How to use digital learning curriculum content in schools

Introduction to digital learning curriculum content

Definition and benefits of digital learning curriculum content

At its simplest, digital learning curriculum content is high quality teaching material which is facilitated by and accessible through technology.

It can be delivered in a wide variety of forms, including bitesize videos, questions to test and challenge students’ knowledge, and practice assessments - all of which are offered on the GCSEPod platform.

There are many benefits to digital learning curriculum content, from saving teachers time in lesson preparation, to empowering students in their independent learning.

Benefit 1: Empowering students

Independent learning is a key component of GCSE success and digital learning curriculum content has allowed millions of students to transform the way they learn in their own time.

With digital learning curriculum content, students can revise from wherever suits them best - whether it be watching a video on the school bus, or testing what they’ve learnt in the fresh air outside.

In a classroom full of students, it can be challenging to find a pace that suits everyone. Digital learning curriculum content empowers students to learn at their own pace, spending more time getting to grips with the areas they struggle with, while speedily consolidating their knowledge on their strongest topics.

Digital learning curriculum content also bridges the gap between teaching inside the classroom and independent learning outside of it, with students able to simply pick up the day’s content back at home, recapping and reaffirming their knowledge, and going one step further to explore exam questions on the topic.

Benefit 2: Saving teachers time

It’s no big secret that teachers are pushed for time, especially during the busy GCSE revision period. Ready-made digital learning curriculum content has helped teachers to effectively plan their lessons, safe in the knowledge it has been created by trusted subject experts.

One secret weapon to saving time is integrating digital curriculum learning content with homework assignments. GCSEPod offers pre-created assessments which teachers can assign in seconds - allowing teachers to spend more of their valuable time one to one with students in the run up to the exam period. 

Benefit 3: Informed data

An often overlooked benefit of digital learning curriculum content is the wealth of information it provides - a clear win over traditional paper-based content.

Through digital learning curriculum content, teachers have access to data which shows the number of videos students have streamed and downloaded, the most-watched pods across the cohort and - most importantly - the topics where students are struggling.

GCSEPod’s Check and Challenge feature is particularly effective for identifying knowledge gaps. Whether it’s a tricky topic or a challenging style of question, teachers can directly see patterns and focus their teaching efforts there.

Find out more about Check and Challenge here.

Importance of digital learning curriculum content in modern education

A challenge which many teachers face is keeping students engaged and excited about what they are learning. For this tech-savvy generation, digital learning curriculum content brings learning straight into their world.

But that’s not all. New research regularly shows the place of digital learning curriculum content in modern education, with one study showing 65% of the population are visual learners, and a further 30% auditory learners. That means GCSEPod videos target the majority of students’ learning styles - with the platform offering other engaging options for those who learn in a different way.

Overview of digital learning curriculum content

The power of digital learning curriculum content should not be underestimated. Digital learning curriculum content helps empower students in independent learning, saves teachers time and facilitates informed decisions through data - cementing its place in modern education.

Read on to find out more about the different types of digital learning curriculum content, before learning how you can implement it in your school.

Types of digital learning curriculum content

There are various types of digital learning curriculum content, spanning from interactive digital content to collaborative learning content. No longer is it a decision of which to prioritise - platforms like GCSEPod have all bases covered.

Interactive digital content

Interactive digital content is key to keeping students actively engaged with what they are learning.

In the past, paper-based resources risked overloading students with pages and pages of written content - leading to many switching off. Now, in the digital age, students have the opportunity to take learning to the next level with engaging questions that break up content and solidify knowledge.

Interactive digital learning curriculum content doesn’t have to just take place during independent study. In fact, it’s as equally as engaging in collaborative learning - with some healthy competition added into the mix. GCSEPod has a feature for inter school competitions, where students can compete against their peers to watch the most pods, answer questions and earn rewards.

Multimedia content

When teachers think of digital learning curriculum content, multimedia content may be what springs to mind. This is because one of the main benefits of digital learning is the number of ways content can be taught - through text, audio, image, animation, or video.

Multimedia content helps enhance students’ learning, conveying information in a more dynamic way, and can ultimately lead to better knowledge retention - a win-win for students’ revision experience and exam results.

Adaptive learning content

When digital learning curriculum content first came onto the scene, adaptive learning was transformed, ensuring students' learning could be tailored to their needs with easily customised resources.

GCSEPod’s Boost Playlists have led the way - a fun feature which identifies students’ knowledge gaps, strengths and weaknesses, before creating an automatically generated playlist of content closely matched to their weakest areas.

