Using YouTubeEDU in the classroom

What is YouTube EDU?

YouTube EDU is a sub-section of YouTube that has an incredible range of high quality educational videos to engage the learning community. It is one of the biggest platforms to discover, create and share the knowledge with your students.

Why do I need YouTube EDU in the classroom?

YouTube EDU can make your classroom truly global. It has educational videos that are grouped for every grade and are categorized in order to reflect the academic disciplines like language, mathematics, science, etc. It helps you access several professional course materials, and create or modify your own videos to enrich your classroom to tap into the mind of every learner. In addition, YouTube has also incorporated two other supporting programs called YouTube Teachers and YouTube Schools to make the YouTube EDU more effective in the classroom. YouTube for teachers provides tutorials and illustrations on how to create videos aligning with the common core subjects. Additionally, YouTube school is a network setting that allows students to search for, and watch only educational videos that the school allows them to view.

How can I start using YouTube EDU?

YouTube EDU provides assistance not only in bringing you the knowledge, but also has an unlimited potential for sharing your work with ease. The following are the steps you need to follow to incorporate a YouTube EDU video into your classroom.

Step-1 Search

The best feature of YouTube is its search function. Like other portals of YouTube, YouTube EDU has also a search function where students and teachers can search for lesson-related contents. To find the relevant content, start on the YouTube EDU homepage and browse according to the appropriate learning segment. There are three learning segments in the YouTube EDU portal.

• Primary and Secondary (K12 segment)
• Higher Education
• Lifelong Learning

Once you find a relevant video, YouTube will automatically line up related videos for you to watch next.

Step-2 Create

To assist teachers further, whether it is to prepare or present the instructional content- YouTube EDU has editing tools, translation features and other additional features that give the freedom to create and customize the content appropriately according to the students’ needs. You will be able to make your instruction more interactive and effective by adding annotations and captions. The portal also provides you the option to create your own playlists that can be designed to be viewed in a particular order. To learn more how to create and organize your content around a curriculum, you can also refer to YouTube Teacher which explains and reviews a variety of teacher-built playlists.

Step-3 Share

There are numerous ways of sharing the YouTube videos. Hyperlinking the YouTube URL to documents, school blogs or the school webpage are some ways of sharing it. While using this method, you can use SafeSharelink to mask the unnecessary contents such as advertisements while presenting the videos.

Embedding the video in your PowerPoint Presentation or Google Presentations or in your school blogs or websites is another option to share the videos. This helps students to easily access the instructional content at home and at school in a full screen mode. While embedding, make sure you do not select the option”show suggested videos when the video finishes”, to present your instructional video in a safe and secured manner.

How can I use it in the classroom?

Videos have great potential to impact learning outcomes. They easily grab students’ attention and generate interest in the class, facilitating their concentration, imagination, and positive attitude towards the instructional content. YouTube EDU videos include every grade level and subject, and aid teachers in making lessons more creative and effective for their students. Following are few ways to use YouTube EDU in your classroom.

• Activate lively discussions by using relevant videos that can bring in different perspectives.
• Organize all the relevant videos and create a playlist to help your students get deeper into the subject.
• You can manage the length of your in-class instructional time by cutting down redundant explanations and allowing students to watch, pause and rewind the video according to their learning needs.
• To help both struggling and advanced students, create “flash card” videos with explanations on hand for when your students study at home.
• Provide your students with “test review” videos to help them prepare themselves for their exams.
• Add quizzes to the instructional videos to get instant feedback on what your students have learned. For this purpose, you can embed your quiz on Google forms for the students to complete.
• Adjust the privacy settings to customize who sees your videos.
• To help save time, archive your playlists for future reference.
• Also, YouTube provides the opportunity for you to join the teacher community to receive weekly emails with useful tips and tricks for incorporating YouTube in the classroom.

Discuss here: How do you incorporate educational videos into your teaching plans?