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Kialo Edu is a custom version of Kialo ( kialo.com), the world's largest argument mapping and debate site, specifically designed for classroom use. Its clear, visually compelling format makes it easy to follow the logical structure of a discussion and facilitates thoughtful collaboration. Kialo's mission is to promote well-reasoned discussion online, and to that end, Kialo is free for educators to use.

To put their knowledge into action To sharpen their critical reasoning skills To demonstrate their understanding To engage constructively with each other
Take your classroom discussions online, break down complex subjects for students, and shake it up with new types of assignments.

Try Kialo in Your Classroom

What can you use Kialo for?

Create discussions for your students, where they can put their knowledge into practice, develop their own views on classroom content, and consolidate what they've learned. In a Kialo discussion, every student has a voice - there's no talking over each other, and students have the space to explore arguments at their own pace. Kialo's collaborative platform encourages students to work together to find the best way to express each idea.

Assign students to write a Kialo discussion instead of an essay - or use Kialo discussions to outline larger writing projects. Kialo's argument-tree structure leads students to consider counter-arguments, develop a logical outline of their argument, and visualize how their ideas fit together.

Write a discussion for your students to explore, and set out content in a clear and easy format. Link to additional sources and reading, challenge students to add arguments or question concepts.

How does Kialo work?

With Kialo, discussions and debates are clearly visualized as an interactive tree of pro and con arguments. At the top of every discussion is the thesis, which is supported or challenged by pro and con claims. Each one of these claims can in turn branch into subsequent claims that support or challenge them.

All discussions are private and can only be seen by those you choose to share them with. To start a discussion with your students, simply write a brief description and a thesis (or theses). Share the discussion with your whole class, or divide students into smaller groups.

Each claim has a comment section underneath that allows you to give students feedback, suggest improvements, and ask questions without cluttering the surface of the discussion. Similarly, students can easily collaborate with each other to improve their arguments, examples, and phrasing.

You can set up teams for each of your classes to easily share and organize the content you want your students to see. All content on Kialo-Edu.com is private, accessible only to the people you share it with.

These features are just a small fraction of what you can do with Kialo.
Find the application that works best with your teaching style.

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Kialo Edu - The tool to teach critical thinking and rational debate

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Kialo is a free tool used by educators world-wide to teach critical thinking, facilitate rational classroom debate and explain controversial issues.

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Sway: Create and share interactive reports, presentations, personal stories, and more.

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Sway is an easy-to-use digital storytelling app for creating interactive reports, presentations, personal stories and more. Its built-in design engine helps you create professional designs in minutes. With Sway, your images, text, videos, and other multimedia all flow together in a way that enhances your story.

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How might you use this form of assessment in your distance education course?

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How might you use this form of assessment in your distance education course?

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Discussions, blogs, wikis, media creation, and other activities where a learner produces something meaningful can all be assessed for understanding, critical thinking, and sometimes application. In any distance education course there should be learner-learner communication, often accomplished by discussion boards. However, I would rather incorporate discussion in which I can see the topic evolve and students go back and forth. Kialo Edu is a wonderful website for this, as it allows for the easy setup of questions and the support for and against that question. I would utilize this in a course as a platform for debate where students present their arguments, back up their arguments with cited resources, anticipate counter-arguments, and comment on other students' posts.

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How might you use this form of assessment in your distance education course?

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How might you use this form of assessment in your distance education course?

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During oral presentations students give a speech (sometimes accompanied by a PowerPoint or other physical images) to fellow students and/or the instructor on a topic. Microsoft Sway is a great application that students can used to make animated, professional looking presentations. In a distance course, this would be a resource to provide over PowerPoint (an overused program in many courses) that helps students create striking visual presentations, and for many students using a new program can also be exciting and more interesting. This would be an especially useful resource for online business class presentations.

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Over 1.1 billion simulations delivered

160interactive simulations

97language translations

3001teacher-submitted lessons

Founded in 2002 by Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman, the PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder creates free interactive math and science simulations. PhET sims are based on extensive education research and engage students through an intuitive, game-like environment where students learn through exploration and discovery.

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Founded in 2002 by Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman, the PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder creates free interactive math and science simulations. PhET sims are based on extensive education research and engage students through an intuitive, game-like environment where students learn through exploration and discovery.

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Use Trello to tract group projects.

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Capture, organize, and tackle your to-dos from anywhere | Trello

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Make the impossible, possible with Trello. The ultimate tool to boost your productivity. Escape the clutter and chaos—stay efficient with Inbox, Boards, and Planner from anywhere, even on mobile.

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Effortlessly create impactful team sites

Collaboratively create engaging, high-quality sites for your team, project or event. The sites look great on every screen, from desktop to smartphone. All without learning design or programming.

