Discovery Education Experience Guide for Families

Discovery Education Experience provides compelling high-quality content, ready-to-use digital lessons, and unique collaboration tools to bring excitement and relevance to pupil learning.

Step 1: Log into Discovery Education 

Navigate to discoveryeducation.co.uk, or your custom URL. Enter your username and password and Sign in.

Not sure how to log in? Contact your teacher or school to get specific information.

Step 2: Navigate the Pupil Homepage

Pupils will land on their homepage, the Pupil centre. At the top, pupils will see any upcoming assignments.

Below the assignments, pupils can access the channels of content that their school subscribes to from Espresso, Coding and STEM Connect:

• Espresso: A digital, online providing everything primary schools need to create an enriching experience for all pupils, wherever the learning is taking place.

• Coding: Coding accounts for half of the National Curriculum computing programme of study. Discovery Education Coding provides complete support for teaching coding in primary schools.

• STEM Connect: STEM Connect offers a suite of resources for Key Stages 1, 2 and 3, designed to be used flexibly either within timetabled lessons, or in after-school STEM clubs.

Depending on your school’s subscription, pupils can find access to additional resources at the bottom of their Pupil centre, including Discovery Education’s content creation tool, Studio.

Step 3: Explore Assignments

At the top of the Pupil centre, pupils can click the Assignments tab to see all current, completed, and past due assignments.

Teachers can assign a variety of assignments:

• Resources: Opening an resource assignment will take pupils directly to the video, image, interactive, etc and allow them to engage with it.

• Assessments: Teachers can create assessments with questions for pupils to answer. Once a pupil is finished, they click Submit to send the results to the teacher.

• Studio Boards: Teachers may curate content onto a Studio board for pupils to engage with and complete an assignment. They could also create an editable board for pupils to add their answers. You’ll learn more about Studio Boards in Step 8.

Step 4: Search for Resources

Use the Search bar at the top to conduct targeted keyword searches.

After search results are displayed, you can narrow your results by filtering at the top for key stage, or resource type. Additional filters will appear on the left side of the search results as well. These vary depending on the resources shown - but include language, reading level, publishing details, copyright, producer, etc.

Step 5: Explore Channels

Channels include curated resources from Discovery Education curriculum experts differentiated by key stage. Resources include video segments, images, sounds, texts, interactives, quizzes, and more, depending on the topic.

Channels are featured in the search results when a topic that has a Channel is entered into keyword search.

Step 6: Explore Videos and Other Resources

Videos can be streamed or downloaded for viewing. Easy-to-use tabs provide quick access to smaller video segments, the video transcript, citation information, related materials, and other titles in the same series.

In addition to video, Discovery Education offers audio includes songs, sound effects, and other audio.

Discovery Education includes images ranging from photographs, models, maps, illustrations, and clip art.

Discovery Education also offers a variety of text resources which include a Listen feature for read aloud as well as a page mask and page ruler under More Tools. 

Discovery Education's comprehensive collection of interactives engage pupils on various topics in order to simulate real world situations, encourage exploration, or promote research. 

Step 7: Save & Organize Content

There are two ways to save and organize resources found within Discovery Education - QuickList and My Content. 

QuickList allows you to add resources to a list which is accessible from any page.

QuickList is helpful for curating resources as you sort search results to compare or review later. Resources added to the QuickList will remain until they are removed, even if you log out of Discovery Education.

• To add a resource to your QuickList, select the “+” on the resource.
• To remove an item from the QuickList, open your QuickList and click on the ellipses (...) for the resource and select Remove from Quicklist. 

My Content allows you to collect, organize, share, and retrieve digital resources in an organized filing structure. Located in the grid navigation, My Content is accessible from anywhere on the site. My Content works just like the folder structure on your computer so you can organize your resources into folders.

To add resources to My Content:

2. Locate a media resource that you wish to add to My Content.

   • On a search results page, select the ellipses (...) on a resource and choose Add to My Content.

   • On the video player page, select the ellipses (...) on a resource and choose Add to My Content.

   • For all other resources, select Add to My Content to the right of the resource.

3. In the window that appears, add the resource to the My Content default folder, select a different folder, or add it to a new folder.

4. Click Add, and the window will display a confirmation message.

5. To access your content, select My Content from the grid navigation on any Discovery Education page.

Step 8: Work in Studio

Studio, Discovery Education’s content creation tool, allows teachers to design boards for pupils to view resources and complete assignments. Pupils can also create a board from scratch or a template to show their understanding of a topic.

Studio can be accessed from the grid navigation in the upper right corner of the screen.

To begin a new project, click Let’s Create and then choose between a board or slideshow.  

• Board: A multi-page project where pages can be as long as they want and include a scroll bar. 

• Slideshow: A multi-slide project where slides are a fixed size and designed for presentations. 

By default, your project will be named the time it was created. Edit the name and description through the dropdown at the top of the screen. This helps you and your pupils easily identify and organize your creation. 

Select the + to add content to your board. Import Discovery Education digital resources using Search or add resources directly from your QuickList. Additionally, you can Upload from your device, including from camera rolls on tablets and phones. In addition to media, you can add text, buttons, and assessment questions. Buttons allow you to place a link on a slide or give pupils directional support by moving to the previous or next page/slide.  

Once a resource, text, button, or assessment question has been added to your project, it has many options: 

• Resize: Select the circle in the bottom right of the object and drag it to make it larger or smaller.  

• Move: Click the grab handle (six vertical dots) in the upper right corner of the object to move it around on your project.  

• Manage: With the object selected, a menu opens with a few options: 

  • Pencil: This allows you to edit the object. These features vary based on the type of module, but allow you to change the layout, fill, display options, style, etc. Here, you can also click Replace to remove the resource and add a new one.  

  • Double Square: This allows you to duplicate the object on the same page or slide.  

  • Trashcan: This allows you to delete the object from your page or slide.  

Pupils can access assignments from their My DE homepage. 

When a board or slideshow is assigned to a pupil that contains only text and resources (no quizzes), pupils can interact with the content. Once finished, they click Mark as Complete to let you know they are finished with that assignment. 

When a board or slideshow that contains a quiz is assigned to pupils, they are able to interact with the content and answer the question(s) provided. Once they are finished, they click Submit Assignment to return it to you for marking.