Collaborative learning content

Digital learning curriculum content paves the way for collaborative learning - a space for students to work with their peers to create a positive space for discussions and learning.

During the pandemic, digital learning curriculum content allowed students to easily collaborate with shared resources - accessible from their own homes. Teachers could rely on GCSEPod as a trusted resource - and avoid students’ overuse of Wikipedia!

Now after the return to in person teaching, many teachers encourage collaborative learning with GCSEPod, where students can work in groups to learn about different topics in the curriculum and present back to the rest of their class.

Implementing digital learning curriculum content in schools

Implementing digital learning curriculum content doesn’t have to be difficult - once a school has decided on their content platform, a launch plan can be created with their schools’ goals and objectives in mind.

Creating a digital learning curriculum content strategy

Flexibility is key to creating a digital learning curriculum content strategy and with GCSEPod, schools’ needs can be accommodated every step of the way.

Schools can choose whether to embed the platform at grassroots level among students, giving them the opportunity to experiment with the features, or whether to train teachers first and opt for a trickle down method.

There is also the option to pilot GCSEPod with starter groups of teachers and students or lead with one particular subject.

Best practices for selecting digital learning curriculum content

Before anything, teachers will want to ensure their chosen digital learning curriculum content is reliable. Not only are GCSEPod’s videos rigorously quality assured and mapped to all major GCSE and IGCSE exams boards, the platform has also won multiple awards - so teachers can be assured they’re in safe hands.

Next is ensuring your schools’ goals and vision is aligned with the platform’s digital learning curriculum content. At GCSEPod, experienced project managers can provide guidance, advising the best options for your type of school, size, and immediate aims.

Of course, another key consideration should be cost - overly expensive guides may not be worth the cost for the output, particularly when budgeting is a key consideration for schools. GCSEPod costs as little as £1 per student, per month - ensuring quality is matched with price.

Digital learning curriculum content integration with existing curriculum

Once the implementation process is underway, digital learning curriculum content can easily integrate with the existing curriculum.

With GCSEPod, teachers need only choose their school’s and subject’s exam board to find the curriculum content clearly laid out - meaning teachers can easily pick up the next topic without any disruption.

Training teachers to use digital learning curriculum content

It’s really easy and quick to train teachers to use digital learning curriculum content - particularly when there is a whole bank of resources available!

GCSEPod has a page full of introductory videos and tutorials, including a quick start guide. Once teachers are more up to speed and ready to start using GCSEPod, there are plenty more short videos covering more in-depth topics on the website.

Assessing the effectiveness of digital learning curriculum content

To ensure they’re investing in the right tools and continuing to point students in the right direction, teachers will want to have access to easy ways to measure the effectiveness of digital learning curriculum content.

Luckily, that is what the digital is designed to do. The direct impact of GCSEPod can be seen, which endless case studies prove. An analysis of schools’ results demonstrate a strong correlation with positive student performance and high levels of GCSEPod usage.

Hodge Hill Girls’ School for example sits in one of Birmingham’s most deprived areas, but its Progress 8 score at the end of Key Stage 4 was among the top 200 in England. Heavy promotion of the online GCSEPod learning platform was one of the factors attributed to the outstanding success.

Measuring student engagement with digital learning curriculum content

With plenty of informative data on the usage of both individual students and the wider cohort accessible to teachers, it’s easy to track student engagement - and its correlation with progress - with digital learning curriculum content.

Hodge Hill Girls’ school is among those going one step further to engage students.

Students can win GCSEPod pin badges along with other reward schemes which sees the top GCSEPod users each week across all year groups publicly lauded on school notice boards and in bulletins to parents - culminating in end of term treats such as cinema and bowling trips for the highest performers.

This has helped nurture interest in the platform - and a healthy sense of competition!

Evaluating the impact of digital learning curriculum content on learning outcomes

The impact of digital learning curriculum content on learners’ outcomes should not be understated. One school who used GCSEPod saw students most engaged with the platform gain approximately six grades higher than their non-using peers, irrespective of their ability.

Feedback mechanisms for digital learning curriculum content

Digital learning curriculum content which provides access to formative assessments is crucial to monitoring student learning and providing ongoing feedback.

During students’ independent learning, resources like GCSEPod are able to provide accurate and instantaneous feedback to supplement teachers’ thoughts. Teachers can then account for this in lesson planning or one to one coaching sessions.

Tracking progress and performance with digital learning curriculum content

Tracking progress and performance with GCSEPod’s digital learning curriculum content is easy. Reports pinpoint gaps in learning by individual, class or year group.

