5. Digital teaching and learning resources
This chapter provides an overview of countries and jurisdictions’ public provision of digital teaching and learning resources. It examines the involvement of central and jurisdictional governments in this provision and the different modes of public delivery, from the open provision of educational content through to the curation of curriculum-aligned resources on dedicated platforms. Taking stock of this panorama, including the relative absence of smart digital learning resources, the chapter highlights the need to go from provision to use and makes suggestions to move towards effective ecosystems of digital teaching and learning resources.
Digital teaching and learning resources constitute a broad suite of educational materials that are formatted for digital use. Such resources can be considered static, taking the form of digital textbooks, audio and video contents, courses, or articles; or dynamic, leveraging interactive features and adaptive contents to provide more personalised learning in interactive learning environments (quizzes, games, simulations, etc.). Digital teaching and learning resources serve different purposes and cater to students and teachers as well as to broader audiences.
Digital teaching and learning resources offer a range of opportunities to advance quality and equity in education. Compared to traditional learning resources, digital resources offer cost-efficiency as the digital format allows for extensive and affordable distribution. They are available anytime and anywhere, providing greater flexibility and accessibility for students and teachers. They may also help teachers teach subjects that would be difficult to teach in a classroom and offer breakthrough educational experiences, for instance through augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
But their greatest promise probably lies in the potential they hold to allow for more personalised learning. Digital features can make learning more interactive, more engaging, more adaptive, and more inclusive of students with special education needs. Powered by algorithms and AI, intelligent tutoring systems can be deployed to support students more individually. Similarly, classroom analytics software can make use of the wealth of data generated and collected through interaction with digital tools and resources to provide teachers (and students themselves) with more detailed, sometimes real-time feedback on the way they teach and learn.
This chapter aims to provide an overview of countries’ digital infrastructure related to teaching and learning resources. Three other chapters cover the digital infrastructure of system and school management tools: student information systems (EMIS), digital assessments, and learning management and other system and school management tools. This chapter provides an overview of the digital resources that countries and jurisdictions provide publicly, notably to teachers and students, based on a questionnaire to which 29 countries and jurisdictions responded. The information collected was verified and enriched through a series of bilateral meetings, country consultation and desk-research, that eventually underpinned the description of countries’ ecosystem of digital teaching and learning resources, among other things (see the related publication (OECD, 2023[1]), where more details on each country can be found).
Across countries and jurisdictions, different stakeholders share responsibility for providing digital teaching and learning resources to schools, teachers, and students. While this chapter focuses on the extent to which central and jurisdictional governments are involved in the public provision and procurement of digital teaching and learning resources, it also aims at mapping their provision from sub-governmental layers such as states, regions, and municipalities.
The chapter is organised as follows. First, it provides a state of the art of the digital teaching and learning resources that countries and jurisdictions (sub-national levels of government) provide publicly, in particular to schools, teachers, and students. The chapter distinguishes educational content that is openly and often indistinctly provided to the general public, through TV and radio broadcasts, social media channels, and national MOOC platforms from resources that are curated on dedicated educational platforms for more specific, curriculum-aligned, purposes – though they may include open educational resources (OER) in practice. Then, the chapter explores the typology of those resources, covering static and interactive resources, inclusive of self-assessment resources and digital textbooks. Then, it looks at other elements that compose countries’ digital teaching and learning infrastructure, ranging from platforms for teacher development and for online student tutoring, up to more advanced digital tools such as intelligent tutoring systems and classroom analytics. The conclusion finally provides a summary of the information and points for policy makers to consider moving forward.
Our comparative analysis covers 29 countries and jurisdictions. All countries were invited to complete a set of policy questionnaires, and the responses were subsequently verified through bilateral interviews by the OECD Secretariat. This information underwent thorough cross-validation for the preparation of a detailed descriptive analysis of country digital education ecosystems and governance (OECD, 2023[1]).
Although meticulous efforts were made to authenticate data on digital resources’ availability, it was not always possible to do so comprehensively. This limitation was due in part to several resources’ exclusive availability to those who are formally enrolled in the education sector. Nonetheless, all data were verified by the respective countries and the OECD Secretariat to ensure utmost data accuracy and integrity.
Division of public responsibility
Across countries and jurisdictions, different stakeholders share responsibility for providing digital teaching and learning resources to schools, teachers, and students. This chapter focuses on the public provision of resources from central and jurisdictional governments, mapping the provision of resources from national but also sub-governmental layers such as states, regions, and municipalities. Other actors sell or offer digital learning resources, including NGOs, researchers, teachers, universities, philanthropic bodies. Schools, teachers, and students may directly acquire products from EdTech firms, but this chapter focuses on the extent to which governmental authorities are involved.
The extent of government involvement in the provision and procurement of digital resources differs across countries, and it is somewhat shaped by the usual devolution of responsibilities within its education ecosystem. In places like Canada and the United States where responsibilities are devolved to regional authorities, the federal participation in the provision of teaching and learning resources is minimal or inexistant. National ministries in Austria, Brazil, and Mexico are more engaged. In non-federal countries, the central government’s involvement also fluctuates, from minimal in the Netherlands to preponderant in Hungary and Korea, which see substantial governmental contributions to developing and providing digital resources. In most countries there is a mixed model of provision, with the government providing resources and schools procuring others, such as in New Zealand. In England, an arm’s length body develops and provides digital teaching and learning resources under government commission. Where governance is heavily decentralised, municipal authorities, seen in Nordic countries for instance, often augment resource provision through procurement.
