Teaching Maths Online

Welcome to our guide to the best tools and tips for teaching and creating engaging maths online. There's videos, blogs and downloadable guides to help you along.

How to teach maths online

Often maths has been the subject left behind in the pen and paper era. But now maths educators are starting to think about how to move instruction online. Especially as more and more subjects move to digital teaching and learning. With an increasing focus on giving students multiple ways to express what they have learned.

Three advantages of using technology for maths instruction:

  1. Engages students and encourages group work and discussion
  2. Gives multiple representations of maths concepts
  3. Gives students rapid sharing and teacher feedback

Moving maths online

Webinar panel imagery

In this webinar, our panel of experts talk about ways to approach teaching maths digitally, including:

- How to overcome the problems of teaching maths online

- What the future holds for maths teaching and learning

- Their advice to maths and STEM educators

Maths resources for teachers

We want to equip you with the best tools and resources to help you move your maths instruction online.

After our live ‘Moving maths online’ webinar, our guests shared what tools they use. Watch their short video series to hear more from Ciaran and Atul.

Atul Rana is an online maths tutor with a focus on 1:1 synchronous teaching. And Dr. Ciaran McIvor is a secondary school teacher, teaching KS3, GCSE and A level maths to over 150 students.

In this blog, Ciaran also shares the tools and resources he turned to during remote learning.

This includes general teaching apps like ExplainEdu that can help with creating maths resources. As well as tools to help teach and learn mathematics including, Equatio and CompleteMaths. He also highlights the importance of device access when it comes to moving maths online. As well as why it’s good to keep trying new maths teaching strategies with your students.

Online Maths Platforms

There’s lots of places where maths can be taught digitally and remotely. Below we’ve given you a list of the most popular Learning Management Systems. You and your students may already be using some of these.

Canvas

Canvas is brimming with tools and content that make learning simpler yet smarter—and keep everyone and everything connected from anywhere.

Moodle

The world's free learning platform that helps you create effective online teaching and learning experiences in a collaborative, private environment.

Blackboard

With a modern, intuitive, fully responsive interface, Blackboard Learn™ delivers a simpler, more powerful teaching and learning experience that goes beyond the traditional learning management system.

Google Classroom

A free and easy tool helping educators to efficiently manage and assess progress, while enhancing connections with learners from school, from home or on the go.

Schoology

Schoology has every tool your classroom needs and comes pre-integrated with more than 200+ tools, student information systems (SIS), and education platforms.

Brightspace

In-line annotations, assessment hub, grade book, video and audio feedback, and rubrics within Brightspace make it easy for you to assess any type of activity, including electronic and paper submissions and observational assessments in the class and within the field. 

Maths tools and apps for teaching online

There are lots of popular online maths platforms that might spark your interest, let's take a look:

IXL Maths

IXL helps students master essential skills at their own pace through fun and interactive questions, built in support and motivating awards. With maths skills mapped across all grade levels, from counting shapes to equations.

Khan Academy

This free resource is suitable for teachers and parents, it’s easy to use and can help fill gaps in student’s knowledge. Khan Academy’s library of trusted practice and lessons covers maths, science, and more.

Desmos

This free suite of maths tools, including the renowned Desmos Graphing Calculator and Scientific Calculator, are used annually by over 40 million teachers and students around the world. 

GeoGebra

GeoGebra is an interactive geometry, algebra, statistics and calculus application, intended for learning and teaching mathematics and science from primary school to university level.

Equatio

We couldn't make a list of all the maths teaching apps without mentioning Equatio. It allows you to create equations, formulas, and more, digitally. Helping to make maths and STEM classes more accessible and engaging.

Hegarty Maths

Built to make independent learners, this tool covers the whole curriculum helping teachers set lessons and perfectly matched assessments, save time marking and get improved results.

Prodigy

Connecting in class learning to practice at home, this free resource offers maths games that make practice fun. 

Corbettmaths

Corbettmaths is home to 1000's of maths resources: Videos, Worksheets, 5-a-day, Revision Cards and more.

Engaging your students in maths

Keeping students engaged and interested in learning can be difficult. Add to that the move to remote and blended learning practices and you’ve got a challenge on your hands. This is especially true of maths and STEM subjects when the topics can seem very abstract. To help, we've pulled together some of our favourite ways to show maths in action.

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Helping you to be the best online maths teacher

We want to help you be the best maths teacher you can be. That's why we've put together a guide on designing great maths instruction using the UDL framework.

How UDL helps make maths engaging for all

  • Design solutions that identify and remove barriers to learning
  • Promote high expectations through carefully planned goals for every learner
  • Give learners choice & support to help them reach those goals
  • Share power with learners

A final point here is that UDL opens the door to opportunities for our learners. The teacher should have the same learning goals and expectations for each of their students. But remember that the way students get to the solution isn't always the same.

Images of podcast guests Lilian Soon and Sammy White

Making Maths Accessible

We believe everyone deserves the opportunity to succeed and find joy in maths. When teaching maths online, it’s important that the tools and resources you’re using with students are accessible.

In this podcast, we ask two leading industry experts what teachers need to do to design inclusive maths instruction. Including the role of technology in helping to level the playing field in maths.