While online education has witnessed a growth over the last decade, the recent COVID pandemic, and the subsequent lockdown, has accelerated its adoption by schools and higher educational institutions. However, online education isn’t just a replication of the traditional classroom. Online learning gives students greater control over their learning, enabling them to trace their own learning paths and progress through the interactive modules at their own pace.
Related Read: Online Learning VS Traditional Learning
The role of the teacher also changes from a knowledge giver to that of a facilitator. Besides, the various course delivery platforms also have a powerful assessment and reporting tools, allowing teachers to focus more on students. Real-time tracking tools make it possible to track in real-time the progress of each individual student. Course administrators and developers can use this information to personalize learning for each student. Using various digital formats such as AI, VR and audio/video, students can actually interact with the course and learn by doing.
All these factors together necessitate a different approach to teaching and designing the course curriculum. Accordingly, there are several K-12 curriculum development companies specializing in designing highly interactive content for schools.
Also Read: How to Create and Deliver the Best K-12 Learning Solutions
Here are some of the best K-12 curriculum development companies to consider-
1. HurixDigital
Hurix is an EdTech content solutions company with an impressive track record of creating and delivering best-in-class content for K-12 education. The company has built a rich content repository of over 6000 learning assets in the K-12 domain. Hurix’s flagship product KITABOO is used by leading K-12 publishers across the world to deliver their content. The platform currently has more than 10 million users in over 20 countries. Hurix also creates custom content for K-12 education.
2. Edmodo
This curriculum development company offers a safe and easy-to-use platform for teachers and students to connect and share content, access homework, notices and events. It also has collaboration and communication tools for resource sharing and networking. This cloud-based platform can be accessed from any internet-enabled device. Schools can set up their own URLs and also access additional management, reporting and analytical tools. The Edmodo platform is free for both teachers and students.
3. Schoology
This educational technology company provides a centralized cloud-based repository to connect people, content and systems required to conduct educational classes. Schools can leverage the features of the software to personalize classes and improve students’ learning outcomes. It also has great collaboration tools, allowing smooth connect between teachers, students and peers.
4. BenchPrep
The company has partnered with leading publishers to convert flat content into interactive online courses for high school, college, professional certifications and more. The courses are delivered through the BenchPrep LMS. Students can study and also sync their learning across the web, mobile and tablet devices.
5. The BlocksCAD
This 3D modelling software is ideal for K-12 school teachers as they can leverage its 3D features and virtual reality environment to teach coding fundamentals, mathematicsand abstract concepts. The software is easy to use and has several interactive features to increase student engagement, resulting in improved interest towards math, engineering, and computational thinking.
6. Lightspeed Systems
The company has partnered with several sectors including K-12 and higher education to provide highly interactive courses. Their content delivery platform, Relay, includes tools for collaboration and assessment, and is highly scalable and extensible by design. Besides, it also provides features such as management, integrated filtering, monitoring, and protection for schools.
7. ALEKS Corporation
This curriculum development company specializes in creating web-based content. According to the company, its educational software is founded on “groundbreaking research in mathematical cognitive science known as Knowledge Space Theory”. The software can accurately assess students’ knowledge proficiency and accordingly deliver targeted instruction on the topics they most need to learn.
8. Newsela
The company offers engaging content integrated with assessment and insights. Content is instructionalized to meet the unique learning needs of each student. Leveraging its interactive tools, AI and analytics, this educational tool deciphers students’ needs and then leads them on their learning path.
9. Instructure, Inc.
This software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology company uses its cloud-based Canvas learning management system (LMS) to impart learning. The company does not end the learning experience with schools and higher education. Rather it extends it to corporate organizations, enabling them to engage with their employees.
10. Flocabulary
This web-based learning program for all K-12 subjects uses educational hip-hop songs, videos and additional materials to engage students and improve their learning outcomes. As of 2015, more than 35,000 schools had used Flocabulary to supplement their teaching.
11. Explain Everything
What sets this K-12 curriculum development company apart is its unique interactive screencasting online and mobile whiteboard app. It enables collaboration between the teachers and learners, who can work together using a complete range of interactive tools including videos, sketches and PDF.
12. BYJU’s
BYJU’s is a product of an Indian edtech company, which runs on a freemium model. Schools have free access to content for 15 days. The main delivery platform is a mobile app. Besides providing educational content to all school students from class 1 to 12, the company also trains students for competitive exams in India such as CAT, IAS, IIT-JEE, as also international exams such as GRE and GMAT.
13. Apex Learning, Inc.
This K-12 curriculum development company offers online courses in English, mathematics, science, social studies, the fine arts, health and physical education, and Advanced Placement. Instruction and lectures are delivered ‘anytime, anywhere’ via live interactive video using the latest in pedagogical practices combined with powerful reporting.
14. PowerMyLearning
This K-12 curriculum development company partners with various schools and higher education institutions to deliver custom learning programs through their award-winning digital learning platform, PowerMyLearning Connect. Rather than using only technology to deliver classroom sessions in a virtual environment, the company is focused on delivering interactive courses to enable students to learn by doing and hone their problem-solving and analytical skills.
15. TuvaLabs
The company leverages data to spot patterns and extract useful information and accordingly provide meaningful learning experience to the students on their favorite real-world topics.
In conclusion
At a time when education is moving online, it is a good idea to match your K-12 curriculum with the needs of your instructors and students, and also in sync with the online environment. As mentioned above, the online environment is vastly different from the traditional classroom and while the courses may remain the same, the paths to meet the learning goals are very different. Unlike the traditional classroom, where the teacher is the knowledge-giver, in an online setting, students ‘seek and find’.
Accordingly, K-12 online curriculum has to be more interactive, engaging, entertaining, stimulating and immersive so that students are willing to self-learn and build on their knowledge and skills. With online learning, aside from grasping the course contents, students learn by doing and in the process hone their problem-solving and analytical skills which will hold them in good stead in real-world situations. In this context, schools will benefit by partnering with K-12 curriculum development companies to create courses in line with modern pedagogical practices and using cutting edge technology to create immersive online courses.
At HurixDigital, we have a rich repository of Math and Science videos for K-12 students. Students can access over 6000 interactive, informative and high-quality videos. Get in touch with us and we’ll help you deliver customized learning solutions to your K-12 students.
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