11 Best Virtual Classroom Software & Online Teaching Tools (Free & Paid)

There’s a wealth of fantastic online classroom platforms for hosting virtual classes. But selecting the best one for your teaching needs is a challenge.

Some virtual classroom software is technical to implement or complicated to use. And while some engagement features are enjoyable for learners, they’re not particularly useful for educators.

But with a clearer idea of your online teaching tool options, you can choose the right software and put it to work for creative planning, engaging students online, and tracking progress.

What is virtual classroom software?

Virtual classroom software is any type of technology—app, program, or platform—that educators and students can access via the internet for classes.

Some teaching tools are centered around communication and engagement. Others are designed for creating materials, while others are focused on course administration or marketing. Yet many platforms offer a blend of these functions.

You can also use virtual classroom software for hybrid learning, where some students are in the physical classroom and others connect virtually.

What types of online classroom platforms are there?

Let’s take a look at the main types of teaching tools:

Video conferencing software

You can’t have a virtual classroom without video conferencing. But how you use that technology can make a massive difference for everyone’s learning experience.

With a video engagement platform like Livestorm, you can use a range of virtual classroom features to motivate participation in synchronous and asynchronous online learning.

These tools play a key role in differentiating virtual classes from traditional teaching, offering some of the most essential benefits of virtual learning as you use them to energize learners with fun activities that keep students focused and collaborative.

Virtual learning environment (VLE)

A VLE is a platform where you can create lesson plans, assignments, tests, worksheets, homework, and other resources, and present these to your learners. A VLE also makes it easy for you to review and grade work, provide feedback, and interact with your class.

Learning management system (LMS)

LMS platforms like LearnUpon let you create and manage your courses and training sessions as well as track enrollment and student progress.

An LMS differs from a VLE in that it operates at a more administrative level. In practice, though, many VLE platforms have evolved to offer LMS functionality and vice versa.

eLearning authoring platform

An eLearning authoring platform offers a range of tools and programs for you to create original learning resources, lessons, and courses, which you can do with text, imagery, slides, video, and audio media.

What to look for in an online teaching tool for a virtual classroom

Any online platform you choose for virtual classes and hybrid learning strategies should offer the following features.

Engagement features

Without the in-person interaction of a traditional class setting, it can be easy for learners to get distracted or lose the thread of a class. As a result, the engagement features of your online teaching tools are an integral part of a virtual classroom.

Here are some of the features that help educators engage with students:

Live chat

Live chat is a fun and practical virtual learning feature that allows students and teachers to interact, share links, gather opinions, double-check concepts, and do ice breakers.

Multimedia sharing

Be sure your teaching tools allow you to easily share worksheets, PDFs, and pre-recorded videos.

Digital whiteboard

You can use real-time virtual whiteboards for brainstorming and concept mapping, which can be great fun as a group exercise. They're also helpful when you want individuals or teams to virtually come to the front of the class and tackle an exercise.

Reaction emojis

Encouraging students to react to a presentation with emojis is a fun way for them to stay involved in the subject matter. It's also a handy way for you to read the room.

Live polls

The best teaching tools save time, making polls quick and easy for you to set up so students can choose activities and materials. Another way you can use polls is to see how students feel about a topic before and after an exercise or class.

Question upvotes

Students can use question upvotes to decide on the most important issues for the class to address. They’re a great way to invest learners in discussions and encourage them to think more deeply about key topics.

Automatic recordings

You can engage students after a real-time online class with replays of the entire session. Knowing there’s a recording also means students don’t have to worry so much about note-taking during synchronous class time. Make sure your virtual classroom software has unlimited replay storage.

Engagement tracking

The best virtual teaching tools make it easy to follow registrations and attendance rates across all your classes. Most also reveal other engagement metrics, like the number of responses to polls, chat messages sent, and questions asked.

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These features help you keep track of how popular different elements are in your classes, which can change over the breadth of a course. You might use this information to adjust your lesson plans or vary how you encourage learners to get involved in some activities.

And with some eLearning tools, you can even follow who’s watched the class recordings. This is especially useful when you have students out sick or on vacation.

Ease of use

Any virtual teaching platforms should be intuitive to use for both you and your students. Some powerful tools offer a good range of features but make it difficult to join in with extra steps, like subscriptions or downloads.

Make sure that your online classroom platform is browser-based so all your students need is a link to join. The software you choose should also make it quick for teachers to create events, invite attendees, and set up engagement features in-class.

Scalability

Some of your virtual classes might be small, with just a handful of learners. But you may find that others have dozens of learners following your presentations and working with your resources in real time.

