Best Digital Learning Platforms
Digital learning platforms deliver learning experiences that enable students to actively engage with educational content. Educators use digital learning platforms as part of their instruction to make learning more interesting and interactive for students and to offer lessons that can be personalized for each learner. Depending on the product, an instructor might have students use the software in the classroom as part of the day’s lesson, or instruct students to use it at home for extra practice with the course content. A growing number of platforms incorporate adaptive learning functionality, in which the tool dynamically changes the lesson based on the individual student’s performance.
There are digital learning platforms targeted toward many different educational objectives, including tools designed to help students build knowledge around specific subjects like science or social studies and others aiming to develop cross-curricular skills like reading or writing. These tools can be used by teachers and professors at all levels of schooling, from the early grades in K–12 schools all the way up to institutions of higher education.
These products often integrate with learning management systems to allow a streamlined way for teachers to make digital content from lessons available to students. Some digital learning platforms also share features with study tools, which are more designed for test preparation, and classroom management software, which is aimed at maintaining a safe and productive learning environment. Some products may also have assessment software capabilities.
To qualify for inclusion in the Digital Learning Platforms category, a product must:
Best Digital Learning Platforms At A Glance
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Canvas by Instructure is a versatile, cloud-based learning management system (LMS) designed to transform online learning across every stage of education. Since its launch in 2011, Canvas has become th
Canvas is a learning management system that provides a platform for organizing digital classrooms and managing online courses. Reviewers like Canvas for its user-friendly interface, mobile accessibility, third-party integration, and the ability to keep all course-related information in one place, making it easy to track assignments, due dates, and grades. Users experienced issues with Canvas such as lack of intuitiveness, slow technical support, confusing navigation, occasional technical glitches, and inconsistency in course setup by different instructors, which can make finding assignments or materials challenging.
12,489 Twitter followers
Classkick is an app and web-based platform that can be used as an instructional tool in the classroom. Teachers upload their own content or create something new– with drawings, text, images, audio, li
6,450 Twitter followers
Dostoevsky said that beauty will save the world. Padlet offers beautiful boards and canvases for visual thinkers and learners. Use boards to collect, organize, and present anything. Use sandboxes
73,567 Twitter followers
Lumio is a web-based instructional platform that offers more ways to effortlessly make learning fun and engaging on student devices. Teachers can start from scratch, or import existing content lik
3,960 Twitter followers
MagicBox is an AI-powered, end-to-end digital publishing platform that empowers K-12 and higher education publishers, authors, and content providers, as well as enterprise publishers, to create, manag
229 Twitter followers
ClassLink is a leading provider of cloud-based education products that connect educators and students with their classroom, curriculum, and each other in richer, more powerful ways. As leading advocat
3,363 Twitter followers
Imagine Edgenuity is a comprehensive digital curriculum designed to support students in grades 6–12 through a diverse array of over 400 interactive courses. These courses encompass core subjects, elec
7,558 Twitter followers
GitHub Education is a comprehensive program designed to equip students, educators, and educational institutions with the tools and resources necessary to enhance coding education and bridge the gap to
2,624,281 Twitter followers
Imagine Language & Literacy is a personalized learning program designed to accelerate reading and language proficiency for students in PreK through 6th grade. It offers individualized instruction
7,558 Twitter followers
Kaltura provides both live and on-demand video solutions that boost engagement, maximize ROI, and foster closer connections between brands and audiences. From virtual and hybrid events to webinars and
Kaltura Video is a software that provides video support, including screen recording, live streaming, editing workflows, and video management and distribution for communication purposes. Reviewers appreciate Kaltura Video's high device compatibility, user-friendly interface, detailed engagement metrics, and its flexibility in various uses such as training and marketing. Reviewers noted performance defects in Kaltura Video, particularly in uploading files and buffering during live streaming, and also mentioned that the software requires high network speed and bandwidth which may not always be available.
