Schools have previously fully embraced distance-learning strategies to maintain unhindered learning. The Department of Education (DepEd) recently mandated that educational institutions return to conducting five days of in-person instruction starting in November.

Whether the chosen modality is face-to-face or blended, there is a need to ensure high-impact learning recovery programs for learners. A recent report by the World Bank Group noted that school closures in the last two years resulted in long-term impact and learning losses on schoolchildren.

Given these challenges, the same report recommends that educators monitor and assess students’ learning, which is critical in implementing learning recovery programs. This may include just-in-time assessments of each student’s learning levels and intensive tutoring. On the other hand, teachers must receive training in adaptive learning, which prioritizes children’s acquisition of essential skills while adapting instruction and pedagogical techniques to students’ abilities and requirements.

Because learning gaps are anticipated to vary among children, teachers must also be ready for lower and higher levels of learning inequality in their classes. Meanwhile, students can carry on studying through multiple modalities to maximize learning.

Unlocking possibilities, ensuring smooth transition using edtech

For Quipper, one of the leading edtech platforms present in the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia, Learning Management Systems (LMS) have proven that they support educators’ adherence to the changing demands of students and educators  in all modalities – whether in-person classes or blended learning.

“The evolving needs of today’s tech-savvy learners have pushed schools to adopt modern classroom setups that support adaptive learning strategies. At Quipper, our goal is to help bridge today’s learning gaps by providing teachers with an easy-to-use platform with comprehensive content aligned to the DepEd curriculum. Quipper lets teachers monitor and evaluate their students’ learning levels. It also provides them with relevant and engaging learning materials for their in-person classes and blended modules,” said Yusuke Takagi, CEO of Quipper Philippines.

Leveraging Quipper edtech for multiple learning modalities

Working closely with schools nationwide, Takagi noted that edtech platforms could help teachers create more fun, meaningful, and engaging learning experiences for their students. The Quipper School platform, for instance, provides features that cater to every educator’s needs, complementing today’s classrooms.

Through Quipper School, teachers can take advantage of the ready-made teaching guides, editable presentation slides, and other resource materials to support their daily lessons. More than 4,000 downloadable study guides can be used as alternatives to textbooks, and more than 1,000 video lessons can cater to all learners.

All these comprehensive materials and content are aligned to the K-12 DepEd curriculum. They are also developed to empower teachers to ensure that they can teach schoolchildren, whether they are visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or reading/writing learners.

Meanwhile, teachers can also track their students’ learning performances using the platform, enabling them to become more adaptive in the lesson plans and materials they prepare to help their students.

“Our platform offers features that allow educators to manage multiple classrooms through a personalized dashboard, schedule assignments, and evaluate student performance. Along with a new Essay app for writing assignments, it also offers a content management tool, enabling teachers to create and publish their own materials,” added Takagi.

In addition, the Quipper School platform can also complement blended learning approaches that teachers may adopt for their in-person classes, like the station rotation and flipped classroom models.

Station Rotation is a blended learning strategy in which students alternate between different classroom-based learning modes on a set timetable or at the teacher’s discretion within a specific course or subject. At least one station for online learning is part of the rotation. On the other hand, the other stations concentrate on whole-class or small-group instruction, group projects, one-on-one coaching, and pencil-and-paper assignments.

Meanwhile, the Flipped Classroom approach refers to a rotation-model implementation in which students alternate on a set schedule between face-to-face teacher-guided practice on campus during the regular school day and online delivery of instruction and content of the same subject at home after school. Unlike students who only practice their homework online at night, students in a Flipped Classroom receive most of their subject instruction online.

Updates in Quipper School

As part of its commitment to helping today’s educators, Quipper constantly updates its Quipper School platform. These latest updates include:

• Live Class. Teachers can now set up synchronous classes from LINK through the Live Class feature. Teachers can connect with students on a Zoom Meeting directly on the Q-Link platform without having to create a Zoom account. Q-Link is a platform that enables educators to assign activities directly to their students and easily track their progress online.
  
  On the Quipper LEARN (Q-Learn), a feature in the LMS platform where the students study, learners can locate and join these Live Class sessions directly on the platform as an embedded window or switch to the Zoom app, as desired. These integrations with Zoom are the outcome of the recent ISV Partner Program that Quipper entered into with Zoom.
  
  
  
• Flexible Content Structure. Teachers can now create and publish courses, units, and topics without questions, which previously required at least one question, on the Q-Create, our content management  platform that allows teachers to create their lessons and quizzes and upload study guides. This enhancement is also reflected on Q-Link, where teachers can see indicators on questionless topics before sending them as an assignment.
  
  On Q-Learn, students can access the topics without questions as assignments; completing the topic by viewing all the lesson pages and finishing the “Complete Topic” response panel will mark them as “Mastered.”
  
  
  
• Flexible Points System. Lastly, teachers can now assign a point value per question on their content in Q-Create. With this enhancement, the student’s score or grade calculations and how they are displayed on the student’s result page on Q-Learn, downloadable reports, and several Q-Link pages were updated.

Quipper has an array of content, including over 5,982 videos and 69,752 quiz questions. It also caters to 316,239 teachers and over five million students globally.