Regardless of whether they are developed publicly, procured by governments, or directly acquired by schools, few digital teaching and learning resources are compulsory to use. Consequently, schools and teachers typically maintain autonomy in their choice of providers and may exhibit a preference for certain digital resources over others.
Open provision of educational content
The majority of OECD countries for which we have comparative information have a wide variety of digital teaching and learning resources that they make openly available to anyone in the country (see Figure 5.1 and Table 5.1). Although this mode of public delivery predates the 2020 COVID-19 crisis, in many countries the open provision of learning content available for anyone is a legacy of policies tailored to ensure education continuity during school closures, especially through TV and radio broadcast. This section focuses on digital teaching and learning resources that are provided through broad and open delivery. Learning resources that are curated on online educational platforms, some of which are accessible to anyone who signs up on the platform, are covered in the next section.
TV and radio content
As of 2024, 24 of the 29 countries and jurisdictions for which we have comparative information (about four fifths) deliver educational content through public TV or radio broadcasters, sometimes live but in most cases as video or audio contents available online for replay. These broadcasts span fundamental subjects, such as language and mathematics, as well as other subjects. They primarily target school-age students but are openly accessible to anyone. Therefore, while the creation of these educational broadcasts is not always centralised or guided by the government, their content is often mapped to the national curriculum. An exception is Slovenia, where the content usually differed from the curriculum, but alignment was sought during the pandemic.
Broadcasts on public TV or radio channels are generally available on websites for replay, as seen with Italy’s RAI Scuola and Sweden’s URplay, or on social media channels managed by the ministries, such as ministry’s YouTube channel in French Community of Belgium. Since the reopening of schools post-COVID-19, Iceland and Lithuania have discontinued live broadcasts, but retain online access.
Social media channels
Countries and jurisdictions also leverage social media channels to deliver teaching and learning resources, for learner, teachers, or both. Out of the 29 respondents, 10 utilise social media to deliver educational content to students; and 13 to provide teachers and educators with teaching content. YouTube stands out as the favoured platform, often used for disseminating information and educational content to a broad audience of students and teachers – sometimes rechannelling content that was broadcast on TV. While other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are employed to promote educational events or initiatives, they see less utilisation for teaching and learning compared to YouTube. Some sub-governmental authorities run their own social media channels too, as in Estonia (the municipality of Tartu) and Japan.
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC)
Finally, eight countries also maintain a national MOOC platform: Austria, Brazil, Chile, France, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and Spain. These platforms cover a diverse range of topics from language to programming and offer courses at all education levels – although more often suited for older students and adults.
In France, the France Digital University (“France Université Numérique” [FUN]) platform is a MOOC platform that openly provides courses designed by higher education institutions and associated stakeholders. Courses on FUN are explicitly open to anyone interested in learning a new topic. Some of the courses grant a digital certification upon completion. In Mexico, the federal government maintains the MexicoX platform with the same objectives. Spain’s platform hosts courses that enhance digital skills for educational purposes, effectively functioning as a platform for teaching development. It is important to note that MOOC platforms exist in more countries than those five, but they are most often commercial – rather than publicly provided – platforms. In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has developed the Japan Virtual Campus (JV-Campus) platform as part of its Top Global University Project (TGUP). The platform contains MOOC created by Japanese universities. It is designed to promote the internationalisation of (higher) education, and as such mainly offers higher education level courses, but as MOOC they are open and accessible to anyone. The same can be said of the K-MOOC platform in Korea, established in 2015 with the government support and operated since then by the National Institute for Lifelong Education (NILE). The most well-known MOOC platforms like Coursera and edX in the United States provide accessible and free-of-charge courses, though in principle, they are commercial ventures by private US universities.
Public curation of digital teaching and learning resources
Another, more targeted and controlled way for countries and jurisdictions to provide digital teaching and learning resources is to operate online educational platforms. On those platforms, countries and jurisdictions can select, host, curate and deliver a range of educational resources, developed in-house by national education agencies, or provided by various public and private stakeholders. Those resources are generally more aligned with central or jurisdictional curricula.
Online educational platforms offer more control to public educational authorities over the resources they host than, for instance, TV and radio broadcast, in the sense that their access and use can be made exclusive to certain groups of people. Typically, a student or teacher credential can be required to sign up on such platforms and access parts (or the whole) of the content they host. This is a way to restrict access to educational contents to the cohorts of students they cater for, or to house copyrighted and proprietary content with specific usage limitations.
Nonetheless, online educational platforms may also host contents that are available to anyone, enrolled in formal education or not. This would be the case of Open Educational Resources (OER) for instance, as discussed below.
Out of the 29 countries and jurisdictions for which we have comparative information, all but the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States publicly provide teaching and learning resources through some types of online educational platforms. This is not to say that digital teaching and learning resources are not available in those three countries though. In the Netherlands, schools directly choose what teaching and learning resources they want to licence, with public funding but under minimal involvement of the central government. In Sweden and in the United States, it would be the role of local levels of government, respectively municipalities and school districts, to provide their schools with resources that pertain to teaching and learning. Table 5.2 below provides an overview of the central and jurisdictional provision of digital teaching and learning resources through educational platforms and their types.
