At its heart, TED-Ed is a library of 1,000+ educational videos, as well as a unique platform for teachers and educators to create their own multiple choice and discussion questions for any YouTube video or existing TED-Ed lesson.
We have three public TED-Ed lesson types:
TED-Ed Animations - TED-Ed Animation lesson scripts are developed by a team of educators and experts, as well as subjected to a rigorous fact-check as part of our production process.
TED Talk Lessons - There is a very selective screening process for TED speakers. If you access the original talk page on TED.com, you can often find the speaker's footnotes and/or recommended further reading lists.
TED-Ed Best of Web - These are lessons created by TED-Ed users, using an existing video found on YouTube. TED-Ed staff review nominated lessons and feature a very select few.
You can tell if a lesson is a TED-Ed Animation or Talk Lesson, a TED-Ed Best of Web Lesson, or a user-created lesson by looking in the upper right corner of the lesson page on ed.ted.com. Animations and Best of Web will be labeled, while user-created lessons are not labeled. The URL will also reveal this, as any user-created lesson will begin with "https://ed.ted.com/on".
Additionally, anyone with a TED.com account can create a private lesson on TED-Ed featuring any video found on YouTube. Please note that if someone sends you the direct URL to a lesson they've created themselves, that lesson cannot be found by searching the TED-Ed site. As a result, please keep in mind that this lesson has not been reviewed by our staff. Its reliability is dependent on the lesson creator.
If you have any concerns about a particular lesson, we always welcome feedback or questions at teded.support@ted.com.