Students are being transported virtually into the centre of world-leading museums, heritage sites, galleries and zoos – all from the convenience of their classroom, wherever they learn in NSW.

They can marvel at the maritime wildlife experience of the Great Barrier Reef while learning about conservation and habitats around the globe. Or how about setting sail with the State Library’s First Fleet virtual excursion?

The DART Learning platform provides access for students, school staff and parents to more than 3,500 curriculum-enriching virtual excursions from more than 150 content providers on one searchable website.

The virtual learning platform aligns to the NSW Department of Education’s Plan for Public Education to provide high-quality, evidence-based curriculum resources and to put equity at the centre of public education.

DART Learning removes the tyranny of distance as a barrier for regional, rural and remote students who often have limited access to excursions. “It has opened up a world of excursions for us,” one rural teacher said.

Last year more than 400,000 students took part in 4,251 virtual excursions from the DART Learning platform – with almost one-quarter of those excursions taken by rural, regional and remote public schools.

DART Learning is also a valuable resource for teachers to consider in their lesson planning as new syllabuses are rolled out this year.

Teachers can save time by personalising preferences on the DART Learning website to suit their classroom curriculum requirements. Customisable searches by subject, years, strands, sub-strands, special filters, and a school calendar of events eases planning workload.

Teacher feedback frequently includes comments such as: “Absolutely brilliant, kids were engaged for the entire time” and “the students took away really significant information and messages from the sessions”.

For more information on DART Learning:

• Watch the video

• DART Learning website

• Email: dart.learning@det.nsw.edu.au

• Phone: 1800 824 737