Resources in all shapes and forms
In every country and jurisdiction where an online education platform is provided from the central or jurisdictional level (26 out of 29), that is, almost everywhere, the platform curates static learning resources, which encompass digital textbooks, audio and video contents, one-way simulations or tests, research papers, etc (see Figure 5.2). They represent the most common type of digital learning resources, as they are often simply the result of the digitisation of paper-based learning resources. Examples of such resources abound on nationally maintained educational platforms. In Japan for instance, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) maintains the STEAM Library, a comprehensive repository of educational materials that are freely accessible to students, teachers, and parents, serving both classroom learning and self-study at home. In Luxembourg, Schouldoheem.lu, a platform established during the pandemic, provides a wealth of learning resources in five different languages (Luxembourgish, French, and German, as well as English and occasionally Portuguese) to meet the specific needs of the country’s school population and the requirements of the curriculum, covering a variety of subjects at all levels of education.
A majority of countries and jurisdictions (20 out of 29) have also developed or procure interactive learning resources that they make available to teachers and students. This typically refers to personalised learning resources that adapt to the learner and his or her interaction and progress with the content. They can be games, simulations, dynamic quizzes, or more advanced materials powered by algorithms or AI features. For instance, Austria’s administers Eduthek, a platform that offers an array of digital educational resources including apps and games for all educational levels, from pre-primary to upper secondary education. Those resources are the products of collaboration between public and private sectors, coordinated and curated by the federal ministry of education on the Eduthek platform.
About half of the countries and jurisdictions (15 out of 29) reported that parts of the teaching and learning resources are made accessible to students with special needs or that they directly cater for students with special education needs. This was notably a priority objective of the Turkish Digital Education Platform (“Eğitim Bilişim Ağı”, or EBA) during the COVID-19 crisis. In 2020, EBA host about 1 060 courses accessible to both students and teachers. The platform was instrumental to ensure educational continuity throughout the country, and particular attention was given to students enrolled in special education programmes. Video contents were translated into sign language and audio descriptions prepared for visually impaired students and made available through a specific app designed for students with special needs (Vidal, 2022[2]). EBA also provides an interactive learning environment in which students can attend live lessons, engage in online discussions, and receive feedback from teachers on their assignments. Teachers can create custom lessons, assign homework, and grade assignments in real-time, and parental access is allowed to monitor their students’ academic progress. Within the platform, learning resources are mapped against the Turkish curriculum, making it easier for teachers and students to find relevant materials. Chile’s Educación Especial repository also caters to students with special needs, offering resources like large-print textbooks for students with vision impairment, as well as other assistive technologies). In Ireland’s, the National Council for Special Education supplying diverse tools and resources for inclusive education. This includes a curated list a recommended tools (such as apps for vision impaired or dyslexic students), video tutorials for supporting parents and teachers, and dedicated applications for the purchase of inclusive technology for schools. In the United States, although the federal government is not responsible for providing teaching and learning resources to schools, teachers and students, it requires that the resources procured by school districts are accessible by students with special needs. Numerous examples of private providers have thus developed solutions that work for all students. Tools like Ghotit’s Real Writer and Reader, and Texthelp’s Read&Write, cater to learners with dyslexia, dysgraphia, and other learning disabilities by offering advanced features, such as text-to-speech and word prediction. Kurzweil Education extends a suite of tools to students with learning and visual impairments, integrating assistive technologies that enhance content access and processing.
Countries and jurisdictions mobilise resources from different sources and origins. Some countries centralise open-licensed resources in catalogues, aiding teachers and students finding the materials they may need, as exemplified by the Czechia’s Katalog EMA. This catalogue also ranks resources according to their popularity and quality to help teachers find useful resources to meet their needs. Countries may also procure resources from commercial providers. This is typically the case with digital textbooks, as detailed in the dedicated section below, but also for other types of resources. Japan’s Surara Drill, an AI-powered adaptative lesson drill, and Luxembourg’s MathemaTIC, a personalised learning platform for studying mathematics, exemplify the public procurement of privately developed resources. Finally, countries and their education agencies develop their own teaching and learning resources.
Among the five federal countries for which we have comparative information, only Austria operates an online educational platform from the federal level. This might attribute to the fact that the resources curated on such platforms are typically mapped to a curriculum, which may vary across provinces, territories, and states in a federation. While Austria, Brazil, and Mexico have a national curriculum, the responsibility for the actual implementation of curriculum in Brazil is decentralised, while in Mexico, the state-level governments have autonomy to adapt the curriculum to better fit their own contexts. Meanwhile, Canada and the United States have no federal curriculum, which reduces incentives to provide a national educational platform. Austria’s public educational platform, edutube, is comparatively narrower in focus than other national platforms, storing educational videos such as documentaries and movies that teachers can use for teaching purposes.
In countries and jurisdictions that use educational taxonomies, publicly provided or procured digital resources are systematically categorised and possibly mapped against the relevant curriculum, easing the search for specific materials (see (Vincent-Lancrin and González-Sancho, 2023[3])).
Open educational resources
About to two thirds of countries and jurisdictions (19 out of 29) curate open educational resources (OER), through their usual educational platforms or through dedicated repositories.
The Flemish Community of Belgium’s KlasCement, Brazil’s Plataforma Integrada MEC RED, England’s Oak National Academy, France’s Lumni platform, and Lithuania’s Svietimo Portalas are some examples of repositories specifically designed to host OER that can be accessed and used by anyone in the country. Similarly to their closed-access counterparts, the types of resources they host vary from countries to countries, but they typically range from static resources like lessons, video and audio clips and academic articles, to more interactive ones that allow for more active learning.
