Photo by Thomas Park

If you work in the field of education, then you’ve probably heard of learning styles. The idea that some people learn best visually, while others are auditory learners has long been popular in education. Perhaps you even took a learning styles quiz as a student.

People generally agree that learning styles can explain some of the differences in performance and preferences for learning among students. But, when it comes to learning styles’ effects on performance, where’s the evidence? Are learning styles valid? Or, is there more to learning styles than meets the eye? 

Description: A young girl with a red laptop sits on a microfiber couch in her home, participating in a Zoom call for school. Photo by Maria Thalassinou.

The concept of learning styles is pervasive in the field of education. Nearly 80% of educators reported that they used or had intentions of using teaching methods that matched the learning styles of their students. 

Despite their ubiquity, learning styles have recently earned a controversial reputation. As a curriculum designer, you may wonder what you should know about learning styles. What are they, where did they come from, and what are the critiques and controversies surrounding this theory? Perhaps most importantly, what are practical takeaways for curriculum designers? Let’s get into it!

Description: Close-up of a hand pinning a black string, which maps print screenshots of a user flow, on a white wall. Photo by Alvaro Reyes.

If you’re an instructional designer, you are very familiar with video content. You may have designed entire courses around a series of lecture videos.

Well-chosen educational videos that align with the curriculum and take the right pedagogical approach can be very beneficial for learning experiences. They may even improve student outcomes. That said, the internet is brimming with videos that may or may not be appropriate for any given lesson. Instructional designers must carefully consider the specific purpose a video will serve when including it in a course, training, or lesson.

Fortunately, there are many creative and effective ways to enhance course design with video content. Here are 4 different educational video strategies to add to your instructional designer toolkit:

Boclips’ educational video library has grown this month. For a sampling of some of the new, curriculum-aligned educational videos we added in March, have a look at the clips below.

Description: Duotone photo of white headphones, notebook, pen, keyboard, and mouse on a pink background. Photo by LUM3N.

For anyone with strong vision: Can you imagine trying to navigate the internet as a person who is legally blind? 

Some websites may be easy to access but others may be impossible for you to use. Similar barriers affect people with a range of different sensory and informational needs every day.

While accessible technologies have come a long way, there is still a lot of ground to cover. The education sector, in particular, can improve in this area so that all students have an equal footing on their academic journeys. 

Natalie, Boclips Account Manager and education accessibility advocate, discusses what instructional designers can do to stay on top of accessibility requirements and democratize digital learning.

This year’s ASU+GSV Summit theme, “Ed on the Edge,” could be interpreted as its authors intended: education on the brink of great, pioneering change. Education adapting and evolving. Education roaring ahead, into a future of equal access. 

Less charitably, “on the edge” might describe how people all over the world are feeling now, amid a prolonged global pandemic and recent outbreak of war. 

If you count yourself among the lucky, whose families are safe, we empathize with the anxieties you might yet have. If you or someone you know is affected by the war, our team at Boclips cannot express enough our sympathy and support. We are donating to Unicef, which is working to provide educational resources and other critical aid, such as hygiene products and safe drinking water, to Ukrainian children and families.

At the same time, we acknowledge how critical it remains that we carry on with our daily responsibilities and keep our larger mission in focus — to educate the next generation, who’ll shape the future. 

In that spirit, we’ve gathered a list of five influential speakers at this year’s 2022 ASU+GSV Summit who are building a brighter tomorrow. These industry leaders are helping inspire and inform today’s students. They affirm our commitment at Boclips to education and give us hope.

Boclips’ Content team has worked away all of February to ingest new, curriculum-aligned video content for K–12 and higher education course developers. 

Of all the exciting rich-media content added to the Boclips platform this month, we selected five new videos for you to check out below.

Natalie, Boclips Account Manager and education accessibility advocate, discusses what instructional designers can do to stay on top of accessibility requirements and democratize digital learning.