With 1.5 billion learners impacted by school closures due to Covid, our goal - in collaboration with UNESCO IITE and local partners - was to support teachers, schools and families with vital tools and tips to keep education going. This rapid response delivered an initial toolkit in seven languages within only four days of schools closing. As the pandemic escalated, with schools forced to pivot to distance learning, we quickly followed with an integrated site in 54 languages, visited nearly 30 million times across 174 countries.

Many did not have the time or resources to adequately prepare so we wanted to create something simple and flexible to help people adjust. Teach from Home was a simple solution that could travel globally: a hub of tools and resources to help teachers keep teaching.

Teach from Home was a rapid response project by Google to help teachers, schools and families during the Coronavirus crisis. As Covid escalated, schools around the world were forced to close overnight, leaving many without a chance to prepare for the sharp and sudden pivot to distance learning that would impact 1.5 billion learners globally.

In collaboration with UNESCO IITE and local partners around the world, we provided vital tools and tips to help keep education going, no matter what. We already had the tools for remote teaching, now we needed to help people understand how to use them.

Teach from Home started as a simple downloadable toolkit, released in seven languages within four days of schools closing. It was quickly followed by a fully integrated website in 54 languages, visited nearly 30 million times across 174 countries.

Our primary focus was teachers. On the front lines of the crisis, they were responsible for students’ wellbeing and coming up with creative solutions to keep education going. They urgently needed tools that could help them teach remotely, and to quickly understand how to use them. Fortunately we had the tools - we just needed to help people get up and running quickly.

Beyond individual teachers, schools — in some cases entire countries — were looking to implement digital solutions that could enable education to continue. And families, suddenly playing a greater role in the virtual school day, were also seeking answers and support.

Teach from Home offered a simple solution that could travel globally. We worked closely with our global partner UNESCO IITE, and several partners in each country, to reach a wide network of education organizations such as Ministries of Education, school districts, Parent Teacher Associations and more.

The platform was designed to span a range of devices and digital media. The dominant black was used to help reduce battery drain and bandwidth, and create a simple identity with minimal branding and a pared back aesthetic that would stand out in any media, in any language, without being brash.

The structure was designed to be modular and easy to adapt, allowing for local markets to make adjustments and customizations to suit their specific needs and nuances.

With an initial release less than a week after schools started to close, we continued to improve and evolve the site to serve more people in more languages. It’s received nearly 30 million views and has been extensively shared through direct channels, digital, social, print, partners, broadcast and more. It was live for the first six months of the pandemic and has since evolved to a more expansive Teach from Anywhere initiative.

Teach from Home has had a global impact and further amplified our existing efforts in the education space: an area where we’ve been deeply invested for more than 15 years. This project has helped teachers in 174 countries, and the site has had nearly 30 million visits with an average dwell time over seven minutes in the first month.

While this simple, universal design was created to be a temporary hub to help people adjust and pivot during a moment of crisis, it’s impact was always believed to be long term. Because the need to learn - and teach - from anywhere won’t end, even when the pandemic does. This past year went from being a scramble to adopt and adapt, born out of unexpected and adverse circumstances, to being an opportunity to reimagine what education could be. Technology will continue to play a big role in that transformation.