OER repositories can be set up by public agencies or through public partnerships. Spain’s EDIA repository is founded by a collaboration between the central ministry of education and regional ministry of Extremadura. In France, the establishment of the Lumni platform involved the education ministry, and other governmental agencies, but also public broadcasters, i.e. France Télévision and Radio France.
While federal countries rarely curate closed-access educational platforms tailored to support the needs of teachers and students they are not directly responsible for, some of them do maintain catalogues or repositories of open educational resources. Again, this is sometimes a legacy of countries’ response to the COVID-19 crisis when federal governments stepped up to support their jurisdictions in ensuring education continuity everywhere. In Mexico for instance, the federal government launched the “Aprende en Casa” (“Learning at home”) programme to help teaching and learning continue despite school closures. Since then, resources were mapped against the national curriculum and are now available to Mexican citizens abroad.
Conversely, in others federal countries, curating open educational resources is left to the discretion of sub-governmental jurisdictions. In Canada, Quebec's Open School (“L’École Ouverte”), for example, is provincially curated to align with the province curriculum, even though some of the materials are openly accessible country wide.
In the United States, the OER landscape is primarily shaped by non-governmental organisations and philanthropic efforts. The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education’s (ISKME) OER Commons platform (funded mainly by philanthropic foundations and donations like the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Open Courseware are prominent examples of such initiatives.
Self-assessment resources
In the context of this report, self-assessment resources refer to (banks of) assessment items that can be accessed and taken by individual students or teachers to assess their own skills. They are therefore treated as learning resources and are distinguished from national evaluations and end-of-course exams. (For more details about the digitalisation of those types of assessment, see (Vidal, 2023[4])). However, some items from past evaluations or exams may be reused and added to banks of self-assessment resources.
Out of the 29 education countries/jurisdictions surveyed, 20 provide students and teachers with self-assessment resources. They are sometimes provided by sub-governmental authorities, as illustrated by the self-assessment platform offered by the Gyeongsangbuk-do province in Korea.
Similarly to OER, self-assessment resources may be curated alongside other types of learning resources on online educational platforms. However, at least nine countries and jurisdictions provide their students with separated self-assessment platforms. In Denmark, the Prøvebanken (“Test bank”) is geared towards exam preparation, providing resources like sample exercises from the National Tests (Danish standardised student evaluation), and other resources that teachers can use to prepare assessments and that students can use to test their skills and knowledge in various subjects. In Lithuania, the ministry provides a digital self-assessment system, “Informacinę testavimo sistemą”, with resources for a broad range of subjects (e.g. mathematics, languages, history, biology, information technology), but also support tools for students with disabilities.
Beyond helping students prepare for their exams, countries and jurisdictions encourage the use of self-assessment platforms in teaching and learning. Japan is an exemplary case. The ministry of education has endorsed the use of MEXCBT, a computer-based assessment system, for a broad range of applications, from students’ self-assessment of knowledge in fundamental subjects (e.g. mathematics, Japanese, and English) to classroom use, as well as for nationwide academic achievement and learning situation surveys.
In several countries and jurisdictions, self-assessment platforms are specifically geared to measure digital literacy. France and the French Community of Belgium recommend the use of Pix, an open-source, free platform developed by the French ministry of education for self-assessing digital skills. Pix provides self-assessment tailored to both students and teachers and is available to the general public. Other countries, like Austria, Czechia, and Estonia, have created self-assessment resources aligned with the European Digital Competence Framework (DigComp). For example, students and teachers in Austria can voluntarily use the digi.check platform to assess their digital skills and identify areas for further development. Similarly, in Czechia, Profil Učitel21 and Evaldo are two platforms that are available respectively for teachers and the general public to evaluate their digital competences. In Estonia, an online self-assessment questionnaire was developed based on the DigComp for Educators (DigCompEdu) framework for teachers to assess their own digital competences. Outside of the European Union, Brazil has developed its own self-assessment tools for digital competence through a collaborative effort between the Innovation Centre for Brazilian Education, a non-profit association, and government bodies, that teachers can access upon registration on the Guia EduTec portal.
Digital textbooks
Out of 29 education countries and jurisdictions for which we have comparative information, almost two thirds (18) report that their schools have access to digital textbooks: Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Slovenia, Sweden, Türkiye, and the United States. While digital textbooks are widely available, schools retain autonomy to choose whether, or which, digital textbooks they would use.
In countries where digital textbooks are commonly available, degrees of procurement centralisation and funding mechanisms vary significantly. Hungary is a rare example where the Educational Authority, a central government agency, stands as the primary textbook publisher. This approach is distinct from most other OECD countries where textbook publishing is typically a role for private publishers (although often with significant government regulation, approval processes, or co-ordination). For example, in Estonia, digital and physical textbooks are developed by private vendors, they undergo evaluation by teachers, lecturers, and other experts, and adhere to the criteria outlined in the relevant regulation. A similar picture is illustrated in Austria, Brazil, and Japan, where publishers and booksellers develop both digital and physical textbooks, and the ones that meet the set criteria and pass the quality assurance process set by the education ministry become available for schools. In Mexico, (digital) textbooks are procured and made available for free by a national commission (CONALITEG).