If this is the case, you need to be sure that your teaching platform can handle those numbers without creating stability issues. It should also let you quickly organize events, activities, and tracking—even for large audiences.

Security

Virtual classroom software needs robust security features because teachers and students often share personal information. Using a free virtual classroom platform that lacks strong security controls may lead to complaints.

Prioritize a browser-based tool rather than a downloadable application. And look for standard security certifications like ISO 27001 and SOC 2.

Integrations

If you plan to embed multimedia content, share a variety of materials, and incorporate real-time activities (e.g., whiteboards) into your virtual classroom, you need a platform with a wide range of integrations.

Some tools also integrate with marketing software or social media platforms that help you with the administration and promotional side of lesson planning, like Slack, HubSpot, Google Sheets, and Facebook.

11 Best online teaching tools and platforms for your virtual classroom

We rounded up a list of the best virtual classroom platforms (paid and free) for educators and businesses of all sizes. Here's how they compare at a glance:

1. Livestorm

2. Wooclap

3. Kahoot!

4. Google Classroom

5. Docebo

6. Blackboard (Anthology)

7. Moodle

8. Skillshare

9. Adobe Captivate

10. LearnCube

11. WizIQ

1. Livestorm

The most important online teaching tool in any virtual classroom is the video conferencing platform. It’s the central hub for the most important interactions throughout any synchronous class.

What sets Livestorm apart is that it isn't just a video conferencing tool. It’s a video engagement platform designed to help users interact, communicate, get involved in presentations, and enjoy all your resources.

Here are some of the engagement features you can leverage in a Livestorm virtual classroom:

• Live chats

• Polls

• Question upvotes

• Reaction emojis

• Virtual whiteboards

• Screensharing

• HD multimedia shares

• Unlimited replay views and storage

With Livestorm, it takes just two minutes to set up an engaging online class, training session, or workshop. You can easily track registration and attendance as well as engagement like chats, votes, and replay views.

Also, as a web-based platform, Livestorm doesn't require learners to download an app. As a result, they won’t experience any barriers or delays to joining your pre-recorded or live online courses.

Livestorm has a free plan for small sessions of up to 30 attendees. Paid plans start at $3 per attendee, so you only pay for students who actually join, live or on replay.

2. Wooclap

Wooclap is an eLearning engagement app designed to encourage participation via messaging, questions, and activities. The platform's interactive activities include polls, brainstorming, and open questions with dynamic word clouds.

To create quizzes and activities with Wooclap, you go into the app and use its user-friendly exercise builder, where you can add PDFs, slides, or keynotes. Learners then use the app on their smartphones to complete your exercises.

Instructors often use Wooclap for its assortment of question styles, competitive elements, and instant learner feedback. These features all help to add variety to the classroom setting and reinforce understanding in a fun way.

Wooclap has a free version with limited access to engagement, branding, and collaboration tools.

3. Kahoot!

Kahoot! is a gamification app for introducing quizzes, polls, brainstorming, and word clouds into your classes or training sessions.

Learners or attendees can work individually or in teams on their personal devices to complete your activities, which can include theme music as well as an array of fun options for designs and images.

Kahoot! is a fun tool with templates that make it easy to incorporate into class or training sessions. It's also a great way to assess students without stressing them out.

4. Google Classroom

Google Classroom has evolved to become an LMS as well as a VLE that’s aimed squarely at academic institutions rather than for business training use cases.

Within a campus or department, each teacher can have their own Google Classroom, where they can add assignments, quizzes, and materials along with other course information. Students then use a unique code to enter classes, where there is teacher-student messaging, and user-friendly integrations with the Google Workplace ecosystem of apps and services, like Google Docs, Drive, Slides, and YouTube.

Easy to access from any smartphone, tablet, or laptop, Google Classroom works best for asynchronous online learning environments.

5. Docebo

Docebo is a comprehensive virtual classroom platform built for enterprises. Its tools are geared toward business users and online training needs.

Instructors can create unique training courses or import old e-learning content from a previous LMS, with the platform supporting a wide range of approaches to online learning, including webinars, gamification, microlearning, and virtual classrooms.

With its multi-product suite of tools, Docebo is a great option for enterprises that want formalized training programs they can customize and brand.

6. Blackboard

Blackboard (by Anthology) is a VLE with plenty of tools for teaching and learning. Students can benefit from announcements, push notifications, and synchronous collaboration.

The instructor interface has easy-to-follow workflows, grading tools, and on-the-go course management. The platform also comes with built-in communication tools, progress tracking, and anti-plagiarism software.

Blackboard’s video chat options with features such as digital whiteboards, polls, and breakout rooms, are useful integrations that instructors can use for creative lesson planning.

