Updated: Free and Discounted Ed Tech Tools for Online Learning During the Coronavirus Pandemic -- Campus Technology

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Teaching and Learning

Updated: Free and Discounted Ed Tech Tools for Online Learning During the Coronavirus Pandemic

By Dian Schaffhauser
07/24/20

(Updated July 24, 2020; originally published March 16, 2020) As more and more colleges and universities have shut down their campuses in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19, education technology companies have stepped forward to help move student learning to the virtual realm. Some companies are making their paid services free through the rest of the school year; others are 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 [email protected].)

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/

Addigy, a cloud-based Apple device management platform, has announced free 60-day access for colleges and universities. 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

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

Adobe has developed a resource hub for education with free templates, links to free software (including Adobe Acrobat, Scan, and tools for Google Drive) and videos with instructions for how to use the programs. https://acrobatusers.com/edu-resource-hub/educators/

Agora.io is offering a free online classroom application to support remote teaching and learning non-profit educational institutions through Aug. 31, 2020. The application enables one-to-one tutoring, small classroom work, lecture-hall class streaming, whiteboard collaboration, chat and a management console. The company is providing onboarding support. https://www.agora.io/en/free-online-classroom-application

The American Writers Museum has brought its latest exhibit online for educational purposes. "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. https://my-america.org/

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 15 minutes long, covering major points in the topic. Those are being hosted on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNrrxHpJhC8mNXjrAL3Ey1Q6iI35cymzl

Avaya is offering free access to Avaya Spaces through Aug. 31, 2020, for virtual meetings, including chat, voice, video and content sharing. The "business" version of voice and video conferencing can accommodate up to 200 participants. The "power version" can handle 500 participants and adds recording and dial-in. https://news.avaya.com/us-cp-spaces-coronavirus-response-reg

Bakpax, which provides auto-grading, is offering free access to its software for teachers. According to the company, the program uses artificial intelligence to do automatic grading of short response questions and math problems. When the answer is "manual," such as a graph, table, open response or diagram, the software shows a clip of the page to the teacher, who can then quickly grade the student response. To get an account set up, contact Bakpax at mailto:[email protected].

Bannersnack is offering 90 days of free team plans to schools and other nonprofits working on COVID-19–focused projects during the pandemic. The design production and collaboration tool is intended to improve how teams work together on creative projects. https://blog.bannersnack.com/we-are-here-for-you/

Barnes & Noble Education is making free digital self-tutoring and writing services available to college students through its bartleby suite of products. Through Jun. 15, 2020, the company is providing students with access to 10 free homework questions and tutoring sessions with experts through bartleby learn, monthly; and premium access to bartleby write, a virtual writing center that provides spelling and grammar checks, plagiarism detection and citation help. The company is also working with colleges and universities that want to set up an institutional version with "expedited program rollout."

Belouga and the #SameHere Global Alliance are making recorded versions of events with leading mental health organizations from around the world available for viewing. Basic access is available free to teachers, students, schools and districts. https://belouga.org/mental-health-month

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/

BombBomb is offering free accounts for its video messaging tool to teachers, professors, counselors and administrators in the United States and Canada. The program allows educators to communicate with students and families face-to-face (virtually, of course) and provide feedback with the help of a screen recording. Video training on the software is available on video. https://bombbomb.com/education/

Campus is providing emergency grants to fund the implementation and use of its campus portal and mobile app platform free through July 24, 2021. https://campus.app/emergency-grant/

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 college-level calculator activities that instructors can assign. The company has also begun posting videos on its YouTube channel to help parents, students and teachers learn how to work through critical mathematical concepts using its calculators. https://www.casioeducation.com/remote-learning

Cengage has made its digital content available for free through the remainder of the current term, giving students access to all digital textbooks and platforms through Cengage Unlimited. The company also said its faculty partners would be holding regular "office hours" to provide advice to instructors moving to Cengage courseware. https://www.cengage.com/covid-19-support/

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

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 instructors and students use the online virtual conference program. https://www.webex.com/webexremoteedu.html

Codecademy's free "basic" membership offers 25 introductory courses students can work through, covering gaming, web design, data science and other computer science and job development topics. https://www.codecademy.com/catalog/subject/all

CogBooks, an adaptive learning company, is offering its courseware at no charge for 16 of the most-used topics in higher education, to help colleges and instructors with the transition to remote learning. The company's adaptive courseware has open educational resources from known providers such as OpenStax and augments the content with video, interactive activities and assessment exercises. The software also includes social and collaborative learning capabilities, which encourage peer-to-peer and peer-to-instructor communication, to interactive in-class discussion. CogBooks also promised to provide support to get an instructor up and running within three days. To start the process, e-mail [email protected].

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

Concept3D is opening up its "Enterprise Level 360° Tour" system to help colleges and universities create virtual tours of their campuses. Clients can add up to five tour stops and use the advanced features of the enterprise system at no charge. The enterprise edition includes live data feeds, wayfinding routes and branding, among other features. The company said creating a 360-degree tour takes less than 30 minutes and requires little more than creating an account and uploading panorama or static images and assigning a location by entering an address or dropping a pin on the accompanying map. The system guides the user through the process of adding information, more images, video and audio tracks to tour stops. https://www.concept3d.com/360-tour-march-2020/

Course Hero is making free study guides available for literature, biology, chemistry, and algebra. Each includes links to additional study resources submitted by students and educators from their own courses. https://www.coursehero.com/sg/

DataCamp is making its classroom plan available to educators. That includes access to 1,350 hours of data science courses in programming with R, Python and SQL; statistical modeling, data manipulation and visualization, machine learning, reporting and applied finance. The instructor must commit to using the content throughout the term or semester. https://www.datacamp.com/groups/education#academic_form

