The story
behind Virtual Nerd
In early 2008 an expert tutor and a designer began exploring
the use of interconnected instructional videos to help confused math students.
Acquired by Pearson in mid-2013, Virtual Nerd's technology and expansive
library of instructional content is now available to millions of teachers and
students around the world.
About this
website
Virtual Nerd was originally developed as a supplemental
learning resource for teachers and students, with a focus on middle school and
high school mathematics.
Guiding
principles
- Learning is not a linear process, so we must support non-linear exploration.
- Students are often unable to identify the source of their confusion, so we must help them find what they need without forcing them to know what it is ahead of time.
- A solid foundation is critical for progression to more advanced topics, and when students find themselves struggling, it's often due to weakness in underlying concepts, so we must provide immediate and direct access to pre-requisite topics.
- Quality matters in every aspect of every experience, so we must not cut corners.
- When students are confused, they need to be able to focus on resolving their confusion, so we must not distract them with extraneous stimuli or with too much esthetic variation.
