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Photo credit: Jacqueline Kelly

The 2020 coronavirus outbreak has brought unexpectedly massive damage not only to the healthcare system and economy of the world but also to the system of education. In many countries, educational institutions had no choice but to close down in quarantine or shift to distant learning for some time.

With gatherings of students posing a threat to the spread of coronavirus, online learning is the best option when it comes to making sure no one risks their health and yet manages to continue their studies. 

Luckily, distant learning is not a new trend. It has been consistently developing for the past several years, with a great number of students opting for homeschooling or just not having the means to attend a physical institution. There are hundreds of tools that can help students discover new learning opportunities and give teachers and professors a chance to reach and educate their students even when being away from each other. Blackboard, DingTalk, Edmodo, Mentimeter, and Participate seem to be on the list of the most useful platforms and tools that can keep the global education system running and students in line with their educational goals. 

Blackboard

Blackboard is a learning platform that can help you transform all of your class studies into online courses. With this platform, you can see all of your courses, calendar appointments, messages, and grades within one system. It is a great tool that will help you not to miss out on any of the courses you are currently taking and basically to just shift to distance learning. Your professors and teachers can upload all subject and course materials into the system for all students to be able to follow the curriculum. This platform has already been in the use of distance learning programs, but with the current coronavirus outbreak, it can help students not to lag behind their college syllabus. 

DingTalk

This platform will get you closer to the feeling that you are actually attending your college. DingTalk is a communication platform that helps you participate in video conferencing, which can substitute lectures and seminars. You can also do calendar and task management, which will help you maintain a consistent schedule. Professors can use it to track attendance while students can use instant messaging in case they feel like asking a question during an online lecture or a seminar. Overall, it is a great long-term solution for high schools, colleges, and universities if they want to make sure all of their students continue working on their academic achievements. 

Edmodo

Edmondo is another distance learning solution that connects students and teachers by creating something of a social network. Teachers and professors can use this tool to provide and administer educational materials, start online collaborative groups, evaluate the performance of their students, and even communicate with parents if needed. This platform already has more than 34 million users that can enjoy the way digital environment and technology bring new learning opportunities and help fight the challenges of the coronavirus outbreak. 

Mentimeter

This tool is excellent both for students and for teachers. You can use it to create multimedia presentations with live polls, quizzes, word clouds, Q&As, and more. Teachers can use this tool to transform academic materials into visual presentations and share those with their students, who can use their phones to connect to it. Via their smartphones, students can answer questions and give feedback. Mentimeter is also perfect for formative assessments, a feature that teachers will appreciate. The tool offers a user-friendly dashboard and a new approach to dynamic presentations. It empowers a new type of learning experience. 

Participate

With this platform, which some people know as EduClipper that was acquired by Participate, you and your teachers or professors can share educational materials you find on the Internet. There is also the option of creating a group with your groupmates and sharing the materials with everyone. You can help each other learn various research techniques and approaches to analyzing sources. Your educators, in their own turn, can use this tool to keep a digital record of the achievements of all students. Alternatively, if you feel like you need some professional help with your research and essay writing, you can always find a good essay writer at domyessay.com and hire a professional academic writer to do your essay.

If you are a student, these tools will help you stick to your curriculum and do your assignments well. If you are a teacher, they will help you revolutionize the way you deliver learning materials and hold classes. In both cases, using these tools and platforms is an excellent idea if you want to experience a new learning curve and keep the educational process up and running. 

The coronavirus outbreak certainly poses a great challenge to the current system of education, but it also pushes the world into exploring new learning ideas. Students and their educators get to discover how to keep up their learning process and how to make it engaging and enriching. After all, the current technology makes education possible and even easier. The main thing is that everyone has to be open to adapt to the changes. Both students and teachers can come together in an attempt to overcome the challenge and learn from it. It is an opportunity for everyone to get creative in the way they deliver and consume information, which can quite possibly lead to new educational discoveries.