7. Moodle

Moodle is a VLE and LMS that you can use for course administration and resources deployment. It offers live chats, forums, in-platform quizzes, assignment grading, and surveys.

Moodle is a powerful and highly customizable platform. Yet it requires a level of IT expertise that not all institutions or businesses will have available.

Once a business or institution does have Moodle set up, its range of learning materials, options for testing and assessment, and instructor forums make it a great tool for facilitating teacher development outside of a traditional classroom.

8. Skillshare

Skillshare is an online learning community where teachers can create a profile and share their own resources and classes. The VLE platform is mostly focused on courses for designers, writers, illustrators, and other creatives, but it also includes business categories for analytics, leadership, and marketing.

Mainly based on video courses, Skillshare also gives learners access to worksheets and other assignments. Though you can use the platform to provide learners with feedback, the platform largely consists of static, asynchronous courses with little instructor-learner interaction. It's ideal for independent learning and for getting ideas for lessons plans and activities.

9. Adobe Captivate

Adobe Captivate is an authoring tool for instructors to design their own training materials and courses. With Adobe Captivate, you can easily create eLearning slide decks, interactive videos with PowerPoint content, virtual reality walkthroughs, and multi-module branched courses.

This software also offers collaboration tools for online learning, including sharable review links and commenting features. Plus, Adobe Captivate has inclusive features like accessibility guidelines and closed captions, which help more students benefit from your virtual learning experience.

10. LearnCube

LearnCube is an LMS and virtual classroom platform that’s ideal for academic institutions and businesses alike. This software allows you to centrally manage cloud-based teaching content and share it via online whiteboard, text chat, and audio conferencing.

It also lets you set up roles and permissions so you can manage staff, students, teachers, and admins. Plus, it has payment gateway options so you can monetize your virtual training sessions.

As for the virtual classroom, users praise the presentation and file-sharing features. According to a user on G2, “The screen share and whiteboard features are extremely useful when working with students. Being able to have both teacher and student upload, share, and write directly on virtual worksheets makes online tutoring much easier.”

LearnCube has a basic free plan that includes unlimited 1:1 live classes and a materials library.

11. WizIQ

WizIQ is a web-based virtual classroom and teacher discovery platform where you can launch a custom-branded learning portal. Students can then search for and rate your courses.

Whether you need to manage online training or tutoring, the platform's tools for building courses and assessments can help. Plus, you can also access WizIQ on the go thanks to its mobile apps for Android and iOS.

Google Classroom alternatives

If you're looking for alternatives to Google Classroom, the right pick depends on what you're missing:

• For live, interactive teaching: Livestorm, for browser-based video classes with polls, Q&A, and automatic replays.

• For a full LMS with grading and course management: Moodle or Blackboard.

• For corporate training rather than schools: Docebo.

• For tutoring and paid classes: LearnCube or WizIQ.

Many teachers keep Google Classroom for assignments and add a live virtual classroom tool for real-time sessions.

Tips to set up and customize your virtual classroom

Once you've chosen the right online classroom platform, use these tips to organize your setup.

Customize your virtual classroom

Make your virtual classroom your own with these customization methods:

• Use consistent naming for each online lesson. For instance, a teacher might name their courses “AP Physics – Week 1” so that students can easily find the course. Likewise, if your school has adopted virtual classroom software, it is best to adopt a consistent naming convention.

• Start and end online lessons in the same way. Consider using the same presentation slide at the beginning and end of each virtual classroom session. This approach to online lessons means students never have to wonder if they are in the right place.

• Practice with colleagues or teaching assistants first. When you first start virtual classroom software, it can take some time to fully learn how to use all of the different features. Run a practice session to get familiar with the software before you begin teaching students.

Engage audiences with polls and virtual backgrounds

In order to keep your online students engaged, use polls throughout the virtual classroom session. Use at least two quizzes (i.e., one in the first 10 minutes of the class and another close to the end of the session) so that students can test their understanding.

You might also want to vary your virtual backgrounds. For example, a history teacher could display a virtual background of the Coliseum or Forum in Rome to enhance an ancient history lesson. Adding a few high-quality background images can make a virtual classroom free from boredom.

Record online lessons for on-demand viewing

Simplify your recording process with these simple tips:

• Practice by recording a short session. Before recording full-length online lessons, record a short lesson of five minutes only. Recording a short lesson first is helpful because you can quickly test your audio and video capabilities.

• Advise your students about the recording. Be mindful of student privacy and tell students before you record the session. If you answer questions during the recording, answer them without mentioning student names.

