A Newcastle online education platform is joining forces with the BBC to make maths content freely available to millions of children caught up in the coronavirus lockdown.
GCSEPod is co-authoring daily maths lessons that are free to access for the BBC’s online study resource Bitesize.
The tie-in, which lasts for the remainder of the academic year, will help deliver learning for secondary students across the 海角视频 as schools battle to keep motivation and education on track in the virtual world.
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The education tech provider, which has been at the forefront of remote learning for the past decade, is joining the likes of Sir David Attenborough, renowned physicist Professor Brian Cox, EastEnders actor Danny Dyer and Doctor Who’s Jodie Whittaker on BBC Bitesize.
The broadcaster wants to deliver its biggest ever education offering with the disruption to the nation’s schooling set to continue – and GCSEPod has already been playing its part in helping deliver curriculum-based study for 14-16-year-olds during the lockdown, with more than 430,000 students and 67,000 teachers in 40 countries now tapping into the subscription service.
Anthony Coxon, co-founder and director of GCSEPod, which is a division of Soundbitelearning 海角视频 Ltd, said: “We are thrilled to be working with BBC Bitesize and to be helping support 海角视频 students to continue unlocking their full potential in maths at what is an undoubtedly challenging time for everyone involved in education.
“GCSEPod’s motto is ‘education on demand’, and this link-up with BBC Bitesize will allow millions of KS3 and KS4 students who wouldn’t usually have access to our award-winning digital content, to do just that by giving them the means to improve their maths learning, retain knowledge long-term, and unlock their full potential.
“The current lockdown of schools is affecting millions of children across the 海角视频, including around 750,000 due to take their GCSEs next year. Schools have had to embrace new ways of delivering learning, and we are proud to be working with BBC Bitesize to address this challenge.”
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GCSEPod has seen a surge in demand for its content aimed primarily at Years 9-11, since the first nationwide school shutdown in modern British history came into effect on March 23 this year.
The online platform covers 27 海角视频 and international exam subjects offered in short, information-packed and visually appealing three to five minute teacher-written Pod videos that can be watched on or offline on mobiles, tablets and PCs.
More than two million Pods have been streamed across all subjects since lockdown began, with maths among the most popular subjects. Nearly 300,000 maths Pods alone have been viewed – a 50% increase on pre-lockdown figures.
Teachers can easily use GCSEPod to devise lessons, set homework, and create revision playlists, while students can also create their own Pod playlists to listen to as they would with music.
Students have also been utilising GCSEPod’s unique Check and Challenge, an online assessment system that not only evaluates knowledge and understanding, but also provides structured support via hints, multiple choice options and feedback statements, to aid actual learning and information retention.
Teachers can see how well their students are doing and quickly intervene if needed to offer additional help.
In May, 81,894 questions were attempted on the maths Check and Challenge compared to 46,584 in February.
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It’s not just schools who can buy into GCSEPod. Parents can also sign-up to tailored packages.
Mr Coxon said: “EdTech is an obvious solution to remote learning – a field that GCSEPod has led in for the past 10 years. As such, we are in an ideal position to help students continue their learning and to support teachers.
“It has been particularly pleasing to see the escalation in interest in our maths Pods, and as such I am delighted that we are now able to make that content more widely available via BBC Bitesize.”