Video courses online

Education is changing. Technology continues to have an increasingly significant impact in education. Technology does this as it affects the form and distribution of learning materials. Books have become e-books (and/or PDFs) and in-person tutors have become online tutors. In 2020, many teachers became online teachers. Learning live online is now a better experience than before but even more can be done through videos and video courses.

Benefits of videos

Crucially, videos provide significant freedom. Freedom to learn whenever and wherever. Freedom to press play when you are ready to start. Freedom to press pause when you need a break. Freedom to rewind and learn again. Freedom to learn at x0.5 speed or at x1.5 speed. Freedom to learn with subtitles. In short, videos provide learning on demand.

Is this really all that important? Well, yes. At school, attention can drift. Students may need to use the loo. Students may be sitting too far back to see properly. The teacher may speak too fast. The speed at which material is taught may rise in complexity too quickly (or too slowly). If any learning steps are missing, the next step up the ladder may be too far to reach for and learning may not progress.

Videos allow students to watch any missing steps. Videos allow students to watch anything they didn’t see properly the first time. Videos allow students to hear something louder if it was too quiet the first time. Technology these days also allows videos to be watched at slower or faster speeds. This freedom allows the lesson to be that much more tailored to the student.

Benefits of video courses on educ8all

As video production technologies become cheaper, it is now possible for many to create professional looking videos and so many educators have started developing video courses. Our platform, called educ8all, hosts a range of video courses that can complement the learning that takes place in school. There are some specific benefits to learning via the courses hosted on our site.

Curriculum-aligned: by hosting curriculum-aligned courses, you will find relevant video courses so that you are sure that the content focuses on important topics that students need to cover. This can be particularly important for those who are homeschooling (due to lockdown, social distancing or personal preferences).
Variety: while we seek curriculum-alignment in the courses we host (other than those marked as extra-curricular), there are no rigid structures that courses need to follow. This means that the independent educators that create the courses on educ8all are free to use the teaching style they prefer. This can lead to increased variety and therefore greater choice for you.
Quality: we set minimum audio-visual quality thresholds meaning that the video content is clear to see and easy to hear.
Cost: hiring a tutor can be expensive but you may find that video courses can be cheaper in the long run when you make a like-for-like comparison by looking at the cost per hour.
Fewer distractions: with some video hosting sites, such as YouTube, where there is no curation, it is possible to find not only entertaining distractions but also harmful content. With educ8all being an education-focused site, you can be sure that harmful content will not be listed and hosted.

How does it work?

The courses on the website are divided by Key Stage so that you can find resources that are relevant to the stage of study. There are also categories and tags used in case you want to filter by exam board or subject. Each course will be linked to the specification that it relates to with the link visible on each course page. The course description will also clarify if there are key parts of the specification that are not addressed.

Courses normally have a one-off fee rather than a monthly subscription like with Netflix. The videos are not downloadable to devices but as long as you have an internet connection you are free to watch the videos as many times as you like. As you keep access to the content purchased, it means that students who learn with us through multiple age groups can refresh their memories by viewing content they purchased years previously all on one platform.

Does educ8all only offer e-learning in the form of video courses?

Teaching and learning is not as simple as filling empty vessels (students) with knowledge through watching videos. Learning is more complex than this and assessment forms a key part of the feedback loop that helps us to learn and improve. Consequently, many courses also take advantage of the quizzing facility on the learning platform to ensure that students are tested at regular intervals on the material they have viewed to ensure that they have been picking it up.

Video is of course not the sole medium through which students learn. In addition to video, the platform therefore hosts course content that is delivered through the medium of audio or text.

This commitment to different modes of learning means educators make some resources available outside of the course setting in our Shop.

Anything else we should know?

There’s lots more to know but how about these three things for now:

You can try before you buy courses on educ8all as many of them come with free sample videos for you to watch to understand whether the course is right for you.
If you do buy and find the course is not right for you, we have a 14-day money back guarantee.
Don’t forget to sign up to our mailing list when you register an account as you’ll get a discount code to get 10% off your first video course.