We’re all aware of the explosion of online teaching tools in the wake of the pandemic. While the fervor for new tools seems to have calmed down, the fact remains that there are still so many options out there. How do you choose which is best? What if you spend your time and energy learning a program only for it to become defunct (looking at you, Jamboard)? Navigating tech choice gracefully and with purpose is one of the major challenges of teaching in the 21^st century. This is especially true when it comes to lesson delivery platforms. Two top contenders are Explain Everything and Lumio. Let’s look at how they compare so you can choose which is best for your needs.

What are they?

In case you are unfamiliar with the platforms, here’s a brief rundown of each. Explain Everything has been around since 2010 and was absorbed by Promethean in 2023. After the discontinuation of ClassFlow, Promethean will be tapping Explain Everything as a replacement lesson delivery platform. It is a digital whiteboard that offers different ways to add content, collaborate, and record videos. Its most robust features are available in the software version, but there is also a scaled-down web-based version available.

Lumio is an online lesson delivery platform and digital whiteboard from SMART (Disclosure: Teq is a SMART partner and distributor). Originally developed as the interactive component of Notebook, Lumio is now a stand-alone delivery platform that can be used anywhere. This is because it lives online for both teachers and students, making it universally accessible. Lumio has a mix of creation, collaboration, and game-based tools. It also features excellent classroom management and lesson delivery tools for synchronized and asynchronized instruction.

Account type face-off

The biggest deciding factor in your choice of lesson delivery platforms is what you get and for how much. The good news is that both platforms have free options! Here’s a look at how each plan type stacks up.

Free individual plan – Explain Everything vs Lumio:

Storage space and collaboration features are the biggest differentiators. This is mainly due to the way each system works. With Explain Everything, the workspace is infinite, but that makes it much harder to organize and less accessible. With Lumio, your storage is more limited, but you have the flexibility to cover more topics with greater organization. The collaborative features on Explain Everything allow you to develop lessons with a co-teacher, but no student collaboration. On the other hand, Lumio allows for many student collaborators and the ability to group in teams.

Paid individual plans – Explain Everything vs. Lumio

The real reason you’d want to pay for a plan for either platform is for that sweet unlimited space. The paid plan doesn’t differentiate the two much in terms of how each can be used. The Promethean engagement tools are a nice bonus, but there are only 3 (spinner, polling, and timer). Lumio has similar tools plus a host more including templates, games, and assessments.

Paid school plans – Explain Everything vs. Lumio

The main takeaway here is the ability to access all features for both programs. Highlights include Explain Everything finally giving some additional collaboration and Lumio allowing for co-editing for teacher and joint libraries. For a more in-depth look, check out the Lumio and Explain Everything account comparison pages.

Collaboration features

Let’s dive a little deeper into what collaboration looks like on each platform. If you prioritize student-centered, interactive learning, Lumio is your best choice. If you are delivering lectures, creating tutorials, or building direct instruction lessons with another teacher, Explain Everything would be a good fit. Here’s why:

Lumio collaborative features

When building a lesson in Lumio, it’s easy to create opportunities for collaboration in several ways. You can make any slide in your lesson a group or whole class activity at the click of a button. This will allow students to interact with the content. In whole class activities, you can view progress at any time and pause contributions as needed. With group activities, students will be placed into groups and be able to interact with the content on that page within their group. Plus, you can continue group work after class. Progress is saved in your class, and you can reset to clear the activity at any time to reuse the page. You can set up these activities when you are creating or editing your lessons, or you can add them on the fly during delivery! Additionally, the game-based learning activities built into Lumio are a great way to have students collaborate (more on this below). The best part? These features are available on every plan. Check out how easy it is to make a slide a space for group work:

Explain Everything collaborative features

Explain Everything collaborative features are very limited until you get to the school-wide plan. On a school plan, you can collaborate with up to 25 people, with a pretty massive caveat from Explain Everything that states they can only guarantee stability for 8 participants. Possible workarounds include multiple copies of a project or sharing a single device within a group. During collaboration, Explain Everything offers controls including collaboration scenarios to preset what tools and permissions are available to participants (more on this below).

Engagement tools

Any lesson delivery platform worth its salt needs   to have some engagement tools to keep students interested and make it easy for them to understand the material. Thankfully, both options here are great for engagement, but their approach to it is very different, as you will see.

