Boclips is the world’s largest library of education-specific video content, according to the company. This is essentially a school-safe version of YouTube, designed specifically for teaching.
At a time when video learning is becoming more powerful, more useful, and more in-demand than ever, Boclips is the natural answer to the question of how to make sure videos are school-friendly.
The result is a single place with a huge range of videos that are made from more than 650 trusted content creators. It features ad-free, safe, and non-distracting video alternatives to YouTube.
This guide aims to lay out all you need to know about Boclips and how it could serve your class needs.
What is Boclips?
Boclips is a curated, education-specific, video platform. Hosting around 1.8 million educational videos, this aggregated collection is ideal for schools.
The 650+ trusted content providers include SciShow, PBS, CrashCourse, Bloomberg, TED, and others. The key here is that this content is available without the adverts or distracting linked video suggestions that may cause students to go off topic, such as when using other systems.
Teachers can quickly find and share videos that students are able to access and view, distraction free. These are all curated and aligned for class use, making it a safe and risk-free video teaching tool that’s ideal for schools.
How does Boclips work?
Boclips is a stand-alone library of video clips that can be accessed by teachers and shared easily.
Crucially, all these videos are organized with educators in mind. Consequently, it’s possible to search using categories such as age, subject, pedagogy, and even standards such as Common Core or Next Generation Science Standards.
Using filters and tags, it’s possible to find the relevant videos fast that are educationally relevant.
Teachers are then able to share using links, embedding in an LMS such as Google Classroom, or by curating playlists for units or projects.
Students then only see the video that was sent to them by the teacher, so no linking distractions or ads getting in the way.
What are the best Boclips features?
Boclips has around 1.8 million curated videos available to be used and viewed by teachers and students. Since all the content creators are vetted, everything in the library is education appropriate.
The fact everything is ad-free and there are no other linked videos means that students can use videos while staying focused solely on the task at hand. That makes this ideal for a wide range of ages and abilities.
Teachers can filter results not just by topic but by curriculum standards, pedagogical use case, age level, and language proficiency level. All that results in an efficient process for educators and the end result should be the most relevant materials, quickly.
Playlists are a helpful way to build materials around a subject area. These can work collaboratively allowing teachers to work together but also for students to do so, perhaps as part of a group project.
Integrations with tools such as WeVideo and BenQ Boards make this even more accessible, and the company is continuing to expand and integrate in this way, making it easier to access.
How much does Boclips cost?
Boclips offers free trials to educators but then there are fees.
Since this uses institutional licensing, pricing is offered on a bespoke basis to suit use cases.
This generally includes unlimited teacher access, admin dashboards, usage analytics, professional development and support, plus integration assistance and custom solutions.
Boclips best tips and tricks
Start with subject collections
Use Boclips’ curated subject collections when short on planning time. These pre-built collections make it quick to find relevant videos for common topics.
Map videos to curriculum standards
Filter and search by specific curriculum standards so video content aligns directly with learning objectives, rather than just being engaging.
Clip segments for focused learning
Use the segmenting tools to share only the key portions of a video that match your lesson aim. This keeps students focused and saves instructional time.