online education learning activities

• Grades 6-12
• School Leaders

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350+ Amazing Online Learning Resources

There are so many ways to extend classroom learning.

With school districts starting the 2020/2021 school year online, parents and teachers are continually looking for online learning resources. Teachers have been tasked with delivering lesson plans and classroom activities as part of distance learning. Parents are trying to keep students on track with their studies and educational growth. We are here to help! This growing list offers a wealth of resources for all ages of students, parents, and teachers!

• Elementary Online Learning Resources
• Middle and High School Online Learning Resources

K-12 Online Learning Resources

Remote learning and virtual classroom platforms, professional development & training, online resources for kids in grades k-5.

These sites have ready-to-use lesson plans and activities for a vast amount of subjects for younger students.

ABCmouse Early Learning Academy

• What It Is: This comprehensive program covers a wide variety of subjects for students aged 2-8 (Pre-K through second grade). It offers more than 850 self-guided lessons across 10 levels. A companion program focuses on teaching English as a second language for this age group.

Adventure Academy

• What It Is: This MMO game gives kids something other online learning resources may lack: a sense of community. Students up to age 13 play games to learn across a range of topics (math, reading, social studies, science, and more), while also creating their own online persona and interacting with others in the game.

Aperture Education

• What It Is: Aperture Education is providing free Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Growth Strategies for educators and parents.
• What They’re Offering: Both are accessible online for free here- Aperture Education .

AWE Learning

• What It Is: Pre-loaded digital learning solutions for early learners, ages 2-12.
• What They’re Offering: Free printables for parents and students to use at home.

ASL Literacy Activities

• What It Is: Daily free resources and activities in American Sign Language and English, for young deaf children ages 3-10. They offer weekly activities based on their award-winning VL2 Storybook Apps to support bilingual language development. It is run by Motion Light Lab , part of a research center on Visual Language and Visual Learning at Gallaudet University.
• What They’re Offering: Free access to Motion Light Lab’s award-winning VL2 ASL Storybook Apps . Every week, the Motion Light Lab offers a free Storybook App which includes daily offerings in ASL and English, live storytelling “sign aloud” on Mondays, and an ASL/English literacy lesson live-streamed every Wednesday on YouTube featuring deaf narrators and accompanying worksheets for a deeper dive into each story.

Beanstack Distance Learning Reading Challenge

• What It Is: Zoobean’s new Beanstack Distance Learning Reading Challenge, sponsored by Lerner Publishing Group, promotes independent student reading through the use of best-in-class digital learning resources with free access to the Lerner™ Sports Database, featuring athlete biographies using digital literacy tools that correlate with curriculum standards.
• What They’re Offering: Zoobean and Lerner invite all interested school districts to participate, even if they are not current customers of either organization; free product licenses will be provided for those that need them. In addition, Lerner pledges to donate new books to the winning institutions upon completion of the challenge.

Bamboo Learning

• What It Is: Free, voice-based educational applications for students in grades K-5 (available on all Alexa devices, including Fire tablets, Echo Dot, Echo Show, and Fire TV) that promote active conversational learning, cover a range of academic subjects (math, ELA/listening comprehension, social studies), and focus on fun, home-based, family-friendly learning.
• What They’re Offering: Free voice-based resources to help students in the areas of language development and listening comprehension, mental math, and social studies. Parents can use a web-based dashboard (Bamboo Grove) to follow their children’s progress.
• What It Is: A math platform for Grades 1-6 that makes learning fun and personalized. Teachers and parents are able to track student progress remotely and quickly identify learning gaps.
• What They’re Offering: Boddle’s math game platform is available at no cost to educators, parents, and students dealing with school closures due to Covid-19.

Boreal Tales

• What It Is: A literary and artistic creation platform designed to motivate school students to write. Aimed at Grades 1-8, Boreal Tales also allows teachers to track student progress and give specific, personalized feedback.
• What They’re Offering: Free trial.
• What It Is: BrainPop offers in-depth learning on topics across the curriculum for upper elementary and middle school students. Each topic includes videos, quizzes, related reading, and even coding activities. Teachers have access to planning and tracking resources too. They also offer BrainPop Jr. , specially designed for younger kids.
• What They’re Offering: All schools get free access to their COVID-19/coronavirus online learning resources for talking to students about the topic.

Breakout EDU

• What It Is: Breakout EDU uses online games to bring the fun of escape rooms to learning across the elementary curriculum.
• What They’re Offering: They’ve put together a list of free online games kids can play at home. Click here to see them.

Brookes Publishing

• What It Is: Resources to help early childhood, special education, and communication & language professionals during this time of uncertainty.
• What They’re Offering: A number of free resources as well as a thrice-weekly chat with various authors and education experts.

Carrot-Top Educational Resources

• What It Is: Educational Resource Worksheets in PDF format that can be downloaded by students and teachers who are working from home.
• What They’re Offering: Resources are always free!

Carson Dellosa Education

• What It Is: Products that inspire learning moments at school, at home, and everywhere in between.
• What They’re Offering: Free educational resource worksheets, activities, and readers in PDF format that can be downloaded by parents and teachers.

The Character Tree

• What It Is: A character education video subscription series for K-2 students that highlight positive character traits, exemplified by prominent figures.

Classroom Champions

• What It Is: A nonprofit and charity, Classroom Champions connects volunteer Olympians, Paralympians, Student-Athletes, and Professional Athletes to K-8 classrooms through a social and emotional based curriculum and mentorship experience.

Clever Tykes  

• What It Is: Entrepreneurial storybooks and resources for 6-9 year-olds, inspiring positivity, innovation, independence, resilience, and resourcefulness.
• What They’re Offering:  Free printable activity packs full of activities like word searches, coloring pages, and puzzles, all while exploring the entrepreneurial lessons of the Clever Tykes books
• What It Is: A fun and educational game-based environment where kids learn to code without any prior experience. After completing CodeMonkey’s award-winning coding courses, kids will be able to navigate through the programming world with a sense of confidence and accomplishment.

CreositySpace

• What It Is: A unique inquiry-based, learner-directed science curriculum that connects ALL K-5 students to science and capitalizes on their creativity and curiosity at a time when they ask, “What do I want to do when I grow up?”
• What They’re Offering: CreositySpace is providing lessons from their Contagion Crushers, Water Watchers, and Conscientious Chemists units at no cost to help support teachers, parents, and guardians to keep all kids engaged in science.

Curriculum Associates

• What It Is: Curriculum Associates is offering printable activity packs and guidance for educators and student families to support learning at home. The content, which is available for Grades K-8 for both reading and math, comes in both English and Spanish.
• What They’re Offering: Free printable activity packs.
• What It Is: Virtual Manipulatives are a great way to enhance at-home learning. Simply drag the manipulatives into position to see math concepts come alive!
• What They’re Offering: Free resources and Downloadable Activities .
• What It Is: Digital activity packs help take children beyond the book, engaging with their imagination and creativity as they color, draw, play, and write.
• What They’re Offering: Free resources for teachers and parents.
• What It Is: edHelper is online service that provides printable worksheets to teachers and homeschooling parents.
• What They’re Offering: EdHelper is providing daily free workbook pages for grades K-6. Click to see the offering today !

Educational Insights

• What It Is: Educational Insights is providing families with activities and printables that spark children’s curiosity and helps keep their education moving in the right direction. The educational toy company has also partnered with Mensa for Kids to provide even more valuable resources to support learning through play in areas such as STEM, reading and creativity.
• What They’re Offering: Thousands of FREE games, printable worksheets, DIY ideas and crafts, as well as daily uploads of “Home’s Cool with Educational Insights,” a video series on fun, educational activities for parents to recreate at home with household items.
• What It Is: Turn writing assignments into something amazing with the illustrations, animations, and sound effects available. Kids can even write their own choose-your-own-adventure story!

Emotional ABCs

• What It Is: This research-based emotional skills program is designed for children ages 4-11 and gives kids practical tools for dealing with impulse control, frustration, and acting out. Emotional ABCs teaches children how to figure out what they’re feeling, why they’re experiencing that emotion, and how to make better choices for lifetime emotional resilience.

Essential Skills  

• What It Is: Online K-6 reading, math, and ELL programs that can be individualized to the needs of each student. It includes pretests, custom teacher assignments and automatic tracking of student results.
• What They’re Offering:  A free, no-obligations 45 day trial period.
• What It Is: Three beta-stage eLearning tools from the scientists in their R&D division to help improve reading, writing, and English language speaking skills.
• What it is: FabuLingua teaches Spanish through interactive stories on mobile phones and tablets. Their unique method is designed to introduce the new language in a way that subconsciously develops the child’s ear, comprehension, and reading skills. They offer a new charming interactive story from Latin America or Spain every month, along with associated games and a Magic Sticker Book where they get to create their own compositions.
• What They’re Offering: FabuLingua is offering a free trial period and reduced subscription rates to all new members. Click here from your mobile device  to go straight to the app or download them from the App Store or Google Play.

First In Math

• What It Is: First in Math is a supplemental, online math program that allows children to practice MATH! More than 200 self-paced, grade-level math games help stimulate curiosity and foster creativity in ways that help children make sense of the numbers, patterns, and shapes they see in the world around them.
• What They’re Offering: First In Math is available to School Administrators and Teachers. Learn more here- First In Math
• What It Is: These online learning resources for younger students are easily differentiated for students of different ability levels.
• What They’re Offering: Adaptive math and ELA courses are always available for free for teachers and students. Sign up here- Freckle

Funexpected Math

• What It Is: Funexpected Math is an interactive application for kids aged 3-7 featuring a growing collection of math-related games that teach various types of thinking and improve learning skills. The app provides a fun and engaging way to introduce fundamental math ideas early and ensure kids are comfortable with math.
• What They’re Offering: Free desktop version of the Funexpected Math application along with a variety of free printables.

Generation Genius

• What It Is: A science teaching resource that brings school science standards to life through fun and educational videos paired with lesson plans, activities, quizzes, reading material, discussion questions, and more.
• What It Is: GFletchy offers a large assortment of 3-Act tasks, math progression videos, and innovative ways to engage with students.
• What They’re Offering: Always free.
• What It Is: Using multimedia Interactive Posters, students can express ideas with ease by combining images, graphics, audio, video, and text on one digital canvas!
• What It Is: Math and literacy content for kids in grades K-5, designed to engage kids without support from parents.
• What They’re Offering: Free daily content including streaming video lessons, taught by teachers, directed towards kids in grades K-5, for both math and literacy. Also find downloadable activities and STEM resources.

Happy Numbers

• What It Is: Happy Numbers helps teachers deliver quality math instruction, monitor progress, and math growth—all remotely. Students can access Happy Numbers from any Internet-enabled device (even a smartphone!).
• What It Is: An online K–5 reading program that adapts to the needs of the individual student. It is self-paced, which makes it ideal for at-home practice.
• What They’re Offering: Free product trials and samples along with introductory discounts.

Hearbuilder

• What it is: HearBuilder, from Super Duper Publications, is an online, research-based, foundational literacy program. It helps students in PreK-Grade 5 strengthen skills in the essential pre-literacy areas of following directions, sequencing, auditory memory and phonological awareness.
• What they’re offering: HearBuilder is available free for 60 days. Teachers, parents and therapists can access self-directed activities and short and targeted tasks for students, as well as tools to monitor student progress. HearBuilder is accessible at school or during distance learning.

Highlights for Children!

• What It Is: Highlights @ Home is a new, free service for families and teachers that delivers themed content bundles twice a week from the well-known children’s magazine creator, Highlights.

Holiday House

• What It Is: Online resources complete with educator guides, lesson plans, and activity sheets.
• What They’re Offering: Free access to their wide array of resources to parents and teachers.
• What It Is: HOMER is the #1 reading program in Apple’s app store for kids 5 & under. It provides kids with a personalized learn-to-read plan offering thousands of lessons on phonics, sight words, ABCs and more, growing with children from age 2-8. In just 15 minutes a day, HOMER Reading has been proven to increase early reading scores by 74%.
• What They’re Offering: HOMER is available for a free 30-day trial, after which a subscription is required.
• What It Is: This program is designed to teach elementary-aged kids the computer skills they need. It’s specifically aligned to learning standards in the UK, but the skills apply to students everywhere.
• What They’re Offering: iCompute is providing a variety of resources created by their in-house author suitable for children ages 4-11.

iknowit.com

• What It Is: iknowit is a site with over 500 common-core aligned activities and math games for students in the elementary grades. The site keeps track of progress, offers graphical hints and explanations, and there are also animated characters to cheer students along.
• What They’re Offering: A free 30 day trial with unlimited access and no credit card required.

Inclined2Learn.com

• What It Is: A platform for reading comprehension passages and skill assessment in early education and home schooling.

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

• What It Is: Entirely free digital arts education resources for students of all ages from the nation’s performing arts center.
• What They’re Offering: Lesson plans, virtual field trips, articles, activities, and videos—carefully curated for educators, families, and students.
• What It Is: A digital Social Studies learning tool for elementary students funded by the Library of Congress.
• What They’re Offering: 8 interactive “episodes” designed for children in Kindergarten-5th grade to engage in age appropriate historical inquiry. KidCitizen is always free to use and works on PCs, Macs, tablets, and Chromebooks.

Kids Discover Online

• What It Is: This library of science and social studies articles allows differentiation by reading level, so you can use these articles for various age and skill levels.
• What They’re Offering: Free access to over 30 units and 200 topics along with subscription plans for at-home, homeschool, and in-school packages.
• What It Is: They offer a K-2 literacy program, with a strong focus on phonics and comprehension.
• What They’re Offering: They have unlocked all parts of their premium program to be entirely free for teachers.

Land of Tales

• What It Is: The Land of Tales’ Movie Books allow young readers to live the magic of their favorite 3D animated tales. The growing Movie Book collection includes classic and original tales, professionally narrated with soothing background music that will enhance children’s listening skills, improve their vocabulary and pronunciation, and foster their imagination and creativity. For younger children, Tales to Watch offer a unique selection of short animated and musical fairy tales.
• What They’re Offering: The Movie Books, Tales to Watch, illustrated tales, and children’s novels are available for free at the link above. You can also download on Google Play or the App Store .

