As part of the NSF-supported Digital Atlas of Ancient Life project (https://www.digitalatlasofancientlife.org), the Paleontological Research Institution's (PRI) has developed some free online teaching and outreach resources that you might find useful this academic year.
First, they have developed a large Virtual Collection of over 450 interactive 3D digital models of fossil and modern specimens made using photogrammetry. These models allow students to explore fossil specimens outside of a classroom setting in an interactive way, and some include annotations of key features. We anticipate that they will be useful for online courses, for those at institutions that lack a large physical collection, or as a supplement to help students study. They are also useful for in-class presentations when projected at full-screen size. All of the models may be freely downloaded from Sketchfab and can be 3D printed. Virtual Collections are organized by major categories of organisms and may be accessed at: https://www.digitalatlasofancientlife.org/vc/.
Second, PRI continues to make progress on building the Digital Encyclopedia of Ancient Life (DEAL), an online, open-access paleontology textbook. Chapters go online as they are finished and substantial content has already been shared. Most images on the DEAL are new and have Creative Commons licensing, allowing you to use them for educational purposes as you see fit. To see what is currently available, please visit the table of contents for DEAL at https://www.digitalatlasofancientlife.org/learn/.
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