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Distance Teaching and Learning: Remote Learning Platforms

Staff Page

Lesson Plans and Activities

These sites have lesson plans and activities ready to go on a variety of subjects for any grade.

Actively Learn

What It Is: Actively Learn works seamlessly with Google Classroom and provides thousands of engaging texts, videos, and simulations across ELA, Social Studies, and the Sciences paired with thoughtful instruction that challenge students and foster deep learning and critical thinking.

What They’re Offering: Actively Learn is always free for teachers and is making all paid school/district features free through the end of the school year.

Banzai

What It Is: Banzai is a financial education program that helps students learn the value of a dollar. There are real-life scenarios available in three interactive courses (3rd grade- 12th grade). The program includes tests, games, activities, an entire interactive library, embedded calculators, and more.

What They’re Offering: Banzai meets all state curriculum standards and is completely free to use.

Century

What It Is: Century was designed as an intervention tool to identify and remedy gaps in a student’s education. It uses artificial intelligence to tailor the learning experience to the learner, much like an actual teacher in the classroom would.

What They’re Offering: Schools closed due to the outbreak can get free access to Century’s online learning resources. Click here to learn more.

CK-12

What It Is: This collection of online learning resources covers pretty much every topic. Lessons include reading, activities, videos, and more to engage students. They also have free online textbooks.

What They’re Offering: CK-12 is always free for all users. Teachers can check it out here.

Classcraft

What It Is: Classcraft helps teachers maintain student interest and keep on track to reach their goals with tools that motivate them in a digital environment.

What They’re Offering: Classcraft is supporting educators in response to the coronavirus outbreak by offering free schoolwide licenses until the end of the school year, giving all teachers free access to Premium Quests (their popular tool for turning curriculum into a personalized learning adventure), free PD to help educators keep students motivated, and free How-to guide on remote learning. Learn more.

ClassHook

What It Is: ClassHook offers quality media clips on every conceivable topic. Pre-curated playlists make it easier to find what you need for the subject at hand.

What They’re Offering: Basic access is always free. Schools closed due to COVID-19/coronavirus can also get free access to ClassHook Premium. Learn how here.

CommonLit

What It Is: This site offers literary and non-fiction reading passages for grades 3-12. Teachers can assign reading and follow-up questions, and track student progress.

What They’re Offering: CommonLit always offers free accounts for teachers to use with their students. Sign up here.

Curriki

What It Is: Curriki provides teacher-vetted, open-resource lesson plans and materials on a wide array of subjects. It’s a good place to find online learning resources for students to use at home.

What They’re Offering: Curriki is always free to use. Sign up here.

Discovery Education

What It Is: Discovery Education provides online textbooks, multimedia content, and professional development support for virtual classrooms and teachers.

What They’re Offering: U.S. schools can receive free access to Discovery Education Experience through the end of the school year. Learn more here.

Education Perfect

What It Is: EP Classroom provides a wide range of customizable online learning experiences. Their site notes that teachers in China and other affected areas have already been using their resources with great success for the last few weeks.

What They’re Offering: This platform is free for all users. Sign up here.

EVERFI

What It Is: EVERFI offers courses for K-12 on real-world topics like mental health, financial planning, career readiness, and more. 

What They’re Offering: These courses are always free for educators and students. Learn more here.

Free Math App

What It Is: This no-frills site requires students to show their work on math problems, step-by-step. When it’s time to grade, you can take a look at their work to see exactly where things went wrong and correct problems quickly.

What They’re Offering: As the title says, this site is always free for teachers and students. Check it out here.

Gamilab

What It Is: Turn learning into a game when you create online quizzes and learning experiences. Use their extensive question bank, plus upload your own as needed.

What They’re Offering: Gamilab is always free for everyone. Sign up here.

InferCabulary

What It Is: InferCabulary is a web-based, research-backed, device-agnostic, K-12, fun, game-based, visual approach for teaching nuanced vocabulary that simultaneously improves students’ critical thinking skills. InferCabulary is the opposite of rote memorization of definitions—they mimic the act of avid readership so students deeply learn words and improve comprehension.

What They’re Offering: They are offering 2 months free access and are building a section to offer lessons that can be assigned to students grades 3-9.

Izzit

What It Is: Watch a video on a subject, then use the teacher guide for discussion, take a quiz, or use the other online learning resources provided.

What They’re Offering: Izzit’s online courses are free. Teachers and students can sign up for a free account here.

Kahoot!

What It Is:  Do you Kahoot? Teachers have loved this fun online quiz game platform for years. Here’s why we’re into it.

What They’re Offering: Kahoot! Basic is free for educators and students, but they’re also currently offering their Premium distance learning tools for free. Learn more here.

Kami

What It Is: Kami is a PDF and document annotation app for schools. Think of it like digital pen and paper for interacting with your students.