Learning Resources

• What It Is: Through the Learning Resources website, families with kids as young as 18 months old can discover a wide variety of easy-to-implement, hands-on activities — whether they’re working on their ABCs and 123s, trying to keep up with classwork, or focusing on learning language or reading.
• What They’re Offering: 2500+ FREE activities, workbooks, games, and DIY activities by age/grade and subject.
• What It Is: LearnToMod allows students to learn coding through the modding of the popular video game, Minecraft. LearnToMod contains hundreds of coding exercises and puzzles for students to solve in the context of their favorite video game.
• What They’re Offering: LearnToMod is offering free teacher accounts for its Minecraft Modding software. The free teacher account allows teachers to give students free access to LearnToMod, organize students into classes, and spin up Minecraft servers for their students to code. Students need a paid copy of the game Minecraft in order to get the full experience from LearnToMod, but for students without accounts, there is a free, in-browser Minecraft simulator that students are able to mod.
• What It Is: With their #LetsBuildTogether program, LEGO is helping families and fans unite with joyful moments and positive experiences.
• What They’re Doing: For families at home they have entertainment and learning content, including daily build challenges and fun LEGO lessons.
• What It Is: Literably is a reading assessment for K-8 students that identifies A-Z reading levels, diagnoses skill gaps, screens students for reading difficulties, and monitors progress. Their web and iOS apps record students reading out loud into a device as well as answering several comprehension questions allowing instructors to review the capabilities of their students.
• What They’re Offering: Literably offers 10 free assessments per month, plus a 2-week whole-class free trial.
• What It Is: MentalUP is a UK-based award-winning scientific-educational application containing cognitive learning games for K-8 learners.
• What They’re Offering: Free online subscriptions.
• What It Is: MetaCoders is a nationwide, non-profit coding education group that normally teaches after-school programs, camps, and workshops through the United States.
• What They’re Offering: MetaCoders is offering daily coding lessons to beginner through intermediate coding students of all ages. Curricula in these lessons cover everything from computer science concepts to thinking like a coder.

Mentoring Minds

• What It Is: Mentoring Minds impacts millions of students every day by partnering with principals and teachers across the country to improve student achievement and teach critical thinking. Find educator resources that focus on the 9 traits of Critical Thinking.
• What They’re Offering: Free coloring book in English and Spanish , as well as a new animated video series .
• What It Is: Mindsets Live Classes and Open Math Challenges help teachers & families keep learning going in math, science, & STEAM with fun and creative real-world problem-solving.
• What It Is: This popular differentiated learning site provides instruction across a wide array of elementary subjects. Available for at-home instruction and classroom instruction, online training on effectively using the site is also available.

Musical Explorers

• What It Is: A free music curriculum from Carnegie Hall, Musical Explorers is a one-stop shop for all the resources you need to bring cultural diversity to your classroom—through real artists who share authentic music from their cultures.
• What They’re Offering: Resources are always free. Learn more here- Musical Explorers

Mystery Science

• What It Is: Mystery Science offers digital video mini-lessons for science subjects K-5.
• What They’re Offering: Mystery Science is always free, but they’ve put together a special list of lessons grade-by-grade that are perfect for tackling remotely. Find it here.
• What It Is: Authentic content turned into learning materials that are classroom-ready for teachers of all subjects and grades.
• What They’re Offering: Newsela is making their entire product suite freely available to teachers and districts, and has published free distance learning resources. Access to products and resources are available at the Newsela coronavirus resource center.

ORIGO Education

• What It Is: ORIGO Education is offering a collection of free math learning resources to support teachers, parents, and caregivers as they strive to keep students engaged and continually learning. ORIGO at Home features free weekly digital plans for home use. These weekly plans contain activities for each day, along with digitally accessible or downloadable resources, designed for delivery by a parent, caregiver, or remote teacher.
• What They’re Offering: Free resources for learning elementary math at home.
• What It Is: PebbleGo offers safe, interactive online research resources on topics selected by their teachers for students K-3.
• What It Is: Penworthy is dedicated to promoting children’s literacy by helping schools and libraries build collections that circulate and endure.
• What They’re Offering: Coloring pages, mazes, word games, simple crafts, and easy-to-follow activity guides are free for teachers to use for children PK-6th grade.
• What It Is: Hands-on, minds-on learning can happen anywhere and everywhere. If you’re looking for STEMspiration because of an unexpected homeschooling need, you’re in the midst of an uncommon education experience, or you just want to have some STEM fun, Pitsco has great resources that are always available for free.
• What It Is: Get game-based learning in math for kids from first to eighth grade. The site offers lots of how-to articles to make distance learning effective and fun.
• What They’re Offering: The basic Prodigy site is always free. Sign up here- Prodigy
• What It Is: Puku is a great way to keep kids engaged and learning vocabulary at home, and parents will feel good about giving their kids quality screen time.
• What They’re Offering: Puku offers a free 7 day trial; you can also extend the learning with these free corresponding vocabulary activity sheets .

Purple Mash  

• What It Is: This British company’s site hosts games and creative learning opportunities for elementary level math, spelling, and writing. Teachers can set daily tasks for students, create a blog, and find other ways to communicate.
• What They’re Offering: Purple Mash is offering free extended 30 day trials here along with various free resources on their website.

Reading Eggs

• What It Is: Serving a wide range of children ages 2-13, Reading Eggs has created a fun, interactive, and award-winning reading program that over 10 million parents trust to help teach their children to read!
• What They’re Offering: A free 30-day trial of their program as well as hundreds of free educational printouts on their website.

QuaverMusic  

• What It Is: QuaverMusic is a world leader in online curriculum development for grades Pre-K to 8.
• What They’re Offering: QuaverMusic offers K-8 general music teachers a platform to stay connected to their students, no matter where they are. Along with a free 30-day trial ( learn more here- QuaverMusic ), QuaverMusic offers free resources and a free webinar series to help instructors keep class moving and stay connected to students.
• What It Is: ReadingIQ is a comprehensive digital library offering books, magazines, comics, and more for kids from ages 2-12. It’s a smart replacement for library time right now and makes it possible for teachers to monitor what and how much their students are reading.
• What They’re Offering: Age of Learning offers a free 30 day trial and discounted annual subscription rate.

Reading Horizons

• What It Is: Teachers and parents can keep their child’s reading instruction moving forward with Reading Horizons’ library of virtual webinars and lessons. Past webinars such as Best Practices for Virtual Reading Instruction will be available on-demand on YouTube, as well as upcoming webinars revolving around student progress monitoring in a virtual setting.
• What They’re Offering: Resources and their Online Professional Development Course for free!
• What It Is: Produced by RedRover, Kind News magazine is a Parent’s Choice Approved Award winning children’s magazine that inspires readers to explore the relationship between people and animals. It includes engaging articles, colorful illustrations, activities, and games to help kids explore the relationship between people and animals and develop knowledge and skills necessary for empathy and kindness.
• What They’re Offering:   KindNews.org includes free lesson plans, links to past issues, and humane-themed books.

RV AppStudios

• What It Is: Kids apps for math, reading, tracing, and more.
• What They’re Offering: Downloads of RV AppStudios apps are free!
• What It Is: Scholastic created the Scholastic Learn at Home website to provide students with an array of learning journeys that span various content areas. Subscriptions include several learning opportunities per day, including projects based on articles and stories, virtual field trips, reading and geography challenges, and more.
• What It Is: Seekadoo is a safe, kid-friendly search engine app for children ages 3-13. Seekadoo’s content database is carefully curated to ensure appropriate material for children and integrated ad-blocking eliminates tracking and monetization of children’s data so their digital footprints remain private.

Seussville.com

• What It Is: Welcome to the wonderful world of Dr. Seuss! Seussville includes multiple sections, including one area dedicated to the parents of small ones, full of activities, crafts, and printables. In the Educator section of Seussville, there are resources for supplemental activities for Art, Science, Math, Social Studies, and Language Arts.
• What They’re Offering: Resources are always free, and more are being added regularly. Other areas of the site offer children the opportunity to explore Dr. Seuss books and characters, play games, and watch video clips.

Simple Solutions

• What It Is: Educational activities that can be done in mere minutes! Topics include reading, science, social studies, study skills, and problem solving.
• What They’re Offering: Simple Solutions provides their wide variety of resources at no cost.
• What It Is: Smartick is an intelligent, app-based, e-Learning program that teaches children Math and Coding – from the comfort of home – in 15 minutes per day. The program focuses on Math and Coding, but also develops a child’s critical thinking faculties through a series of complex logic and reasoning exercises built into the programs self-generating, adaptive curriculum. The technology developed by Smartick uses self-learning artificial intelligence to regulate and continuously adapt to each child’s individual academic level, curating a curriculum specifically and uniquely designed for each learner.
• What They’re Offering: Smartick offers a free trial, after which a subscription is required.

Sparky Schoolhouse

• What It Is: Brought to you the NFPA, find lessons, videos, and games providing kids with information about fire prevention and safety.
• What They’re Offering: Sparkly Schoolhouse resources are free and include lesson plans for K-2 and 3-5 .

SplashLearn

• What It Is: Curriculum aligned, game-based learning in math for kids from Kindergarten to Grade 5. It is an excellent tool for teachers to assign math practice for remote learning. It also comes with Clever, PowerSchool, and Google rostering capabilities that allow schools and districts to adopt easily.
• What They’re Offering: SplashLearn is free for teachers and will remain so even after the COVID-19 crisis is over.

Square Panda

• What It Is: The Square Panda Smart Letters playset engages children’s tactile and kinesthetic as well as visual and auditory senses, because neuroscience shows that early readers learn best in a multisensory environment.

Studies Weekly Online

• What It Is: A Utah-based educational company that creates customized, standards-based curriculum for Social Studies and Science, founded on integrated learning strategies that increase student knowledge, skills, and dispositions.
• What They’re Offering: They are providing Studies Weekly Online to all schools as a free trial online. The online platform includes all student editions, Teacher Editions, lesson plans, English Language Arts integrations, customizable assessments, and pairs with the company’s periodical-based printed materials.
• What It Is: An online learning tool which provides personalized math and spelling practice. It adapts questions to each student, using engaging games and rewards for effort and achievement to build their confidence, and is proven to accelerate progress. Teachers can set focused work to consolidate existing knowledge and get real-time feedback on each individual child, making it an ideal home learning tool.

Super Duper Digital Library

• What it is: Super Duper Publications has created an online library of its most popular print materials to provide access for teachers and parents doing distance and hybrid/blended learning.
• What they’re offering: The Super Duper Digital Library is available at a discounted rate of 199.95 for an annual subscription or $19.95 for a monthly subscription. It provides more than 365 standards-based online resources (with more being added daily) for students PreK-Grade 5. Resources include unique, engaging instructional games, cards, and worksheets to target specific skills, such as basic concepts, literacy, grammar, social skills, critical thinking, sequencing, listening, early skills, articulation, phonemic awareness, memory, motor skills, sensory integration, phonics, reading, and more.

Super Star Online

• What It Is: Super Star Online, by Help Me 2 Learn, is a supplemental reading, phonics, and math program featuring a wide variety of songs, interactive activities, and games in an engaging and easy-to-use format. Features include the Super Star Motivational and Data Tracking System.

Super Teacher Worksheets

• What It Is: Super Teacher Worksheets has tens of thousands of printable teaching resources for Kindergarten through 5th grade teachers and parents working with Pre-K through 5th grade students. Topics include math, reading, writing, phonics, grammar, spelling, science, and social studies.

Teach Starter

• What It Is: Easily download ready-to-use, Common Core aligned teaching resources expertly designed for Pre-K to 6th grade school teachers and their students.
• What They’re Offering: Various free instruction packets and resources along with a discounted annual subscription rate.
• What It Is: Keep learning going whether your student is at home or in school. Terrapin offers several resources students can use to capture the excitement of robots and coding without leaving home.
• What They’re Offering: Free coding robot apps and age-targeted STEM Activity Workbooks.

TheaterWorks Anywhere

• What It Is: A digital series that aims to give young people a fun and active way to use their imaginations while learning about the process of creating theater.

Tinkergarten

• What It Is: Educational activities designed for learning at various ages and requiring only basic household items.
• What They’re Offering: Free DIY activity plans, advice, and a virtual community to help the whole family continue to get outside and learn during this challenging time.

Top Score Writing

• What It Is: A nationwide writing curriculum designed for teachers, administrators, and parents. It takes away the stress of finding and developing a curriculum for their students.

Trend Enterprises

• What It Is: Printables for home.
• What They’re Offering: Free learning activities and DIY projects .

The TV Teacher

• What It Is: A program for PreK-1st grade students and those with special needs to learn to write their letters, numbers, and shapes using fun visuals, rhythmic chants, and repetition.
• What It Is: Tynker offers a complete online computer coding curriculum for students K-8. Teachers can get free lessons, projects, and more on the site.
• What They’re Offering: Create a free account as a student, parent, or teacher with access to a set number of activities, then subscribe for full access.
• What It Is: A web-based keyboarding program that teaches students how to type and has unique transdisciplinary Common Core and NGSS aligned content provided through its lessons.

Virtual Field Trips

• What It Is: Virtual Field Trips specializes in K-8 social studies, life science, geography, and ancient civilization curriculum content. Their website has online learning videos and quizzes along with a list of the national and state Standards that the videos align with.
• What It Is: An easy-to-use platform designed to empower K-8 students to master math content at their own pace.
• What It Is: Vooks is a streaming library of ad-free, kid-safe animated read-aloud storybooks, trusted by teachers and enjoyed by millions of children around the world every week. It is an entire library of storybooks, brought to life, to help encourage the love of reading.
• What They’re Offering: Vooks has created take-home lesson plans that can be shared with parents and guardians — built to provide children with 20 minutes a day of read-aloud time and activities. Vooks is offering a free one-year membership to all teachers and a one-month membership for parents .

Workout Skills Review & Practice

• What It Is: Workout Skills Review & Practice workbooks will guide children through grade appropriate review and practice in English and Math. Available for grades 3-8.
• What They’re Offering: School Specialty is providing unrestricted free access to their Workout series designed for grades 3-8 in both reading and math. Broken down into lessons, each Workout provides effective review and practice on grade-level concepts. Download any and all workouts and their matching answer keys.

