboard, Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams. It’s also possible to integrate Canva for Education with a learning management system.

Loom

Subscriptions and Cost: This service is free for verified instructors in schools, universities and educational institutions using video messaging for classroom work. Otherwise, it costs $8 per month for advanced recording and analytics functions.

How to Use it: Loom is a video tool that allows educators to record lessons, solutions to assignments and other educational content. It works by recording both the speaker (if you enable this feature) and the screen at the same time, so students can listen and watch as problems are solved in real-time.

Prezi

Subscriptions and Cost: Prezi offers three subscription tiers for students and educators. Get EDU Plus for $3 a month to access unlimited Prezi creations, premium images, PDF export capabilities, offline access and more. EDU Pro offers the same perks, but with advanced online training and powerful analytics to track progress. EDU Pro costs $5 per month. Departments and administrations can contact Prezi for enterprise pricing.

How to Use it: Prezi offers three distinct products: Prezi Present, Prezi Design and Prezi Video. They help educators create various types of educational content for students. Prezi Present allows you to create moving, visually engaging presentations for students. Make interactive charts, reports, infographics and maps with Prezi Design. Prezi Video enables you to screen record your lessons and assignments.

MERLOT

The Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) may be a mouthful, but it’s a fantastic resource for professors seeking supplemental teaching support. Professors and educators worldwide can join the MERLOT system for free, where they’re provided access to support materials and content creation tools for their remote classrooms.

MERLOT members can add their own educational materials with the site’s content builder tool—also completely free of charge.

Online Learning Consortium

The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) is an online collective of higher education leaders. Dedicated to advancing quality digital teaching and learning experiences, the OLC provides professors with access to workshops, webinars, conferences and a certificate program. The OLC also publishes a quarterly online learning journal that addresses an array of peer-reviewed topics in online education.

Community membership is free. Professional memberships cost $195 annually and provides access to the latest industry news and research, networking opportunities and discounts for conferences and other events. You can get in touch with the OLC to discuss institutional membership pricing for your college or university.