Giving Compass' Take:

• As K-12 educators are looking to grow higher-quality educational resources, here are three critical components that teachers say are necessary for high-quality instruction. 

• How is high-quality digital content transforming classrooms? How is your local school system prioritizing/enhancing instruction?  

• Learn more about improving educator roles in the classroom. 

K-12 educators are increasingly turning to digital resources to enhance instruction and address student needs. But not all content is created equal, and educators are often left sifting through hundreds of options to find high-quality material.

That’s why, in 2019, Discovery Education conducted a comprehensive research study—including a literature review, focus groups, interviews, surveys and an analysis of data usage—across our digital products and platforms.

The study aimed to better understand what educators want, need and expect in their search for and use of digital content. The initial research revealed four critical characteristics of instructional digital content.

  1. Quality Is Key Educators seek engaging, hands-on, interactive content that allows students to participate fully and think critically throughout the learning process.
  2. There Should Be Something for Everyone For educators, the biggest advantage of digital resources is the ability to personalize content for students. Educators use a variety of resources to meet the needs and interests of individual students, including videos, images, games, non-fiction text and varying types of assessments.
  3. Standards Alignment Is Essential One of the most frequently-cited needs of educators is alignment to standards. Many turn to standards-aligned digital resources for use in the classroom as an alternative to textbooks that are not directly aligned.
  4. Student Engagement Matters According to educators surveyed, student engagement increases with content that is current and relevant to students’ lives. High-quality video and images matter.

Read the full article about high-quality instructional content by Robin Porter at EdSurge.