WriteReader

• What It Is: WriteReader increases students’ digital writing skills significantly in only six weeks. Teachers can also remotely provide feedback to students and have them engaged with meaningful writing activities.
• What They’re Offering: Free basic level membership with subscription upgrades available.
• What It Is: A nonprofit organization dedicated to math achievement for all with activities for achieving math fact proficiency.
• What They’re Offering: Membership is always free.

Zaner Bloser

• What It Is: Suggestions and practice to strengthen kids’ fundamental literacy skills, ideas to entertain and engage home-bound students, and alternatives to the usual screen time activities.
• What They’re Offering: Free downloads and recommended sites.
• What It Is: Top-rated math content available via online or paper-based materials that can be used without a device. Zearn also contains extensive distance learning resources created to support educators and parents/caregivers in getting started quickly. Webinars, video tutorials, and step-by-step guides on their Distance Learning Center are also offered through the website.
• What They’re Offering: Their entire K-5 math program — including 400 hours of digital lessons with on-screen teachers and supportive remediation — is available for free, thanks to donations from the community.

 Online Learning Resources for Grades 6-12

Use these ready-to-implement resources in your virtual classrooms for older learners.

• What It Is: AI4ALL Open Learning empowers high school teachers (of all subjects!) to bring AI education to their classrooms through a free, adaptable AI curriculum.
• What They’re Offering: The AI4ALL Open Learning curriculum includes ExploreAI (an introduction to AI), Sentiment Analysis + Natural Language Processing, and a special lesson on COVID-19 & AI. Each Unit comes with detailed Unit Plans and Facilitation Guides as well as Online Engagement Strategies for adapting the curriculum to a temporary online classroom setting. Additionally, there are online forums where you can join online discussions of questions posed in the curriculum or create new discussions.
• What It Is: Albert is an online practice and assessment resource for core topics in 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 as it’s meant to review information students have already been learning.
• What They’re Offering: Albert offers a free 30-day pilot program.

Arbor Scientific  

• What It Is: A leading provider of Physics and Physical Science teaching equipment tested and approved by educators recognized for their expertise.
• What They’re Offering:  Free resources being offered by Arbor Scientific include a collection of video resources created by the best science educators from across the country demonstrating how to teach really cool science concepts in your classroom or remotely, a collection of free questions on basic physics concepts to give to your students by renowned physics teacher Paul Hewitt, and much more!

Areteem Zoom International Math League (ZIML)  

• What It Is: Zoom International Math League (ZIML) is an educational program to help students expand their mathematical problem solving by practicing every day.
• What They’re Offering:  ZIML features free Daily Practice Problems (Daily Magic Spells) at varying levels, including full solutions and an archive of past problems. Other practice resources include discussion forums, math competition mock exams, and monthly contests. Teachers can learn more here- (ZIML) .

BBC My World Media Literacy

• What It Is: BBC Learning and Microsoft Education, in partnership with BBC World Service, deliver a powerful media literacy initiative for educators and students ages 11 through 14, designed to help students determine fact from fiction in the news.
• What They’re Offering: This suite of standards-aligned resources includes 10 lesson plans with curriculum extensions, 10 dynamically produced video segments from BBC World Service, and a professional development introduction video to help educators kick start the use of the My World education element in their classrooms. Access standards-aligned educator resources for FREE in the Microsoft Educator Center , and view complete BBC My World episodes on the My World YouTube channel .

Beast Academy Online

• What It Is: A complete web-based math curriculum designed to help students ages 8-13 deepen their understanding of math.

Bio-Rad Explorer

• What It Is: Extensive curated collection of resources on various biology, biotechnology, and life science topics and lab techniques.
• What They’re Offering: Free online and remote learning resources including videos, editable presentations, case studies, open-access articles and literature, paper activities, and bioinformatics activities.

Carnegie Learning

• What It Is: Math lessons, skills practice resources, and at-home learning videos for grade 6-12 students.

Carnegie Speech

• What It Is: NativeAccent delivers spoken English skills practice with targeted feedback to students on their computers and mobile devices using advanced speech recognition and A.I. technologies.

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- ChemMatters Online

Close Up Foundation

• What It Is: A nonprofit, nonpartisan civic education organization that educates and inspires young people to become informed and engaged citizens. Drawing on their issue-centered methodology, nonpartisan approach, and expertise in facilitated discussions, Close Up provides educators with virtual and in-person programs, innovative professional development, and engaging classroom resources.
• What They’re Offering: Free classroom resources and on-demand professional development .

The Coding School  

• What It Is: Software engineers from some of the leading technology companies, including Google, Facebook, and Amazon, are volunteering their time to help students learn how to code while schools are closed.

Create with Code Live

• What It Is: Free, interactive virtual classes open to students, teachers, and anyone else interested in learning to code in a fun and engaging manner through game development. The program is aligned to ISTE Standards for computer science education.
• What It Is: DeltaMath is a website that allows teachers to assign math practice content to their students from middle school through AP calculus. Students get immediate feedback as they complete the problems.
• What They’re Offering: DeltaMath is always free. Check it out here.

Esri GIS for Schools

• What It Is: GeoInquiries™ are free, standards-based, online explorations of maps and data about a wide variety of content plus an initial introduction . Any school can also request a free account with logins for teachers and students, so they can create, save, and share content, with free Mapping Hour videos to instruct teachers and parents.
• What They’re Offering: Free online content and accounts for schools on an interactive mapping platform. Learn More .

Everydae SAT Prep

• What It Is: Everydae is an online SAT math prep program. 10-minute micro lessons match busy schedules. Built by industry experts with 17+ years industry experience.
• What It Is: The site offers live streams, trivia battles and Q&A forums where students can connect directly with teachers across 15 different AP subjects within English, STEM, History, and Social Sciences.
• What They’re Offering: Free social learning platform for students and teachers.
• What It Is: Teaches STEM and STEAM with a game design focus. GameSalad is best suited for 6th grade and up depending on student readiness. Detailed instructions for students and full lesson plans for teachers make a great introduction to coding.

Gleeditions Literary E-ditions

• What It Is: For high school-college educators and students, Gleeditions features online e-texts and curated videos of classic favorites, ancient to modern.
• What They’re Offering: In addition to a free trial of their Academic Edition, Gleeditions is offering access to popular titles in their Multigenre E-text Collection and Video Library (carefully curated clips/full performances).

Glose Education

• What It Is: An inclusive social reading platform where teachers and students can read and learn together.
• What They’re Offering: Free collection of over 4,000 classic books.

GSD Network

• What It Is: A great resource for engaging students in cross-cultural, “real-world” stories of teens from around the world. Best for grades 7-9 (but can be used grades 10-12 too), they delve deep into the heart of far-flung places to explore local history, culture, and teens creating social change in their communities. Great for social studies (covers many standards) or Language Arts classes (reading and vocab).
• What They’re Offering: Two full unit curricular programs (2-3 weeks each) or short stories featured in their E-Magazine (1-2 day activities). Learn more here- GSD Network

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- HippoCampus
• What It Is: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor founded iCivics in 2009 to transform the field through innovative, free educational video games and lessons that teach students to be knowledgeable, curious, and engaged in civic life. Today, iCivics is the nation’s largest provider of civic education curriculum, with our resources used by over 113,000 educators and more than 7.1 million students each year nationwide.
• What They’re Offering: iCivics is always free to use. Learn more here- iCivics
• What It Is: A unique cultural immersion resource for Spanish, French and German language learning for grades 6-12. iCulture offers travel videos, day in the life videos, current news articles, and songs that are all 100% target language, age and school appropriate, and include topics of interest to teens and young adults.

Intelligent Education

• What It Is: Provides more than 30 premade courses in a variety of topics taught by expert, credentialed educators for use either as primary or supplemental education. These courses are aimed at high schoolers and up. Topics include biology, history, the arts, and more (even AP calculus!). All are full eight-week courses, but can be viewed as individual lessons.
• What They’re Offering: Free services available.

Island Press  

• What It Is: There’s a climate crisis and education can help fix it. Island Press began with a simple idea: knowledge is power — the power to imagine a better future and find ways for getting us there.
• What They’re Offering:  Since being founded in 1984, Island Press’ mission has been to provide the best ideas and information to those seeking to understand and protect the environment and create solutions to its complex problems. It is in that spirit that they offer more than a dozen important e-books for free.
• 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.
• 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 remote learning resources and sign up for a free webinar .

Learning.com

• What It Is: A hub of opportunities for both parents and educators focused on digital literacy, coding, and computational thinking. Find lesson plans covering a range of digital literacy and computational topics, full access to the EasyCode Foundations (CodeMonkey) curriculum and the EasyCode Pillars Python Suite (Codesters) curriculum, and a list of open source lesson plans.
• What They’re Offering: Free resources.
• 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- Mangahigh
• What It Is: Microburst Learning creates highly interactive approaches for professional and technical development!
• What They’re Offering: Microburst is offering FREE content for distance learning. The free content includes an activity to help students develop their planning and organizing skills as well as the “Why Soft Skills” Lesson.
• What It Is: Muzology harnesses the power of music to make math fun and accessible.
• What They’re Offering: FREE for teachers and students affected by Covid-19 closures.

National Constitution Center

• What It Is: The NCC offers Exchange programs for middle school and high school students. Scholar Exchanges are live virtual conversations where students learn about constitutional issues, while interacting with a constitutional scholar, historian, or judge. Teachers can also sign up for Classroom Exchanges where classes interact directly with classes across the United States to practice civil dialogue skills and learn how the constitutional issues impact them.
• What They’re Offering: NCC Classroom Exchanges are always free.

OpenSciEd  

• What It Is: OpenSciEd offers middle schoolers (grades 6-8) science materials that are aligned to college and career standards.
• What They’re Offering:  OpenSciEd’s materials for middle schoolers are accessible online at the link above and are customizable to your class’s needs.

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.

Project Exchange

• What It Is: Project Exchange runs a 12-week online cultural exchange program to help middle & high 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!
• What They’re Offering: Free to participate.
• What It Is: An AI writing platform that has a paraphrasing tool and a summarizer . The website is building a full suite of online writing tools to aid any type of writer.
• What They’re Offering:  All their tools are easily accessible on their website for free.

Read to Lead

• What It Is: RTL is a self-directed way that youth can engage in learning. In one episode of game play, youth will read 500 words, spend 20-30 minutes reading, practice reading comprehension, enhance vocabulary, and more!
• What They’re Offering: Unlimited free educator and student accounts as well as lesson plans, additional reading passages, and project based lessons.

ScienceMusicVideos

• What It Is: An interactive AP Biology course with engaging content and interactive activities in the form of quizzes and flashcards to provide immediate reinforcement of the material. Teachers can assign portions of the course to their students, and track their progress. Or students can work independently and track their own progress!

Science News

• What It Is: Science News for Students and the Science News in High Schools Digital Library includes experiments and more than 200 original STEM-related exercises.
• What They’re Offering: Free, age-appropriate STEM resources for students from 5th through 12th grades, suitable for learning from home.
• 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.
• What It Is: Thousands of free study guides, test prep, and video learning resources.
• What It Is: Turnitin is your partner in fostering original thinking and supporting authentic learning. Turnitin solutions promote academic integrity, streamline grading, and improve outcomes across disciplines.
• What They’re Offering: Turnitin always offers free academic integrity-related classroom resources like the Source Credibility Guide and Paraphrasing Pack, as well as on-demand webinars like Teaching Time Management to 6th – 12th Graders.

UL Xplorlabs

• What It Is: UL Xplorlabs is an educational platform designed to encourage middle school students to solve through science. The program showcases the science behind safety engineering through interactive videos, instructional experiences, hands-on classroom activities and creative challenges.
• What They’re Offering: UL Xplorlabs resources are always free.
• What It Is: An online learning tool for high-stakes exams.
• What They’re Offering: A free, full-length PSAT practice exam that familiarizes students with the format and content of the real test. Each question answered will provide the student with a detailed explanation of the answer choices to help students actively learn and retain concepts.

Vernier Software & Technology

• What It Is: Resources include free trials to Vernier Video Analysis™ and Pivot Interactives, the Vernier Physics with Video Analysis e-book and extended demo of the LoggerPro software needed to complete the experiments, Scratch coding activities, experiment content and access from ADInstruments and LabArchives, and more than 200 experiments with sample data covering a large range of subjects. With these tools, teachers can help students form a deep understanding of key scientific concepts outside the classroom and laboratory.
• What It Is: VidCode is an online coding and computer science curriculum specifically for teens. It teaches JavaScript, web programming, design, and more.
• 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.

A Wonder Story

• What It Is: A Wonder Story is an app with free online middle-grade chapter books. Readings are interactive, asking kids to solve mysteries and puzzles throughout the story. Immediate feedback and approachable text makes each book easy to read. These books are especially great for struggling readers.
• What They’re Offering: Teachers always get A Wonder Story free and families have access to several free options.
• What It Is: A course that provides the basic knowledge on the issues, challenges, and opportunities that people face in today’s connected world.
• What They’re Offering: Free course of multimedia modules that explains the fundamental concepts of international relations and foreign policy.

World History Digital Education

• What It Is: Working together, NCSS and WHDE have created a historical comparison of the Pandemic Flu of 1918, known as The Spanish Flu and Covid-19: Resources for Teaching the Covid-19 Pandemic.
• What They’re Offering: A free, three-day learning module is available here .

Zinc Learning Labs

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

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

3P Learning

• What It Is: Their range of software allows you to find, set, and send activities to your students from anywhere — you just need a device and an internet connection.
• What They’re Offering: Free trials of their distance teaching software along with increased support to get schools up and running. Free weekly live webinars.

Achieve3000

• What It Is : A comprehensive suite of digital solutions that significantly accelerate literacy and deepen learning across the content areas.
• What They’re Offering: Achieve3000 Literacy at Home Digital provides access to engaging non-fiction articles at 3 reading levels. Sign up for a free account here .  Additionally, they are offering Literacy Printable Packets for students who do not have internet access at home.

