Updated: Free Resources for Schools During COVID-19 Outbreak. A - C.

In response to the number of states, districts and schools that are shuttering schools to students over the next several weeks in response to fears about the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), education technology companies have stepped forward to help educators reach students in virtual ways. In many cases, the companies are making their paid services free through the rest of the school year; in other cases, they're lifting limits to services and/or adding premium features to what's free. The following list will be updated regularly as announcements are made. (If you know of a company that should be included on this list, please send details to dschaffhauser@1105media.com.)

The Academy of Active Learning Arts and Sciences and the Flipped Learning Global Initiative have published the "Rapid Transition to Online Learning," a roadmap for making the rapid shift to online learning during school closures. The resources include a checklist for administrators, another for IT managers, a transition plan and video tutorial for teachers and access to an international team of volunteers who have stepped forward to answer questions. The organization is continuing to seek volunteers for the program. http://aalasinternational.org/rtol/

The Academy of Art University is hosting a free series of online events, including guest experts in art and design speaking through Zoom, movie afternoons and nights, and virtual workshops on sketching and the use of various software programs. https://www.academyart.edu/admissions/upcoming-events/

Acer has put together a handy comparison table that provides an overview of remote learning tools. The chart specifically compares Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Zoom, for remote learning; and Facebook and YouTube for video conferencing. The information examines whether or not screen sharing is allowed, the maximum number of attendees, the maximum length of meetings and other features. https://eu-acerforeducation.acer.com/uncategorized/remote-learning-a-comparison-among-top-collaboration-tools/

Achieve3000 is offering free access to resources for differentiated literacy instruction. Educators can access three different programs. Achieve3000 Literacy at Home offers access to non-fiction articles at three reading levels with topics covering science, social studies and current events. Premium licenses for Actively Learn, for grades 6 -12, provides thousands of texts, including contemporary and classic literature, with collaboration and discussion tools to facilitate interactive remote instruction for English language arts, science and social studies. For students without internet, the company is offering "Literacy Printable Packets," a set of text sets with 20 printable articles and questions. The company said those text packets add up to a month's worth of content differentiated for students who are at-, below- and above- grade-level in their reading abilities. Lessons can be downloaded and sent home by email or printed out. https://achieve3000.com/community-resources/remote-learning-2020/

ACT Academy is a free resource for personalized test practice for the ACT, Pre-ACT, Tessera and Aspire exams. The organization is also offering a feature for teachers to understand their students' mastery of math, English language arts and science concepts. https://academy.act.org/

ActivEd is offering free access to its "Walkabouts," platform with web-based lessons for students in grades pre-K-2 students that integrate movement with language arts, math and reading content and correlate to state learning standards. Students, teachers, and parents can access grade-level content. http://info.activedinc.com/covid

AdGuard is offering a free personal account to its ad- and tracking-blocker program for three months. The privacy protection software is available for Windows, MacOS, iOS and Android. To obtain a license key under this offer, register via this link and confirm the registration. Existing users may get an extra key by logging in through a special landing page. https://adguard.com/en/blog/stayhome.html

Addigy, a cloud-based Apple device management platform, has announced free 60-day access for schools. The program helps organizations deploy, manage and track new and existing Apple devices from a single console; automate IT tasks and implement IT policies related to deploying software, updating security settings, running scripts, managing groups of users and distributing and updating software; and troubleshoot problems for users remotely and in real-time. https://addigy.com/covid-19-addigy-60/?utm_content=covid-19-addigy-60

Adobe is offering free access to Creative Cloud tools through May for home use by students attending schools that currently only provide lab access through May. https://helpx.adobe.com/enterprise/kb/covid-19-education-labs.html

Adobe and Time Magazine have teamed up to provide a weekly art lesson online. The "Draw with Drew (and Rosie!)" sessions take place at 10 a.m. Pacific time on multiple websites. Drew Willis is the creative director of "Time for Kids" and a book illustrator; Rosie is his 10-year-old daughter; and both are "avid artists." Each episode includes a new drawing assignment, and participants vote on what they'd like the next assignment to be. https://time.com/5820518/draw-with-us/