8,976 Twitter followers
myON is a digital reading platform that provides students with 24/7 access to thousands of fiction and nonfiction books and news articles—in English, Spanish, and additional languages. A multimedia re
5,814 Twitter followers
Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom.
741,527 Twitter followers
Renaissance Accelerated Reader is an independent reading practice program that helps K–12 students become confident, lifelong readers. Supporting more than 210,000 fiction and nonfiction books at a wi
5,814 Twitter followers
Clever was born of co-founder Dan Carroll’s frustration as a school tech director in Denver. His plans to use technology to save teachers time and personalize learning were stymied by countless CSV fi
11,998 Twitter followers
Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place. Through its award-winning multimedia content, instructional suppor
373,044 Twitter followers
Learn More About Digital Learning Platforms
What are Digital Learning Platforms?
As the technology used at schools, colleges, and universities has grown more advanced, teachers are using a new generation of software products designed to get their students to engage with their course concepts in new ways. Instead of reading a print textbook chapter on multiplying fractions, students may use their laptop to complete a lesson that includes video demonstrations, practice problems, and mini assessments to determine their proficiency level and what they should work on next. Digital learning platforms have the potential to be an effective learning tool for students at many levels of education.
Key Benefits of Digital Learning Platforms
- Create engaging, multimedia learning experiences for students
- Differentiate instruction automatically based on student ability
- Track student progress on key learning targets
Why Use Digital Learning Platforms?
Add engaging experiences to lessons — Digital learning platforms allow students to explore lesson content in new and interesting ways. Many platforms include lessons with a variety of multimedia elements, including videos, animations, photos, and audio recordings. Lessons may come with interactive elements that require students to complete a task in order to move on. Some offer virtual experiences, like virtual laboratories that let students conduct experiments using computer-generated lab equipment that otherwise would be cost-prohibitive to use. Some products come pre-loaded with these lessons, saving teachers the time it would take to create engaging learning materials from scratch. Providing engaging experiences makes it more likely that students will find the learning enjoyable and memorable.
Differentiate instruction — One of the most challenging aspects of teaching is that students are often at different levels of mastery for a given skill. Some digital learning platforms have advanced assessment abilities that enable them to adapt to a lesson dynamically, based on a student’s performance. This adaptive learning technology allows a room of 30 students to each be working on a lesson that is at their level, without the teacher having to manually create and distribute dozens of individualized lessons. As a result, students work on assignments that are just right–not too hard or too easy–and teachers have more freedom to work with individual students who need extra support.
Track student progress — A key part of an educator’s job is to evaluate to what extent their students have mastered a course’s objectives. Digital learning platforms monitor the work students do on lessons and give teachers access to reports or visual dashboards showing performance data for each student. Using this information, instructors can identify concepts students are struggling to understand and provide insights into which topics the teacher should consider reteaching. Some platforms allow teachers to create their own assessments while others come with assessments that are pre-made and ready to use.
Who Uses Digital Learning Platforms?
Generally, digital learning platforms are used by people at educational institutions of all levels, including instructors, tutors, and students.
K-12 teachers — A wide range of digital learning platforms are available for K-12 schools and teachers who are heavy users of the software. Teachers use these tools to select lesson materials for students, send assignments, and review data from student work.
College professors — Some digital learning platforms offer content that is appropriate for higher education students and can be used by college professors in their courses. Digital content is available for a variety of college and university subjects, including math, social science, economics, science, business, and engineering.
Students — After instructors assign work on digital learning platforms, students use the software to complete the lesson. Depending on the platform, students could be asked to do a range of tasks. A math program may have the student watch a video on a strategy for solving a certain kind of problem, then instruct the student to do a practice problem. Adaptive platforms will adjust the lesson on the fly, based on the level of mastery the student demonstrates.
Tutors — For helping students who need extra support, tutors use digital learning platforms to give their clients extra practice on skills that they have not yet mastered. Many platforms offer a library of activities for tutors to use with their students or assign to students as homework.
