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The world has been talking about a so-called global learning crisis for years and learning outcomes in mathematics have declined alarmingly since the turn of the millennium, including in Finland. Could monitoring learners’ progress and tailoring tasks to each learner help solve a complex challenge?
Eduten is the result of nearly 20 years of research at Turku University. In the early 2000s, the university’s Centre for Learning Analytics began to explore how computers could help students learn and teachers teach better.
The first versions of the ViLLE learning environment resulting from this research were put into trial use in 2006. Today, the platform is used free of charge by over 70 per cent of Finnish schools. The platform, known as ViLLE, began to be exported to the world six years ago under the name Eduten.
“The research team felt that the time was right to offer a platform outside Finland. We had to set up a company to do that,” says Henri Muurimaa, CEO of Eduten.
Teachers can see who is progressing and who needs support
Muurimaa describes the platform as a digital exercise book. Eduten already has 250,000 maths exercises from preschool to the end of high school.
“Teachers have different ways of going through the topic. However, the practice in maths is almost always the same.”
For example, the teacher goes through fractions for the fourth grade, after which the students do exercises on the topic in Eduten. The next step is analysis.
The platform records all the information about the student’s education: what tasks they do, whether they choose the easy or difficult option, whether they answer correctly or incorrectly. Eduten’s database has already accumulated 2.5 billion responses, while respecting data privacy.
This huge amount of data is used to personalise tasks using machine learning. The information is used to create a learner profile for each student, on which the AI uses to recommend to the teacher what tasks the student should be given next.
The teacher can see who is learning and who needs extra support. The student’s profile travels with them, for example from one lesson to another or to a new school.
The secret of learning lies precisely in tasks that are appropriate to the learner’s level They are suitably challenging and have enough – but not too much – stimulus. Studies show that concentration is maintained when the learner answers 80-85% of the tasks correctly.
“Positive learning experiences are our mission. If you enjoy what you’re doing, you can get into a flow state and learn better. On the other hand, learning is enhanced by the fact that teachers can support the students better than before, because they can see their personal situation.”
Platform in demand from Eastern Europe to Central Asia
In addition to individual lessons, the teacher can monitor the achievement of learning objectives at the course and school year level. Similarly, principals can monitor their schools’ classes, city administrations can monitor city schools, and even the Ministry of Education can monitor the level of proficiency in different regions.
There is demand for the platform especially in Eastern Europe, Spanish-speaking countries and Central Asia. However, it has not been possible to export the platform, which works well in Finland, as such to Estonia, Chile or India, but to adapt it to suit the education system of each country.
Initially, the platform was sold mainly to private schools, but in the future, the company will focus on public authorities. In Mongolia, Eduten recently won the ministry’s tender, and the platform will be made available to all 3rd and 4th graders in the country.
Together with UNICEF and local ministries, Eduten is also running country pilots in countries such as Bhutan and Uzbekistan.
“In Finland, ViLLE is used in different subjects. So far, we have focused on mathematics bcause it is sufficintly universal. But we’re still a startup with eight people.”