Age of Learning is offering families at affected schools free at-home access to ABCmouse, a learning resource for ages 2 to 8; Adventure Academy, is open for students ages 8 to 13; and ReadingIQ, a digital library and literacy platform is available for children 12 and under. https://www.ageoflearning.com/

Amazon Future Engineer is providing free access to sponsored computer science courses in the United States, intended for independent learners in grades 6-12 and teachers who are remotely teaching this age group. Parents can also access the curriculum. The organization is also offering a virtual robotics program through partners CoderZ with a sequenced course that shows learners how to code; early learners use block-based coding; older learners use text-based coding. And Amazon Future Engineer is providing access to Georgia Tech's EarSketch, a free program that helps students learn to code through music. Grammy-award winning artists Ciara and Common have both provided studio-quality music "stems" that students can remix from home using code. Everything will be available for free at least until fall 2020. https://www.amazonfutureengineer.com/free-courses

The American Museum of Natural History is sharing a bunch of online content for teachers and families to use during virus days. That includes the "OLogy" science website with lessons on subjects from anthropology to zoology; online science curriculum collections; virtual visits to the museum through its YouTube channel; and massive open, online museum courses delivered through Coursera. https://www.amnh.org/explore

The American Writers Museum has brought its latest exhibit online. "My America: Immigrant and Refugee Writers Today" shares personal stories about topics such as identity, community, language, storytelling and what it means to be an American from contemporary authors. Educational materials are available on the exhibit as well. High schoolers can also enter a contest with three $1,000 prizes to write from the prompt, "My America is..." The deadline for that is May 31, 2020. https://my-america.org/

Amplify has created a series of K-8 remote learning experiences in reading and science that are free and easy to use at home. https://freeresources.amplify.com/

The Annenberg Space for Photography is offering educational resources to teachers, including 10 documentaries from previous photographic exhibitions that educators can use for free. The films run between 20 and 25 minutes and cover climate change, refugees, Cuban history, wildlife and hip-hop. Each film comes with discussion questions, and museum experts are volunteering to visit classrooms virtually for remote discussions. https://annenbergphotospace.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Documentary-Licensing-Form-Agreement_FINAL.pdf

Aperture Education has made a 33-page "Educator Guide to Optimistic Thinking" available as a form of professional development, along with other "take-home" PD activities. The company has also curated a collection of free parent resources to help their kids (and them) develop social and emotional skills. https://info.apertureed.com/archived-resources

Arizona State University has publicized access to three free educational resources it operates for K-12. The first two are "Ask an Anthropologist" and "Ask a Biologist." Activities include teacher toolkits with lesson ideas, podcasts with transcripts and videos showing the scientists in action, articles, puzzlers, experiments and the ability for students to ask experts questions. The third is "Virtual Field Trips," which provides 18 virtual trips with photos, explanations, short videos and maps. While the trips can be viewed on a computer, they really come to life through a virtual reality headset that allows for 360-degree viewing.

Arizona State University's EdPlus is working with Complexly's Crash Course on a series of entry-level course videos, starting with English composition. (Complexly and Crash Course are an initiative of the Green brothers, hosts of a popular vlog and best-selling fiction.) The new content in "Study Hall," won't offer credit or replace any degree programs, but rather will serve as a supplement for high school or college learners. Each subject will be the focus of about 15 videos running 15 minutes long, covering major points in the topic. Those are being hosted on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNrrxHpJhC8mNXjrAL3Ey1Q6iI35cymzl

ASSISTments is already free for use by middle school math teachers. The program allows them to assign homework or classwork and provide students with immediate feedback as they complete their assignments; teachers get a report showing individual student and class progress. There's a library of content that includes open textbooks, lessons and state test practice and skill-building problem sets. Now, the nonprofit is scheduling on-going sessions for helping teachers get ASSISTments set up for remote instruction. https://new.assistments.org/distance-learning

