Google has launched a new feature on YouTube to help students and educators who are stuck at home during lockdowns due to coronavirus outbreak. Dubbed as YouTube Learning, the new feature contains resources like curriculum-relevant topics in physics, math, and biology, language studies, study hacks, and much more, from YouTube’s education-focused creators. Users can access YouTube Learning on mobile as well as on desktop using the Explore tab.
According to YouTube, in addition to curriculum-relevant topics, YouTube Learning also has video resources on topics related to photography and yoga. Google has said that its new feature will come in handy for people who are students and those who want to learn new skills.
YouTube Learning has got content in English and Hindi, with the company promising to add Tamil, Telegu, Marathi, Bengali, and other languages soon.
Further to help teachers and students, Google has made the premium features of Google Meet video conferencing platform available for free to G Suite and G Suite for Education customers, globally, until September 2020. It enables up to 250 participants in a single video-conference. The company has also trained teachers from more than 250 schools in the use of this tool.
The company has also launched an EDU hub, featuring a collection of resources that help get started with remote-teaching. To help children know the steps to be taken during COVID-19 outbreak, Google has released children’s books from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Chota Bheem on its reading app Bolo.
Additionally, Google is also launching a new kids section on its Play Store that will have “teacher approved” apps. The apps are said to follow high-standards to ensure that the apps are appropriate for kids. The company said that the Kids section was going to launch late this year but due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, it was launched early to help children as they are spending more time at home. The Kids section will first come to the US, after which there will be an international rollout.