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.

Anatomy in Clay

• What It Is: For over 30 years, the ANATOMY IN CLAY® Learning System has provided the most effective, informative and relevant anatomy education through the power of hands-on learning.
• What They’re Offering: Access to free resources and publications.

Aperture Education Back to School Guide

• What it is: Aperture Education has created a free Back to School Guide to help teachers support students’ social-emotional learning.
• What they’re offering: The free 2020 Back to School Guide contains more than 40 pages of downloadable resources and articles created by experts and SEL professionals to support SEL in the classroom, in the home, and during distance learning.

Arizona Science Center’s Online Learning Platform

• What It Is: Arizona Science Center offers more than 175 new online learning resources, including weekly lesson plans, videos, articles and activities. Sari on Science interprets what is happening in the changing environment.
• What They’re Offering: Their Blue Crew and educators from the Learning Team offer science content and inspiration on Facebook Live, featuring demonstrations, teaching tips and virtual learning best practices. They also provide professional development for educators every day via Google Hangouts.
• What It Is: A passionate group of educators who know that young students with exposure to the arts become more inspired, creative global citizens. The creativity of the next generation will shape the future, and this creativity begins with arts education in K-12 schools.
• What They’re Offering: Free Access for teachers to on-demand dance and theatre classes and resources from hundreds of world-renowned instructors like tWitch from The Ellen Show, Tiler Peck from New York City Ballet, Broadway professionals like Warren Carlyle, and more! Artful also has free classes that can be forwarded to students as part of online programs.

Ascend Math

• What It Is: K-12 personalized online math instruction that provides each student with a unique study path through skills at each level. Individual study plans are prescriptive, adaptive, and automatically assigned
• What It Is: Audible is the world’s largest producer and provider of spoken-word entertainment and audiobooks, enriching the lives of our millions of listeners every day.
• What They’re Offering: Audible is offering hundreds of free audiobooks for kids. Learn more here- Audible
• 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.

Big Timber Media

• What It Is: An eBook hosting platform for schools and libraries.

BIRDBRAIN Technologies  

• What It Is: Explore robotics and computer science at home! With a robot or virtually.
• What They’re Offering:  They are developing new classes each week, as well as professional development resources that will focus on remote & hybrid learning.
• What It Is: Bookshare is a FREE, federally funded library of 800,000+ accessible ebooks for students with reading barriers such as dyslexia, blindness, and cerebral palsy. The collection includes textbooks, educational materials, bestsellers, young adult, and children’s titles. Students can read on virtually any device in formats including audio, audio + highlighted text, braille, and large font.
• What They’re Offering: Bookshare is always free for schools and their qualified students with reading barriers
• What It Is: BoomWriter offers a variety of tools, features, and resources that lets teachers conduct fiction, nonfiction, and vocabulary-focused writing assignments. BoomWriter inspires students to write on any subject and integrates easily with existing curriculum. Try it for ELA, Social Studies/History, Science, and even Math.
• What It Is: Britannica LaunchPacks Social Studies and Science are now available, for free, to every school across the United States. LaunchPacks support virtual learning, independent study, and remote assessments across topics covered in the K-12 science and social studies curricula.
• What They’re Offering: Free, emergency support and virtual-learning classroom resources to every school.

bulb Digital Portfolios

• What It Is: A digital portfolio that allows students and educators to shape knowledge and ideas into practical, usable, and shareable work. With bulb, educators can track progress, measure competency, and create dynamic curricula or use one of their templates.

CAPIT Learning

• What It Is: A PreK-12 educational company that provides a supplemental, and highly differentiated literacy digital curriculum with demonstrated efficacy.

CCC! Streaming Media

• What It Is: CCC! Streaming Media helps students visualize printed text and aids their understanding of complex concepts. The content has been vetted by educators and aligned to Common Core and state standards, and is supplemented with Teacher’s Guides, Student Activities, and Knowledge Checks (quizzes).
• 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.

Challenger Center

• What It Is: STEM at Home is a collection of Challenger Center lessons and activities that can be modified and completed at home. Each STEM at Home category includes at least one at-home lesson. These activities require common household items or products that are readily available online.
• What They’re Offering: Their free STEM at Home lessons include flipped classroom videos, Teacher in Space Christa McAuliffe’s lessons filmed aboard the International Space Station, and hands-on activities.

CharacterStrong

• What It Is: Offers a K-12 social-emotional learning and character development curriculum and provides professional development training to help educators weave this work into the fabric of their schools.
• What They’re Offering: Free digital resources that can be used for remote instruction, including a virtual toolkit, digital student assemblies, a virtual Whole Child Summit, and a 30 Days of Kindness Journal.
• 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.
• 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 a free How-to guide on remote learning. Learn more- Classcraft .
• 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 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- CommonLit

Copyright & Creativity

• What It Is: A full suite of free, K-12 resources for teaching kids about copyright and fair use. Resources include lesson plans, slides, videos, and infographics.
• What They’re Offering: Free lessons and videos, along with teacher support.
• What It Is: Crabtree Publishing Company is dedicated to producing high-quality books and educational products for K-9+. Through their website, different selections of their books can be accessed along with free online resources that are included in a Crabtree subscription.

Critical Thinking Co.

• What It Is: The Critical Thinking Co. publishes award-winning PreK-12+ educational textbooks, activity books, e-books, and apps that help children become better problem-solvers. The approach is unique: help kids develop foundational reasoning & critical thinking skills while learning the core subjects (reading, writing, math, science, and social studies).
• 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- Curriki
• What It Is: Davis creates superior art curricula, engaging studio lessons, and valuable advocacy and classroom resources to power Art Educators. The digital platform is filled with a comprehensive collection of art lessons, studio experiences, and valuable resources for grades K-12. Davis Digital programs and resources are perfectly suited for teacher-guided, at-home learning, or self-guided exploration.
• What They’re Offering: Davis is offering FREE Open Access to the Davis Digital Platform for art educators in North America. Teachers may access all of the eBooks as well as the library of 25,000 fine art images. Additionally, for those that require it, Davis is offering use of generic student accounts that will allow students to access the content from any computer or tablet with an Internet connection.

Discovery Education

• What It Is: Discovery Education provides online textbooks, multimedia content, and professional development support for virtual classrooms and teachers. Daily DE offers supplemental learning activities, including virtual field trips and lessons, for both educators and parents that will update daily to align with a new educational theme.

EdTech Impact

• What It Is: EdTech Impact is a global search engine for finding the best education technology on the market, and the DfE recommended database has it so that all resources that are free are easily accessible for schools and parents alike.
• What They’re Offering: EdTech Impact is updating their database of edu-resources daily, and have added a huge range of filters and options, such as ‘duration of free access’, ‘subject’, and ‘category’, and have links to data privacy policies as standard.

Education Perfect

• What It Is: EP Classroom provides a wide range of customizable online learning experiences.
• What They’re Offering: Education Perfect offers a 14 day free trial and variable pricing depending on subject matter requirements.
• What It Is: NASA resources, online learning tools, engineering design, coding, virtual field trips and more!
• What They’re Offering: All free to access at home.
• What It Is: Designed for unlimited discovery and unmatched safety, Epic is the leading digital learning playground for kids. With tens of thousands of high-quality books, audiobooks and videos from the world’s best publishers, Epic reaches more than 20 million kids. No inappropriate content, ads or in-app purchases.
• What They’re Offering: Epic is always free for educators and provides a 30 day free trial for parents.
• 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- EVERFI

ExploreLearning

• What It Is: Innovative math and science online solutions that are fun to use and really work. Gizmos, Reflex, and Science4Us are used in classrooms in every state and over 50 countries worldwide.

Extreme Earth

• What It Is: Teaches facts about the planet using an interactive virtual globe built on CesiumJS.
• What They’re Offering: Free to view.

Flinn Scientific

• What It Is: Flinn Scientific has compiled many of their free activities, videos and other resources into one location for teachers to navigate through to help them as they teach science to students at home.
• What They’re Offering: Free online resources.

Flocabulary  

• What It is: Hip-hop videos and instructional activities that promote literacy and spark creativity.
• What It Is: Follett offers over 1,000 PreK-12 titles in science, social studies, language arts, math, and more. AV2 World Languages features high-interest titles in 10 different languages with full audio support. Parents and students will find these resources interactive, easy to use and a great way for students to independently explore a new topic.

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.

Free Spirit Publishing

• What It Is: Free Spirit Publishing offers social and emotional learning resources for educators and parents to help support children’s mental health and well-being.
• What They’re Offering: Always free activities, reproducible forms, PLC/Book Study Guides, and leader’s guides from select titles, as well as access to on-demand professional development webinars and more than 1,000 articles with tips and tools for educators, counselors, and parents on the Free Spirit Publishing Blog.
• What It Is: Interdisciplinary, curriculum-aligned resources to support online learning from Pre-K through undergraduate; Live and on-demand training materials to help optimize existing resources; Professional development eBooks to help transition to and strengthen virtual learning and Authoritative Gale resources on health-related topics and global issues.
• 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- Gamilab

GCFLearnFree.org

• What It Is: This program has helped millions around the world learn the essential skills they need to live and work in the 21st century. From Microsoft Office and email, to reading, math, and more. Over 200 topics, 7,000 lessons, 1,000 videos, and 50 interactives and games, completely free.
• What They’re Offering: Free resources for students, parents, and teachers.

George Washington’s Mount Vernon

• What It Is: Digital Resources from George Washington’s Mount Vernon that can be incorporated into new online classroom settings.
• What They’re Offering: Primary and secondary sources, videos, games, quizzes, activities, and lessons that can be completed independently or as a group.

Get More Math  

• What It Is: A math practice program for concept mastery and retention.
• What They’re Offering: Free, unlimited trial usage for schools until July 2021.

The Great Courses

• What It Is: An educational streaming video on-demand company. Courses that can be consumed via phone, laptop, TV, etc.
• What They’re Offering: They are offering free content during COVID-19 with courses ranging from math, history, languages and more.

GreasePaint Script House

• What It Is: Original, fully-customizable musicals that not only enhance Reading and Communication skills, but also employ Arts Integration and Social Emotional Learning to encourage strong character development both onstage and off.

Guilford Press  

• What It Is: As a leading publisher of psychology, parenting, and education titles, Guilford Press is committed to offering support through their numerous online resources.
• What They’re Offering:  A wide range of helpful free content, including audio, print, and video resources from their books, plus tips, resources, and blog posts from Guilford authors.
• What It Is: A website loaded with standards-aligned lessons, games, and activities that will keep K-8 students engaged while learning from home.r.

H2O For Life

• What It Is: Explore a variety of engaging lesson plans for students at every grade level. From science to math to music, students gain awareness for water in their community.

Health World

• What It Is: Online health and safety programming for elementary and middle schools.
• What They’re Offering: Programs for free to help support teachers online learning.

Healthy Relationships Curriculum  

• What It Is: A highly adaptable program that teaches challenging life skills to school students with various special needs. The full program offers 39 lessons, 65 videos, visual components, and role plays around the topics of hygiene, social skills, relationships development, and health that can be implemented both virtually and face-to-face.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• What It Is: Learning activities, lessons, downloadables, and videos for Grade K–12 kids
• What They’re Offering: Always free!

Illustrative Mathematics  

• What It Is: Illustrative Mathematics has developed middle school and high school mathematics instructional materials available as open educational resources (OER) and free for anyone to access.
• What They’re Offering:  As students shift to at-home learning, Illustrative Mathematics has developed a set of learning at home materials, including grades 6-8 math, 9-12 math, and K-12 math tasks.

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 It Is: inquirED believes in inquiry for all, and offers inquiry-based curriculum and professional development to help schools and districts make the shift to an inquiry-based model.
• What They’re Offering: inquirED has created Together When Apart — a free inquiry-based distance learning curriculum.
• What It Is: An online database of thousands of academic resources and activities, providing enrichment and learning strategies to K-12 students. Resources include all core subject areas, including Reading/Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies/History.
• What They’re Offering: Completely free to parents and K-12 students and teachers. To access the free version of InSync visit the site and click on Sign Up at the top of the screen. Then choose the Student or Parent role and enter FREE as your Sign Up Code and you’re on your way.

Islamic Networks Group (ING)

• What It Is: For over 25 years, ING has supplemented education about Muslims and their faith, as well as studies on peoples of other religious and cultural backgrounds, in the context of social studies and world history content standards.
• What They’re Offering: Their free back to school toolkit provides teachers, administrators and parents with valuable resources including guest speakers via webinar, lesson plans, and recorded webinars for creating a diverse and welcoming community and fostering safe and inclusive classrooms.
• 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 can sign up for a free account here .
• 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- Kahoot!
• 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. 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- Khan Academy

Knowledge Unlimited

• What It Is: A weekly current events-based program. It presents engaging and important stories from around the world in a newsmagazine format.
• What It Is: An online core supplement for grades 1-12 that was designed to be used in classrooms to help teachers with increasing responsibilities and numbers of students.
• 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 a variety of resources to schools. Contact them here.

Kuder Galaxy and Kuder Navigator

• What It Is: Galaxy and Navigator are award-winning online career awareness, exploration, and planning systems for students in grades Pre-K through 12.
• What They’re Offering: Through https://www.kuder.com/success-at-home/ they are offering free system access for students; free downloads including lesson plans and activity sheets; and free and discounted professional development courses for teachers, school counselors, and parents.

Lead4Change

• What It Is: Based on the best-selling book, Taking People With You by Yum! Brands Co-Founder, Former Chairman and CEO David Novak, Lead4Change empowers students to act, serve, and make big things happen.
• What They’re Offering: Access is free and includes ready to use lessons, videos and resources

Learning Ally

• What It Is: Equitable access to the largest library of “human-read” audiobooks, including curriculum-aligned literature, fiction and nonfiction, and STEM textbooks. Multi-sensory reading accommodation is ideal for remote learning from any device.
• What They’re Offering: To keep students with reading deficits engaged in reading and learning, sign up for free access to The Learning Ally Audiobook Solution .

