Smart Learning Institute

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

Studies Weekly is now open to all teachers and students to use, whether or not they're current customers. The online platform includes all student editions, teacher editions, lesson plans, English language arts integrations and assessments. The program K-6 produces standards-based curriculum for social studies and science, which usually pairs with the company's periodical-based printed materials. https://www.studiesweekly.com/

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

Top Hat has made its education platform free of charge for the rest of the semester to support educators transitioning to remote teaching and learning. Be forewarned: For those who sign up, the company will put an education specialist "in touch" within one to three business days "to help you get set up." https://tophat.com/covid-19-response/

TrueConf is offering educational institutions free access to its on-premises video conferencing system for up to 1,000 users. According to the company, the self-hosted distance learning platform can be set up "within 15 minutes." TrueConf is maintained by an IT administrator and works well for regions with "unstable" internet connectivity. The program's video conferencing mode and collaboration tools include screen sharing and video conference recording. Students can join online classes from any device via client applications for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, as well as from browsers with no extra plugins. Access will remain open until Jun. 30, after which the company cut the price in half for a server license to any academic organization. https://trueconf.com/blog/blog/news/covid-19-be-safe-work-from-home-with-trueconf.html

TypeTastic has made its classroom, school and district editions free until the end of June 2020. The company provides access to 700 games and keyboarding activities. The service promises ad-free access with multiple varieties of reporting and integration with popular K-12 course management and productivity software. https://edu.typetastic.com/free-keyboarding-resources.html

Unity Technologies is providing free access to Unity Learn Premium, a 3D development platform, through Jun. 20, 2020. Registration provides access to live sessions with Unity experts and 350-plus hours of tutorials, hands-on projects, and courses for game developers, covering topics from "Game Mechanic Design Fundamentals" to "Getting Started with Post-Processing Stack for VR." Unity is also delivering virtual classes through "Create with Code Live," free for students, instructors and anyone else interested in learning to code; those sessions kick off on Mar. 23 at 9 a.m. Pacific time or 5 p.m. Pacific time. https://unity.com/products/learn-premium