New Animated Series Explains Key Issues Relating to COVID-19

As the school year that no one could have predicted wraps up, few school districts have decided what classes will look like when they start up again in the fall. One thing is sure though: conversations about fall plans will center on what is known (and what’s not) about the COVID-19 virus and methods for stopping its spread. In support of these conversations, ProQuest has created an animated video series to help educators, parents, and students understand the basics of what viruses are, how they replicate, and why we should care; explain what has made the COVID-19 virus unusual and why it has proved so disruptive; make sense of zoonosis, asymptomatic transmission, flattening the curve, and all those other concepts we hear so much about; and offer guidance on how to recognize conspiracy theories and find good information about the current pandemic. There are five videos in all, and they run for a combined 33 minutes. Each video is made available under a Creative Commons license, which means you don’t need to notify or request permission from ProQuest before adding them to your library site, including them in correspondence with parents, or showing them to students when they return to school in person or online. Our hope is that these videos can help provide a common base of knowledge as communities decide together how best to provide equal access, accommodate parents’ working schedules, and attend to students’ social needs—all while keeping everyone as safe as possible. They also provide a tool for helping students understand why exactly it was their classrooms were replaced by video conferences and why “back to school” in a few months is likely to look different than it ever has before. Watch the videos on the ProQuest YouTube channel. If you find them helpful, please share. We would welcome any feedback.