With many people being asked to socially distance themselves, while other cities have placed their residents under mandatory lockdown to prevent the further spread of the COVID-19, the UN has tips for those seeking to strike the balance between vigilance and the need to maintain some normalcy.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is rallying international organizations, civil society and private sector partners in a broad coalition to ensure that learning never stops. The agency has also release a document listing distance learning solutions and recommendations.
Distance learning solutions
The list of educational applications, platforms and resources below aim to help parents, teachers, schools and school administrators facilitate student learning and provide social care and interaction during periods of school closure. Most of the solutions curated are free and many cater to multiple languages. While these solutions do not carry UNESCO’s explicit endorsement, they tend to have a wide reach, a strong user-base and evidence of impact. They are categorized based on distance learning needs, but most of them offer functionalities across multiple categories.
Digital learning management systems
- Blackboard – Resources and tools to transition and deliver quality teaching and learning online.
- CenturyTech – Personal learning pathways with micro-lessons to address gaps in knowledge, challenge students and promote long-term memory retention.
- ClassDojo – Connects teachers with students and parents to build classroom communities.
- Edmodo – Tools and resources to manage classrooms and engage students remotely.
- https://www.edraak.org – Arabic language online education with resources for school learners and teachers.
- EkStep – Open learning platform with a collection of learning resources to support literacy and numeracy.
- Google Classroom – Helps classes connect remotely, communicate and stay-organized.
- Moodle – Community-driven and globally-supported open learning platform.
- Nafham – Arabic language online learning platform hosting educational video lessons that correspond with Egyptian and Syrian curricula.
- Schoology – Tools to support instruction, learning, grading, collaboration and assessment.
- Seesaw – Enables the creation of collaborative and sharable digital learning portfolios and learning resources.
- Skooler – Tools to turn Microsoft Office software into an education platform.
- Study Sapuri – Japanese language online learning platform for middle school students.
Systems purpose-built for mobile phones
- Cell-Ed – Learner-centered, skills-based learning platform with offline options.
- Eneza Education - Revision and learning materials for basic feature phones.
- Funzi – Mobile learning service that supports teaching and training for large groups.
- KaiOS – Software that gives smartphone capabilities to inexpensive mobile phones and helps open portals to learning opportunities.
- Ubongo – Uses entertainment, mass media, and the connectivity of mobile devices to deliver localized learning to African families at low cost and scale.
- Ustad Mobile – Access and share educational content offline.
Systems with strong offline functionality
- Can’t wait to Learn – Gaming technology to deliver quality education to children, including those in conflict contexts.
- Kolibri – Learning application to support universal education.
- Rumie – Education tools and content to enable lifelong learning for underserved communities.
- Ustad Mobile – Access and share educational content offline.
Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Platforms
- Alison – Online courses from experts.
- Canvas– Lifelong learning and professional development for educators.
- Coursera – Online courses taught by instructors from well-recognized universities and companies.
- EdX – Online courses from leading educational institutions.
- University of the People - Online university with open access to higher education.
- Icourses – Chinese language courses for university students.
- Future Learn – Online courses to help learners study, build professional skills and connect with experts.
Self-directed learning content
- Byju’s – Learning application with large repositories of educational content tailored for different grades and learning levels.
- Discovery Education – Free educational resources and lessons about viruses and outbreaks for different grade levels.
- Geekie – Portuguese language web-based platform that provides personalized educational content using adaptive learning technology.
- Khan Academy – Free online lessons and practice in math, sciences and humanities, as well as free tools for parents and teachers to track student progress. Available in 40+ languages, and aligned to national curriculum for over 10 countries.
- KitKit School - Tablet-based learning suite with a comprehensive curriculum spanning early childhood through early primary levels.
- LabXchange – Curated and user-created digital learning content delivered on an online platform that enables educational and research experiences.
- Mindspark – Adaptive online tutoring system that helps students practice and learn mathematics.
- Mosoteach – Chinese language application hosting cloud classes.
- OneCourse – Child-focused application to deliver reading, writing and numeracy education.
- Quizlet – Learning flashcards and games to support learning in multiple subjects.
- Siyavula – Mathematics and physical sciences education aligned with South African curriculum.
- YouTube – Huge repository of educational videos and learning channels.
Mobile reading applications
- African Storybook - Open access to picture storybooks in African languages.