DH2i is making its DxOdyssey networking software available free through Aug. 31, 2020. The software is a Windows and Linux remote access program is an alternative to virtual private networks that provides "discreet and secure tunnels for application access" across the internet, corporate networks and cloud environments. Interestingly, company emphasized that its software download "is completely anonymous." There's no personal information collected, "to provide the assurance that no sales communications will result during or after the download and use of the software." DH2i is also making its support team available to help new users during regular business hours, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific time, Monday through Friday. https://wfh.dh2i.com/

The Digital Marketing Institute has made four courses free for the first time. Courses are designed to help current and future business owners, leaders, and marketers quickly understand and apply best digital marketing practices so programs can promote brand awareness, capture leads and generate sales. Students can access the courses for three months when they sign up for a free "power membership." https://my.digitalmarketinginstitute.com/lp/signup/8dber1ui0vdf/ph1

Dropbox has developed free "digital care packages," 20 different folders of activities curated by creators, including artists, designers, foodies, musicians, writers and others. You can send them not just to others but to yourself too. https://www.dropbox.com/care-package

Du Chinese is offering free three-month access to its language learning content for students and educators. Features in the language program include more than a thousand Chinese lessons, translation capabilities, word lookup and audio of articles being read in "natural Chinese." https://www.duchinese.net/students

Echo360, an education video platform is allowing individual instructors to access the software for free. Starting in April, they'll also be able to access free live video streaming capabilities. https://blog.echo360.com/echo360-instructor-edition

The Edge Foundation has announced that its life coaches are available on a sliding scale — including free — to work with students virtually on non-academic challenges, including individuals who struggle with executive function challenges. https://edgefoundation.org/coronavirus/

EdSights has built a free text message bot that universities can use to support students. The bot allows schools to send "clear and immediate" information to students on university changes and operations as the COVID-19 situation evolves; the framework can be used to identify students who have been affected by the pandemic and need immediate help; and pre-built scripts can be used to promote health and wellness. According to the company, the chatbot takes about two hours to set up, can be launched remotely and does not require help from IT. https://www.edsights.io/covid-19

Eduflow is making its lightweight learning management system free. The program allows educators to set up online courses that facilitate discussions, peer review, feedback and other learning activities. For access go to https://www.eduflow.com and reach out on "chat support" (at the bottom of the page).

Eggshead.ai has a free "microlearning" service that allows people to set up short mobile chat conversations that are interactive and can be used for instruction. The company describes its service as a WhatsApp experience for Duolingo-like content. The program allows instructors to send out learning content before students enter the classroom or to quiz them during and after class to ensure engagement. It works with existing platforms in use, including Microsoft Teams and Slack. https://eggheads.ai/#home

Engineerica Systems is offering Accudemia free to manage academic centers virtually. This includes managing and tracking both virtual appointment sessions and virtual drop-in sessions. The offer includes usage of the cloud system and technical support until Aug. 1, 2020. To gain access, fill out the form. https://www.engineerica.com/landing/accudemia-free-trial-extension/

EZTexting is providing free emergency text alert services to schools. To quality, people need to sign up using their EDU email address. They'll receive 100,000 free outgoing text messages for six months, access to a set of coronavirus message templates and one-on-one consulting. They also get a free keyword, with a short code to distribute to the community for quick sign-up of text messages. https://try.eztexting.com/free-text-alerts-new

FeedbackFruits is offering free access until September 2020 to eight tools that make online courses more engaging. Functionality includes letting instructors add practice questions or discussion topics to their videos, documents, presentations and audio recordings; enable peer evaluation; provide inline feedback; and deliver automatic grading on any student interaction or assignment. The tools can be integrated into the learning management system. Once the instructor signs up, the company will be in touch to set up access. https://feedbackfruits.com/covid-19

Flipsnack is offering its classroom plan for free for a year. The program enables classrooms to collaborate on the creation of digital magazines. Besides text, those can include videos, audio, links and other interactive elements. https://www.flipsnack.com/classroom-plan-apply/

GanttPRO is offering free accounts to its project management Gantt chart software for colleges and universities until Aug. 15, 2020. The software serves as a project planner for managing tasks and milestones for multiple projects, including instant updates for "dependent tasks"--those that depend on completion of previous activities. (Although the website mentions "discounts," the company is providing free access.) https://ganttpro.com/software-discounts-for-nonprofits/

GoGuardian has extended the teacher trial version of its 1-to-1 device management software through the end of the school year. https://www.goguardian.com/blog/news/providing-learning-continuity-during-school-closures/

Good Calculators is providing a variety of free online calculators, to do math and statistics, engineering and conversions. The website also offers specialized calculators for financial, date and time, logistics, sales, sports and health. https://goodcalculators.com/

Through Sept. 30, 2020, Google is allowing G Suite for Education customers to use the Hangouts Meet premium functionality for free. People can host virtual meetings with up to 250 people and live streams with up to 100,000 viewers. Additionally, they'll be able to save recordings of their meetings to Google Drive. https://support.google.com/meet/answer/9760270?hl=en

Gradescope, a division of Turnitin, is providing free access to Gradescope Complete for new courses created through Dec. 31, 2020. Gradescope provides an automated way to score variable-length and fixed-template assignments, including problem sets, worksheets, quizzes and exams and coding exercises. The student work is submitted in digital form (through a photo, PDF, scan, or GitHub or Bitbucket upload) and graded with an auto-grader. Grades are then sent to students and the gradebook. A dashboard displays results, including highlighting concepts that students didn't do well on. To set up an account, use the sign-up on https://www.gradescope.com/ and enter the name of the institution. The account you open will be preloaded with a demonstration course that includes the full feature set.