Conversely, in Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, and Sweden) and federal countries where education governance is wholly or partly decentralised to states, provinces, or municipalities, textbook procurement (including digital ones) is the responsibility of the relevant sub-governmental authorities. Schools retain autonomy to choose and use digital textbooks, yet sub-governmental authorities provide funding, and sometimes set agreements or frameworks with publishers for the supply of (digital) textbooks to the schools within their area.
Reflecting on the benefits of flexibility, accessibility, and personalisation, numerous countries are actively enhancing the interactive features enabled by digital textbooks (see Box 5.1). As of 2024 though, most efforts are geared towards ensuring that textbooks are accessible to students with special needs.
Countries that centrally procure digital textbooks have also explored how they could integrate them into their ecosystem of digital tools and resources. In Türkiye, the digital textbooks are accessible through e-Okul, the publicly developed and provided learning management system that also serves as a repository of learning resources and whose use is fostered in all schools of the country. In other countries, the digital textbooks are catalogued alongside other learning resources on online educational platforms, as is the case with Edunet T-Clear in Korea.
As is the case with most other types of digital teaching and learning resources, few surveys about the use of digital textbooks have been conducted across OECD countries. Where they exist, they indicate varied adoption rates. In Japan, digital textbooks for certain subject (e.g. English) are provided by the education ministry to all primary and lower secondary schools with a moderate uptake (36.1% of public schools in 2022). In the United States, a substantially higher uptake was reported in 2020 (half of public schools). In Finland, a significant portion of textbooks are digital, with substantially higher use reported in Helsinki. According to the Finnish Publishers Association, nearly 80% of textbooks are digital in upper secondary education. In Türkiye, digital textbooks for vocational training are provided to all students with a view to provide remote VET education, as exemplified by the Open Vocational High School initiative.
Interactive digital textbooks represent a transformative step in educational resources, infusing traditional learning materials with technology to create dynamic, personalised educational experiences. Incorporating multimedia elements and adaptive features, interactive textbooks cannot be compared with digital textbooks that would merely be the result of the digitisation of traditional textbooks. .
Interactive textbooks offer a dynamic and immersive learning experience by introducing diverse and personalised learning materials (Gottschalk and Weise, 2023[5]). Their digital format also allows for swift updates, ensuring that the material remains contemporary and pertinent. Nevertheless, cost remains a barrier to accessibility, echoing challenges similar to those with traditional textbooks (OECD, 2021[6]). The cost factor may inhibit some students from accessing these resources, leading to potential exclusion in systems that have fully transitioned to digital textbooks.
The integration of adaptive learning technology is a standout feature, enabling the customisation of content and pacing to match individual student needs and performance metrics. Additionally, interactive digital textbooks often provide functionalities for annotations and note-taking, allowing students to engage actively with the material. These resources further facilitate collaborative learning through features like shared notes and discussion forums.
Interactive digital textbooks are adopted and used in several OECD countries, such as Finland, Korea, and the United States. In Korea, interactive textbooks are provided on Edunet T-Clear, the country’s national teaching and learning platform. Not only they provide a variety of interactive and adaptable learning materials, but they are also interoperable with other Edunet T-Clear-based platforms, and can thus be accessible through a single sign on (SSO) service. In Finland, educational publishers such as Sanoma Pro and Otava Oppimisen Palvelut provide a wide array of digital learning materials, including interactive digital textbooks. Their digital books feature videos, animations, self-assessments, and interactive exercises that complement the Finnish curriculum. In the United States, McGraw Hill Education, Pearson, and Cengage Learning are the example companies that provide interactive digital textbooks at different levels of education. Like other examples, they provide embedded assessment tools, interactive assignments, and personalised learning modules that adapt to the student’s performance and understanding, providing real-time feedback and assistance.
Public provision of “smart” digital tools and resources
Beyond static and interactive digital resources, a new class of smart tools and resources are now available. They are usually powered by different types of AI-based algorithms. These teaching and learning resources are comprised of adaptive learning systems, including intelligent tutoring systems (Molenaar, 2021[7]), digital systems and techniques that aim to keep students engaged in their learning (D’Mello, 2021[8]), adaptive assessments that adapt to the level or observed difficulties of students (Buckley et al., 2021[9]; Foster and Piacentini, 2023[10]) as well as social robots (Belpaeme and Tanaka, 2021[11]). Many other applications based on learning analytics are also available.
No country provides such resources publicly. However, there are two countries where adaptive learning systems, including intelligent tutoring systems, are commonly used in at least primary education: the Netherlands (Box 5.2) and the United States. Both in the Netherlands and in the United States, these solutions are procured with public funds, typically by schools themselves in the Netherlands, and by districts or municipalities in the United States, a bigger market, also known for its diversity. In the United States, adaptive learning systems and intelligent tutoring systems are also relatively common, notably to learn mathematics and English.
Another group of smart digital resources are meant to support teachers directly (rather than students under the supervision of teachers). They take the “classroom” as their unit of analysis (Dillenbourg, 2021[12]). They provide teachers with hints on how to orchestrate their teaching in real time (for example who needs help, how to form groups within class, when to transition to another activity when a group works on the same task individually, whether the class is still engaged, etc.) or provide them with feedback on their teaching practices (how long they speak compared to students, where they move in the classroom, what mix of educational activities they have during their lessons, etc.).