• Review the recording before posting. Before sharing the class recording, listen to a few parts of it first. Sometimes, glitches happen when you record events. Make a note of any parts of the recording that is unclear so that you can provide supplemental resources.

9 Ways to improve student engagement in your virtual classroom

Student engagement is the attention, motivation, and interest learners have in your class. You notice it when it’s present, and you notice it even more when it’s not. Here are some easy-to-implement engagement ideas for online learning.

Start using fun online engagement tools

The first stop for teachers looking for new ways to engage learners is putting the right online engagement solutions in place. Here are some of the tools and features that are fun and simple to implement in your day-to-day virtual classroom activities:

Emoji reactions

Your learners will be very used to using emojis in social media and other apps, so bringing them into your virtual classes will feel familiar to them, helping to set the tone for a relaxed, interactive learning environment.

Live polls

In-class polling is quick to set up and you can use this feature in a number of ways – for example, to compare opinions at the start and end of a subject presentation, or to get learners to choose activities and materials.

Question upvotes

As with live polls, question upvotes give your learners a say in the direction their classes take, helping to invest them in topics and discussions.

Virtual whiteboards

If you like using a whiteboard for your traditional classes, you’ll want one for your virtual classes, too. Students can use them to make presentations, explain their thought processes, or brainstorm in groups – and you can use them yourself, just as you would in person.

Share learning objectives

Learners are far more invested in exercises when they understand how they relate to your shared class objectives. So be transparent with your students and at the start of each class, explain what you’ll be covering, why, and what they’ll be able to do as a result.

This is a strong motivating tool for learners that should see them performing activities with a greater sense of purpose.

Keep collaborative projects simple and trackable

Having learners work on projects together (for example with virtual whiteboards) places them in contact with new perspectives and approaches that can be great for creativity and motivation, but it can also lead to frustration if the chemistry just isn’t right within a group.

So especially at the start of a course, make collaborative projects short and simple, gently building up their complexity over time. This should help learners get used to the best way of working in an online team, and give you a chance to see who works best with who.

If you’re concerned some learners might not contribute as much as others, at the end of a project, you can ask them to fill in a report on each other’s performance. Another solution is for groups to complete their work in a document with version control so you can track everyone’s contributions.

Make sharing and presenting work a regular feature

Create a culture of group communication by having one person report back on a task, project, or piece of homework in each class. Knowing they could be asked to speak for one or two minutes encourages learners to be proactive and engage with your activities and exercises.

Ask concept-checking questions

After you’ve presented a topic or given a set of instructions, create a live poll that asks concept-checking questions to see how well they’ve understood your explanation. This can be a fun way for learners to show what they’ve learned and compare themselves with the rest of the class.

If you do this regularly and make it a feature of your teaching process, students will anticipate a concept-checking question and be more engaged in topics and discussions as a result.

Read the room

Getting a clear sense of how focused or engaged learners are can be a challenge in a virtual setting, but reading the room is still a necessary skill for online classes, so use engagement tools and analytics to help you.

Reaction emojis can give you a glimpse of how into a subject your classes are – if the smiley faces start drying up, you may have lost your audience. Also, with Livestorm you can see how much your class is using other engagement features like live chat and polls, which can also indicate if learners are focused on what they should be.

Use mixed media

You can share songs, videos, and slides to vary things up in your classes – surprising students with a short film scene, music video, gif, or meme is a great way to press the reset button and re-engage your audience.

It’s also a good idea to have a bunch of these in reserve for when an activity doesn’t work out or you suddenly need to buy yourself a minute or two to get organized.

Create fun quizzes

A great way to close out a long week or training session, short quick-fire quizzes are always fun, and students enjoy getting competitive when given the chance. You can mix your quizzes up with class topics as well as fun general knowledge, using multimedia to make them more dynamic.

Livestorm for engaging virtual classroom software

Schools, universities, and training teams use Livestorm for education to run live classes, workshops, and on-demand courses straight from the browser.

E-learning can give you enormous flexibility and control over your classes, but if you’re to create fun interactive materials, easily share multimedia resources, and interact fluidly with your learners, you need the right online teaching tools.

VLE and LMS platforms give you a place to manage courses and provide a central hub for all your assignments, but the virtual classroom relies on video conferencing software and in-class engagement.

Some engagement tools give you the chance to supplement a blended learning experience with fun apps for quizzes and gamification, which learners can access with their laptops or smartphones. But for a fully integrated, engaging virtual class, learners need a video engagement platform.

And once you have the best online tools and features in place, there’s nothing to stop you from delivering the best online learning experiences for all your students.

Curious how Livestorm can host your virtual courses and engage your students? Sign up for free and try Livestorm today.