What They’re Offering: Kami is offering free access to schools closed due to the outbreak. Contact them here.

Khan Academy

What It Is: Khan Academy is well-known for providing an incredibly wide range of lessons for students at every level. Chances are you’ll find at least some of what you need for your virtual classroom here.

What They’re Offering: Khan Academy is always free for all users. Sign up here.

Kognity

What It Is: Kognity has turned traditional textbooks into interactive online experiences with videos, animations, and automatically-corrected assessments.

What They’re Offering: Kognity is offering free access for all schools closed due to COVID-19/coronavirus. Contact them here.

Listenwise

What It Is: Listenwise teaches students to be better listeners, using podcasts and comprehension questions and quizzes.

What They’re Offering: Any school closed due to the outbreak can get access to Listenwise Premium for free. Learn more here.

MusicFirst

What It Is: This is the only online learning management system for teaching music at all age levels. Band practice might be off the table for now, but students can still work on theory, notation, sight-reading and more.

What They’re Offering: If your school is closed due to COVID-19/coronavirus, you can receive free access to the entire MusicFirst system for the duration. Find out more.

Nearpod

What It Is: Choose from a wide range of prepared interactive lessons for all grade levels, or create your own if you can’t find what you need. Assess students on the spot and get real-time feedback from them too.

What They’re Offering: Schools closed due to the outbreak can request free access to Nearpod. Here’s how.

NoRedInk

What It Is: NoRedInk builds stronger writers through interest-based curriculum, adaptive exercises, and actionable data.

What They’re Offering: Their site is always free.

PBS Learning Media

What It Is: This site uses curated PBS videos along with lesson plans, interactive materials, and more to cover lots of subjects in an engaging fashion.

What They’re Offering: PBS Learning Media is always free for teachers. Sign up here.

PenPal Schools

What It Is: Schools that have already closed for weeks note that students quickly become lonely outside the classroom. PenPal Schools not only lets you engage your own students, but those from around the world, on a wide variety of subjects.

What They’re Offering: PenPal Schools is free. Learn how to sign up here.

ReadTheory

What It Is: ReadTheory’s offers a vast library of reading comprehension content that fosters improvement by automatically meeting learners at their own, individual ability levels. Find passages and prompts for students to answer.

What They’re Offering: ReadTheory is always free.

ReadWorks

What It Is: Access thousands of high-quality, free K-12 articles, and create online assignments with them.

What They’re Offering: Free content, curriculum, and tools to power teaching and learning from Kindergarten to 12th Grade

Rozzy

What It Is: Rozzy Learning has engaging lesson plans and other resources for science, social studies, math, and STEM for K-8th grade.

What They’re Offering: Free lessons for teachers during school closures. A specific list of lessons have been designated for virtual learning. Learn more.

Seterra

What It Is: Seterra offers online geography quizzes. You can also create your own custom quizzes.

What They’re Offering: Seterra is free to use. Schools affected by COVID-19/coronavirus can get 6 months of Seterra bonus features for free. Find out how.

Slido for Education

What It Is: This brand-new virtual classroom platform integrates PowerPoint, Zoom video webinars, and Slido quizzes into one streamlined package.

What They’re Offering: Slide is offering free access to its Advanced Education package for students and teachers until July 1, 2020. Contact them to find out more.

SMART Learning Suite

What It Is: SMART Learning Suite is a virtual classroom platform that easily integrates everything you already have on Google Drive or in Microsoft documents. You can add videos and other online resources as needed.

What They’re Offering: Teachers and students can access SMART Learning Suite for free for the rest of the school year. Learn how.

ST Math

What It Is: ST Math uses the Spatial-Temporal patented approach, manipulating objects in space and time. The program starts by teaching the foundational concepts visually, then connects the ideas to the symbols, language, and robust discourse. 

What They’re Offering: ST Math is currently free for parents, schools, and districts during the school closures. Learn more here.

Studycat

What It Is: Studycat enables safe and convenient home learning of foreign languages, literacy, and critical thinking via an online app.

What They’re Offering: In support of families affected by coronavirus-related school disruption, they are giving away free use of the Fun Series language learning apps for 30 days.

TCI

What It Is: A K-12 publishing company that creates science and social studies curriculum to enable educators to improve their ability to engage students in a diverse classroom.

What They’re Offering: TCI’s online platform is now available to all teachers and students to use whether or not they are a current customer. Teachers can email their support team to get free access to their platform via info@teachtci.com.

Twig Education

What It Is: Twig offers a variety of tools including twig Science tools for elementary school students, twig Secondary for grades 6-12, and free grade-level packets for distance learning.

What They’re Offering: Free resources. Click here for specific details.

Voces Digital

What It Is: These online learning resources are specifically for those who teach French, Spanish, and ESL. Students get audio and video, interactive writing and speaking exercises, and more.

