Digital education platform prepares for another quarantine: distance learning experience may need retraining

Most of the Lithuanian language tasks were performed

According to Gabija Jurevičiūtė, head of the Digital Products Division of the Šviesa company, which manages the EDUKA-class platform, the quarantine introduced due to the coronavirus has significantly increased the use of the digital education platform. Waiting for the start of the new school year, the second wave of the virus is already brewing, so the distance learning experience may need a new app, especially for upper secondary students, according to the media report.

Interestingly, digital assignments were used differently by teachers in different subjects and age groups. The most active teachers so far were primary school teachers: during the quarantine period alone, they asked 320,000 primary school children. to perform Lithuanian language tasks multiple times and over 165 thousand. times – mathematics. The children not only completed the assignments but also read the sections indicated in the textbooks. 533 thousand people were asked to read the material of the Lithuanian language lessons. times, mathematics – 459 thousand. together.
“In previous classes, fifth and ninth through twelfth grade students used the possibility of online education very actively. In the virtual environment, the youngest delved into the subjects of history and geography, while the oldest solved the tasks of Lithuanian language and biology. Among the senior classes, the most active were Lithuanian language teachers in grades 9-12, biology in grades 9-11, history in grades 5-8, and geography in grades 6-7, ”says G. Jurevičiūtė.

Parents were also active

While the children got used to learning at home, the parents also participated very actively in the educational process. According to G. Jurevičiūtė, the customer service team has had to answer a wide variety of questions, sometimes even quite curious.

“Some parents called to ask if they had marked the answer correctly with the child, there were even requests to correct the evaluations. Meanwhile, the students tried not to make a mistake by calling us to ask permission to repeat the task because they didn’t do something like that. Of course, only the teacher can repeat the task and assign the assessment, but here we can notice the fear of the students to make mistakes and the desire to do everything perfectly. It can also be caused by too much parental pressure, but tasks are created so that we can learn, assess knowledge, and be able to improve further, “says G. Jurevičiūtė.

Graduates felt disadvantaged

Ana Chvostova, an English-speaking methodologist and International Baccalaureate teacher at the Šiauliai Didždvaris Gymnasium, who was preparing for the twelfth-grade exams, notes that graduates felt disadvantaged because stress from final exams and the uncertain situation hampered their studies. Her students mentioned that by learning at school, lessons with teachers would have made them feel safer and more responsive to their personal needs.

“Learning while sitting in front of a computer is not an unusual way for children. They felt like fish in the water. In the reflection lessons of the school year, many students said that they enjoyed the learning process, they felt safe. However, many of them mentioned that they lost contact “live”: friends and teachers, “revealed A. Chvostova.

Test type tasks predominated on the Internet

Digital educational tools dictate a certain type of task: test tasks dominate the Internet, although this trend is changing. According to the “EDUKA class” platform, almost 20 thousand people used it. The teachers’ work turned out that during these school years, most of them created open-ended assignments. During the quarantine period alone, more than 381,000 test tasks were assigned, and almost 237,000. open-ended questions created by the teachers themselves. Of the total assignments loaded on the EDUKA class platform, open-ended questions generated by teachers represent 39% and tests more than 61%.

Teachers were encouraged to create assignments and present them to students online because of the declared state of emergency and unusual learning situation. Tasks created during the quarantine period alone accounted for about 88 percent. all assignments created on that platform during that school year.

Preparations are also underway to re-quarantine

According to G. Jurevičiūtė, the representative of the creators of the EDUKA class, in the next school year the activity of students and teachers in the virtual educational environment will be even greater. According to her, this will lead not only to the continuation of the fight against the coronavirus, but also to the growing initiative of teachers.

“In just a couple of months, teachers have made great progress and have vastly improved, researched and tested various educational tools, but we still see a lot of untapped potential. One of them is the ability of teachers to create assignments independently. Almost all teachers they know select and adapt assignments to their students, but not all translate them into digital format. This year, only about 20 percent of one or another type of task was created on our platform. All active educators who have used the EDUKA class platform. We hope there will be more of them “, – emphasized G. Jurevičiūtė, head of the Šviesa Department of Digital Products.