YouTube

YouTube Player for Education launches in US and Korea w/ ad-free playback, more

Damien Wilde | Sep 9 2022 - 2:10 am PT

To help the huge educational sector, YouTube has launched Player for Education in the United States and Korea, which will offer ad-free playback and better recommendations for learning institutions.

Announced in a dedicated blog post, the YouTube Player for Education, which is an embedded player designed to show purely educational content within common learning applications. The player is stripped of ads, external links, and content recommendations. The aim to to reduce “distractions,” with YouTube also partnering with high-profile edtech firms in the United States including EDpuzzle, Purdue University, and Purdue Global for the player. YouTube Player for Education is said to improve upon the basic embedded player already available within Google Classroom for a more honed and targeted learning experience.

To improve the YouTube experience in educational environments, we’re launching YouTube Player for Education — a new YouTube embedded player that shows content on commonly used education apps without distractions like ads, external links or recommendations

To enable more educational content creators to benefit from this, alongside the Player For Education, YouTube has also announced brand-new tools to help increase revenue via this ad-free model. From next year, YouTube creators will be able to create paid video “courses” in a similar manner to platforms like Skillshare, Udemy, and more. If you pay for a course, you can watch ad-free, and you’ll also be able to play the video content in the background like the YouTube Premium feature.

Next year, qualified creators can begin offering free or paid Courses to provide in-depth, structured learning experiences for viewers. Viewers who choose to buy a Course can watch the video ad-free and play it in the background. Courses will arrive first in the United States and South Korea in beta before expanding to more countries.

Another new addition that will help ensure that learning content is well maintained is “Quizzes.” This lets creators add basic quiz or tests to the Community tab on their YouTube page. Selected creators will gain access over the coming months as this feature will launch in beta next year.

YouTube Player for Education and all of the new features will be available first in the United States and South Korea before expanding to more countries.