Using EdTech to mark work safely

The resilience and can-do attitude shown during lockdown has been nothing but commendable. Schools, headteachers, teachers and pupils have reacted swiftly to government advice to ensure a smooth and effective expansion of attendance; a logistical nightmare for most.

Many have had to make huge adjustments to ensure the safety of pupils and staff alike. Soft toys and sand pits have been removed from Early Years provisions, and social distancing has meant that the normal school day is anything but.

A big concern for teachers and teaching unions has been trying to limit the contact between teachers and their pupils. In a recent article from the Express, teaching unions warned against teachers marking books, as well as allowing pupils to take their exercise books home to work on homework. But with a rise in the use of EdTech, there is another way.

Pre-pandemic Learning by Questions

When LbQ was designed and developed, it was hoped it would solve many problems for teachers and pupils in classroom. LbQ automatically marks pupils’ work as they move through sets of questions.

Pupils are also provided with personalised feedback every time they answer a question, which helps them to progress and learn at their own pace.

These two features of LbQ were designed with large class sizes in mind: teachers can struggle to provide immediate feedback to even small groups of pupils, let alone a class of 30.

The automatic marking also helped to reduce the huge workload that teachers face. No more trudging home with 90 books to mark ready for the next day when the same 90 books would be filled with more work to be marked.

All of these benefits made life easier in the classroom before the pandemic. Now they’re essential!

Teach, mark, feedback at a distance

The concern raised by teaching unions over the safety of marking is no longer an issue with LbQ. Without contact with the teacher, children’s work is automatically marked with feedback.

Teachers don’t have to take books home, and children don’t have to take their books home. Work can be completed, feedback can be provided and work can be marked all on a tablet and socially distanced.

Learn together but apart

LbQ also means that different bubbles of children can be completing the same work at the same time whether they are learning from home or at school. Providing that connection between peers where they are still able to effectively learn together is completely priceless, but it is incredibly difficult to do that safely at the moment.

With Learning by Questions, the teacher can set the same Question Set for all children (or indeed provide differentiated Question Sets for different groups of children, that aren’t necessarily in the same bubble) and allow pupils to work through and learn together, but apart.

If you’re interested in what Learning by Questions can do for you in your socially distanced learning environments, contact the team for a FREE demo.