Athletes for Computer Science has invited students 13 and older, their families and teachers to attend free weekly computer science training classes online through Zoom. The sessions, hosted by NFL Super Bowl Champion Ellis Wyms, take place every Tuesday at 11 a.m. Pacific time and are scheduled through the month of May. https://www.athletesforcomputerscience.org/afcslivecodingclass.html

The B&O Railroad Museum may be closed, but the Baltimore institution is offering "B&O Junior Junction," featuring resources for young learners to help families supplement home learning. Organizers are adding new content every week. http://www.borail.org/JrJunction.aspx

Babbel is offering three months of free language learning to U.S. students through mid-June 2020 in any of its languages: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Dutch, Turkish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Indonesian, and English. https://welcome.babbel.com/en/student-discount/

Blackboard recently launched the File Transformer, a free resource enabling students to convert digital course content into alternative formats, to meet their unique learning needs and preferences. An outgrowth of the company's accessibility checker, Blackboard Ally, the new resource lets students personalize their learning experience and choose from several format types (PDF, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX and HTML) to work better with mobile devices, assistive technologies and study tools. https://ally.ac/covid19/

Bloomz is opening the premium version of its communication service for free to all schools through Jun. 30, 2020. The software allows users to communicate updates in real-time to parents and students; and share lessons, student work and feedback. https://freetrial.bloomz.com/coronavirus-schools/

Boclips is making its video platform freely available to teachers until Jun. 30, 2020. That provides timely videos safe for K-12 that cover the curriculum, along with learning standards-aligned lesson guides. Content is updated monthly and comes from multiple sources, including PBS News Hour, LearnZillion, Crash Course and Bloomberg. The company has also developed a compilation of videos to help teachers learn how to incorporate videos into their lessons. https://www.boclips.com/teachers-free-trial

BombBomb is making its software free for teachers. The program lets users record and send video messages, such as feedback on homework, through email, text and other communications, including Schoology, Google Classroom and Infinite Campus. https://bombbomb.com/education/

Book Creator is offering a free 90-day upgrade to its premium service, which lets teachers allow their students to collaborate on creating books. The company is also providing daily webinars to help educators and parents work with the program. https://bookcreator.com/2020/03/support-for-schools-affected-by-coronavirus/

Boolean Girl has launched live, online events to help teach students "to code, build, invent and animate." The events, which are taking place every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern time, introduce new engineering and coding projects to increase interest and engagement around STEM. Each is being recorded so that students can watch the session afterwards if they miss the live presentation. https://booleangirl.org/full-stem-ahead/

Boston Children's Hospital has produced free professional development for educators on social-emotional learning and behavioral health in schools. Each course is self-paced and includes tools and strategies to be used in the classroom and overall school environment (because face-to-face school will be back in session at some point). https://www.childrenshospital.org/taponline

Brainchild is offering schools free subscriptions to its web-based Achiever, Mechanics, and GED/High School Equivalency programs. Achiever provides data-driven instruction for standards mastery in math, English language arts, science and social studies. Mechanics "reteaches" basic math and literacy skills that should have been learned in grades 1-8. The company said the software is especially popular with migrant and SPED programs. And GED/High School Equivalency provides GED, HiSet and TASC preparation. The trials last three months. Call (800) 811-2724 or fill out the form online to have a company representative activate the free subscription. https://www.brainchild.com/free-classroom/

BrainVentures, an initiative of the University of Michigan Center for Digital Curricula, is making daily learning adventures free. These are crafted by classroom teachers to give students choices of learning activities; they accommodate different learning preferences and engage the learner in constructing animations, videos, photo albums and stories while taking them on field trips and having them play games and run simulations. https://cdc.engin.umich.edu/daily-brain-venture/

