Top 5 classroom engagement tools

Even if you put your heart and soul into keeping students engaged throughout a lesson, sometimes it can be a real challenge. A student whose attention wanes is also a student who struggles to remember information –and this is a real barrier to learning. So, how can you boost engagement in the classroom to avoid this risk? Read along to discover some of the best tools to help you!

What is a classroom engagement tool?

The online classroom engagement tools we’re about to introduce in this article have one main goal in mind: to help teachers teach. Forget those traditional lessons where the teacher delivers a monologue without any interaction (no interactive activities or content, no data collection, no feedback from the students): these tools will help you develop student engagement strategies and keep their attention in the long run, to promote their learning.

Here are some of the key features offered by engagement tools:

• Add quizzes to your lesson to test knowledge and improve information retention;
• Involve students in their learning and encourage collaborative teaching (through activities, games, dynamic content).
• Make lessons more engaging and fun, both online and face-to-face.

Top engagement tools for the classroom

Wooclap

Wooclap is a tool that focuses on versatility. Its features are varied and numerous, with 21 types of questions that will allow you to choose the right ones for your classes. It fosters student engagement thanks to its multiple interactivity options.

Kahoot!

Specifically designed for the classroom, Kahoot! performs its role exceptionally well. Fun and colorful, it provides the right learning environment for children as well as teenagers. Kahoot! allows you to create quizzes and keep track of scores, turning every lesson into a real game. Perfect for boosting engagement: we learn better when it’s a fun experience!

Engageli

As its name suggests, Engageli aims to support classroom engagement. It is primarily designed for higher education and corporate training. Instead of offering ready-made packages, it provides customized pricing plans based on the client's needs.

Socrative

Socrative is an educational classroom engagement tool that, much like its namesake philosopher, encourages students to learn through immediate feedback. By understanding the mistakes they made, students can refine their knowledge and reach the correct answers. Not only is this highly rewarding and engaging, but it also allows teachers and educators to monitor the precise progress of their students, regardless of the teaching strategies used.

iSpring

iSpring focuses primarily on online training sessions. While it is less suitable for face-to-face classes, it remains very useful for remote teaching. It can be used with popular video conference software such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, and it also integrates with many other online educational tools like Outlook or online learning platforms. This enables the creation of a customized remote learning environment.

Make the most of classroom engagement tools

Choose the right tool

Some classroom engagement tools are better suited for primary or secondary school students, while others focus on higher education (and can even be used by adults at work). For example, Kahoot! and Socrative cater more to younger learners, whereas iSpring and Engageli target higher education. It’s no coincidence that the latter promotes its features for corporate training.

Wooclap, however, has opted for a highly adaptable and customizable environment, making it effective at all levels! It’s just a matter of choosing the question types (besides from the content and activities) that best suit your classroom.

You should also consider the financial aspect. Some tools can be quite expensive: for example, iSpring only offers annual plans, with the cheapest starting at €470. Socrative and Kahoot! are more affordable, with plans starting at $9.99 and €10 per month, respectively. Finally, Engageli only offers custom plans upon contact and is the only tool on this list that doesn’t offer a free trial.

Wooclap aims to remain accessible, and thus offers both a free trial (you can access here) and a plan starting at €6.99 per month. It’s an ideal choice to experiment with interactive and engaging lessons and activities!

How to use online engagement tools

Whatever tool you choose, it should support your lessons. For example, offering a quiz to the class at the end of each chapter is a great activity for students; it’s an excellent way to stimulate their memory and ensure information retention. Similarly, the open-ended questions and poll options provided by Wooclap allow your students to give feedback, share their opinion and ask for clarifications on the lesson.

Don’t forget to explore the various integrations these tools offer. For instance, Wooclap can be integrated with PowerPoint and Google Slides — if you use these applications — as well as with Microsoft Teams and Zoom for your online teaching. By effectively using these integrations, you can refine your lessons and save valuable time to focus on active learning.