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The COVID-19 situation forces people all over the world to work or study remotely for the first time in their lives. This repository aims to aggregate all the important information, free resources and other stuff that helps people make the best of the unfortunate situation and continue with their daily tasks.
Disclaimer #1: Before using any of the tools on this list, I strongly advice you to read the article What You Should Know About Online Tools During the COVID-19 Crisis by EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation).
Disclaimer #2: Once you start using a certain online service, it might be hard or even impossible to migrate to another system later on. Be sure to weigh pros and cons of the free offers and be aware of the vendor lock-in
Note on Tools and Services: This list deals exclusively with free products/services and premium services that offer free plans for schools, companies and individuals affected by the pandemic. Unfortunately, some companies are trying to benefit from the situation by pretending their pre-existing free trials are actually free handouts, in which case they’ll be excluded from the list.
Topics
Legend
The following icons and formatting are used in the lists:
| Icon | Meaning | Icon | Meaning | Format | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🌍 | Service available worldwide | 📕 | The resource is a free book | Bolded Name | Premium service offered free due to COVID-19 |
| ✔️ | Appears to be GDPR compliant | ❔ | Might not be GDPR compliant |
Remote Studying/Teaching
There are numerous tools and services for both studying and teaching remotely. Here are some of the popular free tool and ones that are exceptionally offered for free due to COVID-19.
Collaboration
Courses and Book Collections
| Service | Description | Countries | Validity | GDPR Compliant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Britannica LaunchPacks [Announcement] | Free, Emergency Virtual-Learning Resources for Every School. | 🌍 | For schools | ✔️ [Info] |
| Cambridge Core Academic Textbooks [Announcement] | All 700 textbooks, published and currently available in HTML format on Cambridge Core, are now available until the end of May, regardless of whether they were previously purchased. | 🌍 | Until the end of May | ✔️ [Info] |
| Coursera for Campus [Announcement] | Access 3,800 courses and 400 specializations. | 🌍 | Learners will have access to their courses through September 30, 2020 | ✔️ [Info] |
| COVID-19: Tackling the Novel Coronavirus [Announcement] | Free online course. What is COVID-19 and how might the outbreak affect you? Find out more about coronavirus and explore its worldwide implications. | 🌍 | ❔ | |
| Epic [Announcement] | Digital library for kids offering unlimited access to 35000 of the best children’s books of all time. | 🌍 | Free worldwide Remote Student Access through the end of the school year (June 30th, 2020), by teacher invitation | ❔ |
| Khan Academy [Announcement] | Nonprofit with the mission to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. | 🌍 | ✔️ [Info] | |
| Scribd [Announcement] | Millions of books, audiobooks, magazines, and more. | 🌍 | Free for 30 days | ❔ |
General
| Service | Description | Countries | Validity | GDPR Compliant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alta [Announcement] | Complete courseware solution that combines adaptive learning technology with openly available content to deliver a personalized learning experience. | 🌍 | Free access to the courseware, for the duration of this spring semester. | ❔ |
| ClassDojo [Announcement] | ClassDojo connects teachers with students and parents to build classroom communities | 🌍 | Always free for teachers | ✔️ [Info] |
| Kahoot! [Announcement] | Game-based learning platform | 🌍 | Remaining months of the academic year. | ✔️ [Info] |
| Kolibri [Announcement] | The offline app for universal education | 🌍 | Always free | ✔️ [Info] |
| Office 365 A1 [Announcement] | Online version of Office with email, video conferencing, hub for class teamwork with Microsoft Teams etc. | 🌍 | Always free | ✔️ [Info] |
| Office 365 A5 [Announcement] | Office 365 A1 features with higher usage limits + Office desktop apps, additional management and security tools, and analytics systems. | USA, Italy, Japan, South Korea | Free for six months | ✔️ [Info] |
| Top Hat [Announcement] | Easy-to-use tools to engage your classroom, adopt and author next generation interactive textbooks, create assignments on the fly and securely administer tests. | United States, Canada, United Kingdom | The product is aimed for colleges and universities, valid until the end of the semester | ❔ |
| Vuolearning [Announcement] | Distance learning solution with courses, discussions, assignments, analytics and integrations to external systems. | Finland | Free until June 30th, 2020 | ✔️ [Info] |
