Trails for Education

SUMMARY

Trails for Education allows students and teachers to curate and visually map resources. Users select the resources they want to visualize and can arrange them on the site in any way they choose. The product can be purchased for a monthly fee.

GOALS

Trails for education is a program for visually mapping learning resources and creating playlists. The product was created to help teachers and students share resources and visualize their learning path. It is designed for use by high school or college students.

APPROACH

Users log in to Trails and can immediately begin building playlists of resources, or “trails.” Trails are displayed visually as a series of linked nodes (see picture, below). Each node can represent a webpage, video or document uploaded from the user’s computer.

The sequencing, coloring and connections of the nodes are each completely customizable; the product is intended to build a series of resources to be discovered in order.

Once a Trail is finished, creators can publish a trail and share it with their peers, teachers or students. Users then interact with the trail by clicking on the nodes, using the resources contained in each one. At all times the visual pathway of the nodes is displayed, helping users to understand how what they are reading interacts with the other pieces of content in the trail. Along with sharing, users can also browse the trails created by other users, and can search by topic tag.

IMPLEMENTATION

Trails for Education can be used on any modern browser.

PRICING

Trails for education is available in three pricing plans, based on the primary user. A teacher can purchase the product for herself for $9/month. The product can also be purchased for students at the price of $1/month. Finally, parents can use the site for free.

WHO IS USING IT

Trails for Education is a new startup, currently being used by ~500 students and teachers.