YouTube

Sometimes you just want to take a break from reading. Sometimes you want to mix things up with your revision. Whatever the reason, YouTube can be a useful resource, as a starting point at the very least. There are many channels creating educational content, including TED-Ed, Extra Credits and CrashCourse.

TED-Ed’s videos are short (most are 5minutes or less) which make them great as a quick reading break, or for use in revision sessions. The channel’s playlists aren’t as sensibly organised as other educational channels, but a quick scroll through the videos tab reveals a host of interesting videos. Hidden amongst other topics there are some that may be of note to history students. While it’s not a solid alternative to further reading and research, these videos provide basic overviews, and in many cases what they lack in information, they make up for in presenting arguments or discussions you may not have thought about yet. For this reason, the TED-Ed channel is useful – sometimes you need to take a step back and look at things in a different way. In University, seminars are a great way of bouncing ideas off other people, and getting different viewpoints and interpretations. This is an online alternative, for when you need a fresh set of eyes outside the classroom.

Another is the Extra Credits channel, whose creators make the YouTube series Extra History once a week. While these videos are generally longer than those on TED-Ed, they are more informative, while still fun and interesting to watch (much like CrashCourse History with John Green, which you can read about in our post here). The Extra History series is fairly fast paced, covering a lot of information very rapidly, but their cartoons and images make for easy recall of facts, and the channel is of course free, so you can go back and watch the videos as often as you like! With over 200 videos in the Extra History playlist, there are a wide range of topics – from the Roman Empire to the Cold War – covering almost every imaginable curiosity.