| WileyPLUS [Announcement] | Research-based online environment for effective teaching and learning | 🌍 | Free access to the courseware, for the duration of this spring semester. | ✔️ [Info] |
Languages
| Service | Description | Countries | Validity | GDPR Compliant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mango Classroom [Announcement] | Language learning resource that combines quality content, intelligent technology, and an adaptive algorithm that delivers practical phrases from real situations in over 70 supported languages. | USA | Freely available to all schools facing closures through the end of the 2019-2020 school year | ✔️ [Info] |
STEM
| Service | Description | Countries | Validity | GDPR Compliant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eMathStudio | Calculate math, get immediate feedback and share work from home. | 🌍 | ❔ | |
| zyBooks [Announcement] | Interactive learning resources for Computer Science, Engineering, and Math | 🌍 | Valid for the remainder of Spring Semester courses. | ❔ |
| ST Math [Announcement] | ST Math is an instructional tool including more than 35,000 puzzles with interactive representations of math topics that align to all state standards, with learning objectives that target key grade-level concepts and skills. | USA | Free access through June 30, 2020 | ❔ |
Articles on Remote Studying/Teaching
For Parents
For Students
- A student guide to studying online
- Resources to help you and students understand COVID-19 and more
- The Open University - Study Skills
- Your Complete Guide to Distance Learning
For Teachers
- Accessible Teaching in the Time of COVID-19
- Advice to those about to teach online because of the corona-virus
- COVID-19 and Students with Disabilities
- Creating an Online Community, Class or Conference - Quick Tech Guide
- Crowdsourcing: Teaching Online with Care
- 📕 Digital Teaching In Higher Education Designing E-learning for International Students of Technology, Innovation and the Environment
- How to use Discord for your classroom
- In the Eye of the Storm: Students’ Perceptions of Helpful Faculty Actions Following a Collective Tragedy
- Issues in Accessing Distance Education Technologies for Individuals with Disabilities
- Going Online in a Hurry: What to Do and Where to Start
- Supporting Students During COVID-19
- Teaching Effectively During Times of Disruption
- Ten Tips for Quickly Converting Courses for Online Delivery
Tools & Resources
- 105 Tools for Distance Learning & Strategies for Student Engagement
- 16 Free Resources for Schools Who are Closing Due to Coronavirus
- 40+ Tools for Distance Learning (A response to COVID-19)
Remote Work
Remote working tools and services have been around for a while but recently some of the big players have made their premium offerings partly or fully free. If you know more, please contribute!
All-In-One Services
| Service | Description | Countries | Validity | GDPR Compliant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlassian products [Announcement] | Cloud hosted versions of Jira (project and issue tracking), Confluence (document collaboration), Bitbucket (version control), Opsgenie (incident management) etc. | 🌍 | Free for teams up to 10 people | ✔️ [Info] |
| Facebook Workplace | Team collaboration service with, groups, video calls, file storage, translation, video streaming, mobile apps etc. | 🌍 | ✔️ [Info] | |
| Office 365 E1 [Announcement] | Web-based Office apps and business services, including Microsoft Teams for team collaboration. Contact Microsoft partner or sales representative to apply. | 🌍 | Free for six months | ✔️ [Info] |
Miscellaneous
| Service | Description | Countries | Validity | GDPR Compliant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dropbox Business [Announcement] | Cloud based file hosting service with enterprise collaboration features. | 🌍 | Free Dropbox Business subscriptions for a three-month period to nonprofits and NGOs that are focused on fighting COVID-19 | ✔️ [Info] |
| Focusmate | Virtual coworking service to increase productivity. | 🌍 | Free for 3 sessions (50 minutes each) per week | ❔ |
Real-Time Communication
| Service | Description | Countries | Validity | GDPR Compliant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3CX Standard Edition [Announcement] | Collaborative meeting service with live chat, video and audio calls, and support for desktop, web and mobile. | 🌍 | Free for 3 years for unlimited users | ✔️ [Info] |
| Adobe Connect [Announcement] | Extensible web conferencing solution with chat pods, polls, quizzes, simulations, breakout rooms, games and more. | 🌍 | Free fully functional trial extended to 90 days due to COVID-19 | ✔️ [Info] |
| Cisco Webex [Announcement] | Video conferencing, training and team collaboration services with video calls and support for interactive webinars. | List | Time limits removed and participant amount increased to 100 for free accounts | ✔️ [Info] |