Learning Keeps Going

• What It Is: Learning Keeps Going is a diverse group of education organizations brought together by the ISTE/EdSurge team to curate, create, and deliver high-quality tools, resources, and support for educators and parents. They’ve gathered over 600 free, vetted resources and expert-sourced tools in one place that can be easily filtered by grade level, accessibility, languages, and areas of interest to match your needs.
• What They’re Offering: Free tech and resources for teachers and leaders.

Legends of Learning

• What is it: Legends of Learning offers 2,000 3rd through 8th grade games and simulations correlated to state standards. Using their various assignment options, teachers can create custom playlists, or have a playlist built for them with a top-rated game.
• What They’re Offering: In addition to all of its free games, Legends is providing its premium custom assessments, scheduling features, data/analytics, and training/support for all schools affected by closures for free for the rest of the year. Visit their site , with links at the top for both schools and parents.

Lerner eBooks

• What It Is: At the Lerner Bookshelf, they’ve set up two collections of eBooks (Grades PreK-5 and Grades 6-12) that allow for unlimited simultaneous access by every student in a school. They also offer reading book lists, videos, educational downloads, information on authors who are available for virtual visits, and more.

Lexile Word Lists

• What It Is: Lexile WordLists, based on the top science, math, social studies, and ELA textbook programs in grades 1-12, were created to address vocabulary gaps and prepare students for the academic words they will encounter in their learning.
• What They’re Offering: Free access to this online tool on the Lexile and Quantile Hub to help learners build a strong vocabulary foundation.
• What It Is: Listenwise teaches students to be better listeners using podcasts, comprehension questions, and quizzes.
• What It Is: A very robust Distance Learning Essentials web page for people to gather free information and content.
• What They’re Offering: 17,000 free eBooks to assist schools with Distance Learning.
• What It Is: MAD-learn’s web-based mobile app development tool is a holistic set of modules for students to experience the software development lifecycle firsthand.
• What It Is: Mathchops helps students build core skills for standardized tests through adaptive games. Teachers can view high-level stats for their students, see individual questions, and create/assign quizzes. Games are automatically created for students based on previous answers. All questions have explanations and are graded automatically.
• What They’re Offering: Free resources!
• What It Is: Merge developed the award-winning Merge Cube, Headset, Miniverse, and EDU Platform. Their product ecosystem is an all-in-one, curriculum-aligned AR/VR solution for classrooms, libraries, STEM labs, and makerspaces. These hands-on digital learning tools accelerate understanding, deepen engagement, and let you do the impossible.
• What They’re Offering: Merge has created a remote learning resource center where students can print and build their own paper Merge Cube, then download free Merge EDU apps for hands-on augmented reality experiences. Even younger students can complete activities with accessibility features like Immersive Reader. With over 10 different languages, students from all over the world can continue learning wherever they are.
• What It Is: Free digital educational resources platform that connects educators and students through Real and Digital play.
• What They’re Offering: Over 150 free toolkits ready to use in your classroom.

Mosa Mack Science

• What It Is: NGSS based science lessons for 4th-8th graders that can easily be done from home.
• 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 It Is: Differentiated, high-interest lessons; weekly current events to connect your child to the world; skill‑based education games for fun, independent practice; symbol communication tools to promote self-expression; and even resources for social-emotional well‑being.
• What They’re Offering: Current users get free access to their solutions, and they have now extended the invitation to any teacher, parent, specialist, or caregiver.
• What It Is: The NASA STEM Engagement site offers STEM resources, activities, lesson plans, virtual field trips, and more! Also check out NASA Home and City to find out how space travel impacts your daily life.
• What They’re Offering: Explore the Hubble Telescope and listen to astronauts share their stories. All for free!
• What It Is: A collection of FREE, easy-to-deploy digital options to help keep the learning going. Nasco Educate.com has lesson plans and webinars across all core subject areas. STEM Fuse offers lesson plans from the STEM Fuse IT Exploration curriculum.
• What They’re Offering: All resources are free.

National Geographic

• What It Is: Collections of activities that have been curated for educators, parents, and caregivers to implement with K–12 learners. Separated by grades and subjects, there’s something for everyone.
• What They’re Offering: The resources are free and they invite you to join their Educator Community to ask questions, share resources, and connect.
• 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: Teachers can sign up for a free account and start creating interactive lessons for distance learning environments in minutes!

News-O-Matic

• What It Is: News-O-Matic features five daily news stories specifically for kids, written at a variety of reading levels from grades K through 8. Every story is translated by native speakers from English into Spanish, French, and Arabic. And all these texts, at all levels and languages, are read out loud so kids can listen along. Teachers have access to a special dashboard to track students’ reading progress, change their reading levels, and see students’ answers to comprehension questions for each article.

Next Generation Scientific Storylines  

• What It Is: Science materials for elementary, middle and high schoolers that contain “storylines”, or series of lessons that provide a coherent path toward building a disciplinary core idea and crosscutting concepts, piece by piece, anchored in students’ own questions.
• What They’re Offering:  NextGenStorylines offers materials for middle schoolers that are accessible online and customizable for educators and students.

Nomad Press

• What It Is: A large collection of free resources perfect for 2nd-9th grade that model critical and creative thinking to promote the development of problem-solving skills as readers discover patterns and connections through intellectual inquiry.
• What They’re Offering: Download free resources, activities, and teacher guides at The Learning Center .
• 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.

Open Middle

• What It Is: A series of free math problems with “open middle” solutions.
• What They’re Offering: Free worksheets for grades K-12.
• What It Is: K-12 music education platform providing interactive online music resources.
• What They’re Offering: Free 30-day trial to schools and music teachers nationwide focused on music learning and appreciation. Registered users can access videos and worksheets about how music is made and performed through a historical and educational lens.
• What It Is: PBLWorks, the leading provider of professional development for high-quality Project Based Learning (PBL), has created a resource site to provide teachers with ideas, examples, and tools to facilitate PBL remotely.
• What They’re Offering: Resources to address teachers’ most frequently-cited requests, including: projects that can be adapted for remote learning across the grade levels, technology solutions for collaboration and connection, and ideas for how families can support their PBL students.

PBLWorks ebook, This Teachable Moment

• What it is: PBLWorks, the leading provider of professional development for high-quality Project Based Learning (PBL), has created a free eBook to support high-quality Project Based Learning at home.
• What they’re offering: This Teachable Moment, a free downloadable eBook offers a primer on Project Based Learning (PBL) and 21 easy implemented, “follow the recipe” PBL projects, informed by educational research and designed for children of all ages. Projects such as creating a cooking show focused on family recipes and the history behind them, or creating a plan for a new school that meets our new reality, engage children in real-world issues and activities that matter to them while also teaching concepts like literacy, math and more.

PBLWorks Project Designer

• What it is: PBLWorks, the leading provider of professional development for high-quality Project Based Learning (PBL), has created first-of-its kind Project Designer, an interactive tool to give teachers a shortcut to creating quality PBL units for in-person or distance learning.
• What they’re offering: The Project Designer is an interactive online project planner with a library of 72 Gold Standard PBL units. It leads teachers step-by-step through adapting one of the 72 projects in the library or creating their own to meet the needs of their students. Teachers can access the Project Designer for a one-time fee of $49.99.

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- PBS Learning Media

PCS Edventures

• What It Is: PCS Edventures instills a passion in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Arts in students grades K-12 and is providing teachers and families with educational resources that can be used in any learning environment.
• What They’re Offering: 3D Coding & Design Free Trial where students dive into the world of video game development & Free STEM + STEAM activities that can easily be downloaded and printed.

Penguin Educator

• What It Is: Resources from Penguin for librarians, teachers, and readers!
• What They’re Offering: FREE educator and discussion guides, downloadable activities, and more!

PenPal Schools

• What It Is: Schools that have transitioned to remote learning 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- PenPal Schools

Perfection Learning

• What It Is: Perfection Next is a digital learning platform offering access to our entire catalog of digital resources including AMSCO Advanced Placement, Language Arts, Reading, Math, Science, Social Studies, and World Languages.

PhET Interactive Simulations

• What It Is: A collection of over 150 free math and science simulations, along with over 2,000+ sim-based lessons, for actively engaging students in STEM learning. Simulations are available in 80+ languages.
• What They’re Offering: PhET is always free for all users.
• What It Is: A web-app that gives teachers and students a unique way to create stories, demonstrate learning, and enhance writing assignments – in any subject – through digital comics. Users can explore topics in Math, Science, Social Studies, History, English, Art, or any other subject. They can also choose images from popular content, books and movies like The Hunger Games or The Outsiders , plus other topics like the solar system, black history, or the environment – all Common Core aligned.
• What They’re Offering: All-access for free for 30 days during the COVID-19 crisis. Learn more here- Pixton EDU .
• What It Is: Quill offers a set of diagnostic assessments and independent practice activities that focus on grammar, sentence construction, and other writing and literacy skills. All the while, Quill provides teachers with free, in-depth data reports on student performance.

Random House

• What It Is: Random House offers lesson plans to teachers for books for elementary school, middle school, and high school students.
• What They’re Offering: Discussion guides, activities, and more available for FREE to download.

Reading Assistant Plus  

• What It Is: An online guided reading tool that “listens” while a student reads a selection aloud, detects when they falter, and provides immediate intervention in the form of correct pronunciation.
• What It Is: Teachers and parents can keep their child’s reading instruction moving forward with Reading Horizons’ library of virtual webinars and lessons.

Reading Plus

• What It Is: Free printable skill-building packages help develop reading comprehension in essential comprehension skills, which include close reading, main idea and themes, interaction of ideas, use of language, structure, point of view, imaging scaffolds, reasoning and rhetoric, and comparative reading.
• What They’re Offering: Free packages that include worksheets, writing prompts, and graphic organizers.
• What It Is: Readorium helps students learn nonfiction reading strategies as they build rich background knowledge in science at school or at home.
• What It Is: ReadTheory 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.
• 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.

Red Nose Day

• What It Is: Help students in Grades 2-5 build empathy, while practicing core ELA and math skills, using our Everyday Heroes classroom routines and downloadable lessons tied to key teaching moments throughout the year — 100th Day of School, National Reading Month, and April Fool’s Day. Educational videos help students understand how poverty impacts children around the world, and how Red Nose Day helps.
• What They’re Offering: Resources are always free.

Rising New York Road Runners

• What It Is: Designed to develop movement skills in kids of all ages and abilities. They believe in the power of physical activity to keep families physically and mentally strong whether in school or at home.
• What They’re Offering: Fun activities for children that keep space and social distancing in mind.
• What It Is: RoboKind’s virtual coding course will help districts provide elementary and middle school students with engaging computer science content during this unexpected period of school closures.

Rosen Publishing Group

• What It Is: Whether students are learning to read or reading to learn, they can easily access hundreds of age-appropriate books across various topics and content areas with a simple login and selection by using their Epointplus digital delivery.
• What They’re Offering: Free access to 2,000 fiction and nonfiction curated eBooks for independent reading and to enhance instruction. Register here .
• What It Is: Rozzy Learning has engaging lesson plans and other resources for science, social studies, math, and STEM for K-8th grade.

Sadlier School

• What It Is: Online printable resources for math, ELA, grammar, and more.
• What They’re Offering: Free resources for parents, teachers, and students. K–12 English Language Arts and K–8 Math. Learn more here- Sadlier School .

School Specialty Webinars

• What It Is: Educational webinars developed by resident subject matter experts to help families engage students while they’re at home. Providing activity ideas to support skill development in Art, Physical Education, STEM, Language Development, Math, and more.
• What They’re Offering: Free access to on-demand webinars to support family engagement and skill development at home.

Science Buddies

• What It Is: A hands-on STEM education nonprofit with a library of over 1500 STEM activities, science projects, and STEM lesson plans. Students do not need to register or input any private information to access and it is 100% free to everyone.
• What They’re Offering: In addition to all of their usual free offerings, Science Buddies is adding daily to its STEM activities focusing on video and written instructions for fun hands-on experiments that can be done with things already around the house.
• 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.

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.

Smithsonian Learning Lab

• What It Is: Teachers have access to millions of digital resources from across the Smithsonian’s museums, research centers, libraries, archives, and more.
• What They’re Offering: Free to use.

Space Foundation Discovery Center

• What It Is: The Space Foundation Discovery Center is a space museum in Colorado Springs that combines the worlds of STEM and space to educate Guests in-person and online.
• What They’re Offering: Free STEM and space themed educational resources and videos for everyone, including teachers and parents. Includes free professional lesson plans featuring Snoopy and the Peanuts Gang.
• 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 through the end of the year. They have also created a variety of free resources for ST Math, learning at home, and addressing learning loss. Learn more here .

stemConnect

• What It Is: A classroom resource to connect students with experts in industry and academia from Florida focused on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.
• What They’re Offering: A free video library of recorded presentations led by Florida-based experts who talk about the applications of STEM in various high-tech careers.

STEM Minds Virtual STEM Camps!  

• What It Is: Join their expert staff in learning about awesome topics like 3D design, video game design, coding, and more all from home. Their staff deliver lessons virtually and are available live to help provide targeted guidance and assistance to students as they work through awesome activities and projects.
• 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: Join their Studycat club for free and gain access to over 100 worksheets to download and enjoy. Use the filters to find worksheets by language, skills and topic.

Study Island

• What It Is: Study Island provides standards-based practice, test preparation, and formative assessments in grades K-12. Students get feedback to guide their learning and educators get immediate data to determine who needs intervention and who is ready to move on.
• 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.

TeachingBooks

• What It Is: Enjoy 172,555 resources tied to children’s and young adult books. Find read-alouds, virtual story times, reader’s advisories, interview, and more.
• What They’re Offering: Currently free and available to share with students.
• What It Is: Established by musician and activist Steven Van Zandt, TeachRock provides teachers across the country with a unique and effective way to engage at-risk students across disciplines.
• What They’re Offering: Multidimensional curriculum free for teachers.

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 .
• What It Is: Typing.com is a one-stop shop for students to learn to type. They can progress at their own pace while tracking accuracy and speed.
• What They’re Offering: Free keyboarding curriculum, coding fundamentals, and computer literacy resources. Teachers and students can sign up here-Typing and here-Typing.com .

