Adaptive Learning Framework (Alef) in UAE Public Schools from the Parents’ Perspective
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
3. Methodology
3.1. Study Participants
3.2. Data Collection Tools
- How long has your child used the Alef platform? How often does your child use the Alef platform?
- Please explain your experience and your child’s experience with the Alef platform.
- What data does Alef provide you related to your child’s progress? Please provide some examples. How do you use/act on these data?
- In which ways do you think the Alef platform supports your child’s learning? Please provide some examples.
- Have you noticed any differences in your child’s learning, motivation, achievement, or skills after using the Alef platform?
- What recommendations have you heard from your child related to the use of the Alef platform? What are your suggestions to solve the problem/issues faced by your child?
- What suggestions would you like to add to the Alef platform to improve and develop the platform to better support your child’s learning?
- Would you encourage your child’s access to and use of the Alef platform in upcoming years? Why?
3.3. Data Analysis
4. Results
4.1. Learning Support
My child has been using Alef on regular basis to solve activities related to the subjects. The program is very useful in reviewing science and mathematics concepts.
Learning stations help my daughter to review the scientific material. The assessment tests also contribute to determining her level of comprehension and retrying in case of not achieve the desired score.
I encourage my daughter to continue using the Alef platform because it is in constant development and helps raise her academic level.
A wonderful experience because it makes the parent aware of the curriculum and continues their learning at home.
I encourage my son to use Alef because it supports learning at home.
Alef is supporting my daughter in competing for the work that was not accomplished during the lessons.
Lots of exercises, reviews after each unit and different questions that support my daughter’s learning at home.
I will keep encouraging my son to use Alef to develop fundamental skills.
The strategies are all-inclusive, covering every facet of the educational experience. Alef’s lessons present the learner with objectives, games, and assignments; they then instantly correct their work and give the student feedback on their progress.
4.2. Independent Learning
Alef guarantees self-education to students due to the presence of videos explaining the lesson in addition to the variety of questions.
Alef encourages independent learning by providing lessons and videos that may be viewed in the comfort of one’s own home.
My daughter relies on Alef platform for self-learning the themes when she prepares for the lesson before class.
Because of Alef my son developed independent learning and self-learning skills.
Alef’s comprehensive nature is apparent in its many instructional videos and leveled questions, the latter of which allow me as a parent to gauge my daughter’s proficiency by seeing whether or not she can decipher questions at a beginner, intermediate, or advanced level. If she can answer the advanced questions, it means she has grasped the material and is doing an excellent job of learning it.
The major idea station and accompanying examples contribute to Alef’s comprehensiveness.
4.3. Motivation
My son has improved a lot and became motivated to learn.
Training students on the pattern of exam questions and motivating them with stars. Some teachers transform these stars into weekly appreciation certificates.
The number of stars and the percentage of achievement determines each student’s strengths and weaknesses.
The trend of the program in diversifying the ways of displaying the materials is interesting and not boring, as it is suitable for the scientific and technical development that the country is witnessing.
Every participant remarked that the different components of the lessons with Alef are sequenced and logical, meaning that one activity leads to another activity. This method motivates my son to always upgrade to the next level.
My daughter is quite motivated by the number of stars she earns in the program; these stars serve as a visual representation of her progress, and she is very proud of them.
4.4. Monitoring Students’ Progress
I receive immediate reports about my daughter’s progress and performance on my phone.
The exit ticket that follows each lesson is a source of data that shows me as a parent the extent to which my daughter comprehended the lesson.
By using Alef application, I can see a report detailing my daughter’s progress and the number of stars she has earned.
My son’s progress and areas of difficulty are graphically shown in Alef.
After each lesson, my son’s score appears when he has finished answering the questions, and the percentage gives me peace of mind as a mother because it shows me the extent to which my son understands the lesson. If he doesn’t answer well, I encourage him to go through the lesson again and improve his score.
Provides students’ progress and level of achievement in lessons.
Provides the results and grades for each lesson, the progress of students, and the level in each lesson.
It contains a program for the parents to follow up on their child’s level of progress and the messages sent from the teacher to the parents contribute to the child’s academic and behavioral progress.
4.5. Challenges Faced
My daughter has been assigned a lot of work in Alef which requires her to be on the computer for lengthy periods.
My daughter struggles to complete all of the assignments in her science and mathematics classes because they need higher-level thinking and more time. Although I agree that it is important to foster higher-order thinking skills, I feel that my daughter needs additional time to finish the assignments at hand without being stressed.
In addition to the challenges associated with the number of tasks and lessons that need to be completed every day, during the interview, 90% of parents reported that some of the questions presented after each lesson were of high difficulty and sometimes very complicated. The following are some examples of the parents’ answers related to the difficulty of the questions in the program:
My daughter always complains about the difficulty and unclarity of the questions.
Science and mathematics questions are sometimes very difficult for my son.
A big challenge related to using Alef is that there is not enough time at home due to the long school hours and a large number of subjects.
When the students use Alef, they miss the opportunity to apply what is learned.
In summary, the reported challenges associated with the adaptive Alef system are, in fact, normal challenges found with the majority of online platforms.The inability of the student to re-solve the exit ticket is one of the most problems that my daughter complains about.
4.6. Recommendations
There are many Alef lessons for all subjects, and I recommend for the school focus the use of the program on certain subjects and limited lessons.
In order to prevent students from spending all day in front of the computer screen, I recommend that teachers work together to decide which lessons in which subjects will be delivered via Alef.
I suggest reducing the number of lessons and giving more practical examples to clarify the content.
To clarify some of the vocabularies, I recommend integrating the Arabic translation system to only translate the scientific terminology.
The lessons in Alef should focus more on the practical implementation of the knowledge learned than the knowledge itself.
Forty percent of the participants talked about the need of improving the structure of Alef interface, the parents stated that:
I suggest adding an attractive visual interface using pictures and colors. The interface color should be changed from time to time, so the students do not feel bored from dealing with the same interface and colors on regular basis.
Three parents talked about the need to improve the reward system and to offer the ability to convert the stars to grades that counts towards their final grade in each subject or if this is not applicable it could be converted to a physical award.
I suggest allocating a day for each subject that the student uses Alef to reduce the burden at home.
Adding more questions to the exit ticket, thus the calculation of the final grades is not only based on three questions. Having only three questions is very frustrating for the student because if my daughter answered one question wrong, she loses 33% of her grade.
One of my suggestions for the platform is to add other types of educational and interesting games for students.
Simplifying the scientific material presented and only using Alef as an e-learning program and eliminating the use of other platforms such as LMS.
5. Discussion
6. Conclusions and Recommendations
Recommendations for Future Research
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Emara, N.; Ali, N.; Abu Khurma, O. Adaptive Learning Framework (Alef) in UAE Public Schools from the Parents’ Perspective. Soc. Sci. 2023, 12, 297. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12050297
Emara N, Ali N, Abu Khurma O. Adaptive Learning Framework (Alef) in UAE Public Schools from the Parents’ Perspective. Social Sciences. 2023; 12(5):297. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12050297
Chicago/Turabian StyleEmara, Nazera, Nagla Ali, and Othman Abu Khurma. 2023. "Adaptive Learning Framework (Alef) in UAE Public Schools from the Parents’ Perspective" Social Sciences 12, no. 5: 297. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12050297