It is no secret to everyone that, in the middle of this pandemic, millions of people worldwide are being affected. Although some Drexel students are lucky to still be able to attend their classes online, others are struggling to maintain their co-ops by working from home or finding new ones. In general, the economic situation is challenging for students and textbooks are piling onto the existing strain from tuition.
With this in mind, some textbook and academic journal publishers have made their online resources free for students and educators to continue learning and teaching through this very challenging period.
Cengage Learning is providing free access for their Cengage Unlimited platform to all students and instructors in the US whose physical classes have been affected by COVID-19.
Several courses at Drexel are already getting their materials for free through this platform, which offers various eTextbooks as well as other interactive services like Quizlet Plus, Chegg Study Pack, Kaplan Test Prep courses and Evernote Premium.
The John Wiley & Sons, Inc. publisher, commonly known as Wiley, is also offering free access to their courseware, and their WileyPLUS or Knewton Alta platforms for the duration of spring term.
Cambridge University Press is making higher education textbooks free to access online during the outbreak. They offer over 700 textbooks, currently available for free until the end of May.
In addition, more field-based academic resources are offering free access to their resources like the American Psychology Association (APA) and the American Economic Association.
Mc Graw Hill and Sage Publishing are following suit but, in these cases, the class instructors have to submit a request for access. Some spring term courses at Drexel are already taking advantage of these free resources.
The online learning platforms Coursera and Skillshare are offering educational content, and Scribd is offering access to its library for free.
Coursera offers full courses from top universities like “The Science of Well Being” at Yale University and “Buddhism and Modern Psychology” at Columbia University. Skillshare is offering college students with a “.edu” email address two free months of premium membership to make it easy to learn new skills from home. And Scribd’s library — which includes millions of ebooks, audiobooks, magazine articles, and more — is available to anyone for free for 30 days, the company’s CEO and founder, Trip Adler announced in March.