June 20, 2011 - San Francisco,
Method proudly announces the launch of Teaching Channel’s new website, TeachingChannel.org, and brand identity to public beta. The new web presence, designed by design and innovation consultancy, Method (www.method.com) promises to improve professional development options for teachers and build a strong teaching community.
Teaching Channel provides resources, inspiration, and tools for improving student learning. The website is a high quality video-based learning platform aimed at teachers K-12. As a primary platform for educational videos and supplemental resource documents (such as lesson plans), Teaching Channel is a place for effortless discovery of useful educational tools. Videos and related content provide inspiration and resources for educators to use in the classroom the next day.
Teaching Channel partnered with Method to create a community-driven site where time was a critical factor; teachers have little time to waste in searching for relevant materials. Method responded to this challenge with an alternative to search which enables teachers to easily and more quickly browse and discover relevant content through filters and contextual details. Finding videos and information had to be simple, fast, and relevant.
Increasing teacher engagement required Method and Teaching Channel to develop key features that would encourage use and also simplify the daily tasks. Co-designing with the core users, teachers, was critical to accomplishing Teaching Channel’s mission. To motivate teachers to participate and share, a point and badge system was created to encouraged engagement by rewarding teachers for providing feedback and contributing to the community.
Critical to the video experience was the implementation of a Notes feature, which allows teachers to create time-stamped notes attached to a playing video. “We’re really excited about the Notes feature,” said Method’s User Experience Lead, Mark Roudebush. “The notes act as user-created chapter markers that can be shared or kept private, helping teachers track and contribute the information they find valuable.”
In addition to the website redesign, Method also updated the logo and design language for Teaching Channel in order to differentiate the brand and communicate their edgier, fresh approach. The result is a typographic expression derived from a call to action to “teach!” and a container based off of the concepts of the related technology and community metaphors.
The new TeachingChannel.org is a celebration of the teachers that are shaping education and students across the nation. Inspired teaching, like any great art, should be seen. Teaching Channel is lifting the curtain on inspiring classrooms to continue to improve classroom education.
