Ellie Bixby lets us know the best YouTube Channels for students to learn from, wind down with and enjoy:
Spending copious amounts of time online is undoubtedly a part of every student’s lifestyle. Whether it be for the purpose of entertainment, study or searching something out of general curiosity, research states that the average person is online for over 24 hours per week. With 1.9 billion users, one of the most popular internet platforms is YouTube. As such a popular platform, it can be assumed that it is a place on the internet where University students are spending a lot of their time. Therefore, I have decided to bring your attention to 5 YouTube channels you should be watching right now, that will make your endless hours of ‘watch time’ a little more worthwhile.
1. Crash Course
The first channel I would highly recommend to students is Crash Course. The well-known Green brothers ‘John’ and ‘Hank’, alongside several other experts in relevant areas, create short, ‘crash’ course videos that cover a wide range of topics; most likely including your university course. As a student studying to be a primary teacher, Crash Course is a channel I have visited often when in need of developing my knowledge of a particular subject (mostly maths, let’s be real). With videos on topics such as Shakespeare to marine engineering, students are likely to find at least one video relevant to their course. And if not, there are several videos available on study skills and the psychology of studying, supported by detailed animations and most of the time, great humour from the speaker.
2. Unjaded Jade
Unjaded Jade, or ‘Jade’, is just one of many content creators within the ‘studytube’ community, a community of students (studying at any level) that have channels dedicated to study and study motivation. Whilst there are several other brilliant ‘studytubers’ I would advise checking out – such as Jack Edwards, Ruby Granger, Eve Bennett and there’s loads more. Unjaded Jade has taken what might be considered as a more ‘unconventional’ route in academia. Examples of videos Jade has produced include how she got an A* in A-Level Maths, a week in the life of a gap-year student and more recently, packing for University abroad. Jade’s videos are not only motivational, but are also down to earth, representing not only the highs of education but also the lows. We all need a bit of motivation sometimes and to know we aren’t alone when studying gets a bit tough, which is why I think Unjaded Jade is a channel to watch.
On YouTube, it’s very easy to, after a few clicks, end up in the corner of YouTube that consists of mostly cat videos. It was after a few clicks on numerous videos that I found Kurzgesagt. A German channel whose name translates literally to, ‘In a Nutshell’. Kurzgesagt is a channel run by a small team that produce animated videos based on science and the world around us. Whilst they might not be particularly helpful for all students, they are extremely interesting. Kurzgesagt videos are a fun way to get yourself into a learning zone, you learn things that are current and that you might not have heard before. And whilst this channel might still be considered as a place to procrastinate, I feel that it is at least a bit more of a productive watch than cat videos. So, if you need a study break or some motivation to learn, Kurzgesagt is your go-to channel.
4. Tedx Talks
Ted Talks are talks given by either inspiring, motivational or extremely intelligent individuals on a topic which they specialise in. Tedx are independent from TED but use TED’s format and rules to organise events anywhere and everywhere. They are an international community that organise events which celebrate locally driven ideas that are worth elevating to a global level. Therefore, Tedx Talks is a channel where students need to be. As individuals entering new careers and working towards up-to-date qualifications, we need to know what is happening across the globe, what is happening on our doorsteps, and what we need to know to be up to date. Tedx Talks might just give us an insight into our future.
The final channel on this list is the University of Worcester’s very own YouTube channel ‘University Insiders’. This is a channel run by a team of recent university graduates who want to help potential and current students make important decisions about higher education. Videos include stories from graduates, top tips videos and videos that are currently trending on YouTube such as: ‘What’s in my University Bag?’, ‘Get productive with me’ and ‘What I eat in a day’. University Insiders is a channel you need to be subscribed to if you want to find out more about university, you want to stay up to date with what is going on in and around Worcester, or you want to see what life is like when University is over.
Worcester Student Life 