Gravic is offering free 60-day subscriptions to Remark Test Grading, a hosted application for grading tests, quizzes and assessments, using an "electronic bubble sheet." For institutions that choose to make the software available to faculty, the company is also offering a free connector to Canvas, Blackboard or D2L, as well as training. https://remarksoftware.com/remark-test-grading-cloud-available-to-all-instructors-for-free/

GreyCampus, which delivers training for project management, quality management and other business optimization approaches, is promoting OpenCampus, its resource library on professional certifications; codelabs, which allows the student to run code in a browser; and a guide to building a career in cybersecurity. All are freely available. The company has also made a set of Microsoft courses freely available for a limited time, covering Azure and Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) offerings. https://www.greycampus.com/e-learning/microsoft-courses/microsoft-365-fundamentals

Hallo is offering a free app to help students practice English. Hallo is a live-streaming community for English learners and teachers. Students can learn from native speakers through live videos 24/7 and practice speaking in seconds with people all around the world. https://hallo.tv/athomelearning/

Hargray, a telecommunications company that serves the southeastern United States, will offer free Internet service for 60 days to households in its service area with K-12 or college students who do not already have an internet subscription. https://www.hargray.com/freeinternet. The company will also offer discounted internet speed upgrades to existing customers to ensure they have the necessary bandwidth to accommodate higher Internet usage in their homes during this time. To take advantage of that, call the company at (877) 427-4729.

Hawkes Learning is offering free access to the online homework and testing system for the duration of the spring term for anyone new to their courseware and needing to transition to digital delivery. The company provides pre-built course shells that can be ready in under an hour for online learners, including: adaptive online learning modules with instructional content and videos, interactive practice with tutoring and "explain-error" feedback and mastery-based homework assessments. There's also a test bank for online tests and quizzes. The materials cover the most common subjects for college students: developmental English, English composition, psychology, economics, developmental math through calculus and statistics. Instructors can request free access codes from the company. https://hawkeslearning.lpages.co/freeaccess/

HelioCampus has released the LMS Explorer Kit, a free tool that allows institutions to extract and organize data from their learning management system to better inform resource planning and decision-making. The first version of the kit includes the code for downloading and creating data files from Canvas, with Blackboard to follow. https://www.heliocampus.com/lms_explorerkit

Hillsdale College, an independent liberal arts college in Michigan, is making a series of courses freely available. Current offerings cover American history, literature, politics and philosophy and religion. Each course provides multiple lectures with video or audio format. Registration confirmation is required for access. https://online.hillsdale.edu/#home

HiveIO is providing unlimited licenses for all education organizations for the rest of the school year to its enterprise virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) software. The software can run in a private or hybrid cloud environment. The company is also working with Aurora Cloud Technologies, which provides cloud infrastructure, to enable IT teams to deploy VDI with integrated remote access "to thousands of desktop users within hours." https://www.hiveio.com/free-vdi-license-application-form-for-education/

IBM has launched Open P-TECH, to help young people and educators pick up the basics in topics including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and cloud computing, as well as soft skills. Up until now, the P-TECH program has been provided as a model affiliated with schools. Now students who are 16 and older can register and participate on their own. https://www.ptech.org/open-p-tech/

Identity Automation is offering temporary licenses and installation training for single sign-on and multi-factor authentication for federation licenses. These will expire on Sept. 30, 2020. Online real-time training and support are available. https://info.identityautomation.com/identity-automations-response-to-covid-19

As always, Instructure is making its learning management system, Canvas, free for instructors. The account never expires and offers all course creation and importing, "mastery paths" to lead students through personalized learning, native use on mobile devices, a gradebook, quizzing and other features that educators need to move their students to online learning. https://www.instructure.com/canvas/try-canvas#free-account

Intelligent Education is promoting the use of its always-free software to help educators create online courseware. Tools let instructors record lectures with slides, images and video clips and add 3D models, quizzes. The company also has 34 courses on in its catalog that various instructors have produced and made available. https://intelligenteducation.com/build-online-courses

IObit is making a utility free to help remote users speed up performance of their Windows devices. "Internet Boost" is a feature included in the company's Advanced SystemCare pro version. According to IObit, the software removes "junk files" to release more space; helps increase internet speed by "taking advantage of your maximum network bandwidth"; removes privacy traces left by multiple programs; and dumps start-up processes that are slowing down start-up. https://www.iobit.com/en/advancedsystemcarefree.php

Jumio is providing free identity verification services through Jumio Go, to educational organizations, through September 2020. Jumio can help confirm that only enrolled students are participating in the online curriculum and helps proctor exams by authenticating students prior to any online test. https://go.jumio.com/goforgood-covid#form-title

Kapwing is giving away licenses for its professional edition to faculty. Kapwing is a collaborative online image and video editor with a cloud storage workspace. According to the company, it serves as an "excellent tool for instructors who are making video materials or lessons to send to students for remote learning, for students working together on a group project or for a classroom looking for a digital space to share multimedia projects with each other." The pro edition can accommodate videos up to 40 minutes long (versus 10 minutes in the free, basic version), lets users edit and store all content, make the content private and offers a one-gigabyte upload limit. Free instructor accounts are available for those in not-for-profit institutions until school is back in session. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdmfRt-k8dIV9L7I1N2SLOtL7TTP21Czeo2HLTj3DOpVdmDtw/viewform

Kentik is giving Internet2 member organizations free access to its SaaS-based network analytics service for six months, with no subscription fees. A valid EDU e-mail address is required. The offer includes flow collection from six physical devices (such as routers), flow logs from cloud providers and 30-day data retention. https://www.kentik.com/go/edu-trial-launch/