| LogMeIn Products (GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar) [Announcement] | Collaboration tools for businesses and communities, with support for video and audio calls, screensharing, messaging and meeting transcription. | 🌍 | Available for eligible healthcare providers, educational institutions, municipalities, and non-profit organizations as well as any current LogMeIn customer | ✔️ [Info] |
| Slack | Collaboration software with channels, messaging, and 1:1 voice and video calls in the free version. | 🌍 | No group audio or video calls or screen sharing in the free tier | ✔️ [Info] |
Articles
General
- 12 Remote Work Tools Buffer Can’t Live Without
- 15 Virtual Team Building Activities To Level-Up Your Remote Team
- 4 Managerial Downsides of Remote Work (and How to Deal With Them)
- GitLab’s Guide to Remote Work
- How remote work is quietly remaking our lives
- How to Transition Your Team to Remote Work
- Love It or Hate It: Here’s What You Need to Know About Working From Home
- Telecommuting
- The Pyramid of Remote Team Communication Tools - How to stay in sync across 26 countries and 15 time zones
- The Ultimate Guide to Telecommuting and Improving Work-Life Balance
- Think globally, code locally: the secret to remote teams
- Ultimate List of 90+ Tools for Managing a Remote Team
Health & Family
- 11 traits you need to be an effective remote worker
- Care for your coronavirus anxiety
- Does Telework Stress Employees Out? A Study on Working at Home and Subjective Well-Being for Wage/Salary Workers
- The Psychological Impact of Teleworking: Stress, Emotions and Health
- The Remote Working Parent’s Survival Guide
- Work from home: 64 expert tips for staying healthy, happy, and productive
Research
| Service | Description | Countries | Validity | GDPR Compliant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA Parabricks [Announcement] | Genome-sequencing software for GPUs | 🌍 | Free 90-day license to any researcher in the worldwide effort to fight the novel coronavirus. | ❔ |
Other Lists
| List | Description |
|---|---|
| Distance learning solutions - Unesco | List of educational applications and platforms to help parents, teachers, schools and school systems facilitate student learning and provide social caring and interaction during periods of school closure. |
| Free Tools for Schools Dealing with Corona | List of companies that have announced services enhanced or made free to schools as they deal with closures due to COVID 19. |
| koulu.me | Right to education - Free apps and resources to support distance learning in schools affected by the coronavirus outbreak |
| Tech against Coronavirus | A list of products you can use to maintain collaboration and work remotely with your team |
Contributing
There are certainly many great tools and services that I’m missing from this list. If you know of any, please submit a pull request and I’ll review it. There are no specific styling instructions yet but try to adhere to the overall look and feel already present in the document. Keep the following things in mind when contributing:
Note for non-technical users: If you’re not familiar with GitHub, or have no clue what a “pull request” is and you would like to contribute to this page, feel free to send me a message. I’ll add your suggestions if they’re suitable for this page.
- If there’s a separate announcement on an official blog etc. with more information about the offering, please link that in the Source column of the table.
- Don’t add services that pretend that their pre-existing 30-day trial is suddenly a free COVID-19 exclusive offer.
- Keep the table entries in alphabetical order.
- Sites with excessive ads, paywalls or other limitations will not be accepted. Any articles listed in this repository should be of high quality and be original.
- If you want to provide a translation to your language, feel free to do so. All translations should go to a new file with a two letter language code (ISO 639‑1) suffix. (.e.g -fi, -se etc.)
What is Needed?
- More free tools with proper categories for both distance learning and remote work
- More high quality articles for students to ease in the transition to distance learning
- Translations into other languages. I will provide the Finnish translation soon but other languages are up for grabs.
IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer)
Even though there’s a column for GDPR compliance in each of the lists, it DOES NOT count as a legal advice. You’re still expected to do the due diligence with a real lawyer or a legal expert to determine if the service really is compliant. The way I interpret it for this list is that if the company advertises that they’re compliant, there will be a green tick in that column. In overall, I don’t take any responsibility for the accuracy of the information represented in this list. Use at your own risk.