July tends to be a slow time in education (summer holidays, we're looking at you). This past month, though, the team at Boclips was busy. We added several new content partners and instructional videos that courseware creators might use in the fall.

From English language learning to career training to the physics of popping a wheelie, our newly added content covers quite a lot of ground. Check out the previews of five videos below, all new to Boclips’ platform this month.

Photo by Utsav Srestha. Photo description: Close-up of a stack of newspapers.

When presented with the question above, any educator may answer with something like “In theory, yes, current events belong in the core curriculum.” In practice, educators and curriculum designers may wrestle with the decision. What if the news is too controversial? What if the news changes within hours? How would instructional content be sourced so that it’s appropriate and age-appropriate for multiple grades?

Despite some drawbacks, including current events in courseware can bring many benefits to students. What’s more, with the right approach, adding current events can enhance curriculums to build context around course content and care for students in a holistic way.. 

Read on to discover the benefits of studying current events and historical news reports. Plus, we’ll include some tips on how to include journalism in courseware in a way that meets standards, boosts student achievement, and more:

While Boclips’ Content team recovered from a month of conferences (hello, VidCon, ISTE, and NCSC!) and prepared for a long Fourth of July weekend, we also managed to add videos and podcasts from our favorite new and old content partners.

For a look at some of the new-to-Boclips content from June 2022, check out the video clips below.

Photo by Robo Wunderkind: Flat-lay photograph of brightly colored toys on a white tabletop, and a child's hands touching an iPad.

Multimodal learning engages learners, makes learning more effective, and also improves accessibility. Any educator would be glad to offer these advantages to their students. But, incorporating multimodal learning into courseware or making use of it in the classroom isn’t always straightforward. There are many possible ways to use multimodal learning, and not all of them guarantee the best outcomes. 

To help instructional designers and other education professionals, we’ve put together 5 tips to support multimodal learning when designing courses, curriculum materials, or planning for its use in the classroom: 

Description: A woman in a green turtleneck and glasses sits at a wooden table, smiling down at a colorful laptop.

As recently as twenty years ago, university and ongoing education courses relied on lectures and textbooks alone. Today’s students immerse themselves in course material through a wide range of multimedia resources and interactive courseware. 

A multimedia or multimodal approach to learning is not only more interesting for students but also brings learning benefits. Multimedia tools and resources can help bring abstract concepts to life, boost student motivation and interest, and introduce large amounts of information efficiently, among other advantages.

As a courseware or instructional designer, you naturally want to bring all of these benefits to your students. Here are five practical ways to create a multimodal environment in your courseware:

The Content team at Boclips is gearing up to attend VidCon in June. In preparation, they’ve been building up our content pipeline — opening applications for video commissions, launching a quarterly newsletter for educational content creators, and adding new content to the roster.

For a look at some of the latest videos added to Boclips’ collection, check out the clips below.

Description: Four speakers sit onstage at the 2022 ASU+GSV Summit.

Inspirational, innovative, and provocative are just a few words to describe the recent ASU+GSV 2022 Summit. With a theme of “Ed On the Edge,” the conference featured world-class speakers who sparked essential conversations about education.

The energy of so many talented and passionate education professionals in one place was palpable throughout the conference. We were thrilled to attend and meet other people committed to innovation in education technology. 

Most of all, we were thrilled to return to Boclips with inspiration that would influence and improve our work. 

Here are some of our key takeaways from the conference:

Photo by Yarenci Hdz

Which would be more memorable for you, reading a section of a textbook about an event in history, or watching a musical that depicts that same historical event? 

If you answered “watching a musical,” then you know the power of multimodal learning. When building effective, engaging lessons, teachers and instructional designers know that you can’t just give students reading materials and expect them to understand the content. Multimodal learning helps boost engagement, build connections, and improve learning overall. 

Yet, what exactly is multimodal learning, what are some examples of its use, and how does it benefit learners?  

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon

Learning styles are viewed in a positive light by many people. You may agree that, at worst, learning styles are harmless and at best they improve learning. What damage could the theory of learning styles possibly cause?

If everyone understood how to apply learning styles theory, the answer would be “Very little. In fact, they can do a lot of good.”

Unfortunately, people’s beliefs surrounding learning styles aren’t always accurate. Up to 90% of people believe that learners perform better when taught in their predominant learning style. Yet, the idea that visual learners should only have visually-focused lessons, or that audio lessons require audio-based lessons, is largely a myth. This rigid take on learning styles doesn’t take into account details like course content, the diversity of student needs, and more. 

So, what problems does this belief create?