Edtech companies offer free tools to colleges affected by COVID-19

Written by Betsy Foresman
| EDSCOOP

After hundreds of universities cancelled classes last week in response to the spread of COVID-19, many education technology companies have started offering free teaching resources to educators to help with the transition from in-person to online learning.

With more than 5,700 confirmed cases of the disease brought on by the new coronavirus across the U.S. as of publication, COVID-19 has forced higher education institutions to swiftly move to alternative teaching methods and adopt new technologies to support distance learning — like video conferencing software, online assessment tools and other e-learning resources, in an effort to keep student and faculty safe and healthy.

And as members of the education community come together to tackle this large-scale transition, education technology companies have also stepped up to help teachers facilitate online learning for home-bound students, offering services and resources to schools affected by the health crisis for free.

Free resources for university and college students and teachers affected by the coronavirus outbreak:

Acessibyte

Assistive technology company Accessibyte Online has offered free access to its cloud platform of apps for blind, low vision, deaf and reading-impaired students.

Adobe Connect

Web conferencing platform Adobe Connect — which supports collaboration via video, audio, screen-sharing, polls, chat, Q&A and document sharing — has offered a free 90-day trial through July 1st.

AdmitHub

The AI-powered communication platform AdmitHub has made a free chatbot to help colleges answer questions about coronavirus with answers that are reviewed by the World Health Organization.

Cisco Webex

Cisco Webex is offering free video-meeting software to keep classrooms connected during the health crisis.

ClassMaster

ClassMaster, which digitizes existing paper or computer-based teaching resources and can track student performance over time, has been made free for the rest of the academic year