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Learning Continuity Resources

Are you looking for ways to keep your students engaged during the extended school closures due to the COVID-19 outbreak? Below you'll find a variety of free resources designed to help schools evaluate and prepare for providing students with learning continuity.

Free mental health resources for students

During times of crisis, our students need extra support to help them manage their mental health and process their emotions. Thanks to funding from the state of Michigan, we’re launching our new Michigan Cares program to provide over 1,300 FREE lessons and videos to K-12 students, parents, and educators on developing critical skills required for mental, social, and emotional wellbeing.

Keep Michigan Learning Website

Powered by the Michigan Virtual Learning Continuity Workgroup, this website houses a collection of tools and resources intended to support and empower teachers and school leaders as they design remote and blended learning experiences for their students during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Teacher self-assessment tool & personalized PD playlist generator

This interactive self-assessment tool asks teachers to evaluate their readiness to effectively reach and teach students in a remote or blended learning environment. Upon filling out this checklist, teachers will receive an automated playlist of PD options based on their unique growth areas.

Guide to selecting an LMS for K-12

Trying to decide which learning management system (LMS) is the right fit for your school or district? Unsure if now is the best time to implement one? Curious about how popular LMSs compare to one another? This free guide can help you answer these questions and determine which path forward will be best for your students and staff.

Crowd-sourced repository of K-12 digital content

You can use this repository to find, share, and rate both free and paid digital content options that can be used in your K-12 classroom. Because this repository is crowd-sourced, each resource listed has been submitted by a fellow educator who believes in the value of this resource to meet the unique learning needs of K-12 students.

Free access to Michigan Virtual course content during school closures

For the duration of these closures, Michigan Virtual will be offering the content of over 70 of our high-quality online courses FREE to educators and parents as a resource to supplement student learning.

This course content includes all digital lessons; however, it does not include assessments and is non-credit bearing. It is intended to provide educators and parents with enrichment materials they can use to keep students engaged and learning during school closures.

The free access to this course content will end after September 30, 2023.

Organize student learning with our weekly checklist template

If you’re using our free course content to supplement student learning during school closures, check out this weekly checklist template to help you organize activities for your student(s).

This template will help you organize the content you want to provide your students, instructions on what they should do with the content, and lastly how/if you want them to assess their understanding.

Join the statewide discussion on learning continuity

We’d like to invite you to join a statewide conversation about how we can keep Michigan students learning during extended school closures.

Our Keep Michigan Learning Facebook group is intended to facilitate discussion among Michigan educators on how we can share best practices for learning continuity and move forward together.

Post-Pandemic Learning Model Support

Michigan Virtual is working to support a new statewide initiative to assist school leaders as they develop post-pandemic learning models. The mission of the Future of Learning Council (FLC) is to provide a structured environment for Michigan leaders to learn about next generation learning models, share design practices, and gain access to high quality professional learning with other innovative school leaders. In order to accomplish this mission, the FLC has established a professional collaboration with Michigan Virtual. FLC members believe we have a unique opportunity to chart a new course regarding the structure of schools by blending the best of our traditional instructional models with an intentional focus on innovations in learning to better serve all children.

Learning Continuity: Planning Considerations for School Leaders

The following guide offers school leaders actionable advice on how they can leverage digital instructional content and remote teaching practices to provide learning opportunities for all students in the event of unanticipated and extended school closures.

Transitioning to Remote Learning (PD series for educators)

Unsure where to start with remote teaching? Have some ideas, but need more resources? We’ve designed a series of six 2-SCECH, self-paced courses designed to provide you will examples and resources on how to reach your students via remote teaching.

Courses include topics such as building relationships, digital content, assessments, and SEL supports. You are free to move through the courses as they pertain to your needs and interests, as they are designed to allow for choice and are not dependent upon prior course knowledge.

Teacher Continuity Readiness Checklist

Effective remote instruction requires different skill sets, tools, and practices than teachers may be accustomed to using in the face-to-face classroom. That being said, there are many simple adjustments teachers can make for quick adaptation to remote teaching. The following checklist is designed to help teachers self-assess their readiness for providing teaching continuity during extended school closures. Tool and resource recommendations are included in each category.

Teacher Continuity Readiness Rubric

As schools move forward and develop current and future plans for providing learning continuity during extended closures, one critical aspect worth considering is teacher readiness for remote instruction. The following rubric is designed to help school leaders evaluate staff readiness for remote instruction based on ten categories rooted in research on effective online teaching.

School Closure Learning Continuity Readiness Rubric

Michigan Virtual has created a School Closure Learning Continuity Readiness Rubric that schools can use as an evaluation and planning tool.

Download the rubric below, or by clicking/tapping on the image of the rubric.

Keep Michigan Learning webinar series

To help Michigan educators and parents keep students learning during school closures, we’re producing a series of short webinars (approx. 30 minutes each) that offer tips, tricks, and best practices for remote teaching and learning.

Brought to you in part by Meemic Insurance Company, Insurance for Educators.

Hosting Summer School During a Pandemic

May 29, 2020 10:00 am
Learning Continuity, Summer Learning

Mentoring through a Pandemic

May 15, 2020 10:00 am
Learning Continuity, Mentors

Supporting Students with Disabilities in Remote Learning Environments

April 9, 2020 9:00 am
Learning Continuity

Tips for Supporting Parents

April 8, 2020 2:00 pm
Learning Continuity

Teacher Support, Finding Others to Collaborate with and Lean On

April 8, 2020 9:00 am
Learning Continuity

Engaging Students When Learning from Home

April 7, 2020 2:00 pm
Learning Continuity

Free professional development on online & blended learning

Wondering how you might provide your students with at-home learning experiences? Unsure of how best to reach your students during extended school closures?

We’re currently waiving the registration fee for our online courses on best practices for blended and online learning. These courses offer educators a variety of resources and tools for facilitating at-home learning.

In addition, we have a new online Coronavirus prevention course available for educators.

Looking for other PD options? Our professional catalog has over 250 courses for educators on a variety different topics, including literacy, social emotional learning, and more. Come learn with us!

Resources on web accessibility and supporting students with disabilities

Thinking about providing your students with at-home learning experiences, but worried about web accessibility issues or supporting students with disabilities? Here are some resources to help address these topics:

Home internet options for the economically disadvantaged

The Michigan Department of Education has compiled a list of low-cost internet options available to economically disadvantaged families in Michigan.

Parenting in a Pandemic

A blog series for parents

With students home from school, social emotional learning strategies can help parents support their children’s overall well-being in the face of global stress from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this blog series, we offer strategies to help parents support students’ social and emotional needs during this disruptive time. If you’d like to receive notifications when new blogs in this series are available, you can subscribe to our blog here.

23 team-building activities for staying connected in a remote work environment

Most of us are proficient in how to complete the tasks and responsibilities of our positions while working remotely. We have the tools we need to perform our job functions and we have the technical skill to do so.

But how do we remain connected to each other virtually? How do we foster a collaborative team environment and avoid feelings of isolation while working remotely for extended periods of time?

David Young, Director of Instructional Product Development at Michigan Virtual, has been managing a mostly full-time remote team for many years. We asked him to share some helpful strategies for maintaining a positive team culture while everyone is working from home.

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