No country among our respondents provided such tool as part of their publicly provided teaching and learning resources platforms. Most respondents had no awareness of these tools, and when informed, none reported these tools were mainly used for research and development (or marginally). These digital tools hold great promise to support teachers, but they also raise significant privacy and ethical challenges that need to be addressed and balanced against their potential benefits. Other, more analogic approaches to “smart classrooms” are being pioneered in a few countries though (Box 5.3).
All these technologies based on AI can be interpreted thanks to the “detect, diagnose, act” model developed by Molenaar (2021[7]): detecting consists of capturing relevant information; diagnosing, of analysing the information to determine between different possible interventions; and acting of making a suggestion or taking an action. Typically, depending on the tool and the context, these models will involve different levels of human intervention (and of automation).
Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) utilise AI technology to provide adaptive, personalised learning experiences. Although their prevalence varies (and remain relatively low on average) among OECD countries, they are becoming more common. The Dutch education system has embraced various ITS developed by companies such as Kurve (formerly Muiswerk Educatief), Prowise Learn, and Snappet, primarily for Dutch language and mathematics. Snappet, which is popular in primary education, crafts adaptable lessons from the analysis of student workbooks and inputs from teachers across the country. It supports interactive teaching, immediate feedback, and varied tasks for different skill levels. In addition, applications like Flexi (developed by Kurve), Rekentuin, Taalzee, and Words&Birds (developed by Prowise Learn) employ advanced algorithms and data-driven analysis to provide students with customisable exercises, extensive instructional materials, progress tracking, and direct feedback, so students can benefit from access to exercises tailored to their skill level and real-time error correction.
Dedicated AI in education technology remains in the planning stages in most countries – event though generative AI emerged in education as a general-purpose technology. Several countries, including Austria, Korea, Luxembourg, and Türkiye, are pioneering intelligent tutoring systems. Alongside these developments, there is an emerging focus on cultivating AI literacy among students, with initiatives underway in Austria and Korea to educate students on the fundamentals of AI, its societal impacts, and the attendant risks and benefits.
The emergence of generative AI, notably large language models such as GPT, has been disruptive to some traditional education models (such as exams, homework, etc.) This is discussed in a separate chapter. While generative AI is and can be used to support teaching and learning as a general purpose technology, policy makers should keep in mind that many other AI applications can support teaching and learning in education – and were designed for that very purpose.
As countries grapple with understanding the appropriate uses of AI for teaching and learning, how this affects teachers’ roles, what usage by teachers and students should be encouraged or discouraged, they need to keep an open mind and strike a good balance between avoiding the possible pitfalls of AI and the promises it holds for the personalisation of learning and student performance. To catalyse these efforts, an intensification of international co-operation and the sharing of best practices will be crucial.
The Aulas del Futuro (Classrooms of the Future) project in Spain represents a forward-thinking approach towards education, embracing the potential of technology to enhance learning experiences in educational spaces. This initiative, coordinated by the National Institute of Educational Technologies and Teacher Training (INTEF) in collaboration with autonomous communities, officially began in 2017, led by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport.
The project represents not only a technological, but also a pedagogical innovation. It transforms traditional classrooms into dynamic, segmented areas designed for active learning, with zones named Investigate, Explore, Interact, Develop, Create, and Present. These spaces, featuring advanced tools such as digital boards, touchscreens, and Virtual Reality glasses, reposition the teacher’s role to that of a guide and facilitator, promoting student engagement and accommodating various learning styles and paces.
This initiative blurs the distinction between physical and digital methodologies. It is in line with current educational research advocating for active, personalised, and technology-enhanced learning. To achieve official recognition from the ministry of education, schools must adhere to specific criteria, including active learning techniques, digital technology use, teacher participation, and integration with the school community. By so doing, the Aulas del Futuro project aims to foster comprehensive student development in a hybrid learning space that bridges the physical and digital realms.
Online student tutoring platform
The COVID-19 pandemic has made the importance of tutoring visible, acknowledging strong evidence about the impact of individual or small-group tutoring. While intelligent tutoring systems put this partially in the hands of computers, several countries use technology to match human tutors and students. There are of course an abundance of private platforms doing so, but a few countries do also provide them as part of their public education. For example, recognising the imperative for supplemental educational support, the French Community of Belgium, New Zealand, and Spain have launched online tutoring services. These platforms facilitate teacher-student connections for home-schooled or internationally-based pupils.
Spain’s approach allows for asynchronous activity completion with periodic teacher evaluations, supplemented by occasional live tutoring. In New Zealand, Te Kura, established in the 1920s as a correspondence school and backed since then by the education ministry, now offers personalised distance learning options, providing flexible enrolment and a blend of online and offline teaching from accredited educators. In the French Community of Belgium, the e-learning platform proposes online tutoring service for home-schooled students that matches teachers with students from primary through to secondary education.
While not as prevalent in all countries, these systems reflect a commitment to student success and are a promising part of to the evolving landscape of digital education.
Digital resources for teacher development
While students are the primary learners within an education system, it is also crucial to support teachers’ professional learning. Part of the learning resources for students can also be (or are also) digital resources for their teaching. A different way to support their learning is to provide them with digital platforms with learning resources. This section highlights how countries support teachers’ teaching by providing them with digital resources designed for them as resources to integrate in their lessons. In some cases, the resources can be about teaching with digital tools and a way to enhance their technology-related pedagogical knowledge (see (Foster, 2023[13]) on incentives to enhance teachers’ digital competences).