What They’re Offering: Schools closed due to the outbreak can get free access to Voces Digital for their teachers and students until June 30, 2020. Contact them here.

Free Online Learning Resources

Use these ready-to-implement resources in your virtual classrooms

Albert

What It Is: Albert is an online practice and assessment resource for core topics grades 6-12. Teachers can assign modules and track student progress. Albert’s online learning resources include practice questions for a wide variety of AP programs too. It’s best used as a companion to other online teaching methods like web conferencing since it’s meant to review information students have already been learning.

What They’re Offering: In addition to their 30-day free pilot program, schools closed due to the outbreak can get a free extended pilot for as long as the closure lasts. Contact them here.

Canva

What is is: A great way to engage your students in rich and authentic learning experiences that reflect the challenges they’ll face in the real world. Our intuitive, drag-and-drop tools make visual communication easy, so students can spend more time interacting and responding effectively to their learning. Canva is optimised for Chromebook and fully cross-platform.

ChemMatters Online

What It Is: This is a terrific resource for middle school and high school science teachers. Each issue provides a new collection of articles on chemistry topics that students will find engaging and relatable. The back-issue online library offers interesting downloadable articles on all sorts of chemistry-related topics, while the Teacher’s Guides help you direct your students as they learn from their reading. 

What They’re Offering: These online learning resources are always free for everyone. Learn more here.

DeltaMath

What It Is: DeltaMath is a website that allows teachers to assign math practice content to their students. Students get immediate feedback as they complete the problems.

What They’re Offering: DeltaMath is always free. Check it out here.

HippoCampus

What It Is: Find more than 7,000 videos in 13 subject areas to share with your students. Teachers can set up playlists for their students too.

What They’re Offering: HippoCampus is always free to use. Sign up here.

Kialo

What It Is: Kialo Edu is a custom version of kialo.com, the world’s largest argument mapping site. It includes unique features, such as the ability to write student feedback.

What They’re Offering: Kialo Edu is always completely free for educators, has no advertisements, and can be integrated into learning management systems. 

LabXchange

What It Is: A free platform where students and teachers can discover, create, and remix content to build their own learning journey. The content library contains high-quality digital resources from universities and scientific organizations worldwide … including interactive lab simulations, videos, assessments, and more. With private classes, messaging, and mentorship functions, educators can easily plan and deliver lessons, including teaching lab skills, virtually while connecting their students to a broader scientific community.

What They’re Offering: LabXchange is always free for all users. To support educators in transitioning to online learning, educators can explore theur remote learning resources and sign up for a free webinar.

Mangahigh

What It Is: Mangahigh is a popular game-based site for math online learning resources. It covers algebra, geometry, statistics, and more.

What They’re Offering: Mangahigh is offering free full access to any school shut down during the outbreak. Learn more here.

Popfizz Computer Science

What It Is: Popfizz CS is a computer science education platform for grades 6-12. Popfizz offers a wide range of online student courses and professional development for educators.

What They’re Offering: Schools can get access to Popfizz courses for free until July 1, 2020. Fill out this form to get set up. 

Seneca

What It Is:They use neuroscience and AI to help students learn 2x faster across 400+ free & exam board-specific courses.

What They’re Offering: They offer a free teacher platform that allows teachers to set assignments and monitor students’ progress.

Shmoop

What It Is:Thousands of free study guides, test prep, and video learning resources.

What They’re Offering:Free access to schools during closures.

VidCode

What It Is: VidCode is an online coding and computer science curriculum specifically for teens. It teaches JavaScript, web programming, design, and more.

What They’re Offering: Schools can get access to VidCode’s course for free until at least May 2020. Contact them here.

Vocabbett

What It Is: SAT and ACT vocabulary prep through story form.

What They’re Offering: An entire freebies section that includes games, vocabulary-boosting short stories, and more.

Vooks

What it is: Vooks brings children's books to life with animated illustrations, read-a-long text and narrated story. The ad-free platform features a variety of titles that have been engaging students all across the world.

What they're offering: They are offering a free first year of Vooks exclusively to all school teachers.

Zinc Learning Labs

What It Is: Online close reading instruction, leveled authentic texts with comprehension quizzes, and gamified vocabulary for grades 6-12.

What They’re Offering: Free use of our online literacy tools through the end of the school year.

Online Resources

These sites allow you to follow your existing lesson plans by creating your own online learning resources. Some also provide the platforms you need to host virtual interactive multimedia classrooms.

Book Creator

What It Is: Book Creator is an easy-to-use tool that helps you create fun and engaging online books. They have lots of suggestions for how you can create and use books with students at any level.

What They’re Offering: Teachers always receive one free library with 40 shareable books when they sign up. Schools impacted by COVID-19/coronavirus can also receive free access to the collaborative tools. Learn more here.