Kialo Edu is a free platform that helps educators encourage thoughtful classroom discussion and assist them in the teaching of critical thinking. The online service lets faculty start private discussions within their classes, provide students with feedback and ask them follow-up questions and create teams within the class section. https://www.kialo-edu.com/

Kivuto is allowing its Kivuto Cloud customers to distribute and manage additional products through the digital resource management platform at no cost. Those products include Adobe Creative Cloud, IBM SPSS Statistics and Microsoft Office 365. https://info.kivuto.com/covid-19-ed-support

LabsLand is providing online access to actual laboratories (not simulations) through school closures. The program is typically used by universities and colleges to teach engineering, electronics, physics and other lab courses. The labs are located in 24 universities around the world, and students access them through a browser, to experiment and manipulate the labs remotely. To gain access, contact the company at mailto:[email protected] with "COVID-19" in the subject line or visit the covid-19 page. https://labsland.com/blog/en/2020/03/12/schools-and-universities-closure-support/

Labster, which provides virtual laboratory simulations, has made its software available to colleges. Some 100 lab experiments cover biology, chemistry, physics, engineering and general sciences, which students can perform "at their own pace." (On the sign-up form, ignore the K-12 verbiage. This offer extends to colleges and universities affected by closures.) https://www.labster.com/covid-19/highered/

LEGO is sharing simple design challenges. The company has assembled LEGO "designers, creatives and play experts" to come up with new ways to help people "stay creative, curious and connected" while at home. Daily play challenges, new play ideas and live build-a-longs are being shared in photos and videos on social media using the hashtag #LetsBuildTogether and at www.lego.com/letsbuildtogether.

LifeSafe is offering a free, limited version of its safety and communications platform for universities and colleges to communicate relevant information to their communities. The software will be free through Dec. 31, 2020. The platform will allow the campus community to have two-way communications with the institution's COVID-19 response team. The functionality allows people to submit questions or seek information from virus response team, including in real-time or anonymously; gives one-touch access to 911 as well as links to the latest information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and a command-and-communications dashboard allows the school to broadcast COVID-19 information and communicate with the campus in real-time. The company said it would make versions available for both iOS and Android. https://www.livesafemobile.com/contingency/

Lingoda, an online language school, is offering free access to 2,000 different language learning materials in English, Spanish, French and German, as well as assistance in setting up online classes, online "masterclass" Q&A sessions and guides on running a successful online class experience. After registration, a staff member will get in touch to set up access. https://blog.lingoda.com/en/stay-home-and-keep-learning-with-lingoda

Lionbridge, a company that provides data for research and machine learning, has compiled a collection of open datasets related to COVID-19. https://lionbridge.ai/datasets/coronavirus-datasets-from-every-country/

Loom is making its video software free for educators forevermore. The program captures a person's screen, voice and face and allows for editing, "instant sharing" and controlled viewing. https://support.loom.com/hc/en-us/articles/360006579637-Loom-Pro-Free-for-Students-and-Teachers

Lumen has made a "mid-term" transition to its courseware available free. Its catalog currently covers 50 general education subjects, which includes openly-licensed content with supplemental resources, such as PowerPoints and assignments. To obtain access, the instructor needs to indicate that he or she is teaching a live course, to ensure the $25/student/term fees are waived. The courses integrate with major learning management systems, Blackboard, Instructure Canvas, D2L Brightspace and Moodle. Lumen is also providing free services to support the transition and is hosting a number of webinars to explain the processes. https://info.lumenlearning.com/transition-spring2020

Macmillan Learning is offering free access to LaunchPad, Sapling, iClicker and FlipIt to instructors and students through the remainder of the spring 2020 semester as well as the winter 2020 quarter for those schools not already using these digital products. LaunchPad provides an online space where students can read, study, practice and complete homework on a given subject. Sapling gives students "wrong answer-specific feedback" on their problems so they learn from correct and incorrect answers. iClicker is a response system that works in an online format. FlipItPhysics is a class preparation system that uses active learning. The company is also hosting a series of webinars to help educators make the transition to online teaching. https://www.macmillanlearning.com/college/us/content/covid19

Mango is making its Classroom online language-learning program freely available to schools through the end of the current school year. The program offers lessons for 70 languages in a digital format that can be accessed online and offline, via desktop and mobile app. The software includes on-task monitoring and assessment results for teachers and reading, listening and speaking activities for students. https://mangolanguages.com/info/covid19-response.cfm

Mathematica, in partnership with the National Association of Health Data Organizations (NAHDO), has compiled a set of sources for COVID-19 resources, including public databases, tools and insights relevant to the pandemic, which may be useful for academic research. https://www.mathematica.org/features/covid-19-curated-data-modeling-and-policy-resources

McGraw-Hill has developed online training for Connect and ALEKS digital learning platforms to help instructors and students who need to move to an online format for their Spring 2020 courses. The company has also made its ALEKS and Connect tools free for college students for the rest of the semester. https://www.mheducation.com/highered/support/connect/how-to-move-your-course-online.html

Merit Software is giving colleges and universities free access to its online English and reading comprehension products. The company provides skill-building resources with automatic feedback and built-in scoring. Contact the company to get access. https://meritsoftware.com/contact-us/

MetaCoders is offering daily coding lessons on YouTube. Curriculum covers computer science concepts, how to think like a programmer and how to code more efficiently. Lessons run between five and 15 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJwcNVM9uG03zUbYrUYeW0g

Microsoft, which includes Teams in the Office Suite, is now offering educational institutions not currently licensed for Teams a free Office 365 E1 offer, with no end date specified. The company has lifted restrictions on user limits. What's more, as of March 10, Microsoft rolled out updates to the free version of Teams that lifts restrictions on user limits. https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/free