Tyto Online

• What It Is: With Tyto Online, students solve authentic science problems as they learn, using a video game to power their experience. ‘Tyto Online’ is NGSS-aligned, covering life science and some Earth and space science.
• What It Is: Udemy is a global marketplace for learning and instruction. By connecting students all over the world to the best instructors, Udemy is helping individuals reach their goals and pursue their dreams.
• What They’re Offering:  Find free coding for students here- Udemy .

Virtual School Day by Varsity Tutors

• What It Is: Provides students with 20 hours of free live, online instruction each week. Each class is led by an expert tutor with experience in the course topic, as well as familiarity with virtual instruction. Classes refresh weekly, with age-appropriate options for grades K-12.
• What They’re Offering: The resources are totally free. Just sign up so they can manage class sizes! Additional classes are available at varying prices.

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.

The White House Historical Association

• What It Is: The Rubenstein Center for White House History offers a wide variety of educational resources for learners of all ages. Content includes classroom resource packets, reading lists, virtual tours of the White House, short educational videos, historical essays, and a digital library of White House and presidential images.
• What They’re Offering: Free to all.
• What It Is: Students and families can access news stories about the world, politics, United States, science, sports, and more. Xyza also recently launched www.newsicle.co where students try and answer one news-related trivia quiz every weekday.
• What They’re Offering: Completely free and unlimited access to 1000+ Xyza: News for Kids articles.

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.

• What It Is: A library of free, standards-aligned, autogradable assignments
• What They’re Offering:   Free access!
• What It Is: With Bloomz, teachers and schools save time by having all the tools they need to communicate with today’s parents and students in one easy-to-use (and free) app.
• What It is: An educational video company with a streaming platform for teachers. Boclips has been created as a safe, easy way for teachers to use video with their students. It comes with the largest library of short-form educational videos, as well as ready-made lesson planning resources, without the dangers of open video platforms.
• What They’re Offering: In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Boclips has put together a toolkit of remote learning resources for teachers whose schools have closed. This includes videos from their library, strategy sheets, video integration ideas, resources on differentiated instruction, and training videos. Teachers can access these resources by filling in this form .

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- Book Creator

Boolean Girl  

• What It Is: Non-profit organization Boolean Girl’s mission is to teach kids and teens how to code, build, invent, and animate. They help narrow the gender gap in STEM fields through education and consistent, hands-on exposure to computer science and engineering during the elementary and middle school years.
• What They’re Offering:  Free Full-STEM Ahead classes. These are live instructor-led virtual classes and events. Each class is age-appropriately tailored for ages 8 to 18.
• What It Is: This online learning resources 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 a free 30 day trial. Click here to learn more- Buncee

Capti Voice

• What It Is: Capti Voice is an online text-to-speech platform. They provide remote assessment, accommodation, and reading support for students with disabilities.
• What They’re Offering: Free, basic-level individual accounts are available here- Capti Voice .
• 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- Classdojo
• What It Is: Used by over 57,000 classrooms and 2 million parents/teachers across the U.S., Classtag is a free communication platform for schools that’s designed to boost parental engagement. Teachers can message parents directly (via SMS or web) and even translate their messages if English is the parent’s second language.
• What They’re Offering: Free to use

Conover Academy

• What It Is: Life Skills Academy by Conover is an online video library designed to be used outside the classroom so parents or guardians can help learners with disabilities learn how to function independently at home, work, or in the community. Based on the concept of video modeling, users watch someone do the desired behavior and then do it themselves.
• 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 here- Deck Toys .
• 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- Edmodo
• What It Is: This site lets teachers create interactive online lessons using a video clip of the teacher’s choosing. It provides accountability and tracking for student progress, too.
• What They’re Offering: Basic plans are always free, and they also offer additional instructional resources across a wide array of topics here- EdPuzzle .
• What It Is: EduGuide saves schools time and money by efficiently multiplying their student support system, building self-motivation that keeps students learning, even when they are remote. EduGuide provides a simple way for every student to both be mentored by a caring adult and learn to mentor their peers on key social-emotional SEL habits that boost student success.
• 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.
• What It Is: Teachers can access a collection of learning paths from some of the most well-known thought leaders in education covering topics such as Understanding by Design, Habits of Mind, Social Emotional Learning, Cultural and Linguistic Diversity, Personalized Learning, and Growth Mindset.

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 can get free extended access. Contact them here.
• 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- Flipgrid

Fuel Education

• What It Is: Fuel Education provides innovative digital curricula, technology, instruction, and support enabling you to create a learning environment that is just right for your students.
• What They’re Offering: Complimentary services and access to online learning tools.
• 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 .
• 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.

Impero back:drop

• What It Is: A cloud-based solution from Impero Software to help schools manage and record student safety and health information, from first aid to COVID-19 symptom tracking, to more complex mental health issues. Impero back:drop gives districts a way to keep track of and communicate about potential concerns safely and securely and eliminates the need for paper-based reporting systems.
• What They’re Offering: Impero has made Impero back:drop free indefinitely, helping schools fill a critical need for staying on top of student mental and physical concerns during the pandemic and beyond.

Insight ADVANCE

• What It Is: ADVANCEfeedback helps teachers, instructional coaches, and school and university leaders connect on a deeper level than off-the-shelf video conferencing tools by using secure video for self-reflection, peer feedback, and instructional coaching.
• What They’re Offering: To help strengthen support to teachers, coaches, and school leaders in this time of need, Insight ADVANCE is providing its ADVANCEfeedback video coaching tool, powered by the Vonage Video API, free of charge.
• What It Is: A collaborative online image and video editor with a cloud storage Workspace. Teachers can make video lessons to send to students for remote learning, students can work together on a group project, and classrooms can share multimedia projects with each other.
• What It Is: A web and mobile app that provides private student to teacher feedback to a group/class question, so teachers can understand how their students are doing and offer support, with optional anonymity features. It’s available on any device.
• What They’re Offering: Loop is always free for teachers.

ManagedMethods

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• What They’re Offering: K-12 school districts can use the platform for 30 days to help IT teams and districts protect students and staff online. Click here to learn more- ManagedMethods

Merit Software  

• What It Is: Merit makes online, interactive, skill-building tutorials for reading comprehension and writing skills. The programs, which are commonly used by secondary and higher-ed students, are great for special needs, at-risk, or English language learners.
• What They’re Offering: The Merit site has free, full-working demos, pricing, and implementation ideas.

MeTEOR Education  

• What It Is: The library includes virtual education best practice videos, performance tasks for students at home and in traditional classrooms, and other resources for teachers and leaders making the adjustment to virtual education.
• What They’re Offering:  The MeTEOR Connect library of student and teacher resources is available to educators free of charge.

Mobile Guardian

• What It Is: Mobile Guardian is a mobile device management software providing remote Classroom Management Tools and premium Web-Filtering. Teachers can monitor what students are doing in lessons on their Chromebooks in real-time from their Mobile Guardian dashboard. They can also view how students spent their time during class. Web-filtering allows schools to secure devices that are now going home, as well as facilitate an academic environment.
• What They’re Offering: Schools can apply for a grant to help cover subscription costs here- Mobile Guardian .

Numerade.com

• What It Is: A platform that allows teachers to record and run asynchronous classes with virtual “attendance” and video Q&A for students. Numerade also features the World’s largest library of STEM video lessons with over 200,000 step-by-step solutions to popular textbook problems.
• What They’re Offering: Numerade’s asynchronous “Office Hours” platform and their collection of 200,000 video lessons are available to students and teachers for free.
• What It Is: Projector App helps teachers project their real word notes onto a professional-looking, virtual blackboard.
• 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 could be free for your school. Existing paid users can get a code to make their accounts free until then too. Learn more here- Parlay
• 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.

Promethean ClassFlow  

• What It Is: A cloud-based lesson delivery software service that energizes students with polling, timed assessments, interactive lessons, activities, and millions of immersive resources from educators around the world. ClassFlow is certified by iKeepSafe as compliant with federal and state requirements for handling protected personal information, including student data, and is safely used by over 4.5 million students worldwide.

Renzulli Learning

• What It Is: Renzulli Learning is an interactive online system that provides student-driven independent enrichment opportunities and project-based learning, and also enables teachers to easily differentiate instruction, increasing student engagement, and academic performance. Renzulli Learning supports strength-based personalized learning in all subjects for students in grades Pre-K through 12.
• What They’re Offering: Renzulli is offering a free 90 day trial along with special pricing of $5 per student for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year.
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• What It Is: Free K-12 Math, ELA, Science and Social Studies resources! Create effective classwork and assignments that have been proven to increase performance. All content is designed to engage and challenge students at their own level./li>
• 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 It Is: More than just a computer, classroom, STEM kits, or a project — SmartLabs are a comprehensive and immersive solution.
• 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 teachers can also apply for one year of free access to the Pro version of start.me.
• What It Is: StudyBee is a grading and student feedback system that extends Google Classroom functionality, with the ability to link assignments to custom or standardized educational objectives from the US.
• What It Is: A collaborative presentation tool used for all grade levels that works perfectly for the remote classroom.
• What It Is: An online bookmarker for educators. Committed to making personalized learning and educational technology easily accessible for everyone, everywhere.
• 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 It Is: Rather than fighting smartphones, Wooclap turns them into an exceptional learning tool. Wooclap is a free tool to help maintain interactivity and effective pedagogy. Their goal is to capture the attention of students to improve their learning whether they’re in the classroom or at home taking an online course.
• 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.

These sites assist with continuing professional development and curriculum for teachers.

• What It Is: Live and recorded webinars prepared by content experts on a range of topics including tips for teaching and learning remotely, proficiency and performance, sustaining research, and strategies for assessment.
• What They’re Offering: Free support for teachers.

Better Lesson

• What It Is: Collaborative virtual learning experiences that address the most pressing needs in K-12 education.

Edmentum Courses

• What It Is: Edmentum can help your district ensure teachers can continue teaching virtually using their standards-aligned curriculum through their Edmentum Capacity Assistance Program (E-CAP).
• What They’re Offering: Two Free Edmentum Courses.

E. L. Achieve

• What It Is: ELL Curriculum for educators. Their professional development addresses two key areas: Systematic ELD for dedicated language instruction and Constructing Meaning for explicit language instruction for content learning.
• What They’re Offering: Free upcoming webinars for K-12.

Imagine Learning: Distance Learning Toolkit  

• What It Is: Imagine Learning’s Distance Learning Toolkit site offers practical tips and information for educators and parents navigating the new world of distance learning.
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IMB AI Education

• What It Is: An immersive, interactive professional learning suite of online and in-person experiences crafted by and for educators to guide you through AI’s foundational concepts and K-12 classroom connections.
• What They’re Offering: A free online toolkit .

Illuminate Education

• What It Is: Professional learning resources for teachers on remote learning, including webinars and how-to articles, all available online.
• What They’re Offering: Free for educators.
• What It Is: Nomadic is a digital learning pioneer launching a Remote Work Boot Camp to help newly remote folks get better equipped to face our current working reality.
• What It Is: Live webinars, advice, learning solutions, and experienced help from Outschool, the top-rated provider of interactive online classes for students ages 3-18.
• What They’re Offering: Learn to teach online. Sign up for a free webinar taught by highly qualified K-12 educators with years of online teaching experience.
• What It Is: PBLWorks is hosting a free webinar series on how to facilitate Gold Standard Project Based Learning online.
• What They’re Offering: All webinars will be presented live and recorded versions will be made available for free upon request.

ResilientEducator

• What It Is: The platform strategy of Resilient Educator is rooted in support of building resilience in educators and advancing trauma-informed strategies throughout schools and communities.
• What They’re Offering: Free resources for teaching online.

SHARE Professional Learning

• What It Is: SHARE is a Source for Help, Advancement, and Renewal for Educators. There is no one-size-fits all solution to teacher burnout, but the most sturdy support for those in need comes from fellow educators—both those in one’s local educational community and in the profession at large.
• What They’re Offering: Take our free, 90-minute course “Teaching Through the Coronavirus Pandemic.” This course discusses stresses specifically caused by responses to COVID-19, such as quarantine and social distancing. It also provides strategies to help teachers and their students remain strong during the pandemic.

STEMscopes  

• What It Is: Live and recorded webinars led by science and STEM education experts on a range of topics including inquiry, creating a STEM campus, STEM inclusion for English learners, and assessment.
• What They’re Offering:  Access to free upcoming live and recorded sessions. Click here- STEMscopes to learn more.

Studer Education

• What It Is: Studer Education is a leading service provider focused on improving organizational outcomes.
• What They’re Offering: They have put together a collection of leadership tools and resources curated by expert leaders who have faced crises before.
• What It Is: Teq offers a series of webinars for Remote learning. This includes SMART Learning Suite Online, Google, and Microsoft Teams.
• What They’re Offering:  Individual educators can sign up for a FREE Basic account with access to select PD sessions or purchase PD certification tracks.

Vista Higher Learning

• What It Is: Vista Higher Learning offers a number of valuable resources to help K-16 language educators during this time of great uncertainty and change. Find webinars from fellow educators on how to transition to remote teaching, content that parents or educators can use at home, and free 90-day Teacher Access to all online VHL products.
•   What They’re Offering: Free resources and education.

Feeling overwhelmed? You’re definitely not alone. Join fellow educators in the WeAreTeachers Chat group on Facebook to get support from others just like you.

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Powerful Online Teaching Activities and Templates You Can Use Today

Updated on: 21 October 2022

Even experienced teachers sometimes find it difficult to overcome the hurdles presented by online teaching. Lack of in-person interaction, dwindling student motivation, and technical difficulties are just a few reasons. Then there’s an entirely different set of challenges posed by finding effective instructional strategies, or online teaching activities that are impactful in engaging students online. 

The good news is that there are a lot of pluses for online teaching too. If you incorporate the correct approaches, and tools that are proven to be effective and adopt them in your personal teaching methods, online teaching can be even more effective than teaching in-person. 

Here are 10 online teaching activities to enrich your students’ learning experience. 

The templates provided in this post can be edited online on Creately. If you want to give each student their own template to edit, simply duplicate it and share the link of the duplicated document with them. You can also add students as collaborators to one document and work on editing it together in real-time.

