Gamifying maths helps hundreds of students with learning backlogs

This Youth Month, Reflective Learning is celebrating the hundreds of learners in South Africa that have made vast improvements in subjects like mathematics, by working through their online learning platform. This has allowed learners to catch up their own backlogs, based on their individual needs, after the learning gaps have been identified.

The platform recently gamified learning after launching its learning rewards programme and this means school learners can now earn rewards, in the form of gems, while they study.

“Students use their gems to build out their very own character and compete with other learners to see who has been awarded the most gems as they learn. This reinforces positive learning behaviour and drives engagement with the learning material,” said Alix du Toit, head of product at Reflective Learning.

In 2017, Reflective Learning made its online portal accessible to schools and it has since empowered teachers to help school students who struggle with learning backlogs in subjects like mathematics.

“We are on a mission to increase access to maths at school, and to increase opportunities to study towards Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers at tertiary level. Our tool is purpose-built to tackle this problem head on,” said Keelan Whiting, CEO of Reflective Learning.

Schools register on the online platform and each learner is then granted access to an individual profile. The progress of a learner can easily be tracked, providing teachers with the data to know exactly where their learners are struggling and how to help them, something that is impossible to do at scale.

“Reflective Learning explains the ideas so clearly. They explained the simple concepts in a way that I can understand. It’s fun to do, and easy to follow. My pure maths improved from 53% to 80% in six months,” said Taylor Staniland.

Later this year, learners will be able to sign up without having to register their school with Reflective Learning first and this will make the tool accessible to more students across the country.