The National Constitution Center is launching a free eight-week series of daily live interactive courses on the Constitution for college students. They'll be led by NCC President and CEO, Jeffrey Rosen, a law professor and constitutional expert, along with other NCC constitutional scholars and educators. The sessions, delivered via Zoom, will allow students to participate in daily lectures and conversations about the basic principles of the U.S. Constitution. Teachers are also able to sign their students up for virtual "Classroom Exchanges," expanded to go beyond classroom-to-classroom conversations to meet students in remote environments. https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/classroom-exchanges/online-civic-learning-opportunities

National Geographic Explorer Classroom is currently hosting experts online in live events each day at 2 p.m. Eastern time to allow students and adults to ask questions face-to-face. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/education/student-experiences/explorer-classroom/

National University, a mostly online institution, is offering free tuition for California college students who have had their learning disrupted because of the virus. Their courses are offered monthly, and college and high school students can sign up for up to three courses over the next three months. The university said it has nearly 2,000 online courses, most of which are asynchronous and available to students anywhere and anytime, and are transferable for credit at colleges across the state. https://www.nu.edu/coronavirusresponse/

NEO is providing sign-up for the free edition of its learning management system, which works for schools with up to 400 students. That version includes class templates, content authoring and accessibility features as well as functionality for discussion forums, doing web conferencing, adding gamification and quizzes, taking attendance, tracking grades, building badges, doing bulk import and export of accounts, syncing class content and more. The program integrates with G Suite, Google Drive and OneDrive and offers mobile apps for iOS, Windows and Android. For the free edition, click the "Free plan" button. https://www.neolms.com/

Nepris, which delivers online talks with industry professionals on a wide array of subjects, is making its virtual industry chats available to everyone, including 9,000 already archived. The talks are available online: https://www.nepris.com/sessions/upcoming.

NetSupport Manager is making its remote support tools free for three months for schools, covering up to 200 devices. The software enables IT support personnel to provide secure remote support to users running Microsoft Windows, Apple iOS and Google Chrome or Android. https://www.netsupportmanager.com/usa-nsm-offer/

NeuShield is offering six months of its ransomware software, NeuShield Data Sentinel, to schools. The software can be deployed by IT organizations remotely. Contact the company to take advantage. https://www.neushield.com/contact/

Numerade is offering its asynchronous teaching platform and video library of 200,000 STEM lessons free. With the platform instructors can record lessons, take virtual attendance and conduct video Q&A with students. The company has also announced online summer camps that allow students to take two-month STEM-related courses for free. https://www.numerade.com/office-hours/welcome/

Omega Notes is waiving its fees for the summer and fall. The company offers a collaborative learning platform that uses a "course packs" metaphor: schools can distribute interactive ebooks and other course materials to students with an extra layer of functionality that ensures engagement, such as check-ins about how well the student understands the concepts and in-screen note-taking and annotation. The program allows for integration of assessments, has collaboration features and provides reporting on student comprehension. https://www.omeganotes.com/continue-teaching-regardless/

Omni Calculator is continuing to make its thousand-plus free calculators available. Each one is targeted to help students and others handle any type of equation or conversion imaginable. As one user told us, each "is equipped with tips and detailed explanations of concepts to various scientific phenomena. They are fun, they are helpful and they can teach you a lot more than 2+2." https://www.omnicalculator.com/

OneLogin is offering OneLogin Trusted Experience Platform for free to educators. That consists of single sign-on, multi-factor authentication and certificate-based authentication, to help secure virtual experiences for users. https://www.onelogin.com/lp/promo-edu-virtual-learning

OnScale, which produces a cloud-based engineering simulation platform, is offering its customers free cloud core-hours, to enable people to keep working on engineering projects remotely. Current customers can learn more about the remote work offer at [email protected]. New customers can learn more at https://onscale.com/.

The Open Textbook Library is reminding faculty at colleges and universities that it has 703 openly-licensed textbooks, which can be downloaded for free or printed at a low cost. Subjects include accounting and finance, business, computer science, education, math, national sciences, social sciences and student success, among others. The compilation is maintained by the nonprofit Center for Open Education in the University of Minnesota's College of Education and Human Development. https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks

OpenStax is reminding educators and families that its 38 open source (read: free) digital textbooks in core college and Advanced Placement subjects are available. On top of that, the nonprofit said that it would offer free access to its online homework offerings (which normally have a low cost attached to them). That covers ROVER for math subjects and TUTOR, a beta program that provides online courseware and learning tools needed to complete a course; coverage includes physics, biology, and introduction to sociology. Also, 28 "allies" that have worked with OpenStax to develop homework and courseware that accompany its textbooks have made their offerings free. Those are listed on this OpenStax article. Finally, OpenStax has compiled lists of resource for each of its subjects, which it is documenting through its blog.