- Global Digital Library – Digital storybooks and other reading materials easily accessible from mobile phones or computers.
- Lezioni sul sofà – A collection of Italian language books for children, complemented with read-aloud features as well as videos discussing books and art.
- StoryWeaver – Digital repository of multilingual stories for children.
- Worldreader – Digital books and stories accessible from mobile devices and functionality to support reading instruction.
Collaboration platforms that support live-video communication
- Dingtalk – Communication platform that supports video conferencing, task and calendar management, attendance tracking and instant messaging.
- Lark – Collaboration suite of interconnected tools, including chat, calendar, creation and cloud storage.
- Hangouts Meet – Video calls integrated with other Google’s G-Suite tools.
- Teams – Chat, meet, call and collaboration features integrated with Microsoft Office software.
- Skype – Video and audio calls with talk, chat and collaboration features.
- Zoom – Cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, collaboration, chat and webinars.
Tools to create of digital learning content
- Thinglink – Tools to create interactive images, videos and other multimedia resources.
- Buncee – Supports the creation and sharing visual representations of learning content, including media-rich lessons, reports, newsletters and presentations.
- EdPuzzle – Video lesson creation software.
- Kaltura – Video management and creation tools with integration options for various learning management systems.
- Nearpod – Software to create lessons with informative and interactive assessment activities.
- Pear Deck – Facilitates the design of engaging instructional content with various integration features.
- Squigl – Content creation platform that transforms speech or text into animated videos.
With school closures, parenting has become increasingly challenging. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has issued six parenting tips for parenting during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has upended family life around the world. School closures, working remote, physical distancing — it's a lot to navigate for anyone, but especially for parents. We teamed up with the Parenting for Lifelong Health initiative to bring parents and caregivers a set of handy tips to help manage this new (temporary) normal.
Explore the parenting tips
- One-on-one time
- Keeping it positive
- Get structured
- Bad behaviour
- Keep calm and manage stress
- Talking about COVID-19
"School shutdown is also a chance to make better relationships with our children and teenagers," says UNICEF in the guidance document. "One-on-One time is free and fun. It makes children feel loved and secure, and shows them that they are important."
School shutdown is also a chance to make better relationships with our children and teenagers. One-on-One time...makes children feel loved and secure, and shows them that they are important.
UNICEF recommends parents and their children to create a flexible but consistent daily routine. “COVID-19 has taken away our daily work, home and school routines. This is hard for children, teenagers and for you. Making new routines can help,” it says.
In a document on how to talk to children about the coronavirus disease, UNICEF says “children have a right to truthful information about what’s going on in the world, but adults also have a responsibility to keep them safe from distress”, recommending that adults use age-appropriate language, watch children’s reactions, and be sensitive to their level of anxiety. UNICEF also offers some advice for employers on how they can support working parents during the coronavirus outbreak.
The closure of gyms, sport facilities and stadiums, public pools, dance studios, and playgrounds means that many are not able to actively participate in individual or group sporting or physical activities. But that does not mean, people should stop being physically active, nor should they disconnect from the coaches, teammates and instructors. In the lead up of the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (6 April) the United Nations is working with influencers in sport to create social media messaging encouraging audiences to be active and to foster solidarity against the challenges posed by COVID-19.
The World Health Organization recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week, or a combination of both. WHO also have some tips on how to achieve this with no equipment and with limited space. There is an abundance of free and accessible online and digital tools targeted at encouraging people of all ages and abilities to stay active and mobile while remaining indoors.
Changes to lifestyle during this difficult period can adversely affect people’s wellbeing. It is always important to protect mental health. WHO has released a 31-point guidance on mental health that specifically targets the general population; healthcare workers; health facility managers; childcare providers; older adults, care providers and people with underlying health conditions; and those who are living in isolation to try and contain the spread of the pandemic. (Read UN News story on this).
UNICEF has some tips on mental health for teenagers. One recommendation is to find new ways to connect with friends via social media. Get creative: Join in a Tik-Tok challenge like #safehands. “I would never underestimate the creativity of teenagers,” says Dr. Lisa Damour, expert adolescent psychologist, best-selling author and monthly New York Times columnist. “My hunch is that they will find ways to [connect] with one another online that are different from how they’ve been doing it before.”