McGraw Hill wants to make education sticky like social media

Students are already using social media, so why not make education content equally engaging?

McGraw Hill has just released a first-of-its-kind study app for students, combining elements of its market leading educational products with philosophies borrowed from social media.

The idea is to make learning as engaging and immersive as doom scrolling, but without the lies.

Education for the attention generation

The app is called Sharpen and provides education via a swipeable content feed, bite-sized videos, gamified study tools and personalized dashboards.

It blends a social media-inspired, mobile-first design with trusted content built specifically to align with popular college courses. The publisher is making the app free for Fall 22.

Simon Allen, CEO of McGraw Hill, said: “Education has transformed massively in the last several years – and so has McGraw Hill. We’re proud to provide this groundbreaking solution that responds to the needs of today’s college students and will help them succeed on their unique learning paths.”

 Key elements include:

• Continuous, time-based study feeds customized to each student’s course subject
• Bite-sized, mobile-first videos that display brilliantly on mobile devices, including iPhone and iPad
• Swipeable visual chapter summaries, quizzes, and flashcards
• A personalized dashboard of actionable study insights to help learners improve their scores
• Accessibility tools like captioning, voice control, and screen reader

Sharpen provides access to a huge amount of educational content across a huge range of topics – everything from accountancy to taxation, medical to music and many more topics are already available within the app.

Find out more of these here.

You need to go where the puck is, not where it used to be

McGraw Hill thinks it has the right idea. You see, the decision to make learning experiences as friction-free to access as social media experiences reflects transforming student habits, the company says. It’s not imaginary.

The company surveyed 500 undergraduates with Morning Consult and found students now routinely turn to YouTube, TikTok and other social media platforms to study.

It also found:

• 75% of students have changed their study habits since the pandemic.
• 78% of students reported turning to social media for supplementary study content.
• 19% spend six or more hours per week searching for study content and help with classes on social media.
• 74% say they would study more if their course materials matched the style and convenience of social media.
• The study also showed 88% of students do not entirely trust education-related information found on social media.

So, what do these digital natives need? They need access, they need credible information, and they need it to be available to them. Knowledge gateways need to meet them there. The solution isn’t focused on textbook and exam answers, instead it provides to-the-point support designed to help students learn, understand, and succeed themselves.

[Also read: Tim Cook & others want deep investments in online education]

Here’s the promo clip

Sharpen, education for the new age

“The student experience has undergone tremendous upheaval in recent years,” said Justin Singh, Chief Transformation and Strategy Officer at McGraw Hill. “We’ve closely watched changing student study habits and responded with our new app, SHARPEN, which will help students stay engaged and focused while delivering trusted content they can easily digest. We’ve proven that you don’t need to compromise on delivering high-quality content to provide an engaging learning experience.

Autym, a sophomore from Montclair State University who was one of the hundreds of students consulted during the app development process, said, “It is so easy to use, in between classes and work, and it doesn’t make me feel like, “ugh, I’m learning.” SHARPEN breaks down my chapters, so I can understand the information as quickly as possible.”

Dr. Julia Kalish from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, “Students are becoming more distracted while in class and having trouble finding time to study. Having engaging content that my students can relate to – and I know I can trust – will help them be better prepared.”

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