Learndojo Psychology

If you’re a teacher or student looking for AQA A-Level and GCSE Psychology resources then Learndojo is probably a pretty good place to start.

The site offers extensive Notes on a wide range of AS and A2 topics (Methods, Approaches, Issues, Debates and a whole heap more) plus a couple of sections on Practice Exam Questions and How to Write 16 Mark Essays. The accompanying Blog has more of the latter type of resources to investigate.

The material on offer broadly consists of clear, well-written, Notes with the odd graphic thrown-in to lighten the tone. There’s also the odd hyperlink that takes you into a more extensive discussion of a concept, theory or topic. I was looking at a section on Gender Bias and followed a link to Milgram’s obedience study that delved much deeper into Milgram’s studies than you get in the vast majority of A-level textbooks – the sort of thing that hyperlinks were invented to do. Probably.

Speaking of textbooks, I get the impression the site exists to replace the need for (expensive) written textbooks and, to be honest, I think it’s doing a pretty good job as far as Psychology is concerned. There seems to be plans for further A-level subjects (History, Biology and Geography) but unlike their GCSE counterparts (where History and Business Studies are available) there’s no indication of when – or if – they might become available.

Having said that, although the resources are as free as they day they were created, there’s an option to buy “Premium Download Packs” – or “pdf versions of the site sections” as some might call them. These are reasonably priced at around £4.00 per topic – about the same as buying a conventional printed textbook.

To make things a little weirder, however, if you’re a teacher with a school email address you can get the Premium Download Packs for free – which is very generous and fulfils the site’s claim you can “save a fortune on textbook fees”.

Unfortunately I’m a lot more dubious about the unsubstantiated claim that using these resources will “Improve grades”.

Maybe they will – I’m certainly impressed by their scope and clarity – and maybe they won’t.

Either way, that’s not a claim that can be easily proven. Which is probably the only disappointing thing I found on the site. That and a link to a 5-year old YouTube site that contains precisely no films (on the plus side, it does have 100 subscribers…)