To learn more about Quipper Philippines, visit https://www.quipper.com/ph/.

The Philippines’ education sector has seen significant shifts over the last two years. The COVID-19  outbreak forced educators and over 27 million students to shift to several alternative learning modalities, such as remote and blended learning modalities, to cope with the situation.  This reality amplified the importance of using technology to allow remote learning.

As the country prepares for the next normal, educational institutions are recalibrating their teaching models. In the next academic year, the Department of Education (DepEd) encourages schools to have in-person class schedules in their blended learning setups. This means there are days for face-to-face classes and separate days for home-based learning.The agency also emphasized the need to continue utilizing and improving digital learning to catch up with the global trend.

The role of technology in post-pandemic education

Some institutions have now started to embrace the HyFlex model, a term coined from the words “hybrid” and “flexible.” Hybrid learning combines various teaching modalities, such as return-to-classroom setups,  online learning,  modular distance learning, and TV/Radio/online based  Instruction,  among others. All students in a hybrid course are expected to undergo the same combination of online or distance learning and in-person activities.

On the other hand, HyFlex’s “flexible” aspect refers to the flexibility given to students as they can choose how they participate in the course and engage with the material in the mode or platform best suited to them.

“Nowadays, educational institutions need to provide their students with more engaged learning experiences while ensuring their well-being and meaningful connections.  All these elements are critical for a successful learning experience now and in the future. Leveraging the right technology and platform can help educators transition to all types of setups for learning,” said Yusuke Takagi, CEO of Quipper Philippines.

Helping bridge the gap

To help bridge the gap from traditional learning to the HyFlex model, which is crucial to providing the best learning experience for students post-pandemic, Quipper has been providing a  user-friendly learning management system with extensive content.  The edtech company also helps educators implement hybrid learning setups to provide students with holistic and flexible learning experiences.

“Quipper combines user-friendly technology with relevant and engaging content to create meaningful teaching and learning experiences.  We also work closely with schools, educators, and even students nationwide to ensure that the solutions we offer suit their specific needs, context, and goals,” adds Takagi. “When the pandemic started, we made sure that we could help our partner schools to implement and transition to the new remote learning dynamics. Our e-learning solutions provide teachers with teaching guides, editable presentation slides, and other resources to support their daily lessons. We  also  provide  downloadable study guides for students as alternatives to textbooks and video lessons.”

Bearing in mind the current and future challenges that educators,  students,  and teachers face, Quipper’s LMS platform provides features that cater to various e-learning needs. Through the platform, educators can manage multiple classes through the customized dashboard,  send and schedule assignments,  and assess their students’ performances.  It also has a content management tool for creating and publishing the teacher’s own materials and a new Essay app for improving their student’s writing tasks.

Meanwhile, students can access their Quipper accounts through the browser or via an Android or iOs apps to make it easier to continue learning anytime, anywhere through their mobile phones, even without an internet connection. On the other hand, parents can supervise and assist their child’s learning progress by monitoring their activities and deadlines through Quipper’s Parent Portal.

Quipper also ensures that it provides support services, encompassing regular school visits, online support, and platform training for its clients. Quipper also goes the extra mile by delivering monthly usage reports to discuss and maximize the platform’s use and pedagogical webinars for educators.

Currently, Quipper has three solution offerings. Aside from the basic Quipper LMS with Parent  Portal and Service  Support features, the edtech company also offers Quipper School   Premium,  which enables students to access lectures,  assessments,  and downloadable study guides in pdf files anytime.  They can repeat lessons until they master them.  Lastly,  there is the  Quipper  Video,  which has all these features plus access to Video Lessons. These are five to ten-minute videos that provide an overview of the topics for learners who want a quicker, summarized version of the content.

Delivering current, exciting content

In addition, with the changing needs of teachers and students, Quipper ensures that it constantly provides fresh and timely teaching and learning materials for its users.

Starting this June, Quipper announced the addition of a new content offering with its K to  3 Content Package, which includes topics for Math, English, Science, Filipino, and Araling Panlipunan for Kinder, Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3.

Another new content offering for this school year includes Senior High School Specialized Subjects for ABM Strand, composed of 8 subjects such as Business Math and  Principles of  Marketing. Lastly, Quipper’s ready-made  content for Grades 4-10

MEFSA subjects  (Math,  English,  Filipino,  Science,  Araling  Panlipunan)  and  Grades 11-12 Core Subjects now has an improved version aligned with DepEd’s Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELC).

The  Q1  topics and materials for all the subjects from the above-mentioned content offerings are now available on  Q-Link for schools with  Quipper School  Premium subscriptions. Q-Link, or Quipper Link, is the main portal for teachers that enables them to assign activities to their classes for the students to access on their devices, such as smartphones and tablets, and easily track their progress online. More subjects and the rest of the  Q2-Q4  topics will be released in the coming months,  according to the schedule indicated in the curriculum maps per course/subject.

To date, Quipper has an array of content, including over 40,624 videos and more than 2 million assignments.  It has served  316,239  teachers and over five million students globally.

To      learn      more      about      Quipper      Philippines,      visit      its      website      at https://www.quipper.com/ph/.