Brilliant is a gamified online and app-based STEM teaching and learning platform that offers highly interactive lessons with step-by-step problem solving, dynamic visualizations, and brief explanations designed to keep learners engaged.
Brilliant’s slogan, “Everyone is a Math Person,” suggests its appeal to learners of every aptitude, and conveys its aim to reduce math anxiety and foster students' self-motivation.
The platform not only appeals strongly to students, but also to educators, as full premium memberships are available free to qualified educators.
What is Brilliant?
Founded in 2012, Brilliant comprises a STEM learning website plus Android and iOS apps. It partners with the nonprofit Mathcounts Foundation to support math education for middle school students and is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges as supplementary education in math, science and technology.
Brilliant’s STEM games and puzzles are highly visual, interactive and engaging, while providing immediate feedback as students progress through problem sets and lessons. Its gamified interface uses clever sound effects and top-notch animations to reward and encourage persistence and concept mastery.
Aimed at students in grades 3-12, Brilliant offers thousands of lessons in the topics of math, computer science, science and data.
How Does Brilliant Work?
To apply for a free premium education account and start teaching with Brilliant, sign up at educator.brillaint.org. You will then be prompted to create two accounts - an educator account and a student account. The student account is required in order to explore and test the interactive courses and lessons, and view the site from a student perspective.
The next step is to create classes and invite students. This can be done easily via an invitation link or by syncing with Google Classroom. In this way, student accounts will automatically be created as premium accounts, free of charge. Note that educators log in at educator.brilliant.org, while students log in at brilliant.org.
Finding and Assigning lessons
Brilliant’s well-designed lessons dashboard makes it easy to find lessons for your students. First select the desired subject tab, then search by topic, grade, or standard. From the results page, teachers can copy the lesson link, post directly to Google Classroom, or preview the lesson before assigning. To complete the lesson as a student would, you’ll need to use your Brilliant student login that you created earlier. The platform will prompt you to do so.
Student Progress
While Brilliant is not an assessment platform, it does provide progress notes on students by reporting on the number of lessons each student completes and time spent on each lesson. The Highlights dashboard offers an overview of the class performance, including the total number of lessons completed and time spent, as well as listing students ranked by lessons completed. These reports, while not granular, do provide a general sense of the progress gained by individual students and the class as a whole.
What Are The Best Brilliant Features?
Brilliant’s clean interface, sophisticated graphics, and sound effects yield a fun and fluid interactive experience, allowing students to learn by doing. Gamified features such as streaks, points, and battery charges boost engagement and provide small rewards on the way to topic mastery.
Lesson Abundance and Variety
The sheer variety and abundance of STEM lessons in math, computer science, science, and data is remarkable. Within each lesson, levels progress from simpler to more complex, offering multiple exercises to reinforce learning in different ways. Suggested grade levels give teachers the ability to carefully curate lessons based on student grade and achievement. Since lessons can be separately assigned, teachers are able to individualize instruction according to student skill level.
Self-directed learning
Brilliant is an excellent platform for self-directed learning, as it allows students to follow their STEM curiosity without worrying about grades. The ability to jump ahead in lessons will be especially appreciated by advanced students who need less practice time to gain mastery.
Enrichment
Brilliant is ideal for highly motivated and advanced students. Instead of feeling bored and restless when they finish their lessons ahead of their classmates, they can move ahead to the next related lesson or simply "jump ahead" to a topic that intrigues them. At the same time, with its scaffolded lessons and the opportunity to repeatedly practice a single concept, it's also a great tool for struggling students.
Is Brilliant Safe for Kids?
Brilliant does not share, sell, or disclose any personal information of students, nor does it use student information for marketing or other non-educational purposes.
Additionally, the website states that Brilliant for Educators is designed in compliance with global privacy laws, including COPPA, FERPA, and GDPR.
How Much Does Brilliant Cost?
Thanks to a grant-funded program, Brilliant Premium is 100% free for qualified educators. Just as important, students of qualified educators are also qualified for a free premium account.
Eligible educators include the following:
- Elementary, middle, and high school teachers at accredited K-12 schools.
- Principals, superintendents, and other administrators at accredited K-12 schools or districts.
- Camp instructors, club leaders, or nonprofit employees working directly with children for educational purposes.
For general users, Brilliant operates on a freemium model, with basic features such as daily lessons available to free users. Premium users can take advantage of unlimited learning in an ad-free environment, personalized practice, and the ability to jump ahead in courses.
