TikTok is in plans to collaborate with hundreds of experts and institutions to incorporate educational content into the platform.
The giant platform is set to pay universities and charities to create bespoke content. This new focus is expected to position TikTok with the micro-learning trend.
At the launch of the educational videos, a British actor, Sean Sagar, will share tips on how to prepare for auditions and a TV presenter and Mathematician, Rachel Riley, will help to develop math skills.
Rich Waterworth, TikTok’s general manager for Europe, spoke to BBC saying that the platform had noticed a peak in users’ interest in educational content, garnering up to 7 billion views on the hashtag #LearnonTikTok
“Going forward, LearnOnTikTok is about us investing in partners and content creators with a breadth of professional content… We think this is about applying the power of TikTok to learning: the effects, the audio, the transitions, the tools that make it so engaging and fun, to make people enjoy learning,” says Waterworth.
Read: TikTok Issues Apology Over Accusations Of Censoring Black Users
The Social Media Manager at English Heritage, Martin Jafferies, believes that TikTok’s access to the younger generation provides the opportunity to educate them on a diversity of content.
“We think that TikTok is a safe space to explore stories that matter most to the young people, so things like black history, LGBTQ stories from some of our sites, women’s history as well – it feels like a very safe, welcoming environment,” said Jafferies.
The platform now hosts professionally done videos alongside the user generated content. This, according to a research analyst at Enders Analysis, Jamie MacEwan, could signify a new direction for the company which now had former Disney’s Head of streaming at its helm.
“TikTok really wants to broaden its appeal and we are going to see more structured, more premium content going forward. This ties into the new CEO, Kevin Mayer, coming from Disney. We know him as a deal-maker for content and we’re sure to see more partnerships going forward,” says MacEwan.
The short-form video centered app will be following an already existing trend in online learning, a senior lecturer in the University of Sunderland, Dr Elizabeth Hison, pointed out.
“Most of us will be familiar with the idea of going online to find instructional videos,” she said. “This idea of small units of learning is already well established in online education – we call it micro-learning,” says Dr Hison.
TikTok has been downloaded more than 2 billion times since its global launch in 2017. The app allows users to make 15 second long videos, with music paying in the background.
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