There was a time, just a few years ago, where when someone had a problem at their home, they would call someone or seek the help of a service to fix the problem. Whether this is a plumbing problem or a kitchen issue or the TV is acting up, people would normally call the repair guy. However in the past few years more and more people are shifting away from this and leaving it up to themselves to fix their own problems. How is this possible? Two words. YouTube Tutorials. YouTube has tutorials on just about everything a person could imagine wanting to find out about. From fixing your sewage pipes to tuning a guitar, it’s all there. So the question should naturally arise: Why aren’t we using this in classrooms to facilitate learning with students? Schools around the world need to pick up on this trend as it’s definitely the way forward.

Students generally have an easy time learning and grasping concepts when they are able to visually see the concepts being practiced and demonstrated by a pro in front of them on the screen. This is one of the reasons why there has been a constant rise in the popularity or cooking videos and make up tutorials in the recent years. Here are the five main ways that YouTube can help out academic learning in classrooms.

1. Homework Assignments:

YouTube can be super helpful in letting students know what exactly is needed of them to watch before the next class. Other than that it can also be of great assistance when the teacher needs to recommend an educational YouTube channel for the students to subscribe to which will guide them throughout the specific course. In fact some teachers and professors around the world use YouTube to create their own YouTube channels and post their own tutorials on how to solve certain problems or explain topics.

2. Supplementing Classwork:

There are probably many moments in the classroom where the teacher has about half the chapter left and there is only ten minutes left till the bell rings. This is again where YouTube comes in handy. Professors can just send links of important academic videos to watch at home if there is little time in the class left to complete the topic. In fact many teachers can even take the help of online tutors in order to successfully categorize and map out their syllabus for the year and then use those certain YouTube tutorial channels to make sure that they’re keeping on track and teaching the subject in best way possible.

3. Self-learning:

At times in the classroom, certain students may be working on individual projects and so it won’t make sense to teach the entire class together in one sitting since everyone will have something different to focus on. An instance involving this kind of scenario could be class projects or a thesis where everyone has a specific focus. In situations like these it is very helpful if teachers give students links to sites and YouTube pages that will be specifically suited for their topic. Apart from this a teacher can also observe how each student learns and understands a certain subject best and according to that the student could be recommended videos that best cater to the way they would want to learn a certain subject.

4. Enhancing Classroom Learning:

YouTube has a major advantage than most other mediums of learning these days are slowly being considered more disengaging. That advantage is the capability of YouTube videos to be fun for the students and much more engaging and helpful in explaining ideas than books or even at times classroom lectures. People who often make tutorial videos on YouTube do so because they know they have a natural knack for explaining topics in a way that people learn and understand from. There are a huge number of instances in my own academic life when I recall that someone understood a certain math topic much better from just one ‘Khan Academy’ video than they could from ten lectures from our class professor. YouTube classes and topical videos have the power to use the appropriate audio and visual tools to fully make students grasp the most difficult and complex topics in the best and most interesting way possible.

5. Teachers Can Learn Too:

In many classes, the teacher needs to cover a certain topic or at least revise it before they teach it to their students. YouTube is an amazing tool to assist teachers by showing them the most engaging and effective way to go about the progression of a certain topic that they have usually already covered on their specific YouTube page. This way teachers can always be extra prepared and ready to teach their syllabus in the way that best suits the conditions of their class. \

Author Bio:

Francesco Andrea is a doctoral researcher at Lancaster University, where he is studying how information is classified and legitimated under the freedom of Information Act. He is also working at TheDissertationWriters to provide online dissertation writing  services of the students of UK.