Why ed-tech platforms are employing innovative assessment techniques?
New-age tech platforms are introducing unconventional assessment tools. Adaptive Practice ensures that every student learns at a pace that they’re comfortable with. Using advanced technology and millions of student data points, edtech apps analyse the strengths and weaknesses of each student. Practice questions are then personalised to match the understanding of every individual student
Every student learns differently and has their own set of strengths and weaknesses. Yet, over the years, the methods of teaching and assessing have remained the same. Teachers use a blanket, one-size-fits-all approach for all of their students, and assessments are a standard set of questions for the entire class. Even though teachers have been addressing large classrooms to cover a larger set of students at the same time, the quality of learning has suffered due to a lack of personal attention. This gap is now filled by edtech apps. These apps use advanced technology like artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop innovative and personalised assessments that have changed the way students learn. Here’s a look at various innovative methods of assessments, and how they help students today.
Adaptive Practice
Adaptive Practice ensures that every student learns at a pace that they’re comfortable with. Using advanced technology and millions of student data points, edtech apps analyse the strengths and weaknesses of each student. Practice questions are then personalised to match the understanding of every individual student. The difficulty of these questions is then increased at a pace that the student is comfortable with until the student meets their learning goal. This ensures that every student receives a unique set of questions personalised to their academic needs, instead of a generic question bank that they might find either too easy or too difficult.
Game-based learning
Students learn better when educators use a game-based approach. However, integrating games in a traditional classroom set up is difficult. Edtech apps are using game-based learning to increase engagement on the app and help students learn better. Game-based learning is extremely effective when it comes to polishing a student’s basics, like Mental Maths, Vocabulary, Grammar, or basic scientific concepts. These concepts form the building blocks of secondary education, but most students struggle with these basics. According to the ASER 2018 reports, over half of Class 5 students struggle to read texts meant for Class 2 students. .
Live Challenges
Live Challenges are a form of student assessments in which students can challenge any of their friends, or any other student from the same class, across India. Both students answer the same set of questions and compete with each other to get the maximum number of questions right. This healthy competition motivates many students to spend a longer duration of time learning and practising their weaker subjects. As they watch themselves improve and win more challenges against people across the country, they gain confidence in these weak areas and eventually perform better.
All India Mock Tests
In a coaching class, students only face competition from other students of the same city. This is a very small sample set and gives them an inaccurate idea about the competition that they would face at a national level. When it comes to competitive exams like JEE and NEET, students lose several ranks for a single mark. Since scoring those coveted top ranks is so important, edtech apps enable students to take mock tests at an all India level. With lakhs of students across the country attempting these mock tests, students can see where they truly stand and track their progress over time.
Gamification
The difference between gamification and game-based learning is that, while game-based learning includes a fun game itself in a learning program, gamification uses points, badges, and leaderboards to motivate children. Unlocking various levels, winning badges, or beating high scores gives children a sense of achievement that drives them to study harder. Not only are they more excited to study new chapters, but they are also more confident in what they have already learnt. Gamification is a very simple yet effective way that edtech apps have adopted to help students learn better.
Using these methods of assessments, edtech apps are not only motivating students to put in more effort, but they are also using technology to personalise learning for every child. Students don’t feel lost in a large coaching classroom anymore. The advanced technology used in edtech is making it possible for students to study anytime, anywhere, at a pace that they are comfortable with, using methods of assessments that they love the most.
(The author is CEO & Founder, Toppr)
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