Research

TES Survey Finds Teachers Want Mobile-Friendly Resources

• By Sri Ravipati
• 08/24/16

TES, a digital education company that hosts the world’s largest online teacher network, released the results of its Open Educational Resources (OER) Survey.

The survey asked nearly 1,000 teachers “what they want from digital resources, and how OER impacts their work in the classroom,” according to a news release. TES reports that the majority of teachers surveyed prefer mobile-friendly digital resources, with approximately 85 percent of teachers expressing that it is important or very important to have classroom tools that are optimized for mobile. The survey also uncovered an enthusiasm for interactive digital resources. When asked what technologies will have the greatest future impact on the classroom, teachers responded that online simulations will have the greatest impact (51 percent), followed by virtual reality (33 percent).

Furthermore, TES asked about the top challenges associated with using digital resources. Teachers struggle to find relevant materials (61 percent) and engaging materials (50 percent). In addition to challenges with discoverability, teachers have trouble using OER. Most teacher report problems with combining a variety of resources into one lesson (46 percent), as well as organizing and curating resources (36 percent).

“The survey results confirm that despite strong momentum behind the growth of OER, there are still millions of wonderful resources that aren’t currently being shared between educators,” said Lord Jim Knight, chief education adviser for TES, in a news release. “TES will continue to build tools like TES Teach that simplify the process of finding and implementing digital content, so we can help unlock this amazing collective and global expertise and experience.”

Further information is available on the TES site.