Explain Everything engagement tools

The digital whiteboard features on Explain Everything are strong and diverse enough to create lessons on any topic using a variety of media. With the ability to add a live browser, videos, images, and draw or type over anything, the platform lends itself to student engagement through mixed media use and appealing to different audiences. Explain Everything also has plenty of useful templates and allows for uploading files you already have including PDFs and slideshows. Plus, it offers a unique feature called Infinite Scroll that allows you to continuously move the screen, which is great for creating moving backgrounds or simple animations to illustrate concepts.

Lumio engagement tools

Lumio’s engagement tools are more geared toward student interaction. Like Explain Everything, you can add in files to use content you already have, edit, or create from scratch. You can also insert media into any presentation. In addition, Lumio gives you options to add in slides students can interact with , and that’s where the real engagement starts! You can turn any slide in your presentation into a handout for students to complete. The best part of handouts is that Lumio tracks student responses so you can view progress and leave feedback. You can do this virtually, in person, and even asynchronously. In addition, Lumio has quick-start templates for graphic organizers, brainstorming, digital manipulatives, and even formative assessments! My personal favorite is the brainstorming and warm-up activity, Shout It Out. Pose any question and students can answer on their devices via text or image.

Finally, there are the game-based learning activities. Lumio offers 12 different games that are great for engagement, assessment, and review. They are an easy way to make polished activities in seconds that include animations and are highly interactive.

Video capabilities

In the modern classroom, video has become not just preferred but an essential tool. Luckily, both of the platforms we’re exploring offer robust video features. Here’s how they compare:

Lumio video features

Lumio allows you to insert YouTube videos on any slide. Simply add a slide and choose the YouTube icon, then search for the content you need (safe search is enabled). However, you don’t have the ability to upload video files or record videos through Lumio directly. This means you would need to record videos with a different app and upload it to YouTube to insert it into a Lumio lesson. So, still doable but with a few extra steps. There is an option to directly insert audio onto any slide, so you can provide instructions and differentiate for students.

Explain Everything video features

Explain Everything’s video features also include embedding videos in presentations. This can be done by uploading an existing video file directly from your device, or by creating a new video recording through the platform. You can record videos inside Explain Everything in several ways. You can record yourself using your webcam and add that video to a project. This is great for adding instructions or explanations. You can also use Explain Everything as a screen recorder to make video lessons. Plus, Explain Everything has some powerful editing tools to help you perfect your videos. The only caveat to video capabilities is that some features are unavailable or very limited depending on your plan type.

Delivery and sharing

The final criteria we will discuss is perhaps the most important from a boots-on-the-ground perspective. How you deliver your lessons is extremely important for retention, classroom management, and accessibility.

Explain Everything delivery and sharing

Joining a project in Explain Everything can be done by sharing a link, QR code, or using the project code located in the top right corner. Each person in a project is assigned a role and can be given different permissions such as view only, editing, muting, and moving independently or following the host. As project owner, you can use “scenarios”    from a list of presets or create a custom scenario that follows particular rules. This is helpful when using Explain Everything for synchronous instruction or presentations. You can also download and share videos lessons for asynchronous instruction using a link or QR code.

Lumio delivery and sharing

In a Lumio lesson, teachers have the option of delivering synchronously or asynchronously. Additionally, Lumio allows teachers to control how the lesson is accessed through teacher-paced or student-paced modes. This gives teachers unparalleled digital classroom management tools and a seamless way to incorporate all types of teaching including direct instruction, hands-on practice, group work, student self-directed learning, and more. In student-paced mode, students will be able to click through the lesson and interact with any content the teacher has made a handout. For asynchronous delivery, teachers can share a student access link. Students will be able to interact with lessons at their own pace, including any handouts or assessments in the lesson. Lumio will record student responses and teachers can view progress or leave feedback in real time. Teachers can also create a link for other educators in order to share lessons. This will create a duplicate copy of the lesson and will not affect the original.

 

Right now, Lumio definitely has the edge for lesson delivery options, management features, and collaboration. The video options with Explain Everything are its bread and butter, and they do it very well. If you need a way to easily create and share video lessons, tutorials, and the like, then Explain Everything is a great solution. However, if you are looking for something with more robust tools and available content designed with classrooms in mind, Lumio is the option for you.

 

---

For more tips, tricks, and tools for teaching in and out of the classroom, check out more content on the Teq Talk blog or our YouTube channels OTIS for educators and Tequipment.

We also offer virtual professional development, training, and support with OTIS for educators. Explore the technology and strategies that spark student success — no matter where teaching or learning are happening!

Follow us on social:

  edteq             OTIS4educators  |  Teq Products  |  iBlocks           OTIS4educators  |  MyTeq          Teq 

---