GCSEPod Parent Toolkit
What can you do to support your child?
This toolkit is designed to help you support your child in using GCSEPod at home.
GCSEPod is an e-learning tool which can help your child study at home. Our content is mainly GCSE-based, but the platform is suitable for students aged 11 onwards.
Our platform contains over 7,500 Pods, which are 3–5 minute videos packed with course content. As well as our Pods we have a host of Student Learning Activities which are designed to help students commit that content to their long-term memory. We also have our award-winning Check & Challenge which provides quizzes for your child to test their knowledge on. The quizzes provides scaffolded support through hints, multiple choice options and feedback statements which help to consolidate learning and build students’ confidence.
Within this toolkit you will find a series of six short guides to help you support your child in using GCSEPod at home. Click on any guide below to take you to the relevent section:
Each guide covers step-by-step instructions on how to use the GCSEPod website and includes suggestions on how you can support your child in their learning at home.
A seventh document, Pod Study List, contains a list of activities for your child to do. This list is designed so they can pick and choose activities based on the time they have available to study. Activities range from 5 to 15 minutes.
Logging In for the First Time
If your child has never logged into GCSEPod before, they will need to activate their account.
Step-by-step guide
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Go to www.gcsepod.com
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Click Log In
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Click I’m new to GCSEPod
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Enter your child’s name, date of birth and school name
- Your child then chooses their own user name, a password and a password hint. There is an optional field to set a password rest email – we recommend doing this so they can recover their password easily if they forget it.
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Click Save to finish and log in
If your child has logged in before, they should already have a username and password.
Forgotten their Password?
If login details have been forgotten, click Forgotten my login details on the login page. This allows access to a password hint or a password reset.
This will provide you with options to access a password hint or reset their details.
Our support team are also on hand to help with log-in issues. On the bottom left of the login page you will see our live chat support, click on the + icon to open the chat window and speak to a member of our support team.
Finding the right Pods
GCSEPod gives your child access to over 7,500 Pods across 30+ subjects. The platform is organised to make it very easy for your child to find the Pods that they need.
This guide shows you how you can help them find the right Pods.
How to find a Pod
Your child’s school has set their exam boards so when you select a subject the content is filtered to what they need to know for their exam.
To get started your child selects the subject they want to study from the ‘Browse Pods’ section.
They can add or remove any subjects by clicking ‘Manage Subjects’ on the top right of the screen.
Within each subject is a topic list with key topics from that subject. Each subject has a topic and these are filtered down into titles, within each title is a premade playlist of Pods.
About to start GCSEs?
Direct your child to the ‘Getting Ready for KS4’ topic.
Exploring what's available?
Use the search bar on the website to find Pods based on key words.
Top Tip – Locating a Pod from a revision list
Your child may be given a revision list from school to help them organise their revision.
Our content is mapped to the specific board for the exam your child will be taking so it’s easy to find the right Pods from their revision list.
If it’s not easy to see in which topic suitable Pods are going to be then click into the subject and use the search bar to search for key words from the list and suitable playlists will be brought up for you.
Use the search bar on the website to find Pods based on key words.
How to build playlists with your child
Playlists are great way for your child to organise Pods to suit their study.
They may want to create revision playlists for an upcoming exam or save Pods that they find particularly useful so they can easily find them later.
There are two main ways to create and add Pods to a playlist on GCSEPod.
1. From the homepage scroll down until you see the orange ‘My Playlists’ section.
- Click the + button to create a new playlist.
- Select the Pods from the subjects on the left or use the search bar to look up Pods using key words.
- Name your playlist and click ‘Ok’ to save it.
2. If you are browsing through the content and you’re in a Pod playlist already, click the 3 dot menu to the right of the title.
- Click ‘Add to playlist’.
- Make a new playlist here by typing in a name for the playlist and clicking the + button.
- Add the Pod to one of your existing playlists by selecting a playlist from the menu.
Top Tip – Red / Amber / Green playlists
A great idea for organising Pods is to set up a Red, an Amber and a Green playlist. This is a method of organising Pods based on how confident your child is with the topic.
Red – Topics that your child struggles with which they need to spend more time on.
Amber – Topics that could use a bit more work.
Green – Topics they are comfortable with that may only need a brief review.
As they study they can move Pods into the different playlists as they become more confident in those areas
Using Check & Challenge quizzes
Check & Challenge is a feature on the GCSEPod website which offers multiple choice quizzes for students to complete alongside watching our Pods. Check & Challenge has a unique feedback system which provides clear explanations of why answers are correct and incorrect during the quiz. This makes it a learning tool which can help your child build their knowledge as well as test it.
How to find a Check & Challenge
To see where Check & Challenge quizzes are available go to the homepage and click the ‘All Content’ button above the subjects list.
Select ‘Check & Challenge’ and this will filter down to show which subjects and topics have the Check and Challenge available.
Go through the topics and subtopics list to a Pod playlist and you will see a banner at the bottom of the page that says “Try some questions”. Click “Start”.
Check & Challenge has built in support to help your child succeed:
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Click ‘Hint’ at any time for extra help.
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Questions vary in difficulty to keep students focused. It tells you how difficult each question is above the question.
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Click the ‘Hint’ or ‘Back’ buttons to go back and watch the Pods.
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Feedback statements advise students why their answer is incorrect or correct aiding in learning and increasing their understanding.
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Two attempts are available for each question. The student can only reveal the correct answer after using both attempts.
