Thanks to the growing reliance on technology in many modern occupations, coding is one of the most valuable skills for young people to learn. Because of this, schools and parents are increasingly turning to online learning platforms to provide the tools and resources needed to help students learn to code.
One such platform is Education Perfect, a whole-curriculum online learning platform with teaching material for coding and the Digital Technologies curriculum. Education Perfect is very popular, with over 3000 schools across 50 countries adopting the platform in their classrooms. But how good is it for learning to code, and do its coding resources compare to platforms like Zenva Schools?
This review will cover everything you need to know about Education Perfect, including its courses and content, tools for teachers and parents, and cost.
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What Is Education Perfect?
Education Perfect is an online learning platform providing a full curriculum covering everything from core subjects such as English, Maths, and Science to more specialised curricula such as Music, Digital Technologies, and Technology & Design. The platform’s library includes over 35,000 lessons, with over 10,000 videos and 50,000 questions.
The platform started as Language Perfect, focusing specifically on language learning. However, in 2013, the platform expanded its support to the broader curriculum, rebranding it as Education Perfect to reflect this change.
The platform covers all secondary school year groups in its curriculum, with an expanding primary school content library also available. Education Perfect heavily focuses on using each student’s data to personalise resources, lesson delivery, and assessments as they progress through each course.
The platform has uses in various contexts, with specific support, tools, and subscription offerings for home learning, homeschooling, tutors, and schools.
What Courses & Content Does Education Perfect Provide?
Education Perfect covers every major school subject with its course library, providing over 35,000 customisable lessons in subjects from across the curriculum.
However, the platform’s offerings in terms of coding, computer science, and Digital Technologies are smaller in scope by comparison. Education Perfect’s Digital Technologies curriculum focuses on the Knowledge & Understanding strand of the curriculum. The strand includes around 50 lessons covering critical points, split across two subjects: Digital Systems and Data Transmission. These lessons cover a variety of topics, including:
- Binary code
- Character sets
- Computer graphics
- Algorithms
- Communication technologies
- Networking
- Data transmission protocols
It is worth noting for Digital Technologies teachers specifically that other platforms have a wider breath of content where this part of the Australian curriculum is concerned. As one example, Zenva Schools offers similar courses covering there same two strands. However, Zenva Schools also covers other parts of the curriculum with a variety of coding courses based on Python, HTML & CSS, Unity, and more.
Partnerships
In addition to its own Digital Technologies lessons, Education Perfect also partners with two other organisations to expand its technologies courses. One is CS in Schools; an education organisation focused on improving computer science teaching in schools.
The result of this partnership is an additional two courses for Year 7 & 8 with a focus on computer science lessons. These lessons were designed in collaboration with education and industry leaders to help teachers deliver industry-relevant content to their students. They are also matched to the curriculum so Year 7 and 8 students will receive the full scope of coding requirements with these courses alone.
Education Perfect’s second major partner for technology content is Code Avengers. Code Avengers is a separate online learning platform to Education Perfect, focusing specifically on coding and computer science. In Australia, Code Avengers’ content is provided exclusively through Education Perfect (although there is an additional cost for accessing them).
Through Code Avengers, Education Perfect offers a larger library of courses for coding and computer science subjects. These split across a Junior platform for 5-14 year-olds, which offers interactive, story-based courses, and a Pro platform for older students, with a heavier focus on text-based programming for secondary students.
The content provided covers things such as data representation, algorithms, digital systems, Python, JavaScript, web development, and computational thinking.
This being said, Education Perfect is not the only platform with partnerships. Additionally, involving third parties also runs the risk of quality control issues as well.
To example, besides having a wider range of content from the get-go, Zenva Schools develops all their content in-house with industry experts (ensuring the skills taught are modern, industry-relevant skills). The courses also go through a strict review process, and lesson plans are coordinated with the help of teachers from relevant regions in the world. Thus, quality here is assured, while allowing for expert opinions that teachers can trust.
What Coding Content Is Missing From Education Perfect?
While Education Perfect’s courses provide an introduction to the basics of coding and some computer science subjects, they are somewhat limited in scope. As mentioned, they rely on third-party partners to cover more subjects. However, one had a specific focus on Years 7 and 8, and the other requires an extra cost to access.
Additionally, the library provided by Code Avengers still misses some key learning opportunities. For example, there are no courses for specific advanced languages such as C++. To add to this, Education Perfect’s game design offerings are also simplistic – a missed opportunity since game design can be one of the most engaging ways for students to develop their coding skills.
Just to contrast, Zenva Schools offers a sizeable library focused on a ton of different coding topics – including courses on C++ and Unity. Beyond this, Zenva Schools also offers courses for Year 3 up to Year 12 – providing a much wider coverage. Even with these offerings, Zenva Schools is still able to offer its entire content library with no extra costs involved.
What Age Range For Education Perfect?
Regarding its entire curriculum, Education Perfect supports students from Year 5 to Year 12. However, its main Digital Technologies curriculum is more limited in scope, with current courses only covering Years 7 and 8.
Additionally, even though the Code Avengers library expands the age range of Education Perfect’s courses considerably, you need to pay extra for it.
Other platforms have much better age range coverage by comparison. As mentioned, Zenva Schools is able to offer content for Years 3 to 12, and the courses are designed to scale appropriately for each age group as well.
How Well Does Education Perfect Match The Curriculum?
