Bucharest, 29 June 2021 – According to an impact survey carried out based on the answers received from almost 1,000 respondents, almost 90% of the teachers who participated in the digital education program “School in a Box” during the pandemic have acquired the digital skills and competencies required in order to adapt traditional classes to online teaching. The survey, carried out upon the initiative of the Vodafone Romania and World Vision Romania Foundations, measured a number of indicators grouped under five categories: digital skills, digital teaching skills (respectively, digital learning skills, for students), the ability to facilitate or enhance teacher-student communication, the general satisfaction level and the willingness to use technology in the future. The data mostly reflect the results of online teaching, given the circumstances under which the learning process took place over the past two semesters. Thus, more than 73% of the teachers and 75% of the students have stated that they are satisfied or very satisfied with their experience with the program “School in a Box”. 86% of the teachers and 78% of the students positively appreciated the interactivity level of the platform.
Moreover, the survey shows an improvement of the digital skills for all indicators, both amongst teachers, and amongst students. The scores were calculated for basic digital skills, as compared to the level prior to the use of the “School in a Box” platform. In the case of the teachers, the online teaching skills were also assessed.
Thus, if before using the platform, only 55% of the teachers were able to resort to audio-video materials in the online teaching process, at the end of the program, their ratio increased to 92%. At the same time, the percentage of teachers who acquired the skills required for the use of the interactive whiteboard in class grew from 45% to 80%. Moreover, if at the beginning of the concerned period, more than a quarter of the teachers (26%) stated that they found it difficult and very difficult to use an interactive whiteboard, their ratio currently dropped to 1%.
Regarding the use of the PowerPoint Microsoft application, the survey has shown that, if before using the platform, only 76% of the teachers stated that it was easy or very easy for them to draft a PowerPoint presentation, at the end of the assessed period, their ratio increased to 86%.
It should further be noted that only 2% of the respondents are of the opinion that the online teaching activities are difficult or very difficult, which is lower than the previous 20%.
On the students’ side, progress was also noted for all digital skill and online learning indicators.
Under the category of the online learning skills, the greatest progress was registered for the indicator related to the creation of a topic for discussion on an online platform, i.e., from 40% to 54%. The percentage of those who have acquired the skills required for the creation of an online meeting has also increased from 52% to 63%, and from 39% to 47% for Excel skills.
Just as in the case of the teachers, the percentage of the students who faced challenges in acquiring the online learning skills is visibly decreasing.
The “School in a Box” program has been deployed by Vodafone Romania Foundation and World Vision Romania Foundation ever since 2018, its overall value exceeding two million Euro, of which more than one million Euro represents the financing offered by Vodafone Romania Foundation.
The e-learning platform www.scoaladinvaliza.ro currently is available nationwide, with an approximate number of 17,000 student users and 1,400 teachers from 50 schools in the rural area. More than 11,000 lessons were uploaded onto the platform starting the very onset of the program.
School in a Box means a 360-degree approach to digital education. The project supports teachers and students in rural areas to develop their digital skills through free access to the e-learning platform www.scoaladinvaliza.ro, a technology kit provided with tablets and laptops and Internet, but also through continuous professional training of teaching staff. We help teachers to be more confident in their own strengths, to create and support interactive digital lessons, and thus, together with them, we support students to be prepared for a labor market increasingly dominated by technology. In this way, teachers transform the school, and students learn with more pleasure and develop themselves to cope in the future world. School in a Box means accessible and quality digital education.
The Vodafone Romania Foundation is a Romanian non-governmental charitable organisation, established in 1998, which operates separately and independently from the company’s business. Over more than 20 years of activity, the Vodafone Romania Foundation has funded 1,168 programs run by 765 NGOs throughout the country, in the fields of healthcare, education and social services. These projects had more than 3 million beneficiaries – children, young and old people, physically, socially, or economically disadvantaged people. So far, the Vodafone Romania Foundation has invested 31 million euros in projects run by non-profit partner organisations. More details about the Foundation’s programs are available at www.fundatia-vodafone.ro, http://jurnaldebine.fundatiavodafone.ro/ și www.facebook.com/fundatiavodafone.
World Vision Romania is a part of the World Vision International partnership and is active in almost 100 countries worldwide. World Vision Romania is a foundation that carries out emergency humanitarian intervention, development, and advocacy programs, placing the well-being of children at the centre of its activities. The Foundation focuses on working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. Inspired by Christian values, the foundation works with the most vulnerable people in the world, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender. In its almost 30 years of activity in Romania, the foundation has helped over 500,000 children and adults from 400 communities in 8 counties. Further details about the foundation: www.worldvision.ro, www.facebook.com/WorldVisionRomania, blog.worldvision.ro/.