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Diamonds are earned for answering correctly, celebrating success and creating a way to monitor progress. Two diamonds are awarded for a correct answer on first attempt, and one for a correct answer on second attempt.
Top Tip – Review Check & Challenge progress regularly
Encourage your child to revisit Check & Challenge again to improve their scores or even just use fewer hints when answering the questions. Repeating the same Check & Challenge can help them to consolidate the information and also build their confidence on a topic.
If your child has already completed a Check & Challenge quiz before they’ll see their previous attempts have been saved so they can review their progress easily when they return to that Check & Challenge.
Their final score, diamonds earned, hints used and the time taken to complete the quiz are all recorded individually. You and your child can monitor their progress using any or all of these factors.
For tougher topics challenge them to complete a Check & Challenge without using any hints or to complete the quiz in a certain time frame.
We recommend using the support offered (e.g. hints and second attempts) a little bit like stabilisers on a bicycle. Once your child is more confident in a topic area, encourage them to reduce the support they use.
When you’re first learning a topic:
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Use the hint button whenever needed.
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Move back and forth between the Pod and the quiz.
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Take as much time as is needed to answer the questions.
When you’re feeling quite confident in a topic:
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Use hints only on more difficult questions (use the difficulty indicator to identify these).
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Try to limit how many times you return to the Pods for information during the quiz.
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Try to answer questions more quickly.
When you’ve revised a topic or are preparing for an exam:
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Do not use hints on any question.
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Do not return to the Pods during the quiz at all.
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Answer as promptly as you can.
Using learning activities with your child
On the GCSEPod website you can access a range of learning activities which can be used alongside our Pods to help your child consolidate their learning.
These are designed to help students commit the information from the Pods to their long-term memory.
How to find a learning activity
You can view the full list of learning activities at the top of the homepage in the Learning Activities banner.
Just click on the banner to expand it and click an image to read about that activity.
Our 33 learning activities are not subject specific so they can be applied to any Pod.
You’ll find the ‘Learning Activities’ banner is at the top of every Pod playlist so your child has easy access to the list.
This toolkit also contains a PDF booklet with all of the activities which you can even print.
Top Tip – Complete a few activities together first
To help your child get to grips with using the learning activities on their own, start by completing one or two of these together.
Some great activities to complete together are:
Activity 14: Present The Pod
Watch a Pod together with your child.
Then both of you write a short presentation which explains the Pod as if you are teaching it to a 6-year old. Deliver your presentations to each other and discuss how similar/different your approaches were.
Activity 16: Quiz Your Friends
Have your child watch a chosen Pod alone.
Have them then write quiz questions based on that Pod for you to complete.
You watch the Pod just once and try to complete their quiz.
Have them mark your quiz and give you feedback!
Activity 24: What Is Most Important
Watch a Pod together with your child.
Then both of you write out the three most important pieces of information from the Pod and rank them 1–3.
You and your child share your lists with each other. Compare them and see if you’ve had different ideas of what was important information!
Have your child justify how they’ve chosen the pieces of information and how they’ve ranked them.
Monitoring your child’s usage
All usage on GCSEPod is logged on your child’s account so you can easily see how many and which Pods they’ve accessed. This provides a great opportunity to help them review their studies and to celebrate their successes.
How to view usage
Through your child’s GCSEPod account they can view a record of their usage which is broken down by subject.
To view this click the ‘View Reports’ icon on the left hand menu.
Use the menu to change the date range that the graph displays. Use the date range changer to adjust the time period you want the graph to display.
Your child can also review all of the individual Pods they have watched and see when they accessed them.
To see this go through the homepage and scroll to the very bottom where you will find the ‘Recently Watched’ area. Click ‘View All’ to get a breakdown of the Pods and when they were watched.
Top Tip – Monitor and Celebrate your child’s usage
Show your child how they can review what they’ve accessed using the ‘View Reports’ and the ‘Recently Watched’ areas of the website.
Help them analyse their own usage by asking questions, for example:
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Are they studying one subject more than others? – Check that they aren’t focusing too much on subjects they prefer.
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What goals could they set going forward? – For example watching a certain number of Pods in a single subject.
Make sure to also reward your child for reaching milestones with Pods.
You should set these milestones based on your child’s goals and their progress so far but here are some ideas you could use:
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Watching 100 Pods total
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Watching 10 Pods in a single subject
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Watching 3 Pods a day for a whole week
Pod Study List
Here is a list of activities ranging from around 5 to 15 minutes which your child can choose from to start learning on GCSEPod.
5 Minutes
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Watch 1 Pod.
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Create a quick Playlist of topics you find difficult.
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Check your usage and see how the usage is split across the subjects you are taking.
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Set some goals you want to reach with Pod – for example a certain number watched in a subject you are struggling with.
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Watch a Pod from the Keeping Fit & Healthy playlists: Body / Mind / Environment / Team You.
10 Minutes
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Watch 1 Pod and take notes, pausing when necessary or slowing down the Pod as needed.
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Complete a new Check & Challenge.
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Create a playlist of Pods based on a revision list you have from school or one you have made yourself.
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Reattempt a completed Check & Challenge to beat your previous score and time.
15 Minutes
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Watch 1 Pod and complete a learning activity.
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Watch 2 Pods from the Study Smart subject on one of the learning techniques – Spaced, Retrieval and Interleaving. Think about how you can use the technique you have learned about to plan your study time.
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Create a RAG (Red, Amber, Green) rated set of playlists for a subject of your choice.
Red = Topics that you struggle with.
Amber = Topics that could use a bit more work.
Green = Topics you are comfortable with.