Osmo is promoting the use of a $10 "reflector" device to serve as a whiteboard or blackboard replacement. As the instructor does something or shows something, the program scans the activity and displays it on the screen for students to see. You'll need an iOS app. Details are explained in a tweet: https://twitter.com/romps/status/1237617042338897921

Pantone is offering free access to Pantone Connect. The tool enables designers and artists to build and share color palettes, convert and cross-reference colors and match Pantone colors through Adobe Creative Cloud. https://www.pantone.com/products/digital-apps/pantone-connect-for-adobe-creative-cloud

PBS has been gaining traction among educators with "PBS American Portrait," an initiative that invites Americans to share stories from their lives, about their families and communities, their joys, struggles and triumphs. As more people upload personal content related to COVID-19, the site has become what PBS is calling "a living archive of how we're all processing this crisis." Instructors are teaching students about storytelling and personal narratives while also allowing them to speak to their mental and emotional well-being, by answering questions posed on the site, such as, "I never expected ..." and "What gets me out of bed in the morning ..." The organization is also hosting a series of webinars to help educators learn how to use the website in their instruction. https://www.pbs.org/american-portrait/

PBS LearningMedia has recently opened up a "Ken Burns in the Classroom" hub, making this filmmaker's series available in their entirety. Those include The Civil War, Jazz, The War and The Dust Bowl and others. https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/kenburnsclassroom/home/

Pearson has developed guidance for higher education faculty and students on how to cope with online learning. For faculty, articles and videos cover such topics as how to use screencasting, how to use discussion boards to increase class engagement and how to deter cheating in an online class. Students can read about how to stay motivated when learning online, how to cope with a professor canceling class and how to get access to digital versions of textbooks at no additional charge. https://www.pearson.com/news-and-research/working-learning-online-during-pandemic.html/

A group of companies affiliated with Pearson VUE's Certiport have made their learning products available to help students gain tackle certifications. Subjects cover digital literacy, software applications, graphic design, programming and development, and entrepreneurship and business communication. Each is providing free 90-day trials to students and educators. The resources include practice tests from GMetrix; video courses from LearnKey; lessons and quizzes about Microsoft Office programs from Jasperactive; test prep programs for Adobe Creative Cloud products from Brain Buffet; certification preparation courses for the Microsoft Office Specialist, Adobe Certified Associate and other credentials from MSi; Adobe Certified Associate lessons from Pearson; 3D design courses from TeachMe3D; computer-aided design classes from CADLearning; Unity courseware from Unity; and code classes for grades K-14 from Code Avengers. In order for students and teachers to get free access to the courseware, they need their schools to participate. https://gocertiport.pearsonvue.com/learning-product-trial

Perlego is an online academic library subscription that gives students and academics access to more than 350,000 titles for a monthly fee. The company is offering two weeks free to all students. https://www.perlego.com/

PETEX, the University of Texas Austin Petroleum Extension school, is making its multiple online learning courses available for high schools and community colleges for a dramatically discounted $10 per student. The ecourses cover the oil business, focused on upstream, midstream and downstream sectors, including drilling, petroleum fundamentals and production basics. To acquire access to the online resources, contact program officials at [email protected].

PlayPosit is making its interactive video software free for faculty to use. The program includes an editing platform for adding quizzes to videos to heighten student engagement. The company said it has raised the limits on free user accounts so that instructors are no longer limited by 100 learner attempts per month. https://www.playposit.com/join

PowerNotes is offering free site licenses to universities and colleges. The software helps students unify the steps in "reading, gathering, saving, annotating, organizing, outlining, tracking and citing research" into a workflow. Instructors gain visibility into student progress on research projects. All that's needed from interested institutions is a quick phone call with the company support team to help get the service set up. https://www.blog.powernotes.com/get-started

Prey has produced a lightweight tool, the "Remote Device Monitor," which allows college and universities to monitor and protect up to 50 devices they're assigning to staff and faculty for remote work. By using the utility, they can monitor location, connection status, basic network and security profile; assign users to keep accountability of who's got which device; and send alerts. The company is also offering institutions of higher ed up to 100 free licenses for its enterprise platform. https://preyproject.com/solutions/education/

Project Exchange runs a free 12-week online cultural exchange program to help secondary and college school students around the world broaden their worldview and practice English skills. Students are matched with a partner from a different country and practice English and learn about culture together! Currently, the organization works with students and instructors in 23 countries, and it's seeking more students and teachers who want to participate. The program runs on Google Drive, Slack and Zoom and takes two to three hours a week. https://www.myprojectexchange.com/digital-exchange-program

Pronto, which connects people via chat and video messaging, is providing its synchronous communication platform for free for the spring and summer 2020 semesters to instructors. https://pronto.io/

Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL) is a free resource for writing tips and assignments, research and citation tutorials, and teacher and tutor materials. Contents include general writing exercises, including sentence-level writing, grammar and editing; common writing assignments, including book reports, bibliographies and research papers; the OWL YouTube channel, which includes lessons on grammar, rhetoric, and professional and technical writing; and online tutoring for Purdue students, faculty and staff. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html

RCampus is offering free licenses for its "Express Edition" learning management system to college and universities, available until the end of the spring academic term. The software allows instructors to set up an online classroom quickly, invite students, share coursework, grade online and communicate. https://schools.rcampus.com/ecomm/schoolpricingeditc.cfm

Re Mago, a software company based in the United Kingdom, is making its digital collaboration software, Valerea, free to users. The program can be embedded in existing collaboration programs, including Microsoft Teams, to provide quick access to a meeting site with a digital whiteboard; screensharing; and audio, video and chat. https://www.valarea.com/getstarted/

Ready Learner One is volunteering free instructional support for any educator who has a need. Through a calendar appointment system spanning the next four weeks educators can book a window of time to connect with a member of the instructional design consulting team via video hangout. https://calendly.com/rl1support/support-call?month=2020-03

Retrieve Technologies is offering six months of free usage of its virtual classroom system. The software enables instructors to set up a class "knowledge app," which will contain the course materials. From there they add chat, assessments, announcements and/or surveys, as well as the course content itself. Then students can be added by e-mail address and told to download the app to view the course on their mobile devices. An EDU e-mail address is required for access. https://www.retrieve.com/signup/

Retrospect is offering free 90-day subscription licenses for Retrospect Backup. The program works on Windows and Mac devices. Use the coupon code "COVID" in the online store. No credit card required. https://www.retrospect.com/covid