Move, drag and drop, edit, done

Creation and editing is extremely simple: just click, drag or drop. The design will rearrange automatically with a grid layout. Everything fits into the best place, and is simple to move, resize, or rearrange.

Designed for collaboration

Sites makes collaborating easy with real time co-editing and the same powerful sharing controls you're used to in Drive and Docs. Just like in Docs, you can work together and see each other's changes in real-time as you type.

Secure your site, without requiring IT

Users can easily manage sharing permissions and ownership in Sites with only a few clicks, like they would a Doc. Embedded content retains its original permissions for reliable, fine-grained control.

Can external visitors access a company site?

Yes. People outside your company can access your site, even without a Google Workspace account. You can also opt to restrict access through sharing settings.

Can I change the look and feel of my site?

Yes. You can use pre-made themes created by Google or you can choose to create your own theme, where you can customize site properties such as images, fonts, buttons, menu layouts, and more. To learn more creating custom themes, please review this Help Center article.

Can I purchase a domain through Google?

Google can help you purchase a domain through one of our domain host partners. During sign up, just select the option to 'Buy a new domain.' We'll then guide you through the process to help you set up Google Workspace for your new domain.

Start today - it's easy.

If you need help there's 24/7 email, chat, and phone support from a real person.

Get started

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Google Sites: Create & Host Business Websites | Google Workspace

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Use Google Sites to create and host a high-quality business website for your team, project, or event. Get Sites as part of Google Workspace.

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Informal polling can take the form of multiple choice questions or to clarify understanding of a recently learned topic.

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The evidence is in the practice

ESSA Level 3 correlation evidence in math and ELA, earned by teachers running frequent formative assessments.

When teachers run 30+ formative questions a week, the research is clear: they get more data-driven, their students get more engaged. Wayground is built to make that practice enjoyable ot run, attainable to fit a class period, and habitual enough to last past September.

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Quizizz is now Wayground | Teacher AI and Resources

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Find standards-aligned resources that engage every student. Wayground (formerly Quizizz) helps teachers differentiate instruction with AI and track student progress.

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 How might you use this form of assessment in your distance education course?

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 How might you use this form of assessment in your distance education course?

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Quizizz gives instructors the ability to create lesson slides and embed multiple choice questions, quick poll questions, check boxes, and fill-in-the-blank questions. For a distance education course, it would be very easy to create lessons in Quizizz and incorporate the polling or multiple choice question features after a slide of new content to help gauge student comprehension. Another great application that can be used for this is Pear Deck (see below) which can be used as an add-on to Google Slides.

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 How might you use this form of assessment in your distance education course?

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 How might you use this form of assessment in your distance education course?

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Standardized testing normally involves the use of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, short answer, true/false, and other types of questions. While a remote proctoring service can be used when testing students online, my preferred method is to properly prepare my students (reducing the probability of cheating), and to design my exam in different sections. The exam will be delivered via the LMS, but with no proctoring or lockdown browser. The exam will be open notes and open book, and the first section of questions will range from sections of true/false and multiple choice to prime students. The second section will be longer essay questions that require explanation. The time limit for the exam will be tight; enough for students to look up a few answers, but not all of them. Students would need to know most of the content in order to pass the exam. I would encourage students to use Quizlet as a resource, as I would create study stacks and example problems that would adequately prepare them for the exam. On the day of the exam, the materials would be taken down.

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How might you use this form of assessment in your distance education course?

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How might you use this form of assessment in your distance education course?

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How might you use this form of assessment in your distance education course?

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How might you use this form of assessment in your distance education course?

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Portfolios and capstone projects are an assimilation of work done over a period of time and presented as one large medium. One of my favorite tools to use that I would implement in a distance education course is Google Sites. As students work through important projects and journals, I would assign a rubric and provide an example of a student portfolio site as a general guide. Students would build the site in sections (research, journal entries, major works, etc.) and graded on not only the content but how the work has been laid out. this is a resource that students can take with them and use for future employment opportunities.

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Get to know Spotify for Podcasters, the free, all-in-one podcast platform for every creator.

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How might you use this form of assessment in your distance education course?

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How might you use this form of assessment in your distance education course?

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Group projects involve teams working together to create a complex artifact/presentation. It should be noted that even in an online course, not all group members may participate equally, and therefore a means of tracking this participation is necessary. Trello is one application that I would require students to use in order to delegate work to team members and help me to track and observe what has been completed and by who. An example of a group project I would implement would involve the use of Anchor, a podcast creation tool. Students would interview experts in the field while tying in their own research and knowledge, and come together with their recordings on Anchor. Students would used the editing functions on Anchor to create one cohesive podcast with an introduction, closing remarks, expert interviews, and integrate their own research. The podcast is then shared with the instructor and students to listen to.

