About 500 students across the country have signed on to an online virtual school created to mitigate the impact of the closure of schools.
The platform
The platform, dubbed “Virtual Skuul”, is an initiative by Eclipse Multimedia, an information technology company, to help establish a link between teachers and students for exchange of assignments and learning best practices.
The platform was also to assist learners and teachers in pre-tertiary schools to access improved learning and teaching resources in the form of video lessons, notes, examination questions,teaching and learning aids at any time.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Eclipse Multimedia, Mr John Akwasi Amponsah, expressed his excitement about the quick response, stating that the feedback the platform was receiving was an indication that it was serving the intended purpose.
Services of the system, he noted,were delivered through state-of-the art instructional videos, multimedia notes, computer-based assessment assignments,projects and exercises.
The platform allows students to access interactive lessons for all subjects of junior high and senior high schools, especially regarding Mathematics, Science, English, Social Studies, History and French. Mr Amponsah observed that the system could make learning at home easier and fun as it came with features which gave learners the opportunity to access every tool they required to carefully plan learning for themselves. In addition, he said, it allowed them to effectively follow a facilitator-led video lessons, revise
lessons with culturally relevant and new curriculum-based resources,attempt and solve Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASCCE) past questions,with instant feedback.A Co-Founder of the platform, Mr Micheal K. Ocansey, also stated that the closure of schools as a result of COVID-19 was adversely impacting on the educational system of the country.“Currently,the student population of Ghana for final-year students in SHS stands at 1.2 million. What this means is that on the average,we have over 12 million student population from Primary One through to senior high schools currently staying at home due to the COVID-19
pandemic,” he stated.“The platform is a response to how we can make learning and assessment continue for the student population in Ghana and ensure that the illiterate youth in general take advantage of the pandemic to learn to read and write,” he added.
How to log on
To access the platform, Mr Ocansey explained that patrons would have to log on to www.virtualskuul.com in the browser to sign up for an account, using a valid e-mail address.
Source: www.graphic.com.gh