BrightFish Learning has made its reading platform for grades 2-12 free until Jun. 15, 2020. The program provides scaffolded instruction in fluency, vocabulary and comprehension strategies while helping students build independent reading skills. Teachers can monitor progress remotely and track errors for online remediation sessions. Parents can access the software, as can educators. https://www.brightfishreading.com/membership/

BSI, a company that provides cybersecurity consulting, is providing a free port and service security review for K-12 schools and districts, to let them know about "critical, easily exploited issues" with their server set-ups. The offer is good for any state or county school district or recognized charter school with no more than 128 IP addresses. Interested IT organizations should contact BSI at BSI_Cares@bsigroup.com.

Calvert Homeschool is providing three months of homeschool curriculum free of charge to families. Coverage is available for grades 3-12. In addition to videos and interactive activities, the company is also offering placement tests free of charge, to help parents and students benchmark growth. To sign up, use "calvert90" in the "promo code" field. https://www.calverthomeschool.com/freetrial/enterpromocode

Canva for Education is offering teachers forever-free access to its online design platform. The program, which is optimized for Chromebook, includes drag-and-drop tools to simplify visual communication. Students can create and co-create presentations, infographics, websites, reports, worksheets, posters, flyers and signage. The program includes access to 60,000 templates, two million images, 800,000 icons and illustrations and 700 fonts. Once teachers fill out the form, the company will verify the application. https://support.canva.com/account-basics/canva-for-education/apply-canva-for-education/

Carnegie Learning iCulture, a cultural immersion resource for Spanish, French and German language learners, is available free through the end of the school year. The program includes travel videos, day-in-the-life videos, current news articles and songs that are age and school appropriate for students in grades 6-12. https://discover.carnegielearning.com/iculture-for-at-home-language-learning.html

Carnegie Learning's LONG + LIVE + MATH has compiled a free blend of textbook and software resources to help with math classes. These include math lessons, skills practice and learning videos for students in grades 6-12. The company is also offering free access to its math coaching software, MATHia, until the end of the school year. https://www.carnegielearning.com/help-center/at-home-resources/at-home-resources-for-teachers/long-live-math-at-home/

Carnegie Mellon has reiterated availability of "Computer Science Academy," a free, online, interactive high school CS curriculum. CS1 is the year-long flagship course, with 120 hours of instruction and a "robust introduction" to coding with Python through graphics and animations. This course is available to educators with teacher accounts. CS0 is a "lite" version, which includes about 40 hours of instruction and is intended for middle school, out-of-school programs and summer camp settings. This course is available for both mentor and teacher accounts. https://academy.cs.cmu.edu/coronavirus2020

The Carnegie Science Center has set up an online educator resources page for students in K-12. The page includes links to lesson plans for simple science experiments that early learners can do, videos of behind-the-scene sessions at the Center's field station, do-it-yourself videos for maker science projects, an educator guide for engineering-themed lessons and a "STEM for Social Good" toolkit that can be used by middle and high schoolers who want to spark social change. The resources are being expanded weekly. https://carnegiesciencecenter.org/educators/online-educator-resources/

Carolina Biological Supply Company has curated a series of free science learning resources, grouped by grade bands (K-5, 6-8 and 9-12). In each group are grade-specific instructions, links to multimedia and cross-curricular activities that can provide "backyard" science projects using household materials. https://www.carolina.com/xm/service-updates?intid=hp_hero_serviceupdates

Casio has several resources available to help with math education. The company is providing free access to ClassPad.net, a web-based calculator for calculations, graphing, geometry and statistics. There's also software to emulate Casio's most popular scientific and graphing calculators as well as downloadable calculator activities that teachers can assign for elementary, middle and high schools. https://www.casioeducation.com/remote-learning

CatchOn is offering a "COVID-19 service package" for 60 days for free. The software will let school systems track student usage on applications being run through district-owned devices, giving the IT organization visibility into what software is really being used and to what extent. https://www.catchon.com/covid-response/

