After several cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Pakistan, the government issued a notification to close all kinds of education and training institutes. No doubt its a good initiative precisely an early initiative taken by our government but it also has a drawback. Students are facing problems regarding their pending courses and they also have to prepare for their annual examinations. Are you also the one? No worries! thanks to Allah Almighty that we are living in a digital age and now there are many online platforms that help in distance learning. So here we are again with our mushwarah which saves your time and effort on searching the best webinar platforms for distance learning. But before that let’s understand few basic terms.
What are Webinars?
A webinar is just like a seminar. You will be virtually present in this seminar as these seminars conduct online. It can be meetings, public conferences, group discussions and so on. There are multiples platforms that are providing their services and give you an online platform to conduct your meetings with multiple participants. You can also share your screen so that people can see your presentation or slides or any documents. Such platforms promote distance learning.
What Is Distance Learning?
Distance Learning is a terminology which means you don’t have to be physically present in your school or colleges to attend the class. You will be virtually present through your mobile or desktop. You can see the pre-recorded video lectures of your teachers online, you can submit your presentation online, you can even give your final presentation online, you can attend live class session and you can also actively participate in it. How? by using webinar platforms.
Webinar Platforms for Distance Learning In Pakistan:
Besides business meetings and conferences, webinar platforms also promote distance learning. If you are a teacher or a student looking for such platforms, don’t worry at all. After careful research work here are some important platforms which you can use during this lockdown. Who knows how long this thing goes. And of course, these platforms charge a reasonable fee for providing their services.
1. Zoom:
The number one on our list is Zoom and is the best platform that we will recommend you. There are multiple reasons to use this platform. The main reason is it is free. Many small institutes can’t afford the prices of such platforms who are offering these services and if you are also one of them this one is for you. You can enjoy almost every feature in their free version, there is no time limit in this free version.
- You can host up to 100 participants with an unlimited number of meetings.
- You can also share your screen.
- A video conference feature is also available.
- You can also record your whole meeting. Upload it on youtube so that your students can see it again.
But it has one drawback. That is, in the free version the meeting automatically ends after 40 minutes and you have to restart the zoom app. See the pricing details below.
Read Also:Coronavirus Effects The Gold and Dollar Prices.
2. ClickMeeting:
The next platform is ClickMeeting. It also provides the free version but that is limited for 30 days. 25 people can participate and it supports 5 audio feeds and 4 video feeds, you can organize an unlimited number of live webinars. All versions are easy to use and have an affordable price. They are offering 4 different versions with flexible pricing plans.
- Free Trial: valid for 30 days
- Live: $25/month
- Automated: $45/month
- Enterprise: The Custom one
3. GotoMeeting:
GotoMeeting is also a good option. They also have a platform named GotoWebinar which is specifically for webinars and is more expensive than this one. GotoMeeting is especially for online meetings. It also gives you free trial version which is valid for 14 day. The other note able features are
- Screen Sharing
- Recording
- Hosting for up to 50 participants
Besides the 14 days free version, they provide their service at much lower and affordable cost.
4. BlueJeans:
BlueJeans don’t offer a free version like Zoom but they provide a 14 days trial version which includes,
- Hosting up to 30 participants.
- Unlimited one on one and group meeting,
- The meeting time limit is 5 hours.
- It supports all types of web browsers.
This platform offers three different versions. BlueJean Meeting, BlueJean Events and BlueJeans Gateways for Team. For meetings, prices are as follows
5. Join.me:
Join.me is another platform for conduction professional meetings. They also provide a free trial version. This Platform is specifically for small and medium enterprises Therefore the prices they offer are very less. Their Pro version only costs $20 and offers more features than the basic one.
Notable Mentions:
There are also some platforms like
- Google Classroom: Where teachers can assign the task and students have to submit their assignments.
- Google Hangout & Skype: for audio or video conference calls.
But these are not much effective as other platforms.
These are the best webinar platforms for distance learning. Do you know any other webinar platform that you used? Give us your mushwarah in the comment below and don’t forget to follow us on YouTube Channel Mushwarah.pk
