In 2020, many of us have adapted to new ways of learning and working. The sudden switch from traditional ways of learning has posed challenges for students. Fortunately, there are several tools, free courses, and social media sites available for students to use to aid in their success.
Online Tools
A quick Google search will show you that there are numerous tools online that are designed to make learning and studying easier. These are some of the most popular tools that students rely on.
- Wikipedia
Perhaps one of the most widely used online tools is Wikipedia. According to Edutopia.org, “Wikipedia is the fifth most visited website in the world, with more than 40 million articles accessed every month.” There was a time when Wikipedia was not viewed as a credible source of information, but now college and university professors, and even doctors, use Wikipedia to seek information. Wikipedia can be helpful to get quick insights on a variety of topics, but it is also useful for its footnotes. The footnotes of an article may offer sources for information that can be used to further research the topic.
- Quizlet
Another great resource for students is Quizlet. Quizlet is an online study app that allows students to study using various learning tools and games. Quizlet allows students to input their own notes and create personalized flashcard sets. Users can study their flashcards and also assess their knowledge via games and tests that are generated using the content from the personalized flashcard sets. Quizlet is free to use and is available on desktop browsers and for download as a mobile app.
- Google Docs
One of the most popular resources among students and professionals is Google Docs. Google Docs allows users to work on documents and access them on multiple devices. Google Docs is also great for collaboration on group work since it allows multiple users to use and edit documents at once.
- GoConqr
Similar to Quizlet, GoConqr is a free learning tool that offers “a personal learning environment allowing students & teachers to create, discover and share learning resources.” GoConqr provides users with tools to create mind maps, flashcards, notes and quizzes.
- Evernote
Evernote is an online note taking tool that is designed to help users take better notes, capture ideas, and organize files for easy access. Evernote offers three different plans based on your needs. The Basic package is free of charge and should get the job done for most students. The Premium and Business plans offer more advanced features but come with a monthly fee.
- Marinara Timer
The Marinara Timer is a great resource for students and individuals who might struggle with time management. Marinara Timer offers users 3 timers based on how rigid they want their time management to be. The Pomodoro Timer is a well known method that prescribes 25 minutes of work, followed by a 5-minute break. A 15-minute break is given after 4 work intervals. For individuals who aren’t looking to be as strict with their time, Marinara Timer offers a Custom Timer and a Kitchen Timer. The Custom Timer adds custom flexibility to the Pomodoro method and the Kitchen Timer functions just like a regular timer.
Free Courses
In addition to all of the free study tools that are available online for students, there are several sites that provide students with free courses and educational materials.
- Khan Academy
Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization that primarily produces short lessons in the form of videos to help educate students. The website also has other supplementary materials on a variety of topics to aid in education. All resources are available for free.
- Open Culture
Similar to Khan Academy, Open Culture is a website that provides users with thousands of online educational courses and cultural media. Open Culture has over 1,500 free online courses from top universities, as well as several other educational resources.
- CK-12
CK-12 is a free website and app that was created to help students and teachers improve K-12 learning. CK-12 provides self-paced learning & content tools for users. The site provides a library of free online textbooks, videos, exercises, flashcards, and real world applications for over 5000 concepts.
Social Media
Social Media sites can sometimes be overlooked as valuable education resources, but there are several sites, like YouTube, that can provide free education help in addition to entertainment.
- YouTube
YouTube is an excellent resource for users because it has a wide variety of content for a wide range of concepts.
- TeacherTube
Similar to YouTube, TeacherTube is a free community for sharing instructional videos and content for teachers and students. TeacherTube is often viewed as a YouTube for educators.
- TedEd
TedEd is a platform for youth and students that was created to spark and celebrate the ideas and knowledge sharing of teachers. TedEd offers a large video library of original animated lessons and other resources.
The number of education sites and resources available for students seems to only be increasing. With the wide variety of educational content that is available for free online, there is something to help every student.
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