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Join the Peartember celebration for giveaways, exclusive templates, and more! Learn more >

EFFORTLESSLY BUILD ENGAGING INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT

The fastest way to transform presentations into classroom conversations

Imagine if you could engage every student in your class, every day. What if you could instantly see who's confused and who's ready for more? That's the power of Pear Deck. While Pear Deck has always worked with Google Apps for Education, now teachers at schools using Microsoft Office 365 apps like PowerPoint Online and Teams can add the magic of formative assessments and interactive questions to their classroom experience.

Start Your Free Trial

Design engaging lessons

Open up the Pear Deck Add-in for PowerPoint Online
‍Design a brand-new lesson or open an existing presentation from OneDrive. No waiting for uploads or worrying about file sizes.

Create your own custom activity or question. Use Text, Number Response, Multiple Choice, and Web Slide questions to engage students. Upgrade to Pear Deck Premium to add Drawing and Draggable™ response types.

Get the Add-in

Present with Pear Deck

Start your presentation and students will join your Pear Deck Session from any device with a web browser. As you advance your slides, students will be prompted to answer your questions! Students' answers can be displayed anonymously on the classroom projector, so instead of worrying about getting the right answer and feeling silly in front of peers, your students are putting ideas out there in a safe, anonymous way, discussing, and learning from each other.

GO DEEPER WITH THE TEACHER DASHBOARD

The Dashboard is a private view that gives teachers insight into each student's progress. As an instructor, you can quickly see each individual student response on the Teacher Dashboard.

Highlight good examples or common misconceptions with the star button. Noticing a lot of wrong answers? Adapt! Take a pause, back up, re-explain.

The Teacher Dashboard shows you more confidential information about each student and can be opened on private screen or separate tablet. Student answers when shown on the projector will always be anonymous, giving kids a safe way to answer and participate in front of their peers.

Invite teachers to your shared Teacher Dashboard

This feature enables teachers using Pear Deck Premium to share Session controls and valuable student insight with other designated educators, including student teachers, special educators, co-teachers, or even substitutes. With a real-time view of individual student work and the ability to guide and provide direct feedback, educators teaching together can better support the diverse needs of learners everywhere!

🎉 A NEW PEAR DECK EXPERIENCE WITH MICROSOFT TEAMS 🎉

With the Pear Deck Add-in for Teams teachers can start a Pear Deck session directly from within Teams! Just open a new tab, choose Pear Deck, select the lesson you want to launch from your PowerPoint files and voilà! A new Pear Deck session is ready to go and your Teacher Dashboard view is already embedded, giving you total control over the lesson.

Students will automatically see a notification that the Pear Deck session has started and they can join the session directly from within Teams. No wasted time directing students to a new website or getting a code. Just a fast, seamless experience and a classroom of students with you and ready to learn.

Learn Pear Deck for Microsoft

Watch a video for self-guided Microsoft training:

Or, dive into a self-paced Pear Deck for PowerPoint practice deck:

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Pear Deck for Microsoft makes it effortless for educators to add interactive, formative assessments to their presentations and launch directly from Teams.

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Generative AI assistance for any writing challenge Try It for Free ⟶

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Millions trust Grammarly's AI writing assistance to communicate with confidence and make writing faster and more delightful. Getting started is simple - download the app today.

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Important — Popplet.com service is ending July 1, 2026. Please read the official announcement here,and visit our new site Superstructures.io.

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How might you use this form of assessment in your distance education course?

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How might you use this form of assessment in your distance education course?

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Written responses can be in the form of research papers, essays, comprehensive exams, or open-ended questions. While I do enjoy integrating open-ended questions into exams, my favorite tool to assess a student's written response is a more traditional term paper or essay. I like to give students many options for their topic to try and encourage them to choose one they would enjoy researching, and give examples of past papers. Two apps useful for writing these papers are Popplet and Grammarly. Popplet is a great way for online or on-ground students to outline their paper and map out how they will construct it. Grammarly can help students with the tone and format of their writing, and provide helpful suggestions for rewording or identifying complex and run-on sentences.

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Labster | Virtual Labs for Universities and High Schools

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Labster empowers educators to reimagine their science courses with immersive online simulations. Request a demo to discover how Labster engages students, trains lab skills, and accelerates learning.

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How might you use this form of assessment in your distance education course?

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How might you use this form of assessment in your distance education course?

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Skills need to be demonstrated in a way that is more "hands-on" than just activating memory recall to answer fact-based questions. This can seem difficult to accomplish in the online classroom, but simulations can help to fill that gap. PhET and Labster are two of my favorite simulation platforms that I would use in a distance education course to assess if a student can complete a simulated exercise (especially where the sciences are concerned) based on the knowledge they have learned in the course.