Asynchronous learning
Epic is a little different from a standard school. Students study from home at their own pace, and receive 1:1 support and guidance from a State-certified teacher. This education model requires thoughtfully designed and high-quality instructional materials – enter Epic’s dedicated Curriculum Design Team.
“Students use our curriculum asynchronously and then teachers are required to meet with their students once a week,” explains Heather, Instructional Designer for English Language Arts. She first discovered Genially when she was looking for a way for students to play an escape room game digitally.
“We were building our curriculum and wanted it to be more interactive and gamified. In Genially I can create an escape room where they're using a magnifying glass and looking over things and it's just, so much more immersive than when students are just clicking next, next, next.”
I remember creating that initial escape room and just being awed at the fact that when students hover their mouse a little box pops up… I could never have done that with a Google Slide.
Heather Anderson
Instructional Designer
1,125 Teachers
23,000 Students
Oklahoma, US
Encouraging active reflection
Prior to using Genially, the team relied largely on static documents like Google Slides and Canva. “It really makes a difference between reading a chapter from a book, a textbook, or an article, and making the content come alive with Genially through, say, an interactive image where students are actively clicking around,” says Heather.
She uses interactive questions to encourage students to reflect on what they’ve learned. “I have to make sure that students are critically thinking about the text they read, the videos they watch. So having that ability to ask an open ended question and then have students type it in, I think that's really game changing to kind of check in with students and have them reflect on the learning activity.”
As well as learning materials, the team also uses Genially to make the virtual classroom set-up more engaging. “We've been able to add gamification to our lesson landing pages so the students aren't just like reading it on a screen. They're actually interacting – Do I know this material already? And they’re doing some reflection pieces with what they know.”
Heather used an Escape Game template to create this interactive adventure. Students follow clues and solve challenges to revise what they’ve learned about literary devices.
Fostering engagement
Blended learning requires resources that teachers can easily adapt and personalize for one-to-one remediation and enrichment sessions. Many of the Instructional Designers on the Curriculum Design team are qualified educators themselves. They understand the difficulties of keeping students engaged, especially outside of the traditional classroom setting.
“We have to make sure that the content and the curriculum is rich and deep and it has awesome interactivity and Genially hits those boxes for us,” says team lead Aubrey.
Heather describes sharing an escape game with other staff. “The response from teachers was like, Whoa, this is amazing. I can't wait to use this with my students. Teachers are so excited. For the idea of, okay, my student isn't just going to be bored sitting in their seat, passively just reading material and answering multiple choice questions.”
We want students to be engaged in learning and remember it not only an hour later, but maybe months or years later.
Aubrey Owen
Curriculum Design Team Lead
“We're calling this Epic Ed 2.0” says Aubrey. By using Genially and other tools to create innovative resources, she’s confident that this upcoming iteration of the curriculum will be “the most robust, beautiful curriculum, in my opinion, ever!”
Epic Ed spans pre-Kindergarten through to 10th Grade, so the team need to make sure that resources are consistent and grade-appropriate. To do this, they’ve created a bank of pre-branded team templates that can quickly be customized for any age group or subject. “Pre-K through second looks different, but has the same quality of resources on their lesson landing pages as compared to a high school course.”
Embeds: Keeping students inside the LMS
A common challenge in e-learning is keeping students in one location, and preventing them from getting distracted on the internet. Being able to embed geniallys directly on the school’s LMS platform, Agilix Buzz, has helped the team to develop what Aubrey calls “one-stop shop” resources.
“One of the perks with embedding is students actually stay in the LMS platform. They're not going to all these different websites, then coming back to then fill out the questions … We've been able to keep them in one location, so we don't lose them in all the different areas that we ask them to go to.”
The Epic team’s favorite features
Embed Video
The team insert Microsoft Flip videos directly in Genially.
SCORM & LMS compatibility
SCORM packages give teachers an overview of progress in the LMS.
Tooltips
Hover-over labels provide students with contextual information.
Survey & Quiz Questions
Questions foster critical thinking and encourage students to reflect on the material.
Drag and drop
Drag-and-drop activities make materials dynamic, hands-on and engaging.
Windows
Pop-up windows deliver lots of learning content in a one-stop resource.
Building creative and unique resources
The Epic team combine EdTech tools in ingenious ways. Heather embedded Flip videos in Genially to create this incredible escape room with AI-generated graphics from D-ID, Heygen, and Midjourney.
Students watch interviews with an uncannily realistic Shakespeare and find hidden artifacts to complete the challenge.
Parent and teacher-facing resources
As well as materials for students, the team use Genially to create interactive communication materials for parents and training resources for teachers.
Discover why Epic loves Genially - Give it a spin!
Feeling inspired and ready to try Genially for yourself? Sign up for a free account to start exploring. Interested in bringing interactive learning to your school or district? Get in touch with our team.