Most countries provide publicly digital resources to support the teaching or professional development of their teachers, either nationally or at the sub-governmental level. Twenty countries and jurisdictions (out of 29, that is about two thirds) have a direct public provision of such resources (see Figure 5.4 and Table 5.3).
Around one third (13) of countries provide the resources as open-access resources, even though the materials specifically cater to educators’ professional development. Those can take the form of instructional videos on YouTube (e.g. Estonia, Latvia), MOOC for teachers (e.g. Brazil, Mexico, Spain), and open-access portals offering various curriculum-aligned materials (e.g. England). Estonia’s HARNO (Haridus- ja Noorteamet), an agency of the education ministry, manages a YouTube channel that features webinars and lessons pertaining to teaching methods, helping teachers seeking for professional development opportunities. Several public MOOC platforms are either dedicated to support teachers (e.g. TG22-AVAMEC for general education teachers and PlaforEDU for VET teachers in Brazil) or include dedicated sections for teachers (MexicoX in Mexico or aprendeINTEF in Spain). Finally, the BBC Teach website, run by the country’s public broadcaster BBC, provides universally accessible resources that primarily supports teachers by curating curriculum-related content for the classroom. Another example is Denmark’s Emu, the education ministry’s online platform on which educators can find teaching resources and activities, exemplars of pedagogical practices, as well as templates for research papers and legal guidelines for the use of resources.
Countries provide closed-access resources for teachers, that is, resources that are only accessible to teachers formally enrolled in the system. This type of provision allows teachers to access commercially licensed resources. Some countries (e.g. Estonia and Sweden) provide both open and closed-access resources for teacher development. Those platforms typically include two types of resources: some for general education (with or without digital resources and tools) and resources to enhance teachers’ digital competences.
Teacher training and development portals offer a suite of developmental tools for educators, such as for developing digital skills and competency. For instance, the Flemish Community of Belgium provides a ministry-developed online platform called Digisnap, based on the EU’s SELFIE tool, giving teachers insights on their digital competences and allowing school leaders to set up tailored development plans. Digi.folio, an Austrian online platform for teacher development, maps training measures in the area of digital competences for teachers. Chile’s “Desarollo docente en linea” portal offers tutors and courses directed at teachers reaching diverse facets of the teaching profession. The access to this portal is restricted to enrolled teachers. More resources focusing on teacher development are also available on “EducarChile”, a teaching and learning platform open to everyone. Réseau CANOPÉ (“CANOPÉ Network”) in France provides a diverse array of resources that cover a wide range of areas pertaining to teaching, from in-service teacher training and tutoring to best teaching practices, podcasts, and the history of education in the country. In Sweden, the National Agency for Education’s website features a catalogue that includes a variety of inspirational and support materials for teaching, a significant portion of which specifically focus on the use of digital tools in education.
Finally, a third type of platforms is about peer-based learning and networking opportunities. Korea’s Jisik Saemteo (“Knowledge Spring”) and Sweden’s SYV allow teachers to voluntarily share materials and receive peer feedback with other registered teachers. Those platforms are publicly maintained. Yet, these portals also extend to pedagogical and curriculum-related expertise. Additionally, while not managed at the national level, Manitoba (Canada) runs Maple (“Manitoba Professional Learning Environment”), an online community of teachers and school staff in Manitoba for exchanging ideas, receiving support and relevant information.
Summary of findings
As of 2024, the public provision of digital teaching and learning resources has become a responsibility commonly assumed by most central and jurisdictional authorities (European Commission, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, 2023[14]). Countries and jurisdictions develop, mobilise, and procure different types of resources and leverage different modes of delivery. In most places, and often as a result of mitigation measures put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure education continuity through remote learning, countries and jurisdictions provide educational content through open channels. This includes public TV and radio broadcasts (also streamed on-line for replay) in 24 countries and jurisdictions; but also educational content channelled through social media run by governments, typically on YouTube, in up to 13 countries. Eight countries maintain national MOOC platforms that offer teaching and learning resources available for anyone, while such platforms are traditionally operated by higher education institutions or commercial providers.
Most countries and jurisdictions also publicly provide teaching and learning resources in a more controlled and targeted mode, often aligned with their curriculum, and typically curated on online educational platforms. Though those platforms may also curate open educational resources (OER), in practice most or all of their content is accessible to those who are enrolled in the formal education system only. Apart from the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States, national or jurisdictional education authorities maintain such platforms to catalogue and curate static (all 26 countries) and interactive (20) resources, inclusive of self-assessment resources (20) and accessible for students with special needs (15). Digital textbooks are also procured in 18 countries and jurisdictions, and sometimes feature interactive contents. But as of 2024, no country publicly provides the most advanced types of digital resources, such as intelligent tutoring systems or classroom analytics software.
Beyond teaching and learning resources, our comparative analysis further indicates that 20 countries and jurisdictions directly provide digital resources for teacher development, some of which are specifically aimed at advancing teachers’ digital literacy and fostering their efficacy in teaching with or about digital tools. Finally, 3 central or jurisdictional authorities have set up online student tutoring platforms that facilitate the matching of students with tutors for supplemental educational support, for instance for home-schooled or international-based students.
Looking forward: where to go next?
Making digital resources available to students and learners
Digital learning resources are either publicly provided or procured with public funds in all countries. Some countries provide some open educational resources, available to the general population. This is particularly important to support lifelong learning and try to equalise opportunities across learners within a country. Most digital learning resources aligned with the curriculum are provided according to the closed-access model (giving access to students and teachers enrolled in the system, and sometimes just for given years). This reflects that these publicly provided resources are licensed from publishers and charged according to use. This is also a way to better protect their intellectual property. However, most digital platforms also include open educational resources.