CenterPoint is providing free access to diagnostic and interim assessments in English language arts/literacy and math in grades K-11, available online and in print; and curriculum-aligned interim assessments for EL Education and Illustrative Mathematics, also available online and in print. There's also a resource center with educator access to professional learning tools. http://www.previprc.org/

Cerego is providing free platform access to educators for the rest of the school year to improve remote education and help students learn effectively. Educators integrating Cerego into their curriculum use it to monitor absenteeism, test concept knowledge and understand student learning patterns remotely. To gain access, fill out the form. https://www.cerego.com/contact

The Character Tree is giving teachers a way to share character education videos and downloadable resources with parents to use at home. Free access will last through Jun. 30, 2020. This program provides videos for first and second graders, with discussions, examples from history and role modeling to teach "character development" and emphasize positive character traits, including kindness, curiosity and integrity. All lessons are standards-aligned and come with printable resources. Parents can also sign up for their own free accounts. https://go.charactertree.com/free_home_access_for_students

CharacterStrong is offering free K-12 social-emotional learning resources that can be used for remote instruction, including a virtual toolkit, digital student assemblies, a virtual Whole Child Summit(taking place Apr. 13-24, 2020) and a "30 Days of Kindness Journal." Access to resources requires registration. https://characterstrong.com/

Chicken Soup for the Soul, in partnership with American Humane, is promoting a line of free digital books for students, titled Humane Heroes, that share stories of animal rescue, rehabilitation and humane conservation undertaken at leading zoological institutions, as well as 18 literacy-based social-emotional learning lessons, targeting students in grades 4, 7 and 10. https://www.chickensoup.com/ah

The Children's Psychological Health Center has developed a 102-page guided "first-aid" workbook, "My Pandemic Story," for children and teenagers, to encourage mental health, creative expression, learning and coping. The book includes guidance for families and teachers. It's available in English and six other languages. http://www.childrenspsychologicalhealthcenter.org/resources/guided-activity-workbooks/

CirQlive, which connects web conferencing platforms to learning management systems, is giving 90 days of free usage of its integration tool as well as free consulting services for administrators on how to deploy or scale online learning. Schools need to provide the number of host licenses required and the company will set them up. https://www.cirqlive.com/

Cisco Webex is offering free accounts for education. Those meetings can have up to 100 participants, high-definition viewing, screen sharing and personal rooms. The company has also developed a collection of resources to help teachers and families use the online virtual conference program. https://www.webex.com/webexremoteedu.html

Classkick is offering the pro version of its course platform free to schools in need. The software allows teachers to upload content and audio, video and image elements tied to assignments. As students work on that material using their devices, the teacher can monitor their activities in real time. Students can request help privately and also use the program to seek help from their peers. Teachers give feedback, which students can respond to; auto-grading is also available. https://classkick.com/coronavirus

ClassTag has made its communication platform freely available to help districts and schools communicate with their families. The software sends messages through SMS, email, apps and the web and automatically translates them into one of 55 languages. The platform can also be used to post videos, assignments and other resources for students to access at home and allow users to run virtual lessons with a video conferencing tool, such as Zoom. ClassTag has launched a "rapid onboarding program" that provides a hands-on demo and phone and chat support to get schools launched in under 48 hours. https://home.classtag.com/schoolwide-demo/

codeSpark Academy has created a path for students to get free access codes from their K-5 teachers to the program, which teaches coding fundamentals and creativity with computer science. According to the company, kids as young as five can design and code their own video games and interactive stories. codeSpark Academy is always free for public schools but home use normally requires a subscription. The offer lasts until May 31, 2020. https://blog.codespark.com/story/free-resources-for-closed-schools

The College Board is providing free learning opportunities for students preparing for their Advanced Placement exams, which are being delivered remotely in early May. The free help includes mobile-friendly AP review lessons delivered by AP teachers from a YouTube channel in recorded and live sessions. The online versions of the exams will take 45 minutes and can be done from home--for the first time--on a smartphone, tablet or computer. https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8667251-the-college-board-free-remote-learning-ap-exams/

