Long before ed-tech platforms became the mainstay, videos on YouTube were students’ go-to for voluntary and supplementary learning. The term ‘learning’ here encompasses curriculum, hobby and skill development; domains that content creators have evolved into over the years.
Acknowledging its role as a learning tool, YouTube began hosting EduCon, an annual event around the learning vertical, covering content related to hobbies, professional skills, curriculum supplemental materials and other soft skills.
With the third edition of EduCon concluding recently, Satya Raghavan, Director Content Partnerships, YouTube in India, spoke about the video platform’s growing significance in education, especially in the post-pandemic learning ecosystem.
Can you tell us about the evolution of learning videos on YouTube in India, in the context of their creation and consumption?
People from the metros would have come to YouTube around eight to 10 years ago, as the first set of consumers, mainly for entertainment. As connectivity improved because of the telecom boom, people from smaller cities started consuming videos too. With information still not easily accessible to them, consumers came here for that as well. So, YouTube suddenly became the place where many people started coming in for information, be it news or recipes, which is also a kind of learning.
Over the last couple of years, three board horizontals have come to encompass learning at YouTube: Education: the classic school and college, and competitive education;
Enrichment: hobby or skill learning like music and dance;
Skilling: white-collar skills like coding and blue-collar skills such as construction and electronics.
What trends were fast-tracked because of the pandemic?
YouTube was earlier seen as a platform where one sought information voluntarily. But, over the past few months, we have seen it move into the zone of supplementing what kids are learning in the classroom. Many teachers and schools recommend specific videos on YouTube so that children can learn more. Thus, YouTube’s supplementary nature was more established in the last few months.
Second, many state education boards started using YouTube as a part of their pedagogy. They ended up doing live classroom sessions with teachers teaching from home. In cases where schools may not have a learning management system, YouTube becomes that tool.
Third, there is the impact of the pandemic on the creator ecosystem. Our classic creator was someone not necessarily from the education sector but was passionate about education. But, now, we are also seeing a lot of teachers start their own channels. It is a great opportunity for them because they are passionate about education, and now they have the time as well.
How is YouTube being developed as an educational tool?
The minute the lockdown happened, we realised we needed tools to help the ecosystem maximise its potential. So, we created YouTube.com/learning. It is a learning destination of sorts that gives users a more curated experience driven by playlists on various topics related to education. There are playlists that show teachers how to use YouTube as a tool, and those for learners are sorted according to different topics or subjects.
Many ed-tech companies also use YouTube as a way to reach out to consumers. We work with them to help them understand the power of the platform from a content and advertising point of view.
YouTube has a feature called Memberships, whereby existing YouTube channels can give a paid offering specifically for its members. This allows our creators to come up with their own courses that can be offered through YouTube.
