Project

YouTube Edu

Educational resources for quality education for all: restructuring the YouTube Edu platform.

21 October 2024

Last update:28 January 2025

What is YouTube Edu?

YouTube Edu is a YouTube channel containing educational videos to support school learning. In 2023, YouTube and UNESCO in Brazil launched a new version of the channel as a result of a technical international cooperation agreement.

The online channel has over a thousand videos organized into playlists, with content appropriate to the lower and upper secondary education school levels aligned with the National Common Curricular Base (Base Nacional Curricular Comum – BNCC) related to contemporary cross-cutting themes, the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, and other topics relevant to education.

Project Objectives

The YouTube Edu channel aims to assist lower and upper-secondary education students in different areas of knowledge to complement and reinforce studies with educational content for free access. The channel features over a thousand videos organized in playlists.

Thus, the channel seeks to provide content that helps people expand their opportunities, break down barriers, and focus on high-impact, high-quality learning. It's a platform that fosters hope and optimism for the future.

Specific objectives:

Offer students and teachers access to quality educational videos by updating the YouTube Edu video collection.
Promote the channel among teachers, students and other educational stakeholders.
Promote teacher training on the use of educational videos in pedagogical practices.
Increase accessibility of educational videos by producing and inserting sign language and subtitles in selected videos.

UNESCO/YouTube Edu

Relations between the YouTube Edu videos and the BNCC:

This document presents how the YouTube Edu videos are related to the knowledge subjects and skills included in the BNCC.

YouTube Edu and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

YouTube Edu includes specific playlists dedicated to each SDG.

All videos available on this channel have undergone a rigorous selection and updating process by UNESCO, which involved technical and pedagogical criteria, aspects of diversity and recognition of the work of YouTube teachers, known as “edutubers”. Throughout this reformulation process, the project has contracted education and technology experts to determine and evaluate the content selection criteria, considering the audiovisual and pedagogical quality of the videos.

Measurable Results

According to a UNESCO study among students and teachers of public and private schools entitled "Usos, conhecimentos, percepções e expectativas dos estudantes e professores da educação básica sobre recursos educacionais em formato de vídeos" [Use, knowledge, perceptions, and expectations of basic education students and teachers on educational resources in video format]:

91%

of the teachers use

YouTube videos in their classrooms

82%

of students notice

learning gains when studying via YouTube

According to 2022 YouTube Economic Impact Report, YouTube users reported that:

99%

of them use the platform

to search and collect information and knowledge

75%

of them found

useful information on sustainability

487,000

Subscribers until 2024

+1000

Videos available

Accessibility and Inclusion

It is essential to create and disseminate educational materials that serve diverse audiences, including people with disabilities, to ensure inclusive, equitable, and quality education. Inclusion is a crucial pillar of YouTube Edu. For this reason, YouTube Edu is adapting several YouTube Edu videos to add two important accessibility features: Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) and subtitles. You can now watch videos in an accessible way on the following disciplines: Portuguese Language, Math, Science, Physical Education, English, Art, History, Geography, and more.