Buncee

What It Is: This platform gives teachers the ability to create online lessons, boards for students to share their thoughts and work, and collaborative learning spaces. It provides teachers the ability to easily communicate with kids and parents, too. 

What They’re Offering: Buncee offers free online access to any school closed due to the outbreak. Click here to learn more.

ClassDojo

What It Is: Not using ClassDojo yet? Now’s the time to start! This school communication tool makes it easy to stay in touch and track student progress too.

What They’re Offering: ClassDojo is always free for teachers. Sign up here.

Conover Academy

What It Is: Life Skills Academy is based on the concept of video modeling, where users watch someone do the desired behavior and then they do it.

What They’re Offering: Our Life Skills Academy program free for the next 3 months to help with school closures using code: FREE3MONTHS

Deck Toys

What It Is: This platform helps teachers create and share online lessons using their easy tools. The ability to offer differentiated paths within the same lesson is a nice feature. 

What They’re Offering: This site is always free, but requires teachers and students to have Google or Microsoft accounts. Learn more.

EdModo

What It Is: Communicate with students, share documents and assignments, and provide collaborative space with this platform. EdModo also offers good resources for helping you understand how to make distance learning work for your students.

What They’re Offering: EdModo is always free for teachers, parents, and students. Sign up here.

EdPuzzle

What It Is: This site lets you create interactive online lessons using a video clip of your choice. It provides accountability and tracking for student progress, too.

What They’re Offering: Basic plans are always free, and they’re offering additional resources to schools closed due to COVID-19/coronavirus. Contact them here.

Edulastic

What It Is:Edulastic is an online K-12 assessment tool. It allows teachers to make their own assessments and assignments or choose from over 35,000 pre-made assessments.

What They’re Offering: Edulastic always offers Free-Forever Teacher accounts. They’re also offering free access to some Premium features through July 1, 2020. Learn more here.

Explain Everything Whiteboard

What It Is: Create interactive lessons and collaborative spaces for your virtual classroom with these real-time tools.

What They’re Offering: Schools closed due to the outbreak can get free extended access. Contact them here.

FlipGrid

What It Is: Students and teachers record short videos to document and share their learning on a subject. It’s kind of like social media for learning, and it’s a great way to stay in touch.

What They’re Offering: FlipGrid is always free for educators with a Google or Microsoft account. Sign up here.

Genially

What It Is: Genially offers interactive visual communication tools to create presentations, interactive images, infographics, and more.

What They’re Offering: Many of their premium templates and resources are now available for free, for everyone. Learn more about their offerings here.

Google Classroom

What It Is: Many teachers have already started using this readily-available resource for their classrooms. These tools are going to become even more valuable as schools convert to distance learning. There’s a lot to explore here, but most of it is easy to use, so don’t be afraid to dive in.

What They’re Offering: Google Classroom is always free, but if it’s new to you, we recommend this quick overview guide.

Hapara

What It Is: Get the most out of Google Classroom and other Google tools with this platform. They offer webinars and other resources to help teachers create and manage the best virtual classrooms.

What They’re Offering: Hapara is providing free access to schools affected by COVID-19/coronavirus through June 2020. Contact them here.

Parlay

What It Is: It’s hard to hold class discussions with no class, right? That’s where this site comes in. It provokes and encourages thoughtful conversations among students online.

What They’re Offering: Parlay is free for all schools through at least April 30. Existing paid users can get a code to make their accounts free until then too. Learn more here.

Pronto

What It Is: Pronto is a communications hub that connects people via chat and video. It’s one option for hosting a virtual classroom.

What They’re Offering: Pronto is free for educators at this time. Request your free access here.

SmartdsMusic

What It Is: Keep your music students practicing at home with this online music classroom. You can track student progress, and they’ll get instant feedback from the online tools. 

What They’re Offering: SmartMusic is offering free access through June 30, 2020 for all schools impacted by the outbreak. Contact them here.

start.me

What It Is: Start.me enables teachers to create an easy start hub for their classroom. This start hub makes it easy for students to access all their educational resources and tools.

What They’re Offering: The basic version is already free, but they are also offering the PRO version also for free to all educators around the world.

Webex

What It Is: Companies across the world use Webex to keep their teams in contact remotely. They offer lots of tools that are ideal for taking your classes online.

What They’re Offering: Webex is offering free access to all schools right now, along with resources and tips on using it as a virtual classroom. Learn more here.

Zoom

What It Is: Project your lessons in group settings with zoom. You can even record the sessions for students who need to review later. This video and audio conferencing tool has a chat functionality where students can ask questions as you teach.

What They’re Offering: In certain countries affected by the virus, Zoom is lifting its 40-minute time limit for the free Basic accounts. Learn more here.