Google India launches 'YouTube Learning Destination' to Teach Students From Home

Students and instructors are bound to stay home due to lockdown imposed because of COVID-19. All the schools, colleges and institutes are ordered to remain closed during this lockdown. The closures of schools and colleges has led to the disruption of classes. It also affects the earning calendar of many educational institutions. To the rescue, YouTube India has added content to give students informative time during the lockdown.

Many school and college students have started learning from various online learning platforms. Many teachers are conducting online lectures for students through video conferencing apps. Many students are also subscribing to the carious online courses so that there is no disruption in their studies.

Today, as almost 91% of the students are out of school across the world, edtech startups across the world are gearing up to make up for the lost education. A similar trend can be noticed in India, where the current lockdown is forcing students to for apps designed by the edtech startups.

Many Edtech platforms in India have been noting a hike in its user. Most of the users engagement across platforms is for test prep and skill development and more. For instance, BYJU’s, an online Indian edtech platform, has noted a 150% surge with 6 Million new students.

YouTube India to provide Free Learning Content

In order to help students and teachers to learn better online, Google-owned video platform YouTube India has launched a learning destination YouTube Learning Destination which will showcase useful and high quality learning content by education-focused creators on YouTube. The platform will assist students, parents and educators in finding relevant and high quality learning content on YouTube.

YouTube India has launched YouTube Learning Destination to provide curriculum learning for students and also support general skill-building for students. YouTube Learning provides resources that offer learning based on the curriculum of students so that there are interruptions in continuing education in lockdown also. It is useful to students that need to keep their academic needs and opted to learn online.

The YouTube Learning Destination is a separate section within the YouTube app itself. This section combines learning content from education-focused creators. In a blog post, Google India highlighted that section will contain various resources that fulfill all learning needs, including curriculum-relevant topics in Physics, Math and Biology, Chemistry and so on.

Google India’s blog added ,“So whether a student is studying for a test or wants to learn a new skill, or are just curious about the world, the YouTube Learning Destination is a handy resource to provide overall curriculum learning for students or general skill-building.”

Google also added items related to creativity, such as photography and arts. Most of them are skills that students want to enhance. These added features occurred to help students use their time at home. Students can hone their skills and discover new learning through this added feature.

Besides this, the platform will also include study hacks, tactics and content for developing language skills and interest-based content like photography, yoga, culinary skills and many more. The platform is currently available in English and Hindi. However, YouTube is also looking to add content from other Indian local languages like Marathi, Tamil, Bengali and Telugu among others.

Also Read: List of EdTech Startups in India | Emerging Education Startups

Google also offers Premium Features of G-Suite

Meanwhile, Google is also looking to bring more schools on board and promote remote education. Besides this, Google is also providing free access to the premium features of Google Meet to extend its video-conferencing capabilities to all G Suite.

It has extended premium features of G Suite for education customers, across the world, until September 2020. It allows students and educators to conduct video conferences up to September 2020. The premium version can host up to 250 participants in a single video conference. This method gives excellent help to educators who struggle with their students’ needs.

To help teachers transition to remote learning in India, Google has partnered with FICCI Arise. Google has trained more than 250 schools across 23 states in India, where the tools are being used. Besides this, Google is also providing training and tips through the 'Teach from Home' hub. The platform is also available in Hindi, along with Chinese, Japanese, Turkish and more languages.

The 'Teach from Home' hub would also answer queries like “setting up and teaching with and without video, keeping students engaged with discussions and virtual whiteboards, staying in touch with other teachers by sharing teaching resources and even making the teaching sessions accessible to children with special needs by implementing voice typing and closed captions.”

Teacher approved Applications

Apart from this, Google has also launched a teacher-approved kids section in the Play Store. It existed to ensure the safety of kids who use several applications. It also assures that the contents are appropriate to the users. It is because the apps approved by teachers also give assurance to parents their kids are learning appropriate content. It is also a great validation to prove that children may consume them.

The company also released books that help children learn with entertainment. This way, children can educate themselves even in a lockdown situation. The company makes sure that the kids will only take in useful information. This resource has been built with UNESCO as central resource for teachers.

Also Read: Notebook - An Edtech Company that is Making Learning Engaging and Fun

The kids’ section came out early from its supposed release late this year. The primary reason for its earlier launching is because of the ongoing pandemic. This action took place to provide education to kids in the middle of this testing time. Even the children's books from MoHFW and Chota Bheem reading app Bolo will also help kids understand the measures which are to be followed during this Corona lock down period.