40 Sources for Curated Educational Videos

Like explorers approaching an unfamiliar landscape, teachers who are ready to take the plunge into flipped classrooms and blended learning often approach the opportunity with a mix of excitement and trepidation.Just dipping a toe into the virtual waters of online content can be overwhelming, and there’s a risk that even the most fearless educator can become paralyzed by the bottomless depths of content and endless pools of resources.

While many teachers begin by creating their own content and videos, many prefer to start by sifting through free online sources. The amount of available information out there is staggering.

YouTube users across the globe upload 48 hours of content every minute. And a google search for “science video” yields over 4 billion results!

Fortunately, there are some great websites and services that take the guesswork out of finding and sorting educational video content. Adding to last years published list, here is the most updated list of some of the curated video sites we’ve come across in our work.

1. Backpack TV: Backpack.tv pulls from various sources to create a highly curated library of education videos organized by academic subject and detailed topic. Many of the videos are linked to topics from popular textbooks, a real bonus for finding just the right video. Videos can be user-rated.

2. Biography.Com: Over 6000 biographies are available here on famous people throughout history and across the globe.

3. BrainPOP: Founded in 1999, BrainPOP is one of the original sources of online education video content and today includes a number of free resources in addition to its subscriptions.

4. TedEd: The TED-Ed video library contains carefully curated educational videos, many of which represent collaborations between talented educators and animators nominated through the TED-ED platform. Videos can be “flipped” to create custom lessons based on the content.

5. PowerMyLearning Find and use thousands of free games, videos, and interactives in all major K-12 subjects and aligned to the Common Core.

6. MathTrain.TV created by Eric Marcos and his students, is a free online library of student created videos explaning every concept of middle school math… very much like Khan Academy, just made by students.

7. BrightStorm: BrightStorm currently targets high-school aged students with videos of great teachers presenting the content. Their more than 2500 math and science videos are free.

8. TeacherTube: Launched in 2007 and none among fans as “the other tube,” TeacherTube allows teachers to access, upload and share educational videos.

9. Classroom Clips: Launched in September 2007, Classroom Clips allows users to search and explore a wide range of educational content which has been correlated to the Virginia Standards of Learning, although teachers in any state will be able to find what something of use.

10. CNN Student News Provides daily 5-10 minutes newscasts directed towards middle and high school students, accompanied by opportunities for students to give feedback through online polls, quizzes and blog comments. The archive of current events is available.

11. Cosmo Learning: Designed to work as a free homeschool, Cosmo Learning provides video lectures, documentaries, and more across a range of topics and levels.

12. CSPAN Video Library: Offered as a public service, educators can share current events, briefings, legislative sessions and more from the nation’s capitol.

13. Curriculum21: This comprehensive website is a little different, because it provides resources for teachers related to creating the classroom of the future such as webinars and podcasts in addition to videos.

14. Curriki: With over 6.5 million users, Curriki is a non-profit that boasts over 40,000 peer-reviewed and classroom-tested K-12 learning resources. Users may access, contribute and publish content.

15. Discovery Education: This site offers award-winning, standard-aligned digital content, interactive lessons and virtual experiences that aim to be immersive and engaging for students.

16. EduTube: Launched in 2008, EduTube focuses on popular and high quality educational videos that are sorted by EduTube index – a measure of quality, popularity and educational value.

17. Educational Videos: With videos on everything ranging from Dance to Marine Life, this site offers a wide range and user-friendly interface.

18. Edutopia Video: Edutopia’s large video library is sortable by topic and by grade level.

19. FORA.tv: This live and on-demand site provides coverage of events and conferences, including lectures and presentations will classroom applications.

20. The Futures Channel: Based on the goal of using new media technologies to create a channel between scientists, enginners, explorers, visionaries and learners, The Future Channel partners with schools to provide these high-quality digital learning resources.

21. Google Video: Follow the special instructions from the Cool Cat Teacher to use google video search to for specific educational content by topic.

22. Gooru: Currently in beta, Gooru Learning is a “search engine for learning” that harnesses the power of the web by organizing free, online education resources into searchable collections, accessible from any web or mobile platform. Using machine learning and human judgment, Gooru curates, auto-tags and contextualizes collections of web resources to accommodate personalized learning pathways. Gooru collections are aligned to US Common Core Standards for Math and to California Science Curriculum Standards.

23. History Channel Online: Teachers can access full programs and videos by topic that have aired on The History Channel and its affiliate stations.

24. KhanAcademy: While the 3,200+ videos on the Khan Academy site do not pull in educational content from outside sources, the growing content inside Khan Academy is nicely organized and searchable.

25. Learner.Org: With support from the Annenberg Foundation, this site provides teacher resources across many content areas that is searchable by discipline and grade level.

26. LearnersTV: This site provides free video and audio lectures of whole courses conducted by faculty from reputed universities around the world across many fields.

27. MathTV: This site offers math video by topic and math videos that accompany textbooks in addition to coordinated homework and worksheets.

28. MeFeedia: Now the largest independent video site on the web, this treasure chest is a resource many educators are just beginning to explore for educational applications.

29. Open History Project An online community, coming from the state of Ohio, is a project about telling the stories that make up our history. This site is meant to guide teachers and students to the content that’s already available and begin to index and index to people, places, and events of our past.

30. NeoK12: This site features free educational videos, games, lessons, puzzles and quizzes sorted by topic.

31. NOVA Teachers: PBS’ full features and magazine-style shorter stories are available here for classroom use.

32. SchoolTube: This site is setup to serve students who wish to get ahead at home and at school, as well as teachers who want to access digital resources. Teachers can also create their own channels and upload their own videos.

33. Sophia: With more than 25,000 tutorials from a range of expert teachers across many academic fields, Sophia is a first-of-its-kind social education platform created to reach 21st century students.

34. SnagLearning: SnagLearning is a SnagFilms initiative dedicated to presenting high-quality documentary films as educational tools to ignite meaningful discussion within the learning community.

35. SqoolTube: This site features educational videos, games, ebooks and printables for K-12 classrooms.

36. Virtual Research on Call: A STEM resource that enhances the learning experience of students via video conferencing and video podcasts.

37. TeachingChannel (Tch): Teaching Channel is a video showcase of innovative and effective teaching practices in America’s schools. More than 35,000 members have registered to share ideas and inspiration on the site.

38. WatchKnowLearn: This site organizes educational videos and for ages 3-18. WatchKnowLearn has indexed over 33,000+ educational videos, placing them into a directory of over 3,000 categories.Teachers can also add their own videos to the site.

39. YouTube EDU: YouTube’s channel for education offers lessons, videos, lectures and more for teacher and student use on the familiar YouTube platform

40. Knowmia A free lesson planning and recording tool for teachers. It helps you create video lessons on any subject and publish them on Knowmia.com. Knowmia Teach makes it easy to import your own visual aids, organize them in steps and record your voice and face to bring them to life.