No matter how banal it may sound in the current conditions, distance learning at one time gave rise to many problems. One of them is that parents were forced to help their children with mastering the material and completing homework. According to a study by The Guardian, parents before the pandemic spent an average of 7.5 hours a week helping with “homework”. The transition to distance learning has only worsened this situation – the indicators have increased significantly. A student who struggles a lot with studying may need to buy term paper online.
The Tensy platform came to the aid of schoolchildren and their parents. Children have the opportunity not to be overwhelmed with questions from dads and moms or teachers who are overloaded and out of school hours. Instead, they asked questions on the platform and immediately connected with another student who had already figured out this topic and could explain it in understandable language.
“This is very important. In the spring we had about two thousand lessons, and we realized that classes with peers are sometimes even more effective than with professional teachers. Often, a child may not understand something for several years, although he is told about it in clear terms, if another student explains it to him, he understands faster,” emphasizes one of the project developers.
Another problem of the educational process is that children are embarrassed to ask questions to adults, they are afraid that they will be considered stupid. Teachers don’t know what exactly children don’t understand. Asking something from peers in this sense is much calmer and more interesting.
The questions themselves get to the mentors anonymously, and only on the platform itself after the connection, they see each other.
– We did not solve problems for those who asked for help. We analyzed them, looked for mistakes, explained them, helped them figure it out so that the guys would eventually complete the task on their own–” one of the creators notes.
The guys get the answer quickly. According to the measurements of the creators of Tensy, in general, this happens in 110 seconds. A special algorithm was created for this. Questions end up in the mentors’ general chat. As soon as the first one reacts, this request disappears for all the others.
Self-isolation and distance learning was introduced because this became a test for the efficiency of the idea and its effectiveness.
To make it more comfortable for students to study, changes were constantly made to the work of the platform. As a result, the number of lessons increased to 250 per week, and the guys noted that it became easier to ask questions.
The result was a good exchange. Some got an audience for testing the start-up, while others got a functional platform that they lacked.