For mum Christine Lee, mathematics was always a worrisome subject—just as much to her as it was to her daughter, Ashlyn. Lee struggled to teach or explain concepts in a way that her daughter understood and the frustration of not being able to motivate her enough to learn often led to a nagging-fest.
“My daughter was quite weak in her problem-solving skills and was struggling at Math. She would skip pages and sometimes entire topics and it was difficult for me to help out because what we studied and the current syllabus were different," she explains.
But Lee is not alone.
For most parents, Math anxiety is real, especially in the competitive education scene in Singapore. Many primary students struggle with Math concepts. Since COVID-19, parents have been forced to deal with a new, unique, challenge - switching to e-learning, in an almost overnight fashion. With school homework and lessons being conducted online, children and their parents are having to ramp-up on their digital skills, while learning concepts at the same time!
So what can they do to help kids build a solid foundation and interest in math, in the new-normal? Are traditional classrooms, assessment books and tuition centres enough?
Math E-learning Platforms Are Changing The Landscape Of Education
This is where e-learning platforms that offer personalised and adaptive learning are stepping up and changing the education industry. And, the government recognises the role of online education too, with one of MOE’s key focus areas being blended learning. As education minister of Singapore, Mr Lawrence Wong, notes, integrating technology into schools, in a student-centric approach will enable students to learn effectively beyond the traditional classroom barrier.
One such platform is KooBits, an EdTech platform that makes learning more effective. Their flagship product, KooBits Math has been gaining popularity amongst Singaporean mums, and for good reason. This award-winning platform has the highest student engagement rates (according to Amazon’s Alexa.com) and is currently being used by over half of Singapore's MOE primary schools.
In fact, young kids today much rather prefer technology solutions over books. Amelia Lim, mum of 7-year-old Lincon explains, “My son was very reluctant to read and so we started him on online learning. Before primary 1, we sent him to a right brain training enrichment class, but they couldn’t keep his attention as they were very fast-paced. Plus, there was a lot of writing involved. So it was more drill-and-practice, paper and pen approach, and he didn’t like it. Whereas with online/tech solutions like KooBits, where there's a highly interactive approach to learning, my son is able to focus better.”
Making Math Fun And Easy To Understand
KooBits Math offers interactive and fun animated video explanations for all 100,000+ questions on the platform. These video explanations break down complex topics into easy-to-understand, step-by-step instructions, which can be hard to do on mundane and static whiteboards or textbooks.
The interactive animations, audio-visuals and fun colours keep children stimulated and engaged throughout the learning session.
Whenever children are attempting questions on KooBits, and they run into difficulty, they can easily access these animated video explanations to understand the concept.
Then they can go back to reattempt that question. This “instant help” that kids get helps them stay motivated even when faced with a challenge, and not get into a spiral of discouragement and frustration. They don’t even have to wait for teachers or parents to explain.
Mum Christine Lee, too, who was facing difficulty in teaching her daughter math, no longer has to worry about it. With the animated video explanations, her daughter is able to learn, according to how she was taught in school.
This also improved the mother-daughter relationship.
Anupam Mukherjee, father of a 7-year old remarked that he has seen considerable improvement in his son’s interest for math and speed of doing problem sums. “My son’s confidence has grown since he started using KooBits. With animations and colourful media, he is learning Math in a fun way. He loves the leaderboard and practices Math every day.”
Adaptive And Personalised Math E-learning To Cater To Each Child's Grasping Ability
KooBits collects meaningful usage data of every child. For instance, “knowledge decay” patterns— which happens when kids naturally lose touch of topics taught in the past.
Then KooBits converts this data into proficiency reports, which gives actionable information to kids on which areas they should do more practice on. Parents are also able to access this, allowing them to better support their kids through the learning journey.
Mdm Sabrina Ahmad shared that her child has seen actual improvement in grades after using KooBits, “He used to get borderline marks and now he has moved up grades. I am hopeful that by the time the term ends he will manage to get Bs or As. As a Gen Y child, my son wants more audio and visuals while learning, which KooBits has.
Flexibility To Move Across All Primary Levels To Help Children Better Understand Math Concepts
As mum Sandra puts it, “My daughter is in P4, and whenever she faces any challenge with the concepts, she can always go back to P3 questions and video explanations to revise the concept, and then come back to try again. She can also upskill to P5 for the topics that she is strong in. KooBits allows kids to go back to lower levels if they have trouble understanding concepts, and then go to higher levels if they need more challenge. Once I saw that my daughter was able to answer the questions, then we dialed up a level.”
With KooBits, each child’s Math education is tailored to their capacity while ensuring that they are consistently challenged and on the path of improvement. Furthermore, the e-learning platform provides instant feedback and children are made aware of their strengths and weaknesses.
This inspires self-motivation, allowing children to feel in charge of their learning journey. 1 in 2 Singapore primary school students sees a 30% improvement in Maths results in every term, just by practising on KooBits every day for 20 minutes.
Aisha Jiffry shares that her life has changed since her two kids started using KooBits. As a working mum, she says that her busy schedule didn’t allow her to track their assignments or monitor their performance; but KooBits has turned this around.
“Having KooBits has made learning Math like an everyday routine in my household. It helps my kids learn plus also helps me by giving me ease of mind- my kids study, get feedback and learn without me having to be physically present there and hovering. The best thing is that they get to learn at their own pace- if they want more points, they go for higher levels but if they want to work on their foundations, they go for easier ones. They are self-motivated to learn and grow.”
For the parent’s ease of mind, KooBits comes with a companion Parent App that allows parents to keep track of their child’s progress. They can also assign homework to their kids, in areas that their kids need more practice in.
In-Built Parental Controls For A Safe And Healthy Online Learning Environment
When it comes to e-learning, however, many parents are concerned about excessive screen-time or their kids being exposed to dangerous, unsuitable material online.
Luckily, KooBits has in-built parental control features to mitigate these risks. The platform not only has time-limit features to manage screen time to healthy levels, it also verifies every user to make sure they are real students from real schools. The platform is also ad-free, and all content is verified by a team of educators, making it one of the safest online communities today.
Mum-of-three, Estee Goh shares, “Initially I was not in favour of allowing them to study online because of the stereotype of screen time. But after half a year of primary 1, I saw the benefits. The kids started practicing higher level questions and topics by themselves, I noticed that they became self-motivated and I was quite pleased with the results.”
In line with the emerging trends in the education scene in Singapore, KooBits is keen on helping parents and children to not just adapt, but thrive in this “new normal” where blended learning seems to be a trend amongst parents; and e-learning a reality of day-to-day life.
As such, KooBits has launched a 7-day free trial that allows parents and children free access to the full suite of learning materials on the platform. These include all worksheets and practice questions across all primary school grade levels, all animated step-by-step solutions, as well as access to the accompanying Parent App, for parents to keep track of their child’s progress and learning habits.
Find out more & sign up for free trial about KooBits here.