RingCentral is offering three months of its phone, team messaging and videoconferencing service for free to education organizations. Each video meeting can have up to 200 participants. https://www.ringcentral.com/lp/covid19-offer.html

Notebook maker Rocketbook is making a bunch of downloadable PDFs available free for students and educators. The collection includes graph paper, lined paper, music notation sheets and letter dot-grid sheets, among others. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/eqnsm164v0sav3v/AAA-cMxpo8BhBH8sLOFbkUe2a

SAS, a data analytics company, has made many of its learning resources available free for 30 days to help students and others homebound by coronavirus to gain and enhance their analytics skills. That comes with software labs and online support. https://www.sas.com/en_us/training/offers/free-training.html

Sidecar Learning, a startup that launched last year, is giving free licenses to all U.S. colleges and universities through the end of the spring semester. The elearning tool teaches students how to research, navigate difficult websites and evaluate information using live web content "at the point and moment of need." The software at the heart of the product was developed at the University of Arizona Libraries. https://sidecarlearn.chargebee.com/pages/v3/Bp5FeyntMQHZu4bPeL5vgj2eVmYDiffq/cart

SimTutor has released three free healthcare simulations for infection prevent procedures, covering the use of soap and water, hand sanitizer and personally protective equipment. https://content.simtutor.com/hand-hygiene-and-ppe-procedures

SimX has released two free multiplayer virtual reality training cases focused on the evaluation and management of COVID-19. Developed by doctors working in Washington and California, these cases enable healthcare professionals and students to practice working with personal protective equipment, triage, evaluation and inpatient treatment of COVID-19 patients. The programs work with Oculus Quest or HTC Vive devices. http://www.simxar.com/COVIDresponse

Skillsoft is offering free access to its learning experience software, Percipio, for three months to faculty and students who use their EDU e-mail addresses to register. Percipio provides training on business-focused skills, including digital, marketing, productivity and leadership development. http://learn.skillsoft.com/Business-Continuity-Trial.html

Smart Sparrow is making its "inspark Smart Courses" available free at no cost to colleges, universities and K-12 schools. These are replacements for textbooks, that use interactive activities for learning. Instructors get tools to track student outcomes and customize the content using the Smart Sparrow platform. Courseware topics include biology, anatomy and physiology, chemistry, astrobiology, astronomy, geology, science for citizens, science writing, Galapagos exploration, global challenges and English composition. https://landing.inspark.education/teach

Software2 is providing AppsAnywhere licenses to colleges and universities free of charge for 90 days. The solution allows institutions to make their campus lab software available to students and staff off campus, on any device. https://register.software2.com/covid-19-support

SoloLean is a free advertising-driven platform for learning to code. Topics cover Python, C++, SQL, Java, JavaScript and Ruby among others. The app offers access to 2,000 courses, tailored from people with a range of skills, from beginner to professional. The company also curates lesson tracks, such as "Become a Data Scientist," "Become a Web Developer" and "Become a Full Stack Developer." The app includes quizzes and an online community for help. A paid version removes the ads. https://www.sololearn.com/

Sonocent is offering universities and schools free access to its Glean note-taking web app through the end of August. https://glean.sonocent.com/free-access/?utm_source=ct&utm_medium=other&utm_campaign=free_glean_20

Strategic Education said it would make its Sophia Learning online education platform available free to all comers through July 31, 2020. All Sophia general education courses are American Council on Education-recommended and transferrable to numerous higher education institutions for course credit. Those courses cover statistics, human biology, accounting, art history, environmental science and micro- and macroeconomics, among other subjects. https://www.sophia.org/online-courses-for-college-credit

Studycounts, a math practice website that generates unlimited math practice problems for arithmetic, algebra and calculus, has extended its free trial on instructor accounts to 90 days to help faculty make it through the rest of the academic year. Instructors will get full access to Studycounts to share with students, including activity reports on what their students have practiced. https://studycounts.com/plans

Support.com is offering its remote technical support services free to people who are working and studying remotely. The company said it could help users with device setup, troubleshooting video conference calls, e-mail configuration, data migration, security updates, virus or malware removal and other problems. https://corporate.support.com/offering-free-tech-support-to-those-working-remotely-during-covid-19-outbreak/

Teamplace, a European company, has a free version of its team cloud storage service. Up to 10 members can access up to 5 GB of capacity. According to the company, the more team members that accept an invitation to a "Teamplace," the more Teamplaces can be set up permanently for free. https://www.teamplace.net/en/plans-pricing/

TeamViewer is offering its online collaboration solution, Blizz, free of charge to all colleges and universities, to help instructors and students hold interactive lessons. The software lets them share screen content with the class, exchange information via chats, share files and collaborate with onscreen annotations. Up to 50 participants can connect via video and phone to create a virtual classroom setting. https://www.blizz.com/en-us/blizz-for-school/

Teamwork is offering its work management software and chat platform to schools free. Educators can use the platform to assign homework and projects to students while also sharing files and resources. They will also be able to see how students are progressing. Teamwork Chat lets students communicate with classmates and teachers remotely. The software can be used to share files, messages and class notes. Chat also allows for real-time conversations between administrators, teachers and students across different channels. The offer extends through 2020. To get started, send a message to [email protected].

