MY Smart School e-platform for teachers and students is the digital core of the project.
Since the beginning of the project, the aim was to realise a user-friendly and multi-functional e-platform to support the digital literacy of its users. MYSS platform consists of an environment accessible by both teachers and students able to recreate the same familiarity of traditional classrooms, despite the use of the distance learning approach.
In order to achieve this goal, a multitude of e-platforms have been analysed in order to understand the current digital challenges and the added value to be provided to teachers and students through the new MYSS platform.
After this preliminary phase, 105 pre-set and customizable graphical templates were created along with several features such as webinars, video uploads and OER, various types of quizzes and class assignments, while technical instructions have been provided both in the form of a user manual and in the form of video tutorials contained in it in order to facilitate its use regardless of the subject taught and the level of education of the students, facilitating the sharing of materials synchronously and/or asynchronously. Our new MYSS platform consists of two areas:
- Training area: designed for teachers in order to strengthen their methodological competences by following e-courses – made of 4 units and 8 modules – on how to deliver effective classes through distance learning, and their digital knowledge by following slight video-tutorials about platform’s functionalities and exploitation possibilities.
- Teaching area: designed for overcoming the distance-learning approach as well as for connecting teachers and students who will access to typical e-platform functionalities and MYSS innovative tools, among which graphical templates allowing teachers to create several educational items, such as quizzes, mind maps, lesson plans, and certifications.
The e-platform and its digital tools were developed in English, translated into 3 languages (IT, EL, RO) and tested by 58 teachers and 109 students of primary and secondary schools from all partner countries. The last pilot was completed at the end of March and the results of the evaluation test have guided VITECO – that led the realization of e-platform, in the technical and content improvements of the digital tool.
Specifically, the changes made are:
- Enrichment of guidelines and fragmented video tutorials;
- Improvement of platform graphics and back-end GUI, with improved organisation of courses being created;
- Increase of the size of uploadable resources, especially videos;
- Inclusion of new types of completion quizzes;
- Improvement of automatic saving functions;
- Revision and improvement of IT, EL and RO translations;
- Via Zoom, online meetings with students or working groups are now available to organise;
- Optimisation of mobile viewing.
The project and the consortium were born with the specific purpose and desire of supporting teachers and students at overcoming the difficult time stemming from Covid-19 pandemic, by providing them with centralized tools and resources, able to ensure a smooth and participative educational process.
For this reason, the intuitive, innovative and multi-functional MY Smart School e-platform has been developed and will always be improved according to teachers and students’ needs.
