Product Review of GCFLearnFree.org – The Tech Edvocate

Technology and workplace skills, as well as some core academic competencies. Most of the tutorials address general workplace technical skills, such as using Microsoft Office or designing business documents, but many of the topics focus on useful life skills, such as personal finance and grammar. There is also. Software-specific tutorials are kept up to date. The website is also available in Spanish and Portuguese. You don’t need to create a free account to use the website or take the self-assessment, but registering allows you to save your progress. In addition to learning materials, there are also classroom implementation resources for educators.

GCFLearnFree.org is designed for individual study, but has lots of useful content in the classroom. Introduce topics with short tutorials such as grammar rules and math videos. Longer tutorials like Personal Finance can be used as a framework for learning units. Typing tutorials are suitable for all ages and can be used as a curriculum for keyboard or typing classes. Many of the tutorials focus on specific technology applications such as Microsoft Office or Google Suite. Educators can assign these tutorials as needed to help learners or groups of learners brush up on specific platforms.

All tutorials are presented in text format and many are accompanied by videos to enhance the explanation. Educators and learners are encouraged to download/print the texts for offline use. GCFLearnFree.org is a great resource for learners with intermittent Internet access. A detailed educator guide helps educators integrate her GCFLearnFree.org into their classrooms. Free webinars are available upon request.

GCFLearnFree.org is a commendable project because it aims to provide up-to-date career training free of charge to those who need it. The creators recognize the need for equitable access to basic skills for computing and life. The website presents content in a simple, uncluttered format that displays well on all kinds of internet-connected devices, even on weak connections. Text-based tutorials can be translated into multiple languages, are typically keyboard operated, and can be downloaded or printed for offline learning. The video tutorials hosted on YouTube to support accessibility are well done and interesting. A big loss in accessibility is the fairly frequent use of images in explanations. This can hide information from screen readers.

Learners can create accounts and track their progress, but the platform does not support educator dashboards or ways for educators to monitor progress. If signed in, the learner can print a certificate after completing all parts of the tutorial, but this is not an indication of understanding, just the learner clicked through every page of the tutorial. Also, some older tutorials were created using Adobe Flash. GCFLearnFree.org acknowledges that this plugin is out of date, but it is unclear if and when the old Flash tutorials will be updated.

Website: https://edu.gcfglobal.org/

User’s overall consensus about the app

learner engagement

From resume writing to wearable technology, it covers the less taught yet important topics. Tutorials with videos are more engaging than text-only tutorials. The site is fairly minimal in design.

Curriculum and instruction

Lesson tutorials are organized into small, easy-to-read chunks with purposeful visuals, but the learning isn’t original. learners may benefit from direct instruction.

customer support

Getting started is very easy. Although some attention is paid to accessibility, images contain a lot of information and are a challenge for screen readers.