Brainstorming is a great way to get students thinking and making connections between new knowledge and what they are already aware of. You can usually carry out this activity to introduce a new topic, evaluate student understanding of a lesson, and help expand their existing knowledge by collaborating with others. 

• Pose a problem or question or introduce a new topic to begin the session. 
• Based on the learning outcome, you can group students or let them perform the brainstorming activity by themselves. Or you can perform it as a class where you gather and record answers on a shared canvas or document as students present their ideas or solutions. 
• Give students time to present their thoughts and answers. You can call out each student’s name as you go around the virtual classroom.  
• Use a method like mind mapping to collect ideas in a more structured manner. 

• At the end of the session, you can analyze the answers provided by the students or their mind maps and discuss them in detail.

Q&A Sessions 

Even in the physical classroom, Q&A sessions are done frequently. They provide the platform for students to clarify areas in the lessons they are uncertain about and find solutions to any other problem they may have from the teacher or from peers. One question may lead to another, allowing learners to discover great new insights. 

Online it can be carried out synchronously as well as asynchronously. 

• Use video conferencing and live chatting to do this in real-time 
• Use social media groups, online discussion boards, and chatting for asynchronous Q&A sessions

Storyboarding  

Storyboards combine texts with pictures to give a rich synthesis of the information to both entertain and inform.  They are useful in helping learners understand and keep track of narratives, develop timelines, revise information, and brainstorm . Educators can use it to evaluate the reading comprehension of their students.

• Create a storyboard template or use the one below. Share it with students. You can ask them to take printouts or edit it online using images, illustrations, and clipart they can find online. To make it easier, you can already have the images placed on the side of the template on the canvas, letting students drag and drop them onto the correct box. 

• Ask the students to draw the main ideas of the story while you are reading it aloud or while they are reading it by themselves. Each drawing should contain a caption explaining the illustration. 
• Get students to share their storyboards with peers and discuss them. You can join in on the conversation and help them analyze which ideas are more important.  

Virtual Field Trips 

Virtual field trips are a great way to take students to amazing places allowing them to learn about history, discover science, visit museums or zoos, see world-class art, etc. from the very comfort of their own homes. With the current travel restrictions in place, it’s a great way to expose students to exciting new places while entertaining and educating them at the same time. 

Here’s a list of virtual field trips you can explore with your students from your online classroom.

Concept Mapping 

Concept maps provide a great way to understand a new concept in detail. Learners can use concept maps to discover connections between what they already know with the new insight they’ve gained.  

In your online classroom, concept mapping can be used for brainstorming , organizing information, and evaluating student knowledge. As an in-class activity, you can request students to draw a concept map (with a blank template provided by you or drawn by the students themselves) during or at the end of the lesson synthesizing the information discussed. 

Collaborative Worksheets

Using Google Docs you can create worksheets (containing multiple-choice questions, fill in the blank , explain a term, true or false, compare and contrast , etc.) for students to complete in real-time. As students type their answers you can leave your feedback with in-line comments or as suggestions.  Similarly, you can also create quizzes using Google Forms .

Building Activities 

Building activities are always fun to do and are a great way to help develop students’ skills. Plus they don’t require fancy or expensive supplies. 

Provide the list of items or ingredients needed for the activity the day before,  to give students the time to find them. During the class, you can guide the students with live demonstrations, or with shared video tutorials or infographics explaining the steps, students should take. This can be done with video on, which will give you a live preview of what each student is doing, hence allowing you to lead them as necessary.

Online Debates and Presentations

Debates are a great way to enhance online classroom engagement and stimulate students’ critical thinking skills. They also contribute to developing students’ interpersonal and teamwork skills. 

Online team debates can take place synchronously over video conferencing or they can be conducted over a discussion board where responses can be provided under affirmative and negative discussion threads.    

Likewise, you can involve students in creating their own presentations and presenting them online, either individually or in groups. These can help improve their understanding of a topic deeper as they would be involved in a lot of self-learning in the process of creating the presentation.

Timelines 

Timelines are a great visual tool for studying a brief period of time (i.e. a historical event, an individual’s life, a process, etc.) and are an effective alternative to the written narrative. They help actively engage the student in learning the sequence of events, helping them make connections between events and identify patterns.

• Provide a blank timeline template to students. 

• On one side of it, you can write the events (not necessarily in order) in boxes allowing students to drag and drop each in order onto the template. 
• If you want students to do the research themselves and complete the timeline, provide links to resources they can read and collect information from.  
• Or you can request students to type in important events as you read to the class online. 
• You can also add images to make the timeline more impactful.

Biography Graphic Organizers 

Biography graphic organizers are a great way to help students learn about significant characters from the books they are reading, movies they are watching, or historic figures. They help organize the information around a character and remember them better. 

Here also you can provide a blank template to the students prior to the lesson, allowing them to fill it out as you present. Students can also fill it out after the presentation is done. 

There are many other types of graphic organizers that you can use in various different ways to teach and engage students during the class. Find them in our Ultimate List of Graphic Organizers for Teachers and Students .

More Resources and Templates 

Here is a list of more teaching activities and templates you can use during your online lessons. 

• Word webs for learning new words or topics
• 5 W’s charts for noting down key information during lessons   
• Lotus diagram to brainstorm around new topics
• Star diagram to organizing characteristics of a topic
• Story maps to identify different elements of a story or book  
• Persuasion map to facilitate the persuasive writing process
• Hierarchy charts for understanding the hierarchical structure of elements in a concept 
• Genograms for understanding family relationships

What Are Your Favorite Online Teaching Activities?

In an online environment, it’s more important to create more engaging course material to ensure that the learning materials stick with the students. The methods and templates discussed in this post are a few of the many ways educators can use to simplify the online learning process and stimulate the students’ minds and keep them interested. 

Tell us about your experience with online teaching. What online teaching activities do you use in your classroom to engage your students?

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49 Ideas for Online Learning Activities

Online learning does not have to be limited to video lectures, quizzes, and written assignments. With a little out-of-the box thinking, professors can construct activities that stimulate students’ minds and keep them interested.

For a resource of ideas for online educational activities, check out the Online Teaching Activity Index from the Illinois Online Network.

The website suggests 49 activities that can be used in either online or hybrid courses, including some creative activities such as Internet Scavenger Hunt , Concept Mapping , Fishbowl , and Socratic Dialogue .

Each activity includes a description, examples, appropriate content categories, goals & objectives, prerequisites, materials and resources, lesson procedures, and more.

Tell us about your experiences with online teaching: What activities do you use in your online courses?

*The Online Teaching Activity Index logo is the sole and exclusive property of the Illinois Online Network.

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40+ Free Distance-Learning Online Games and Activities for Kindergarten (and How to Use Them)

Let’s skip the search and go straight for the most helpful free online games for kindergarten.

If you’re in the midst of planning for distance learning or staring down a possible future of eLearning lesson plans , then use these free games and activities online to help you keep your lesson plans engaging for students.

Let’s look at my favorite games and activities online for kindergarten and then talk about how to actually use them for eLearning with more ideas from other teachers about how to stay connected to your class and plan lessons when you can’t be in the classroom .

Online sites for kindergarten

These sites I’m listing require no logins, no passwords and are free to use. And I’ve used them with kindergarten, so they are teacher-approved. Some sites may require minimal help with navigation or directions (if there is no audio-support) but the content is all right-on for kindergarten.

You’re probably familiar with these already, but I’m also going to include some specific games below too.

• Coolkindergarten.com has both language arts and math games for kindergarten plus a small selection of read-alouds and math videos. All items match kindergarten standards.
• Starfall.com is a classic beginning learner website. Use both the alphabet and learn to read page for the maximum benefit and a couple of the kindergarten math activities are good too.
• Turtlediary.com has both reading and math games. You might find it helpful to explore their list of games.
• Brightly storytime is a quality set of read-alouds hosted on youtube.
• Storyline online has recently added some new videos and the quality of these videos is great.
• Freckle.com is a differentiation platform with built-in activities for ELA, math, social studies and science.

Now let’s look at some specific games that are free to use.

Online games specific to kindergarten standards

Some of these specific games come from the websites above, but there are extra ones too.

I hope having them listed out by skill is helpful when you’re making your lesson plans.

Reading games & activities

All of these reading games are my favorites on these reading sub-skills for the second semester.

Blending cvc words

• Short a machine
• Chicken blast
• CVC blitz (expand to fullscreen)
• Bird hop and panda pop (choose CVC)
• CVC word scramble
• Odd and Bob
• Buried treasure
• Dragon’s den
• Viking words

Short vowels

• Short a song / Short a story
• Short e song / Short e story
• Short i song / Short i story
• Short o song / Short o story
• Short u song / Short u story
• Phonics pop (set 1, 2, 3 or 4 have short vowels included)
• Vowels save the day song

Sight words

• Sight word memory
• Spooky spellings (year 1, books 1 and/or 2)
• Submarine spelling (pre-primer)
• Bird hop and panda pop (choose sight words or sight words 2)
• Tricky words
• Guess word shapes
• Snowball fight
• Sight word smash
• Sight word safari
• Chunk that word song
• Th digraph mini-lesson
• Sh digraph mini-lesson
• Ch digraph mini-lesson
• Dinosaur eggs (select sh, th, ch and ee)
• Shark sounds (select ch, sh, th and oo)
• Bird hop and panda pop (choose wh, ch, sh, th)
• Phonics pop

Long vowels

• Silent e video
• Long vowel memory
• Long a word building / long a picture hunt / long a story
• Long i word building / long i story
• Long o word building / long o picture hunt / long o story
• Long u word building / long u story
• Lonely long vowels song
• Magic e mix and match
• Bird hop and panda pop (choose magic e)

Math games & activities

All of these math games are my favorites on these math sub-skills for the second semester.

Making numbers

• Subitizing ten frame race
• Fuzzbugs (choose 5 or 10)

Composing and decomposing 11-19+

• Candy machine
• Base ten bingo (select tens)
• Shark numbers (up to 29, 59 or 99)
• Base ten snakes (choose count and write – either ones or tens)
• Whack a mole (set a goal of 45)

2D and 3D shapes

• Highlight 2D shapes
• Shape invasion line-up
• Superhero solve with shapes
• Shapes shoot

Addition and subtraction

• Subtraction balloon pop
• Monster memory

Science games & activities

• turtle wax (simple machines: slides)
• desert dive teeter-totter (simple machines: lever)

Clever online activities

Here is a list of new or temporary activities that have become available. These can help you round out your lesson plans.

Guided drawing

Keep your guided drawing activities alive with Mo Willems drawing lessons .

These lessons are taught by the author of the Pigeon books and you could ask your students to write a simple sentence to go with their completed picture. Use this “Don’t Let the Pigeon” writing activity as an example.

At-home safari or scavenger hunts

Let your students take a daily home safari . Encourage them to draw a picture of their favorite thing they learned while watching or to draw what the featured animal eats.

Send your students on daily scavenger hunts . Post a picture each day with their list – get kids moving, away from their screens and get them outdoors.

Free curriculum

You can sign your class up for freckle.com , which is free. Ask students to work for 15-20 minutes a day.

You may also want to check out links or activity ideas in this kindergarten online free curriculum .

How to make online lesson plans

Okay, so now that we have these fantastic links, what do we do with them?

Well, it depends on what you have to work with.

For some teachers, this means that you are putting out work for your students using Seesaw, ClassDojo, Google Classroom or something your school already has in place for eLearning.

In general, you can pick the sites or specific games you want by copying the site (or game) URL and pasting it in your favorite method of sharing work.

Here are a few of the current favorite ways teachers are using these tools right now.

Google Classroom

I made a free eLearning template just for you to use in kindergarten! Check out how to make an easy-to-navigate eLearning lesson plan using a Google Slide presentation.

Heidi, a kindergarten teacher, said:

“You can post PDFS, links to websites, video or voice recordings of yourself. Kids can type, draw, write, voice or video record responses. They have many safety settings for keeping things private or public with in your classroom. There is a database of assignments teachers have shared that you can use as well. It was simple to learn and implement for teachers, students and now parents!! Today, since routines have finally settled – I am able to video personal messages to kids about their work.”

Amber has these recommendations for teachers using Seesaw for the first time:

“Use the caption on the bottom of each Seesaw page to record your instructions and put your YouTube videos into Slides and link those instead of just linking a YouTube video. It will be easier for your kids to navigate. Make sure you make your Slides share setting to ‘Anyone with link can view’ or it’ll prompt them to sign in to Google.”

Click here to set yourself up on Seesaw and invite your classroom families to use it.

For an eLearning situation, be sure to have parents download the class app too (in addition to the families app).

Here is an example from a fellow kindergarten teacher Robin on how she is currently using ClassDojo for eLearning.

Robin, a kindergarten teacher, said:

“I am using ClassDojo. I read a story to my students each morning using the video feature. Then I upload videos from youTube, link some worksheets to do and then give them a daily challenge to do or a scavenger hunt. Anything that gets them moving!

Many parents say my students love hearing me read to them. The book I read relates to their challenge or activity.

For example, today I read, “Animal Strike at the Zoo… It’s True.” I challenged my students to find things that have strips, spots or were orange/yellow. I also asked to hear for rhyming words in the story and then in their activity, I then gave them words that they would have come up with the rhyme for. I also encouraged them to go to the Cincinnati Zoo today at 3 pm for a live Facebook field trip on an animal in the cat family (hence the look for strips, spots orange/yellow challenge).

Everything in my room is cross-curricula in someway… Why stop just because we aren’t in school. Welcome to eLearning!”

When asked – how do you share worksheets and do put the videos in class story ?

Robin shared:

“I share worksheets by having them as a PDF and linking them. Videos are from youtube that we have done in class and students are familiar with (no new content). I copy the link and share them on the class story.

Sharing on class story, you can see who has viewed it and such. It is a way to get it out to all your parents at once. Sending messages would allow for more individualized videos or activities for students.”

Kathy also shared:

“Student accounts are needed for Portfolios, where students show their work. There are teacher instructions under Teacher Resources.

You can open a post on either your phone or laptop and a “Record” icon will be in the window. Click and start recording yourself.

