Bringing the online classroom to life during remote learning

With a sudden educational system overhaul due to COVID-19, schools across the world have adopted online learning. However, remote learning is ineffective if students are not engaged, or stimulated, to learn and practise concepts. 

The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it one of the modern world’s greatest challenges in the field of education. Globally, the collective education system came to a standstill, with schools having to grapple with remote learning almost instantaneously. Educators, parents/guardians, and students alike had to come to terms with the biggest and most sudden education overhaul historically.

For schools, the challenge was real: compressing roughly eight hours of school five times a week spanning across 10 months into video calls, educational applications, and assignments while also being fun and engaging. Educators are just coming to terms with keeping their students on target with standards, lessons, and examinations. A priority that may therefore take a backseat would be ensuring students are taught in a way that keeps them engaged and motivated to learn, so that they can stay focused, and are able to remember and utilise concepts.

A Harvard report on the pedagogy of play found that students can successfully learn through activities and play to better achieve educational goals, understand concepts, and retain knowledge for longer. While metros in India were able to incorporate virtual classrooms relatively seamlessly and quickly, Tier II, III, and IV India lacked the infrastructure and know-how to smoothly transition to online learning. Education innovation should not be the preserve of the elite and those living in big cities alone but should include the unique needs and aspirations of every corner of India.

This is where LEAD School stepped in, putting in hours of research and development into crafting a solution that offers both interactive and engaging lessons while boosting socialisation among students.

LEAD is transforming education in India by helping children become ready for the exam of life. To enrol your child in a LEAD powered school: Click here

A gamified approach for better engagement

According to a Cambridge Assessment report, gamification is a unique method of incorporating game-like features into what is otherwise not a game. LEAD School’s unique gamified learning experience on the LEAD School Student & Parent App brings in elements like experience points (XPs), badges, levels to complete, and rewards to the classroom of its partner schools in a bid to make learning fun and rewarding.

The Practise With Friends feature on the app gives students the chance to socialise with their friends, whom they don’t get to see much in the times of COVID-19, while honing their skills and ensuring lessons are reviewed in time. This instils the essential lifelong skill of seeking help from peers. To entice students to progress further, new tasks are unlocked upon successful completion of current levels. Multiple choice questions (MCQs) are an essential part of this feature, giving students the opportunity to challenge friends.

Interactive elements such as leaderboards, the option of adding friends, and accessing feeds are incorporated into LEAD School’s gamified learning approach. An important aspect of the system is a focus on self-improvement by allowing students access to progress trackers, study planners, and accuracy meters. This enables children to take charge of their learning so that they can feel confident and in control of what they learn and remember.

Enabling safe socialisation during remote learning

Reduced socialisation during the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects children’s psychosocial welfare. A UNICEF study published during the pandemic pointed out that “high stress in families due to social isolation, economic hardship and loss of livelihood” negatively impacted children’s psychosocial welfare.

LEAD School’s Practise with Friends feature ensures that students are encouraged to learn, while actively fostering socialisation. During an isolating period like a pandemic where stay-at-home measures are enforced, it is such initiatives that will go a long way in keeping the classroom alive virtually, while simultaneously focusing on active learning and socialisation.

Apart from practising with their friends, students are also empowered to form themselves into small groups where they can update their classmates about their progress and challenge each other for quizzes.

From our experience working with our partner schools, we understand the need to provide students with bite-sized pieces of knowledge to keep them engaged and excited to learn. Students are encouraged to learn every day with exciting daily flashcard updates. Vital nuggets of information are provided on each flashcard that fosters interest in general knowledge and trivia.

A fun learning journey 

With a pause in classroom learning, students have been missing out on a lot of activities that foster healthy competition among students, like sports and clubs. In order to keep their competitive spirit alive, LEAD School has created a Leaderboard, where students are taken on an educational adventure—as they complete quizzes and projects on the app, their progress is aptly represented through growing mountains; they collect XPs and earn LEADo coins, all engaging ways to ensure learning continues to happen.

Recognising the lack of motivational value in rote learning, LEAD offers its partner schools the gamified approach to make remote learning exciting and instil the aspiration to do better. Visual representations through planners, levels, and points afford students the possibility to track their progress and learning.

Venturing across the mountains through homework and quizzes disguised as challenges gets students XPs which motivates them to progress upwards, and gently pushes them to adhere to deadlines. The rewards students earn, such as trophies, ribbons, and XPs, can be shared on their social media pages.

The LEADerboard system inculcates healthy and sustainable habits in children with a focus on learning. Instead of pitting children against each other, it offers a lively and productive challenge to encourage educational growth and friendship. Students vie to reach the fabled Wall of Fame, which is reset weekly so that all students can get an opportunity to be featured.

As the pandemic wears on, schools need to become more robust and resilient to change. At LEAD School, we are doing our best to help our partner schools focus on learning outcomes. It is key to reimagine the new-age hybrid classroom with features high on engagement to keep students excited about learning.

LEAD is transforming education in India by helping children become ready for the exam of life. To enrol your child in a LEAD powered school: Click here