Kinds of Digital Learning Platforms
Some significant differentiators for digital learning platforms are whether they include ready-to-use lessons and adaptive learning functionality.
Pre-made content vs. teacher-created content — While some platforms come with a library of ready-to-use lessons, others require teachers to create their own lessons by uploading materials. Some platforms offer both. A teacher may choose to use a platform with pre-made content if they are looking for resources with which to build a new curriculum or add substantial resources to an existing curriculum. Instructors who would rather use their existing materials to engage students in a new way may not need that ready-to-use content and may opt for a platform that allows them to create courses.
Adaptive vs. non-adaptive platforms — Advancements in artificial intelligence have enabled some platforms to make use of adaptive learning, in which the software dynamically adjusts the lesson based on student performance to create a personalized learning experience. Other platforms may have a student take a more traditional pre-assessment to determine which learning path the student should follow. Still others might leave it up to the teacher or student to manually select which lesson to complete.
Digital Learning Platforms Features
File imports — For teachers who are creating their own lessons using digital learning platforms, the ability to upload files allow them to add texts or multimedia elements to their assignments. Example file types include PDFs, JPEGs, presentation files, and word processor documents.
Multimedia content — To make lessons more engaging for students, platforms often support a variety of multimedia content, including video, audio, and animation.
Lesson library – Some platforms come with pre-made lessons that teachers can select from. How extensive the selection is varies by platform, with some offering thousands of lessons. The platform may have free pre-made lessons or the user may need to purchase the lessons. Many products also offer teachers the ability to customize those ready-to-use lessons to fit their needs.
Administrative dashboards – Teachers can use visual dashboards to see which activities students are completing and how they are performing on assessments. Many platforms offer the ability to export this data into reports.
Quizzes and assessments – Digital learning platforms give instructors the ability to assign assessments to students to gauge their mastery of the materials. The tool may come with preloaded assessments or it could allow teachers to make their own assessments.
Student device control – In some platforms, teachers have the ability to control the content on student devices. Teachers may be able to synchronize a lesson across multiple student devices, or lock a web browser to control the browsing activity of students who are taking a test.
Polls and audience feedback tools – For an instructor who wants to know what their students are thinking in the moment, some digital learning platforms give users the ability to set up a live poll that students can respond to. The instant feedback allows instructors to adjust the lesson or start a discussion about the results. Some platforms allow instructors to view other kinds of audience feedback, like seeing text responses that students have typed in response to a question.
Integrations – Digital learning platforms often integrate with a variety of other education software, including learning management systems (LMS) and student information systems (SIS), to allow instructors to easily transfer student data from one system to another or share information about assignments with students.
Adaptive learning – Using artificial intelligence, some platforms incorporate adaptive learning technology that enables the software to continuously assess a student’s performance and change the lesson on the fly, depending on the student’s ability to demonstrate mastery of the subject. Adaptive learning makes it possible for each student to have a personalized learning experience tailored to their specific needs.
Potential Issues with Digital Learning Platforms
Lack of pre-loaded content — Some platforms come with large libraries of pre-made educational content that teachers can assign to their students while other products simply offer a platform that teachers can use to create lessons from their own materials. Even if a platform has pre-made content, users might need to buy those lessons before using them. Before purchasing a platform, users should determine whether they need the product to come with pre-made lesson content and should investigate whether the content the platform offers will meet the instructor’s needs.
Alignment with the instructor’s curriculum — Digital learning platforms vary according to the subjects students can learn on the platform. A platform might focus on a single subject, like math or it might include lessons on many different subjects, including history, science, literature, and computer science. The platforms also vary based on the student groups they cater to. Some products are intended to be used by grade-school teachers while others can be used by college students. Buyers should explore a platform’s subject offerings to understand whether it fits naturally into their existing curriculum.
