It has been quite a remarkable journey so far since we set out to explore and integrate the use of digital tools in classrooms on a fundamental level. One of the most rewarding implementation of digitized education that we have utilized so far is moving our examinations to the cloud (Online).
For over a year now, all our examinations for our elementary Students (Grade 1-6) has been done online and this is thanks to Google for Education digital tools. Here are some of the amazing benefits and overall improvement we have seen in our academic system by moving our examinations to the cloud:
- Teachers no longer have to spend time marking exam scripts as the online examination questions (Objective/multiple choice questions), are auto graded. Essay based examinations are much easier to grade which is 100 points for efficiency.
- Students can see their scores immediately after an exam and see what they did wrong. Teachers provide feedback on each question a Child fails explaining the correct answer using automation and customized feedbacks if necessary. This makes individualized and prompt revision for incorrectly answered questions possible as soon as an examination is concluded.
- It’s eco friendly as you save on papers. We no longer need to print out exam scripts and our overall use of papers during examinations dropped by about 100%.
- Parents receive their Child’s results/Script via email as soon as a Student is done answering the exam questions. This drives daily discussions and facilitates a stronger Parent Child bond in the Child’s academic journey.
- Questions can be shuffled for each student – hence the risk of petty and innocent malpractice on a quiz is virtually eliminated – which in turn gives us a very pragmatic feedback on our Students Academic proficiency.
- Our Teacher’s, in the process of their training and deployment of Google for Education tools, learn digital skills they would not have picked up otherwise, and going forward, become experienced advocates of digital literacy within the context of Education in the country.
- As the saying goes ‘The Internet never forgets’. The same can be said about cloud storage. We developed an efficient and effective systematic storage mechanism for examination questions and scripts online. This means that new and old Teachers can easily revisit any examination from past years for referencing plus our Students have their examination scripts stored in virtual perpetuity.
- Our Teachers love the process!! They say it makes their job easier. It’s not everyday a job can be made easier while preserving and improving quality. 💪💪💪🤝
I’m summary, it has been a rewarding and exciting journey for us so far; and the further we travel, the more we are convinced that the future of education is embedded in technology.
We would ❤️ to hear from you; what has been your experience so far using digital tools in your Classroom?