Comcast has taken a number of steps to help its customers through the move to online interactions. First, the company has increased speeds from 15 Mbps to 25 in "Internet Essentials," a program for low-income families to get internet access. The company has also eliminated the $9.95 price per month and made it free to new low-income customers for two months. It has also made its Xfinity WiFi hotspots free for everybody, including non-subscribers. It has also paused its data plans for two months, so that all customers can get unlimited data for no extra charge. https://corporate.comcast.com/covid-19

Committee for Children's Second Step has free social-emotional learning resources for educators, students ages 5 to 13 and their families. Those include podcasts to help families cope with physical isolation and "Mine Yeti," 15 mindfulness video sessions for families to work through together. https://www.secondstep.org/covid19support

Common Sense has created kits for teachers with weekly learning plans to help them ease their families into digital learning. The contents can be customized, and they're structured around a few themes: digital citizenship; goal-setting; scheduling; and the use of Common Sense for picking apps, websites and games that are appropriate for learning. Packets are available for kindergarten, first grade and second grade. https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/free-distance-learning-plans-for-k-2-students-and-their-families

Conscious Discipline has compiled a collection of free online tools for educators and parents on managing stress during the pandemic. "COVID-19: Resources for Families and Educators" includes free membership to SEL lesson libraries with videos, games, and audio downloads, focused on coping strategies and restoring a sense of normalcy. The company has also made weekly videosavailable on social-emotional learning topics and provided access through June to a three-session professional development webinar on working with children in trauma. https://consciousdiscipline.com/product/premium-digital-toolkit-1-year-membership/

Cornerstone, a workforce management company, has developed a series of "playlists" to help people--including teachers--adjust to working from home. Topics, including making the transition to online instruction and learning, stress management and working from home, are covered in "bite-sized" videos and downloadable guides. Registration is required. https://hr.cornerstoneondemand.com/cornerstonecares

Craft in America is sharing its library of free content, including education guides for K-12 teachers, a decade's worth of free online video content and playlists, virtual exhibitions and at-home activities. https://www.craftinamerica.org/blog/for-educators

Crick Software is offering free access to its literacy software programs, Clicker and DocsPlus, for six weeks (possibly longer). Clicker is a word processor for elementary students. Clicker's writing frames, speech feedback, word prediction and other scaffolding tools enable struggling readers and writers to make gains in their literacy skills. DocsPlus is a word processor for middle school and high school students, designed to support them through the writing process. It's especially useful, the company said, for students with dyslexia, enabling them to gather their initial ideas, structure coherent pieces of writing and overcome spelling frustration. Fill out the form and the company will get in touch with installation instructions and a serial number. https://www.cricksoft.com/us/clicker/clicker-at-home

Crowdmark is offering free access to its online grading and analytics platform until May 31. https://crowdmark.com/blog/ensuring-continuity-of-education-with-remote-grading-workflows/

C-SPAN Classroom has removed the log-in and password requirements for all of the lesson plans and "bell ringers" on its website. Teachers and students can now access any resource on the site. With this new option, teachers can share direct links to those resources via email, social media or within their learning or classroom management systems. The company is also providing Zoom sessions on an individual basis to teachers who want to learn how to use the website and its resources most effectively. https://www.c-span.org/classroom/

Curriculum Associates has made printable at-home activity packs available for students that include self-directed and practice exercises. Reading and math packets are available for each grade from kindergarten through grade 8. Teacher guides have also been made available. https://www.curriculumassociates.com/supporting-students-away-from-school

CyberCivics is offering three free civics lessons for download. Those include the "five principles of citizenship," "how to be a good citizen online" and "what kind of citizen will you be?" The company said that the lessons are best suited for students ages 10 to 14. https://www.cybercivics.com/for-families

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