Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. News

Skillshare unlocks thousands of courses for students at home amid coronavirus

Allison Matyus
By

With schools across the country closed during the coronavirus outbreak, Skillshare is opening up its extensive list of unique class offerings for students to access for free. 

The online learning community announced the free programming offer in a tweet on Wednesday, March 18. High school and college students ages 16 and over with a .edu or .k12 email will have two months of free access to thousands of classes, which range from creativity to business and technology to lifestyle.

Recommended Videos

We recognize that the unique circumstances around COVID-19 are having rippling effects on artists, freelancers, and our community at large. Today, we are announcing new initiatives to support our community. Read more: https://t.co/P17rz2U3L6 pic.twitter.com/9fMruAONr0

— Skillshare (@skillshare) March 18, 2020

“We hope that our classes, content, and community workshops can help us all feel a little more connected to ourselves and each other — and make it easy to learn skills in the comfort of our homes,” Skillshare said in its announcement. 

Skillshare specializes in learning skills and creativity, with classes like creative writing, photo editing, digital illustration, graphic design, web development, and more. So while students may not be learning social studies or algebra while off from school, they can use Skillshare’s classes to explore their specific interests and keep their brain engaged. 

Scholastic has also launched a free “Learn at Home” program for younger students out of school during the coronavirus outbreak. The program has daily courses for pre-K and kindergarten, as well as students in grades one through six. 

There are plenty of other sites and apps offering virtual field trips, interactive tools, and even remote trips to space to keep kids learning despite being home from school. Most U.S. schools are closed until the end of this month due to the coronavirus outbreak that has rapidly spread in recent weeks. 

Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, a pandemic. In total, there have been more than 205,450 confirmed cases of the coronavirus worldwide, and 8,248 confirmed deaths, according to an online dashboard that tracks cases. The virus is believed to have originated in Wuhan, China, but there have been confirmed cases in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, and dozens of other countries around the globe.

In addition to school closures, events have been canceled, travel is limited, and much of the American workforce has resorted to working from home. 

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Allison Matyus
Allison Matyus
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Allison Matyus is a general news reporter at Digital Trends. She covers any and all tech news, including issues around social…
New York City turns to remote learning as it shuts schools due to coronavirus

All schools in New York City are to close their doors from Monday, March 16 until at least April 20 -- with classes to go online-only for weeks or longer.

The measure, announced by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday, March 15, is part of efforts to tackle the spread of the coronavirus, formally known as COVID-19.

Read more
Coronavirus exposes digital disparities between students as learning goes online
Coronavirus exposes digital disparities between students as learning goes online

With universities across the country closing their campuses, canceling classes, and moving everything online, the coronavirus pandemic has complicated learning for many students and faculty, despite the wide use of technology to keep classes going.

Perhaps the most basic issue is what students will do when they do not have reliable high-speed internet access. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) doesn’t have accurate data on how many millions of Americans lack broadband, but Microsoft estimates it is likely far more than the 25 million people the government agency cited in a 2018 report.

Read more
Coronavirus puts university budgets to the test as classes go remote
Coronavirus puts university budgets to the test as classes go remote

The students started trickling into the classroom starting around 8:40 a.m., some blinking in the daylight and a few yawning. The professor, Kathy Pham of Harvard Kennedy School, was bright-eyed and alert, amusing students before she began her lecture by changing the background around her from her office, to underwater, to a jungle, to the Golden Gate Bridge.

It was the first mandated remote Harvard class session of this semester, two days after the university declared it was clearing out and forcing all classes on to the internet until further notice in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak. Pham’s students were signing on to the popular teleconferencing platform Zoom -- some with video and some with just their phones -- to attend their last class before spring break. Around 70 other U.S. institutions have also moved purely online for the rest of the semester due to the coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19.

Read more