The CK-12 Foundation, popular open educational resource (OER) platform that provides free educational materials from Kindergarten to grade 12 has made learning process very smoothly for both educators and students. I got interested in it during the class activity since that was what my group discussed about hence, I used this opportunity to explore more about it. CK-12 foundation has provided learning aid to several people, and it has gained a significant attraction due to the flexibility of academic resources and its educational standards. However, there are limitations to it.
Regarding the user friendliness of CK-12, I see it to be a user friendly with modern interface and design. The homepage is clean as it is easy to navigate through the subjects and the type of resources that you need depending on what the user wants to learn. It is also easy and free to sign up as a new user and have an account so that you can monitor your activity. I Loved how resources are organized in accordance with their subjects, grade levels and even with learning type. This shows that the platform is designed with educators and students in mind to ensure an easy and efficient user experience even if you are first timer using the platform.
Quality of resources
From my personal exploration on CK-12, I consider the resources there to be quality resources particularly with the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. This is because, it offers numerous contents which are reviewed by experts, materials created by teachers as well as the algorithms generated contents. According to NASA 2018, CK-12 had a collaboration with institutions like NASA and Microsoft in quest to provide quality contents especially with physics and computer science subjects and courses. The resource for learning includes videos, stimulations and practice sessions which are geared towards providing quality learning process for educators and students and everyone at large. Notwithstanding how the resources align with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) which is very significant for individuals in the United States however, educators in Canada (Saskatchewan) can critically remix resources to suit the required curriculum which is being used here. This will give educators several ideas to plan lessons and employ diverse teaching resources.
Considering the navigation, CK-12’s search functionality is something that made me love the platform because as a first timer, I did not struggle with searching as the search bars allows refine or advanced search by subject of choice, grade level and the type of resources the user needs. The predictive search function and the auto sorting functionality enable users to find contents easily and quickly without wasting much time and I believe the suggested resources helps users’ discovery and exploration of resources. The Flexi AI feature also helps users to seek assistance on how to use the platform and this is something I found amazing. it is also interesting to know that one can switch to educator mode or student mode.
Visual Appealing:
CK-12 offers an appealing designs which makes it easy to grasp the content of resources. The Play Learn Interact Explore (PLIX) session under the explore category provides series of videos which are visually appealing to users and enable you to relate to what you are learning. The colors are not too loud which to me blends well. Again CK-12 platform adjusts well to different sizes on screens either on a laptop, tablet or a mobile phone. But I love it best on my laptop as it gives me a wider screen which makes visibility easy for me.
Value to Educators:
CK-12 is really valuable to educators because of the Flexbooks. This Flexbooks enable educators to have variety of textbooks coupled with study guide to make lessons which would suit curriculum requirements and students needs. Also, it enables educators to create classrooms and assign resources to students while they keep track of students’ progress. I also noticed that it allows educators to give different instructions through adaptive learning.
Criticisms:
In as much CK-12 offers resources to both students and educators, it is limited to STEM subjects with little attention to humanity subject. Although it has some of the humanity subjects but cannot be compared to the STEM subjects. From my exploration, I noticed that humanities subjects have little contextual analysis and interpretive components unlike the STEM subjects which has a lot of contents which are quality too. Also, since CK-12 is more focused on kindergarten to grade 12 education, it may not be of significance to post-secondary or higher education levels. There are old resources which needs to be updated to match the current or modern knowledge acquisition.
In conclusion, CK-12 Foundation is one of the most effective and versatile platforms for Kindergarten to grade 12 education. The customizable FlexBooks and high-quality STEM resources makes it a powerful platform for learning which suites all individuals. However I recommend that non-STEM resources would be reviewed and user engagement would be encouraged to benefits both students and educators. Nevertheless, the platform’s flexibility, accessibility, and user friendly design makes it a great resource in the modern educational settings.
Thanks for the review of a resource I didn’t even know existed. As a math and science teacher this is a great find! One thing I noticed about the math/science section is that they seemed pretty high level. For example, when I teach functions I usually will introduce domain and range for abstract functions before putting them in a practical scenario. This textbook jumps right to the scenario questions which is great for stronger students but for weaker students that could be difficult. I think it is an excellent resource for me as an educator, but I probably wouldn’t direct my students to use it. How could you see yourself using it in the classroom?