Providing Positive Learning Experiences and Utilizing Competition to Encourage Student Motivation and Achieve Academic Growth
Location
Abox Education, China
About
Designed to prepare students for lives of meaningful purpose in an interconnected world
Edmentum Products
Exact Path
Challenge
Established by a group of educators to provide positive learning experiences in addition to learners’ traditional school settings, Abox Education proudly delivers education technology and solutions to families and their students across China.
Since its inception, Abox Education has experienced significant growth. It now caters to many students studying in international schools, private schools, and local schools across China, with a diverse student population to provide educational experiences for.
In 2021, Abox Education recognized that, although it was providing effective learning experiences for students, it faced a challenge when it came to motivating students to spend quality time on their studying and encouraging them to achieve significant academic growth gains.
Iris Zhou, product and curriculum director at Abox Education, commented on this:
“We found a need to search for a solution to support us with motivating students and encouraging growth. We understand that, sometimes, it’s difficult to motivate students to spend time on their studying. We are parents ourselves, and we know that the best way to support our children to learn is to create a positive learning experience where they will love learning.”
Abox Education searched for a partner to provide a solution and came across Edmentum, experts in delivering K– 12 digital education solutions.
After establishing contact with Edmentum, Abox Education trialed the K–12 individualized learning program, Exact Path, and realized that it could support students by offering compelling learning experiences at their individual academic levels.
“Exact Path fit our needs, so we decided to partner with Edmentum to provide a solution for us and our students. Exact Path offered a learning platform that would highly motivate the students and provide engaging educational experiences for them with its powerful individualized learning tools.”
Exact Path offered a learning platform that would highly motivate the students and provide engaging educational experiences for them with its powerful individualized learning tools.”
Solution
After implementing Exact Path as a major tool for student learning, Abox Education used various methods to motivate students and encourage them to make academic growth gains.
Encouraging Motivation to Learn
To encourage motivation to learn, Abox Education took advantage of the Challenges and Trophies offered in Exact Path.
From August to September 2021, Abox Education used the Challenges and Trophies to organize a 30-day competition for students to participate in. The competition consisted of two challenges.
Iris explained:
“We tasked students with spending 20 minutes on their Exact Path learning path for 30 consecutive days, or they needed to receive at least 30 Trophies for a particular subject in 30 days. Once students had achieved either of these, they were then eligible to win a prize.”
Abox Education’s competition was a huge success. Around 100 students participated, and together, the learners impressively earned over 850 Trophies and spent over 1,250 hours on Exact Path.
Commenting on the competition’s success, Iris said:
“Our staff and the tools on Exact Path created a positive atmosphere for students and parents and encouraged and motivated each other to work. The Trophies and the time-on-task statistics available in Exact Path were so significant in achieving this motivation. Together with the tools on the platform, we would be able to share success every day, and we were always able to celebrate something.”
Once the competition had ended, Abox Education reviewed the statistics on Exact Path, and winners were chosen throughout several grades. The winning students had some positive feedback to share from the competition.
A 4th grade student was the English reading winner with 3,910 minutes spent on the program and 59 Trophies earned. They said:
“I am very thankful to Abox for organizing such a competition, which has added endless motivation to my self-study. At first, I felt stuck and almost gave up. Thanks to my mum’s encouragement and assistant teachers for their timely feedback on any incorrect questions, I am the proud owner of an award. I am grateful for this challenge, which has motivated me to study hard and increased my discipline tenfold.”
A 7th grade student and ELA winner with 5,056 minutes spent on the program and 66 Trophies earned, said, “I feel very happy that I won. I learned that if you keep at doing one thing, the participation is more important than the result.”
A 3rd grade student and math winner with 1,883 minutes spent on the program and 75 Trophies said, “Thank you to Edmentum and Abox Education for organizing the event. During the competition, I learned a lot of things I never knew and had good progress. I will keep learning with this great system.”
Achieving Academic Growth Gains
The learning paths on Exact Path have been ideal for how Abox Education delivers instruction and accelerates students’ academic growth, which was a challenge it wanted to address.
Exact Path’s learning paths perfectly served Abox Education’s elementary and secondary students in K–12, who may or may not use NWEA© MAP® Growth™, and also fit flexibly into the times when students chose to study. The pathways were also useful for the teachers and teaching assistants who worked with particular students individually.
Iris explained:
“We love to see the excitement from the students when they work on Exact Path. They are enjoying the experience and the learning process, and they make significant academic progress.“We also have students using MAP, and we really like the idea that Exact Path can generate the personalized learning path based on a student’s MAP results. Exact Path not only supports NWEA MAP integration, but it also supports students who do not use NWEA MAP, as they can use Exact Path’s diagnostic assessments, so it’s ideal for us with our vast student population’s needs.”
Abox Education was pleased that Exact Path can effectively pinpoint students’ needs with its intervention tools and help its educators understand students’ progress more efficiently to advance academic growth.
Iris commented, “We have students who work on Exact Path daily, and we can normally see their score improvement just after one month when they have consistently spent time in their learning path.”
Result
As Abox Education has seen rapid success from using Exact Path in terms of motivation to learn and academic growth gains, it looks forward to continuing utilizing the program.
Parents have noted how their children have enjoyed the competitive element of Exact Path and have asked for more competitions to help them learn.
Iris noted, “Parents are excited about how we will offer Exact Path in the future to support students’ learning. Exact Path is definitely one of the most popular solutions.”
The number of students joining Abox Education has been growing rapidly. Due to the growth, Abox Education will continue to provide educational solutions like Exact Path to encourage academic acceleration and enthusiasm. Indeed, in addition to Exact Path, Abox Education has recently acquired the help of Edmentum’s EducationCity, Study Island, and Courseware for further support.
Iris reported:
“We have seen such amazing success from using Exact Path and cannot wait to see what the future holds with further use of it. We are proud to have this incredible tool at our disposal and to help our students with furthering their academic growth even more.”
Edmentum is proud to partner with Abox Education, and together, we will continue to drive academic growth and empower students with tools to enhance their future academic success.
Programs that Drive Success
Learn more about the programs used by this school community to achieve results.
Exact Path
Diagnostic-driven learning paths and powerful teaching tools to scale interventions K–12 in math, reading, and language arts and empower educators to reach all students through personalized instruction.
Assessments, Supplemental & Intervention
Courseware
Digital curricula for grade 6 through adult learners help students reach graduation goals and beyond through flexible, personalized first-time credit, credit recovery, and expanded course access.
Courses & Curriculum
EducationCity
Trusted assessments and curricula aligned to UK educational objectives for English, maths, and science are designed to work in harmony with educators to help students aged 4–12 develop key skills.
Assessments, Supplemental & Intervention
Study Island
Industry-leading K–12 [state]-standards-aligned practice, test prep, and assessments to advance grade-level proficiency in math, ELA, science, and social studies and build testing confidence for all learners.
Assessments, Supplemental & Intervention