Thoughtexchange has opened its enterprise crowdsourcing platform to any educational organization that wants to reach out to its staff and community in an open-ended way to find out what people are thinking about, what kind of support they need, and what they believe the challenges to be for the future. As one education user explained, "The value of [the service] during a crisis is that people have things they have to get off their chest." https://www.thoughtexchange.com/keep-people-connected/

Top Hat is making its classroom software available free through the end of the current semester. The software lets faculty simulate their lecture experience with live discussions, presentations, quizzing and automated attendance. The company has also made its remote testing service free, which includes remote proctoring functionality, to enable students to take secure, proctored tests from any location on their own computers. Interested instructors can sign up online and the company said it would be in touch within a business day to get test and exams ready in time for running. https://tophat.com/remote-testing/

TutorOcean is offering its online tutoring platform free of charge to all higher-education institutions. In addition, the company said it has ramped up its support staff to accommodate increased need for virtual face-to-face interactions between tutors and students. The company's peer tutoring platform gives students the ability to connect with tutors and interact 24/7. Services are available through the end of the semester. Access credentials will be provided within 24 hours, according to the company. https://higher-ed.tutorocean.com/coronavirus-help

Twilio is offering usage of its "Video Boost" software development kit free for three months to schools. The apps enable developers to add video collaboration capabilities to their applications. To gain access, you must fill out a form and await company contact. https://ahoy.twilio.com/covid19/contact

TypingDNA is providing its typing biometrics authentication API service free for three months. Schools can run it within their learning management platforms to enable students to prove their identities by simply typing a short text on their keyboards. https://blog.typingdna.com/typingdna-api-free-to-support-online-learning/

Unity Technologies is providing free access to Unity Learn Premium, a 3D development platform. Registration provides access to live sessions with Unity experts and 350-plus hours of tutorials, hands-on projects, and courses for game developers, covering topics from "Game Mechanic Design Fundamentals" to "Getting Started with Post-Processing Stack for VR." Unity is also offering a free four-week beginner's course for educators. https://unity.com/

Upkey, working with The Academy Group, is taking applications for a virtual internship program, offering 1,000 seniors in high school and college students opportunities to develop their skills. The Fall 2020 program begins in September 2020. Students will be learning from expert sources, conducting their own research and completing interactive projects around a specific subject. Applications are open through Aug. 17. https://upkey.com/internship

Validity has released a new crisis communications program. "Validity for Good" is available as a free service for institutions of higher education. The company explained that the program grants access to the "Return Path E-mail Certification" service, which gives e-mail campaigns "trusted treatment to help ensure that their critical e-mails arrive in inboxes, not spam folders." By using this e-mail delivery service, schools can ensure messages related to public safety and COVID-19 reach their subscribers. https://www.validity.com/validity-for-good/

Vernier has produced free remote learning solutions to keep students engaged in STEM during school closures. That includes access to Pivot Interactives for allowing students to vary experimental parameters one at a time (for 30 days); a free demo version of Logger Pro to allow students to collect and analyze data that is good until Oct. 1, 2020; as well 200-plus experiments with sample data covering numerous subjects. https://www.vernier.com/remote-learning/

VEX Robotics has launched VEXcode Virtual Robot (VR), a free web-based tool for delivering computer science lessons for those who don't have access to a physical VEX Robot at home. There are no software installations required, and the program functions on all major desktops and tablets. https://www.vexrobotics.com/vexcode-vr

ViewSonic is offering myViewBoard free to colleges and universities, to help faculty conduct distance learning. The program allows for real-time collaboration through video audio conferencing, "huddles" and digital whiteboarding. https://www.viewsonic.com/us/distance-learning

VitalSource is providing free access to etextbooks through the end of the spring 2020 semester. Students can log in to the VitalSource Bookshelf app using their school e-mail address and view course materials from participating publishers via VitalSource's Explore capabilities within Bookshelf, its digital course material platform. https://get.vitalsource.com/vitalsource-helps

Wave Learning Festival, a nonprofit, is offering a free online platform for college students to teach courses that they're "passionate about" to middle and high school students. The goal, according to the organization, is to reach grade schoolers that had their summer camps cancelled. It was started by college students at Harvard, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania. So far there are 107 courses on the site in a variety of subjects. http://www.wavelf.org/

Wiley has made WileyPLUS, Knewton Alta and zBooks available through the Spring 2020 term. Also, the company has made more than 5,000 COVID-19-related articles freely available on a Wiley Online Library site. https://secure.wiley.com/COVID19OpenWPAccess, https://www.zybooks.com/, https://novel-coronavirus.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/

Windstream Enterprise is offering 90-day trials of its remote conferencing programs, voice-focused OfficeSuite UC and the Zoom-like substitute, OfficeSuite HD Meeting. Up to 500 participants are allowed, with no time limits. Setup help is provided by the company. https://www.windstreamenterprise.com/solutions/officesuite-free-trial/

Wize, an online learning platform for first-year college students, is making its library of exam prep content and homework help services available for free. That includes free 15-minute tutoring sessions. https://intercom.help/wizedemy-inc/en/articles/3837228-covid-19-update-how-wize-is-helping-students

Wizedemy is offering free access to its study library, which features videos, study guides, "cheatsheets" and practice activities, and its free tutoring service, which allows students to schedule 15-minute blocks of time with subject experts online. https://intercom.help/wizedemy-inc/en/articles/3837228-covid-19-update-how-wize-is-helping-students

Wooclap has made its software free for higher ed institutions to use for six months. The program helps faculty inject interactivity into remote lessons through quizzes, polls, wordclouds and other methods. The platform also includes flashcards ("wooflash"), which promote student memorization and comprehension while generating data to help instructors track student progress. https://www.wooclap.com/

Zoom has lifted the 40-minute meeting limit on its free basic accounts for K-12 and teamed up with Clever to make Zoom accessible to Clever districts that experiencing closures. Outschool, a marketplace for live online classes, has made available free remote teacher training webinars demonstrating how to adapt teaching practices and curriculum to a live video chat classroom. https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/03/13/how-to-use-zoom-for-online-learning/