As school leaders know only too well, it is crucial to carry out a thorough due diligence process before making any investment with precious school funds. But when buying an edtech product this is particularly important. While new advancements are exciting and present educators with opportunities, SLTs are right to approach such propositions with a healthy sense of caution and plenty of questions.
Like many edtech businesses, we are passionate about progress at GCSEPod. Our mission is to continually improve our platform and our content to help learners and educators to achieve their goals. To do so, we must always stay ahead of the curve and introduce things that are new and innovative.
But this means building a strong and clear dialogue with both existing subscribers and those schools that are discovering GCSEPod for the first time. We understand that we have a responsibility to both showcase our product clearly and transparently, demonstrating value for money in tough financial times.
To help school leaders along the way, we’ve jotted down the answers to some of the most likely questions they will have about GCSEPod and the role it can play in their school.
What does GCSEPod do?
GCSEPod is a digital learning tool focused on delivering subject knowledge to learners in a concise audio-visual format known as Pods. Each 3–5 minute Pod is packed with information, can be viewed on desktop or mobile devices, and is supported by a number of other layers of functionality. These include:
- A 45,000+ strong Question Bank
- Playlist functions
- Assignment setting tool
- Revision planner
Students may use GCSEPod simply as an independent study tool to close knowledge gaps during exam revision. However, many schools across the country have now enjoyed great success in embedding GCSEPod into the classroom and within schemes of learning.
Why would students want to use GCSEPod?
GCSEPod is designed for learners of the 21st Century. It gives young people the opportunity to study and gain knowledge on the devices that they are most comfortable with – be it a desktop computer, tablet or smartphone.
The feedback we regularly get from our subscribing schools is that learners love being able to access our Pods at any time, anywhere. Each Pod is packed with relevant information yet simply delivered, meaning that even those students with the shortest attention span remains engaged.
From the highest achievers to reluctant learners; boys and girls; GCSEPod has been found to appeal to students from across the spectrum.
Is there proof that it works?
Absolutely. The advantage of modern digital tools is that tracking performance and gathering data is much easier than in generations gone by. Through our platform, teachers can track not only student viewing figures for our Pods but also map these against performance over time.
While the anecdotal evidence we have received from our 1,000+ subscribing schools is hugely encouraging, we understand that seeing the cold hard facts is essential before senior leaders make the decision to purchase GCSEPod. With this in mind we have used the new Progress 8 scoring system to demonstrate the effectiveness of our online learning system.
As the graph shows, Progress 8 scores are typically elevated the more Pods a learner watches. It also shows that year on year, as teachers embed GCSEPod further into the school, the effectiveness of GCSEPod continues to increase.
How does GCSEPod support new subscribing schools?
The dedicated team at GCSEPod is always on hand to support new subscribers through the setting up and launching of the system in their school. Through launch packs, best practice guides and the advice of our experienced Subscriptions Team, we can help schools to set goals, implement GCSEPod and analyse performance.
It is important to note that the launch of GCSEPod affords new subscribers great flexibility. Different schools elect to launch in different ways – including a grassroots approach, trickledown plan or even an explosive launch.