Now available: New no-cost cloud education resources for students and educators

With the global shift to remote learning during this year’s back-to-school season, the need for flexible and comprehensive learning tools is more important than ever. To help, AWS Educate introduced new features including the Cloud Builder Badge for students and no-cost learning content and professional development for educators.

K12 educators doing blended or remote learning have a new option to introduce their students to cloud concepts with the recently launched new and improved Cloud Builder Badge. The Cloud Builder badge helps students learn about the AWS Management Console and AWS services and allows them to familiarize themselves with the tools needed to start building in the cloud. Featuring special activities and challenges, the badge is aligned to the K12cs.org seven core practices and is designed to prepare students for the next steps toward a cloud career. The new Cloud Builder Badge also has corresponding facilitator guides with up to 36 hours of instructional activities to extend the asynchronous badge into classroom learning.

K12 students whose educators have them join AWS Educate are encouraged to complete interactive challenges and hands-on activities to grow their expertise and earn AWS Educate cloud badges. Student members receive up to $75 in AWS Promotional Credit in an AWS Educate Starter Account to build in the cloud.

AWS Educate also recently rolled out several new and improved features on the platform for higher education educators. These new features include:

• Virtual classroom environments: The virtual classrooms feature creates a virtual space for students to learn about the cloud in a hands-on environment. Each classroom is tailored to a different topic, like cloud basics, big data, and machine learning.
• Cloud learning content: Educators can access cloud content contributed by both education subject matter experts and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to incorporate into their classrooms. Explore full courses, lectures, or assignments and search by keyword or specialty to find your desired content. Users can export content into a learning management system (LMS).
• AWS access: Once an educator invites students to join their virtual classroom, they’ll receive access to an AWS Educate Starter Account equipped with AWS Promotional Credit. With these credits, students have the ability to build in the cloud.
• Professional development: Educators can expand their own cloud skills through AWS Educate courses, AWS Training and Certification, instructional videos, and self-paced labs.

Learn more about AWS Educate—Amazon’s global initiative to provide students and educators with the resources needed to accelerate cloud-related learning and help power the entrepreneurs, workforce, and researchers of tomorrow—and other cloud education programs.