What is more is that parents can keep an eye on progress too. All usage on GCSEPod is logged on a child’s account so parents can easily see how many and which pods they’ve accessed - providing a great opportunity to help them review their studies and celebrate their successes.

Challenges in using digital learning curriculum content in schools

It’s understandable to be concerned about any challenges that may arise from implementing and using digital learning curriculum content - but the good news is that any hurdles are easily overcome!

Lack of infrastructure and resources for digital learning curriculum content

Some schools may worry they don’t have the infrastructure and resources for digital learning curriculum content. However, as aforementioned with how easy it is to implement GCSEPod, the PodTeam is on hand to answer any queries and pave the way for a smooth transition!

What’s more is that digital learning curriculum content actually frees up more teacher resources. One multi-academy trust (MAT), Delta Academies Trust, first incorporated GCSEPod into their curriculum in 2017. Over four years, use of GCSEPod has led to an incredible 21.4 years’ worth of extra lesson capacity within term time.

Resistance to change in traditional teaching methods

Other teachers may feel a resistance to digital learning curriculum content in favour of traditional teaching methods. However, digital learning curriculum content doesn’t need to replace traditional methods - it can simply complement it.

Teachers can choose to break up a lesson with a quick video, great for those visual learners, or use GCSEPod as primarily an independent learning resource they can direct students to - knowing they can trust the digital learning curriculum content.

Accessibility and equity issues with digital learning curriculum content

It’s super important that digital learning curriculum content can be modified to suit students with special educational needs. All GCSEPod videos offer subtitles, with the text colour, size, font and background colour able to be adapted for greater accessibility.

Further, they allow for playback speed to be changed, letting students speed up or slow down videos depending on their level of confidence and ability.

Ensuring data privacy and security in digital learning curriculum content

Ensuring data privacy and security in digital learning curriculum content is incredibly important. Schools retain full control over what bits of data GCSEPod can access.

All data in transit is encrypted using SSL/TLS, while all data at rest is encrypted with AES.

Find out more about GCSEPod’s privacy policy here.

Future of digital learning curriculum content in schools

One of the best things about digital learning curriculum content in schools is that it is always developing according to students’ and teachers’ needs. GCSEPod quickly adapted during the pandemic and continuously takes on board feedback to create the best experience for students and teachers alike.

Emerging trends in digital learning curriculum content

Looking to the future, we can expect to see more digital learning curriculum content directed towards students’ knowledge gaps. Of course, this needs to be informed by existing data, such as GCSEPods’ latest report based on GCSEPod’s Check and Challenge data.

The report revealed students’ most common knowledge and confidence gaps. In Maths, it was recognising formulae, multiplying fractions and cancelling, dividing fractions, reciprocals and multiplying decimals. In English Language, questions around directed writing and composition showed the highest percentage of incorrect answers (40.9%) and were also attempted significantly more than any other questions.

With GCSEPod, schools have the upper hand in seeing these trends as they emerge and getting ahead of the game.

Technological advancements in digital learning curriculum content

Digital learning curriculum content is always advancing in accordance with curriculum developments and technological developments. GCSEPod uses the latest technology to create the best learning experience for teachers and students alike.

When the pandemic caused schools up and down the UK to turn to homeschooling, many teachers began using or accelerated their use of systems like Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams. Lots still use these platforms to direct students to content and set assessments.

With developments, GCSEPod also ensures to produce resources to support learners to become confident in using digital tools and applying technology across the curriculum.

Impact of digital learning curriculum content on education and learning

The impact of digital learning curriculum content can be summed up in one sentence - GCSEPod is proven to help students achieve one grade higher on average than non-users, across over 30 GCSE subjects and all exam boards.

Conclusion and recommendations for using digital learning curriculum content

Summary of the benefits of digital learning curriculum content

Overall, it’s clear the benefits of using digital learning curriculum content are vast - for students and teachers alike.

With key benefits including empowering students in independent learning, saving teachers time and facilitating informed decisions through data, there is every reason to invest in digital learning curriculum content.

The biggest reason of all is the correlation between digital learning curriculum content like GCSEPod and grade improvements - with some of the most engaged schools seeing a staggering three grade increase.

Key takeaways for implementing digital learning curriculum content in schools

One of the biggest takeaways is that implementing digital learning curriculum content doesn’t have to be a challenge.

Flexibility is key to creating a digital learning curriculum content strategy and with GCSEPod, schools’ needs can be accommodated every step of the way.

Recommendations for choosing and using digital learning curriculum content

There are three main things to consider when choosing and using digital learning curriculum content - cost, reliability and goals.

If you want an award-winning resource you know you can trust, find out more about GCSEPod here.