ANU Community - helping you teach online for free, even in quarantine

If you are a speaker, trainer, freelancer, or independent educator, you may be worrying about how you can continue to make an income and serve your clients in the face of the COVID-19 crisis. If you work in a school, you’re probably most concerned about your students.

We want to help, so we’re making ANU, our Learning Management System (LMS), free for those who need it right now. You can charge for your learning programmes and we won’t take a penny in fees.

Helping freelancers and independents:

Many freelancers and independent teachers & trainers have seen their bookings drop away in the last weeks and are now struggling. This includes those for whom teaching or coaching is already part of their roles - such as personal trainers, professional development specialists, or art group leaders - as well people who could pivot from delivering their service to teaching others how to do it, such as chefs or jewellery makers.

Offering training online is one way for many professionals to keep working and maintain an income, but this can be costly to set up, the software can be difficult to master, and many of the tools available also take a commission on any payments received.

ANU Community is our way to solve this problem. ANU is an intentionally straightforward and stripped-back e-learning platform, with built-in power. Anyone who has set up a Facebook Page will be able to set up their own courses and lessons.

We’re also leaving charging for courses up to the individual teacher, many of whom will already have PayPal or other payment platforms in place.

ANU Community is currently free for individual teachers and trainers for unlimited courses and students, and once the current need for isolation is over, we will always have a free usage tier for those who need it.

Supporting schools:

As UK schools closed, it became apparent that primary schools, in particular, have very limited abilities to teach online. Parents and guardians may have received some paper-based materials from their child’s school, and the school may have an app or email list in place for general announcements, but that is the usual limit for what is on offer.

Whilst the majority of students of all ages can access a computer or smartphone, schools need help in providing a structure for online learning materials.

ANU Community is available for free to any primary school (inside or outside the UK) who needs it for at least the next six months. As ANU works offline, as well as online, students can download and then work through lessons without the need for a constant internet connection - which is helpful for those who don’t have a good connection at home.

About ANU:

ANU is a deceptively simple Learning Management System (LMS) for educational organisations and businesses built on Drupal. It’s been developed to provide engaging and impactful learning for real people, with a UX based on extensive research.

ANU is currently in use by organisations such as the United Nations and World Health Organisation for whom we are tailoring ANU to work for projects around the world.

It is also available as an open-source distribution, so if you have Drupal developers ask your IT staff to download and install from our Github repo.

ANU Community is the ready-to-go version of ANU, intended to provide the same simple-yet-powerful teaching and learning tool at a fraction of the cost of a bespoke system.

More information about ANU is available at ANU.Community.

About SystemSeed:

Since 2009, SystemSeed has been using technology to help high impact organisations achieve big ambitions.

We’re a boutique digital experience agency focused on open-source technologies with world-class technical expertise in Drupal.

Our clients include global charities, NGOs, governments, universities, and mission-led companies.

You can find out more about us at systemseed.com.