Managing the impact of COVID-19 on education systems, a digital approach

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the transition from a traditional educational model, correlated with the classroom, to a completely new model, with virtual classes in the online environment – a real challenge for educational institutions, but especially for students and parents. However, given the ongoing pandemic, it’s not sure yet how classes are going to be held. Education ministers around the world are currently analyzing several scenarios, one of them being that of alternating physical and on-line attendance.

Most schools have been faced with this challenge and still are. The Bucharest European School translated this challenge into an opportunity to continue learning online through Code of Talent, a digital platform based on microlearning, which involves solving “missions” instead of homework, integrating gamification mechanisms with a motivating role.

The platform is based on 4 pillars: social, personal, guided and gamified, that provides teachers with a whole tool to meet their pedagogical objectives, and offers students an engaging experience.
In the implementation of the project, important psycho-pedagogical objectives were pursued and Code of Talent offered training, consultancy and technical support throughout the program.

29 teachers and 212 students were enrolled. Every day, students spent 30 minutes on the platform and, on average, 60 minutes offline, to solve missions. In the first 5 weeks, the engagement rate was 100%, and in the last 4 weeks 80%. The entire primary cycle used Code of Talent until the end of the school year.
From the first day, the children were automatically assigned to the virtual classrooms, according to their real in-class structures.

The students received missions from their teachers that were best suited for their learning level. Correctly solving tasks propelled students to a higher level. Eight types of missions were entrusted, to which the students answered with several types of proofs.
To stimulate performance and facilitate progress, the students were introduced into the learning process through a gamified dimension, including for evaluation.

Gamification, specific to online games, generates commitment, makes the interactions more pleasant, aligns students’ motivation with school pedagogical objectives, mitigates the negative reaction of the competition, but still allows to track the individual performance of each student.
For each task successfully completed, the students were awarded with a medal, in recognition of their effort. Colleagues could interact with each other, offer cheers or mutual recognition for their tasks completion. Gamification thus had a motivating role, but also a social one, encouraging interaction.

At the end, students may review the entire course, download all the missions&answers and download the graduation diploma.

One benefit, happily reported by parents, was the direct responsibility of their children, without exhausting exchanges of emails with teachers.
Also, real-time assessment throughout the learning process allowed progress to be tracked, and collaborative learning together with gamified stimulation translated into each student’s success. For teachers, the Code of Talent platform has facilitated classroom management.

All the objectives of the Bucharest European School were achieved by using the Code of Talent platform:

• coherent learning
• covering the school curriculum
• maintaining standards
• correct assessment
• cultivating students’ autonomy

The Code of Talent platform can also be used in situations where the development of class hours could be problematic, during the school holidays, allowing a non-formal approach to topics of pedagogical interest or for extracurricular actions.

Code of Talent strives to help organizations take their corporate learning and training game to the next level by capitalizing on the power of microlearning. It allows trainers and L&D professionals to track the success of training sessions and ensure that employees find the learning process relatable and engaging. To jump on the bandwagon of digitization of corporate learning and training and make training fun and result-oriented, contact us today