You can suspend your phone over a paper for a mini-lesson, like a document camera. It works great. I used a rack from under my sink, but I’ve seen pics where teachers have placed their phone within a stack of full cans of food. “

Click here to set yourself up on ClassDojo and invite your classroom families to use it.

How to connect with students while out of the classroom

Are you looking for more ideas on what to assign to your students or ways to create eLearning lesson plans?

Here are some fantastic ideas from teachers who are actually in the midst of figuring this out themselves.

Use photo and video activities

Have students post photos or videos to share their completed assignments.

Elizabeth said, “I use ClassDojo. It’s fun to see their video and photos. I posted assignments like find 17 objects and share them or count to 75. For photos, I asked them to post drawings about stories.”

Create a routine

Develop a routine to make lesson planning easier. This will also greatly help families know what to expect and be able to execute the plans over the long haul.

Debra, a kindergarten teacher said, “My team and I created lesson plans for a week and release the activities for the day. We post a link to a story and tell them to draw or write what it was about, some math problems, a sight word activity, a CVC word activity, an activity to complete on Mobymax, etc.”

Remember the familiar things

Your classroom experience is unique. Don’t let your kiddos miss out on that with these little things they’ve become so used to.

Record yourself doing your sight word chant, alphabet chart or reading books aloud. Pick some things that are routine and familiar and do them just the way you would in class.

Take a picture of your alphabet chart or your digraphs charts – upload them and ask students to practice them aloud.

In conclusion

It may feel like a scramble to get started with distance learning, but – you’ve got this!

I wanted to thank the teachers featured here who’ve already jumped in head first to eLearning and shared their knowledge with the rest of us.

I hope this list can help you keep your lesson plans engaging for students and makes planning for distance learning easier.

Just like anything new, there is going to be a learning curve, but you can adjust and keep your students learning.

Just remember to be thoughtful about the workload for parents who have a new learning curve too.

More kindergarten online

• 16 Quick phonics videos for kindergarten
• 10 Color song videos for kindergarten
• 19 Things kindergartners can do for distance learning

Leslie is the teacher behind KindergartenWorks . She believes in teaching kinders how to be pretty incredible along with teaching them to read, write and think for themselves. She enjoys drinking hot tea, making mud pies with her four kids and sharing what she's learned with teachers.

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I cannot access any of your games and resources because they require adobe flash player. I would love to see them, but I cannot unless you have another way for me to access them?

Yes, unfortunately, Google has done away with so many of my favorite games by making this move! They are currently marked with an asterisk, so you could focus on the games that don’t have one – but I’ll be removing those links from this list soon. – Leslie

Thank you for being selfless in sharing your knowledge and encouraging words to teachers like myself.

Thank you so much for creating all of this for us in a time that is new with so much to take in. I hope that you and your family are well.

You are always a lifeline, but even more so at this time of educational upheaval. Thank you for all the work you’ve done that makes it easier.

Thank you Susan – I appreciate your kind words! – Leslie

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Home > Blog > Tips for Online Students > What is Experiential Learning Theory and Why it Matters

Tips for Online Students , Tips for Students

What is Experiential Learning Theory and Why it Matters

Updated: August 26, 2024

Published: August 23, 2024

Experiential Learning Theory emphasizes learning through experience and reflection rather than passively receiving information. Originating from scholars like David Kolb, it connects deeply with other educational philosophies focusing on active participation. Why does this matter today? 

Experiential learning can enhance skill acquisition, promote deeper understanding, and support personal growth in our rapidly changing world. Bridging the gap between theory and practice prepares students and professionals alike to tackle real-world challenges with confidence and adaptability. It’s all about learning by doing.

What are the Core Principles of Experiential Learning Theory?

At its heart, Experiential Learning Theory is about learning through experience. It involves four key stages: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. 

This cycle helps learners create knowledge by transforming their experiences into meaningful insights. Hands-on engagement, thoughtful reflection, and applying new concepts in real-world scenarios are crucial. 

This approach means you’re memorizing facts and truly understanding and applying them, which can make learning more engaging and effective.

How Does Experiential Learning Differ from Traditional Classroom Learning?

Experiential learning takes a different path from traditional education . Instead of listening to lectures and memorizing facts, it focuses on doing and reflecting. This method encourages active participation, allowing you to learn from real-world experiences and hands-on activities.

Source of Knowledge

Experiential learning draws knowledge from experiences and personal reflections. In contrast, traditional learning often relies on textbooks and lectures, where knowledge is delivered in a more passive manner.

Skill Development

Experiential learning emphasizes practical skills developed through real-world applications. You get to practice and hone skills in actual scenarios, unlike traditional methods that might focus more on theoretical understanding.

Feedback Mechanism

In experiential learning, feedback is immediate and context-specific, allowing for quick adjustments and improvements. Traditional classroom settings might offer delayed feedback, often through standardized tests or formal evaluations.

Learning Pace

Experiential learning lets learners set their own pace based on their engagement with the material. Traditional classrooms often follow a fixed schedule, which may not suit everyone’s learning speed.

What are the Stages of Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle?

Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle includes four stages that work together to create a continuous learning process. This cycle offers a structured learning approach that encourages personal and professional growth by building on past experiences and reflecting on them to create new knowledge.

Concrete Experience (CE)

This is the first stage, where the learning process begins with a direct encounter or experience. This might involve trying something new or looking at a familiar situation differently. 

It could be as simple as participating in a workshop or as complex as managing a project. This experience lays the groundwork for reflection and analysis, providing a tangible basis for further learning. 

This stage focuses on fully engaging with the situation and experiencing it with all senses.

Reflective Observation (RO)

In this stage, learners step back to observe and reflect on their experiences from different angles. This involves thinking about what happened, analyzing the situation, and considering why things unfolded the way they did. 

Learners might ask themselves questions like “What did I notice?” or “What could I have done differently?” Reflection is critical in connecting experience to understanding, allowing learners to gain deeper insights into their experiences.

Abstract Conceptualization (AC)

This stage involves drawing conclusions and forming theories or concepts based on reflections. Learners integrate their observations into a coherent framework, developing or modifying new ideas. 

This stage is about understanding the patterns and principles underlying the experiences and using this understanding to conceptualize broader applications. It helps learners transition from specific experiences to general insights that can guide future actions.

Active Experimentation (AE)

The final stage of the cycle is about applying the new concepts and theories in real-world situations. Learners use their newfound understanding to plan and implement changes or try out new approaches. This could involve setting up experiments, tackling new projects, or adjusting existing practices. 

Active experimentation allows learners to test their ideas and refine their understanding, starting the cycle anew with fresh experiences and challenges.

What are Some Examples of Experiential Learning Activities?

Experiential learning activities engage learners in practical, hands-on experiences that connect theory to practice. They are designed to encourage exploration, problem-solving, and critical thinking and span a wide range of educational settings and disciplines.

Field Trips and Excursions

Field trips offer students the opportunity to immerse themselves in real-world environments that are related to their studies. Whether it’s a visit to a historical site, a science museum, or a local business, field trips provide firsthand experiences that enrich classroom learning. 

These excursions can enhance understanding by showing students the practical application of concepts and encouraging them to explore and ask questions in a natural setting.

Service Learning Projects

Service learning combines academic learning with community service, allowing students to apply their knowledge to address genuine community needs. These projects benefit the community and help students develop skills like teamwork, communication, and problem-solving. 

Service learning projects often involve research, planning, and reflection, offering students a chance to make meaningful contributions while deepening their understanding of academic content.

Internships and Apprenticeships

Internships and apprenticeships provide students with extended, hands-on work experiences that bridge academic learning and professional skill development. 

These experiences allow students to apply classroom theories in real-world settings, gain industry-specific skills, and make valuable connections with professionals. 

Internships and apprenticeships are crucial for career readiness, offering insights into workplace dynamics and expectations.

What Challenges Might Educators Face When Implementing Experiential Learning?

Implementing experiential learning can be rewarding but also challenging for educators. It requires significant resources, planning, and flexibility, often requiring educators to step outside traditional teaching methods.

One major challenge is the need for curriculum redesign. Traditional educational systems may resist change, and educators must find ways to integrate experiential activities into established curricula. This might involve balancing experiential learning with standardized content and assessments.

Assessing experiential learning poses another challenge. Unlike traditional assessments, which focus on memorization and standardization, experiential learning requires process-oriented evaluation. Educators must develop methods to assess student growth and understanding through reflective practices and project outcomes.

Additionally, ensuring equal access to quality experiential learning opportunities is essential. Educators must strive to provide diverse experiences that cater to all students, regardless of their background or resources. This might involve securing partnerships with community organizations or businesses and finding creative solutions to logistical and financial constraints.

Can Experiential Learning Be Used in Online Education?

Yes, experiential learning can be incorporated into online education. While bringing hands-on experiences to a digital environment might seem challenging, creative solutions can bridge the gap. Online platforms offer unique opportunities for experiential learning through virtual simulations, remote collaborations, and interactive digital tools. These technologies allow students to use realistic scenarios and practice skills in a controlled setting.

For example, virtual labs can replicate scientific experiments, enabling students to research and analyze data without needing physical materials. Remote collaboration tools facilitate teamwork and problem-solving across geographical boundaries, providing a global project perspective. Interactive modules and gamified learning experiences can mimic real-world challenges, allowing students to apply their knowledge in engaging ways.

Online experiential learning also benefits from its flexibility and accessibility. Students can learn at their own pace, revisit materials, and access diverse resources from anywhere globally. Additionally, digital platforms can connect students with experts and peers from various backgrounds, fostering a rich learning community that enhances the overall experience.

Applying Experiential Learning Theory in Your Own Life

Experiential learning theory isn’t just for classrooms; it can also be valuable for personal and professional growth. By actively engaging with new experiences and reflecting on them, you can deepen your understanding and enhance your skills in any area of interest.

To apply experiential learning to your life, start by identifying areas where you want to grow or improve. Look for opportunities to engage in hands-on activities related to these goals, whether through volunteering, taking up a new hobby, or seeking out work experiences that challenge you.

Next, incorporate the four stages of Kolb’s learning cycle into your process. After each experience, reflect on what you’ve learned, think about how it applies to broader concepts, and experiment with new approaches based on your insights. This cyclical process encourages continuous learning and adaptation, helping you stay agile and open to new opportunities.

Remember, experiential learning is about taking an active role in your development. Be curious, seek feedback, and embrace challenges as chances to learn. By doing so, you’ll enhance your skills and foster a mindset of lifelong learning that can lead to personal and professional success.

Who developed experiential learning theory and when?

David Kolb developed experiential learning theory in the 1970s. It was inspired by earlier work from scholars like John Dewey, Jean Piaget, and Kurt Lewin, who emphasized the importance of experience in the learning process.

How does experiential learning enhance long-term memory and retention?

Experiential learning enhances long-term memory by engaging learners in active, meaningful experiences that connect with prior knowledge. Reflecting on and applying new concepts helps reinforce understanding and embed information in memory, making it easier to recall later.

How does experiential learning support different learning styles?

Experiential learning supports various learning styles by incorporating hands-on activities, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. This diverse approach caters to different preferences, whether learners prefer visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or other styles, ensuring a comprehensive learning experience.

What role does failure play in the experiential learning process?

Failure is seen as a valuable part of the experiential learning process. It provides opportunities for reflection, growth, and innovation. By analyzing and learning from mistakes, learners develop resilience and problem-solving skills that enhance future performance.

How can experiential learning be assessed or evaluated?

Experiential learning is often assessed through reflective journals, project-based assessments, presentations, and portfolios. These methods focus on the process of learning, the application of knowledge, and the development of skills rather than standardized tests.

What is the relationship between experiential learning and problem-solving skills?

Experiential learning enhances problem-solving skills by immersing learners in real-world challenges that require critical thinking and creativity. Through hands-on activities and reflection, learners can analyze situations, generate solutions, and adapt to new circumstances, making them effective problem-solvers.

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Teaching Commons > Teaching Guides > Technology > Artificial Intelligence > Faculty Learning Community AI Activities

​​These activities were created by members of the AI Teaching and Learning Collective, a 2024 Faculty Learning Community .

Illustration by Karthik Srinivas

Writing Better

Type of activity: Essay assignment Description: Students compare their original outlines for a research paper with an outline generated by AI. 

Illustration by Vijay Verma

Generative AI Image

Type of activity: Event/campaign plan Description: Students generate an image with AI, assess its quality, and discuss guidelines for effective use.

Illustration by Gustavo Pedrosa

Finding a Topic for an Empirical Research Paper

Type of activity: Brainstorming activity Description: Students use AI to identify and refine an empirical research question.

The Compare and Contrast Essay

Type of activity: Essay assignment Description: Students read and annotate an AI-generated essay to compare it with their original writing.

Illustration by Susana Salas

Outlining Using AI

Type of activity: Brainstorming activity Description: Students create an AI prompt to generate a thesis statement and outline for a research paper.

Illustration by Pablo Stanley

Prompt Engineering in Microsoft Copilot

Type of activity: Hands-on activity Description: Students learn to effectively use Microsoft Copilot for various professional tasks. 

Illustration by Irene Falgueras

AI & Physiological Psychology Research

Type of activity: Brainstorming activity Description: Students collaborate with AI by asking research questions and evaluating the responses.

Illustration by Ana Copenicker

The Dangers of AI Use in Writing Literature Reviews

Type of activity: Genre analysis Description: Students complete a genre analysis that includes AI-generated writing. 

Illustration by Deivid Saenz

“We Cheat You Fair”: Thoughts on Teaching and Learning With AI

Type of activity: Essay assignment Description: Students incorporate AI into a number of steps in the process of writing an essay.

AI-Generated PowerPoint Slides

Type of activity: Homework assignment Description: Students use AI to generate PowerPoint slides for a presentation. 

Illustration by Brandon Mendoza

AI Research Assistant

Type of activity: Brainstorming activity Description: Students use critical thinking skills to incorporate AI tools into the development of a project. 

Leveraging Generative AI for Job Search

Type of activity: Hands-on activity Description: Students use AI to get feedback on their resumes in a hands-on job search.