Countries use different models of provision. Some countries provide a bank of digital learning resources nationally: they are the same for all teachers and learners, but are usually varied enough on any subject to allow teachers some choices. In some cases (e.g. France) they are supplemented by resources that are procured locally; in some cases (e.g. Korea) they represent the core of the resources available to teachers. The advantage of this system is to provide a common baseline to all teachers and learners. When resources are procured from commercial vendors, it also allows for a frequent renewal and update of the resources and possibly an acquisition at better price. The risks of such model are that the digital resources lack variety (and that teachers may not find them appropriate for their local uses) and that they are not easily connected to the diverse learning/content management systems of schools (unless interoperability standards make it possible).
If not at the national level, most countries either provide these resources at the sub-governmental level (municipalities, districts) or just let schools choose from an array of commercial resources themselves (usually procured though municipalities or local education authorities). To the extent that schools and municipalities are resourced enough, this allows context-appropriate digital learning resources to be available for teaching and learning, and also the chosen resources to be compatible with local learning management systems (if relevant). This devolution of responsibility could raise equity issues where procurement choices are based on local taxes rather than school funding mechanisms. One disadvantage of this model is that the resources may be more costly and also that they may be less carefully curated and selected compared to a procurement at governmental or sub-governmental level, assuming these levels have the expertise and resources to do a good curation.
While these models usually follow pre-existing policies in terms of devolution of responsibility, it is noteworthy that some digital learning resources could be dealt with in a different way, especially when they are expensive by school budget standards. Countries have to balance the advantages and disadvantages of the different models given their context and the access issues they have to address.
Going from availability to use
While most countries estimate that a majority of their schools have access to and frequently utilise digital teaching and learning resources, the extent and effectiveness of this usage vary significantly. There is in fact very limited information on their use and while most students and teachers use digital learning resources from time to time, non-digital resources are still the main learning resources used by students and teachers in most countries. The pandemic also highlighted that even in countries where digital learning resources were centrally provided, those were not necessarily used.
There are different ways for governments to incentivise the use of digital learning resources, which are analysed in depth in other chapters of this report. One is to include some use of digital learning resources in the national or sub-governmental curriculum or to strengthen teachers’ familiarity with and capacity to use digital learning resources as part of their teaching. As hinted above, another one lies in procurement: it is likelier that teachers or schools will use resources that they choose to procure (if they have the propensity to use those resources).
One challenge also lies in the ease of access. Using too many digital platforms probably reduces the use of digital learning resources by learners and students. This makes the resources and platforms more difficult to find, and this implies that they are not necessarily seamlessly accessible from the other digital tools they use, notably their school learning management system. Countries have developed single sign-on solutions to limit the exchange of personal data with commercial vendors but also to make it easier to access a variety of platforms. Another effort lies in making digital learning resources interoperable with other digital tools within schools, and allow to use them in a possibly smarter way. Currently, the choice and use of those resources is only informed by teachers’ knowledge. With more integration, teachers’ decisions could be informed by recommendation tools taking into account information about their students.
One possible solution for countries to consider, regardless of the provision model, would be to provide a platform for commercial (and governmental) publishers, which would provide incentives to publishers and tool developers to respect some interoperability standards (and other requirements).
Going from digital to smart resources
Presently, the majority of resources remain static, such as (non-interactive) digital textbooks, video contents, and past exam questions, which may often merely transpose conventional chalk-and-board teaching methods to a digital format. Static digital resources will always keep a role in the education process, as is the case for physical, non-digital resources. However, the lack of engagement with smart digital learning resources may be a missed opportunity to provide more individualised teaching and learning. As of 2024, most digital learning resources provided and used in OECD schools are non-adaptive. Interactive digital textbooks are the most widely used “advanced” digital learning resources: they are more interactive and include exercises related to the lessons, etc., but they are still typically not adaptive. Intelligent tutoring systems, which could allow students to overcome some of their misconceptions and master procedural knowledge, are still rarely available and used within countries – not to mention other types of smart technology (OECD, 2021[15]).
The transformative potential of digital resources consists in their ability to move beyond the traditional linear approach towards an interactive, engaging and more individualised (though still social) educational experience. Governments should support schools and teachers to engage in this direction. While they have started to do so for generative AI applications, more awareness and guidance about digital learning resources and tools especially developed for education remains necessary.
Monitoring use and conditions of use
A final step would be to monitor and understand how digital learning resources are used by students and teachers, and what kind of uses are more effective for different students. Only a few countries have conducted studies or statistical analyses on the use of digital education. International surveys such as the OECD Programme on International Student Assessment (PISA) are often the main source of information about the uptake and use of technology in school and in the classroom (Vincent-Lancrin et al., 2019[16]).
Countries should develop a monitoring framework that would allow one to better understand effective uses of digital learning resources for different stages of formal (and informal) education. Some countries have specifically investigated the adoption and practical application of digital teaching and learning resources. These studies frequently reveal a disparity between the availability of digital resources and their actual use, with findings indicating under-utilisation or ineffective application. Research, monitoring and data collection efforts are necessary to better understanding how to make the best of digital learning resources. Countries could undertake or commission such research and coordinate it internationally.
References
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