Schools across the country will continue to take necessary precautions to keep students and educators safe and prevent the spread of COVID-19. For this reason, distance learning is here to stay for the immediate future. Following up on our actionable tips for adapting to remote education, the team at Yup has gathered a thorough list of high-quality free and cost-effective resources to supplement online learning in the virtual classroom.
Of course, these resources by no means replace the hard work of our teachers and administrators to keep the learning going. They can serve as powerful supplements to classroom lessons by empowering students to practice and dig deeper into subjects. We’ll keep this list updated throughout this unprecedented period in education.
Are you a student, parent, teacher, or administrator and have a suggestion to add to this list? We’d love to hear from you.
Supplemental Lessons & Classes
iD Tech
iD Tech is the world leader in tech education experiences, and they’re offering a new suite of virtual camps. Virtual Tech Camps are an excellent way to provide students with structured skill-building to keep them engaged and learning. The camps offer live weeklong summer sessions for students aged 7-19 and provide a balanced schedule of 2 hours of live instruction and 2 hours of self-paced project development per day. Curriculum includes Minecraft, Roblox, AI, 3D modeling, and more. Class sizes are kept small (5 students max) to facilitate personalized learning and individualized attention. iD Tech is running a promotion to make their classes more accessible during this challenging time.
McGraw Hill
The well-known textbook company McGraw Hill has put together a comprehensive online resource center for a variety of K-12 and higher ed subjects, including math, science, language arts, and social studies. These concept sheets and practice packets were made specifically to support learning at home.
BrainPop
BrainPop offers accessible, engaging lessons for elementary and middle school learners. Topics range from STEM to arts, music, and health, and modules include videos, related reading, and assessments to encourage engagement. They also offer resources for educators and parents, like pacing guides for helping students as they adjust to remote education.
CK-12
CK-12 shares free online learning resources including virtual textbooks (FlexBooks), subject videos, and quizzes. They offer more than the usual standards, branching out into subjects like individual country history, photography, and sociology.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy provides free online lessons for students of every age and grade level. Their video modules are particularly helpful for visual learners and can be accessed at any time. Khan covers STEM, arts and humanities, and also extends to standardized test preparation.
CodeAcademy
CodeAcademy began almost 10 years ago as a free platform for learning how to code. Today, they still provide students with free coding courses, as well as a newer paid Pro option. The CodeAcademy course catalog includes specific subjects such as web development, data science, and game development. It covers languages including HTML & CSS, Python, SQL, Ruby, PHP, Go, Swift, and more.
Fiveable
Fiveable is a modern, engaging resource specifically for AP courses (a 5 is the highest grade one can achieve on the annual AP exams). Educators from across the country share free lessons and study guides for 15+ AP courses, from history and social science to STEM to language.
Curriculum Associates
Curriculum Associates provides printable activity packets and home learning guidance for students to use while learning remotely. The resources cover K-8 reading and mathematics and come in English and Spanish.
Educational Activities & Games
CodeMonkey
CodeMonkey is a leading, fun, and intuitive coding for kids software. Through game and project-based courses, children as young as 5 use block and text-based programming to solve scaffolded puzzles and build their own games and apps. CodeMonkey does not require prior coding experience to teach and learn and is designed for schools, clubs, and at-home use.
Duolingo
The Duolingo app brings a personalized, fun approach to learning languages. As students continue to use the app, the lessons and exercise become more tailored to their learning style. Quizzes and rewards in the app help keep students motivated and improving.
Discovery Education
Discovery Education (like the channel!) provides K-12 students with interactive videos and activities such as virtual field trips and museum excursions. Their virtual learning page includes resources for students as well as parents and teachers.
Amazon Coderz
Amazon CoderZ is an engaging way to practice STEM skills by programming a virtual robot on the CoderZ platform. Students in the US, Canada, Argentina, Colombia, and Chile can access this engineering program for free.
DK Find Out
Geared towards younger learners, DKfindout! offers students with vibrant virtual resources that help bring lessons to life. Students can use downloadable games, quizzes, and activities to explore their drawing, writing, and more.
Scholastic Learn at Home
Scholastic (like the book fairs) has put together the Scholastic Learn at Home program, chock-full of engaging projects that students can complete after class to keep learning going. The activities range from Pre-K through early high school, and Scholastic also provides resources for parents, families, and teachers to help students along on the Learn at Home journey. All resources are free and try to minimize the need for printing as much as possible.
Audible
Audible is the largest provider of audiobooks in the world, and they’re making thousands of titles available for free throughout COVID-19 school closures. Students can get listening right away!
Mindful.org
Mindful.org contains dozens of mindfulness and meditation exercises for students, families, and teachers to incorporate into their learning at home routines. It’s a great resource for beginners and more experienced practitioners alike.
If you’re a student and your school could benefit from Yup, you can send your teacher this blog post or our schools page! If you’re an educator interested in how Yup for Schools can help empower your teaching in the time of remote education, get in touch here!