For the Digital Technologies curriculum, Education Perfect offers courses that fulfill several requirements for the curriculum.
As previously discussed, Education Perfect’s 50 core Digital Technologies lessons map closely onto the Knowledge & Understanding strand of the curriculum, providing an effective tool for completing these requirements. The CS in Schools courses cover all coding needs for the Year 7 and 8 Australian Digital Technologies curriculum – as they were designed with this goal in mind.
For teachers willing to pay extra, Code Avengers fulfills various key learning goals and requirements from the Australian Digital Technologies curriculum across both primary and secondary school age groups. Many of Code Avengers’ courses map onto specific curriculum elements, as explained in its full Curriculum Alignment document.
In addition to the Australian national curriculum, Education Perfect provides curriculum mapping and guidance for other national curricula such as the UK, New Zealand, and Canadian curricula. It also includes alignment details for individual Australian state curricula. However, not all of these curriculum mapping guides provide specific details for coding and computer science curricula.
This being said, this isn’t unique for serious platforms in the education space – and they also don’t cater very well to the US market.
Alternatively, Zenva Schools is also a brilliant option if you want a learning platform that sticks closely to a curriculum. Zenva Schools is mapped to several curriculum standards, including the Australian Digital Technologies curriculum and the US Common Core Standards (just to name a few). Zenva Schools also provides transparent plans so teachers can see exactly how the courses match those standards with content descriptors.
What Features Does Education Perfect Have For Students & Parents?
Education Perfect can support learning depending on each student’s personal needs or preferences. The platform’s flexibility extends to personalised resources and learning pathways that parents can set or automatically generate according to each student’s data and progression.
The student data collected by the platform is easily visible in the parent dashboard, allowing parents to monitor their child’s learning and see how different learning pathways or lesson types affect their understanding and progression.
For students, the platform focuses on an interactive learning experience centered on fun activities and practical tasks. Education Perfect also partners with various homeschooling organisations across Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
However, other platforms like Zenva Schools offer an equally wide range in the activities department. Zenva Schools courses are designed with a project-based approach, so students learn practical skills along with theory at the same time. In addition, the platform offers interactive activities and quizzes as well to engage students in their learning.
What Features Does Education Perfect Have For Teachers?
Education Perfect has a library of courses across many subjects, meaning teachers can use it as a cross-curricular education tool.
Teachers can use data aggregation and analytics via the EdPotential student data analytics platform offered by Education Perfect. This tool allows teachers to collect and analyse student progression data for many purposes:
- Identifying students’ learning issues more quickly and finding the right solutions
- Long-term views of how teaching is affecting students’ understanding
- More consistent assessment practices
- More efficient reporting to save time and effort
Teachers can use the platform’s learning path differentiation tools to customise the platform for different students’ needs.
Other features of Education Perfect include a 24/7 support service for advice, troubleshooting, and professional development.
However, there are other platform options where this is concerned. Zenva Schools also offers focused analytics that allows teachers to investigate and track student progress (allowing them to help the students who need more help). This is on top of classroom management features that allow teachers to easily organize students in their class and manage reports between various views.
Beyond this, Zenva Schools also gives teachers full access to the courses and their own Professional Development, so teachers can upskill themselves with the exact techniques they’ll need for the classroom environment.
It is also worth noting, that Zenva Schools provides teachers with pre-mapped lesson plans and supplemental materials (like complete source code) to help make the learning process as easy as possible.
How Much Does Education Perfect Cost?
Education Perfect implements different pricing models for schools, tutors, home learning, and homeschooling. Pricing for each option is as follows:
| Subscription | Cost | What you get |
| Tutors | $59 per month or $590 per year (USD). | Access to all subjects for Years 5-12 |
| Home Learning | $25 per month or $250 per year (USD) | Access to all subjects for Years 5-12; one parent account and up to 5 learner accounts. |
| Homeschooling | $30 per month or $300 per year (CAD) | Access to all subjects for Years 5-12; one parent account and up to 5 learner accounts. |
For schools, Education Perfect does not specify exact pricing. Instead, it explains that schools can sign up for a 30-60 day free trial, followed by annualised per-student pricing for specific subjects or the entire library.
As mentioned several times, accesing the Code Avengers content requires an additional monthly cost but does not specify the exact price.
While a bit hard to judge, other platforms do offer comparable prices. Zenva Schools, for example, offers a 2-month free trial for schools. Should schools choose to purchase, Zenva Schools charges by a simple per student amount per year. For this price, teachers unlock all features and content – so there is no hidden fees to contend with.
Conclusion: Is Education Perfect Worth It To Learn Coding?
Overall, Education Perfect is a large platform with various features for students, teachers, and parents Its core Digital Technologies offerings provide an introduction to fundamental computer science and coding concepts while closely mapping to the curriculum.
However, the main issue Education Perfect currently has in terms of coding education is that without the Code Avengers library, its core offerings are limited in scope and age range. These lessons only cover a narrow range of topics and coding techniques and are restricted to Years 7 & 8.
Because of this (and other reasons), platforms like Zenva Schools can be a much better alternative. Zenva Schools has a much more extensive and higher-quality digital technologies library, including coding courses for both younger and advanced students. Additionally, the price for Zenva Schools is arguable fairer because you don’t have to pay extra for any content.
So while Education Perfect is a great tool for classrooms, do your research to make sure you pick the platform that meets your needs.