Remote learning platforms have revolutionised education in recent years. These technologies not only help educators create lesson plans, mark coursework and track progress, they also help students to engage, collaborate and learn.

Remote learning tools are rapidly evolving to help students learn virtually and flexibly; keep up with their reading; participate in interactive classes; and prepare for exams. Regardless of your area of study, there are many tools out there than can support you, whether you’re learning entirely remotely, or you just need some extra help to keep on top of your course.

Here’s a quick guide to some of the best tools for remote learning students.

Scholarcy 

Scholarcy makes it easier to read, understand and remember your course material. By converting research papers and book chapters into interactive Summary Flashcards, Scholarcy helps you to get into a reading rhythm, tackle a new subject without getting overwhelmed, and keep track of your course material and notes throughout the year.

You can import unlimited files into Scholarcy and build up a structured library of summarised reading material. All of your Flashcards highlight key information, define important terms and let you link straight to any referenced sources. You can export your Flashcards and even share them with friends if you prefer learning with others.

Scholarcy has a handy Chrome extension that generates a Summary Flashcard from any online article, which you can save this straight to your library. So whether you’re searching your university’s online library for books or research papers, or you prefer Google Scholar, you can save a summary every time you find something useful and return to it later.

Scholarcy makes it easier to digest and remember your course material, so it’s particularly useful for getting to grips with a new subject, organising your thoughts when it comes to essay-writing, and making revision less daunting.

Here's why Scholarcy is perfect for remote learning:

• Automatically highlights the important facts, claims, findings, and limitations. Scholarcy gives you the top 5 learning points from the text to help you remember what’s important. Its Robo-highlighter scans each section of the paper or chapter and highlights key statements for your revision.

• Builds you a personal revision library throughout the semester. Keep on top of your reading and build your own revision library by importing papers and chapters into Scholarcy throughout the semester. You’ll quickly build up a searchable collection of Summary Flashcards complete with references that you can easily categorise and refer to at any time to quickly refresh your memory.
• Works with mind-mapping tools to reinforce your knowledge of a subject and help structure your essay. Create mind maps from your Summary Flashcards to help structure your essay by exporting them to PowerPoint and importing into your favourite mind-mapping tools.

Google Classroom 

Classroom is a free tool available to any student that has a Google account. Classroom makes it simple for students and educators to interact both within and outside of the classroom.

Classroom is particularly useful if you are learning remotely, helping you to organise and manage your assignments, collaborate with classmates, track your progress and keep on top of your work.

Here are just some of the advantages of using Classroom for remote learning:

• Easy to use

It takes just a few seconds to join a class once your teacher has invited you or shared an access code.

• Keep track of your progress

Classroom helps educators assess and grade your assignments more quickly and lets you keep track of all of your feedback in one place so that you can easily check where you’re performing well and any areas you need to focus on improving.

• Organise your work

You can access of all your classwork, class materials (including multimedia files) and assignments from a single page. All your documents are automatically synced with Google Drive for easy retrieval. 

• Communicate easily with peers and teachers

Google Classroom facilitates easy collaboration, teamwork and class discussion. You can work with your colleagues on assignments and group projects, and get ongoing feedback from your teacher or tutor without having to book an appointment or be on campus.  

Kahoots

Kahoots enables remote students to acquire knowledge in a fun, engaging and self-paced way. With this tool, you can reinforce your learning and engage with others even if you’re not in the classroom.

Benefits Kahoots:

• Take part in real-time quiz sessions by submitting your answers via the app. 
• Use flashcards styles to get to grips with new information more easily and retain knowledge for longer. 
• Cement your learning through quizzes and games with your tutors, colleagues, friends. 
• Learn and acquire knowledge at your own pace. 

ThingLink

ThingLink is the simplest and most convenient tool students can use for an engaging, collaborative digital learning experience. 

You can instantly generate and upload interesting pictures, video clips, immersive media, and mock-up models with clickable tags. And with ThingLink's Immersive Reader Integration, you can access your materials in over 75 languages. 

Why ThingLink is great for remote learning:

• Students can easily create personalised, flexible learning experiences that enhance their understanding and reliably build knowledge.
• ThingLink has a special focus on improving digital literacy and employability skills.
• Measure your progress and participation in academic activity through engagement reports, including views of instructional materials, film clips and interactive maps. 
• Ideal for self-paced, web-based learning, whether you’re a new student or returning to study.

Coursera 

Coursera lets you learn from professionals and academics across 350 renowned colleges and business organisations around the world. Institutions including the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, Yale University, Google, and Meta all offer free, practical courses for students at all levels via the platform.

Coursera gives you access to self-paced, inexpensive study options that can help you expand your skills and enhance your career prospects. Whether you’re interested in learning new skills, earning a certificate from a world-class educational establishment, or getting a college degree online, you can do it all from the comfort of your home with Coursera. 

Here's why Coursera is best for remote learning:

• Earn accredited diplomas from world-renowned colleges like the University of London, Johns Hopkins University and Princeton University. You can also get certified from tech juggernauts like Meta and Google. 
• Develop skills that are in high demand from employers such as digital marketing, SQL and JAVA, with practical and hands-on learning from leading educators at top institutions and organisations.
• Register for thousands of free courses. 
• Download online lecture videos and learn at your own pace. 

Whether you are new to remote learning, or you’ve been studying in this way for a while, there are so many new tools and technologies available today to help you succeed.  We’ve given you five of the best tools developed with distance learning students in mind that can help you tackle your course material, learn a new subject, and manage and organise your work. But there are plenty more out there waiting to equip you with the skills to succeed.