StudyLab360: A student assessment tool to support learning outcomes

Obi Brown saw a challenge in Nigeria: students were assessed only at the end of secondary school, too late to remedy learning gaps. That's why he created StudyLab360, a tool to benchmark learning outcomes and provide a framework for teachers and schools to improve.

August 29, 2022 by Obi Brown, StudyLab360 Technologies
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3 minutes read
StudyLab360

This blog is part of a series showcasing the winners of the African Union ‘Innovating Education in Africa’ program.

I am a third-generation educator in Nigeria and consider it my heritage. I was first introduced to computers and system analysis as an engineering student, and later decided to apply technology and innovation to what I viewed as my life mission to expand the frontiers of quality education in Africa.

It has always been evident to me that one of the structural problems that the Nigerian education system has is the absence of yearly state tests—a system to benchmark learning outcomes to provide a framework for teachers and schools to improve their processes.

Currently, the student assessment is performed at the end of secondary school. Unfortunately, at that point in the student learning process, it’s almost impossible to remedy learning gaps that the assessment might reveal.

I saw the need for a system that allows benchmarking to happen more frequently and more thoroughly to provide detailed diagnostic student assessment information on a state, school, class and personal level. This led to the creation of StudyLab360.

Learning achievement and performance analytics

StudyLab360 is a learning management system that provides schools with first-class features for remote teaching as well as quick and easy assessments of students and is available online and offline for use in schools and at home. It is designed to help students access practice questions that are categorized by class level, topic and skill, and has a built-in feedback system that helps them improve their knowledge.

For teachers, the system provides detailed performance analytics across all students’ skill sets and allows them to set up class quizzes easily. Schools can also use the detailed performance analytics to benchmark students’ skills against a measurable standard, while government can use the analytics to conduct snapshot assessments of learning outcomes on a state or nationwide survey.

Essentially, StudyLab360 is a tool for student practice, teacher assessment, school diagnostics and benchmarking, and government survey of education outcomes.

The product is well designed and engineered to support those kinds of activities via mobile app or the internet at scale.

StudyLab360 has served about 2,500 students and 900 teachers across Nigeria. We have worked to refine and perfect the product as an offline enterprise app designed for schools. Most students have used it to take school-based tests or prepare for external exams.

We are fortunate to have received an endorsement from the NERDC (the Nigerian education department that certifies educational resources) along with a few other public education departments, such as the Air Force, which has used StudyLab360 to help its students prepare for their final exams.

African countries must instantiate systems that allow for more frequent diagnostic measurements of learning achievement across all classes. Diagnostic tools like StudyLab360 can help in this effort, particularly because it is important to tie policies on teacher training, curriculum development and educational funding to reliable data sets in order to build more resilient and effective systems that can withstand global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

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ان التقييم استراتيجية لتحويل و تحسين التعليم و تطويره اذ قد يكون من العوامل و الاسباب التي تؤدي الى تغيير الانظمة التربوية عبر العالم لانه في الاخير ما هو الا فحص و تقييم للعملية التعليمية التعلمية التي يقوم بها المعلمون في الاساس خاصة ما يتعلق بالمقاربات و الممارسات التعليمية و بالتالي مساءلة النظام التربوي برمته. ولكن لا يمكن للتقييم ان يضطلع بهذا الدور الاساس لانه خاضع لتصورات و مقولات تقليدية لم تساير المعايير و المقاييس الحديثة في التقييم التي يجب ان تكون في تناغم مع تعلم مهارات القرن الواحد و العشرين.فالتقييم مازال بعيدا لم يستثمر التوجهات العالمية في التعليم من اجل اعداد شبكة للتقييم حديثة و مرنة تستجيب لكل مهارات و كفاءات المتعلمين و العمل على دعمها و تقويتها.التقييم المعمول به الان مغلق و مقفل لا يسمح باعداد توصيفات وتشخيصات تتعلق بمدى اكتساب المتعلمين للتعلمات و كيف يتم بناء هذا الاكتساب .فالامر يرتبط برؤية داخلية تستهدف حركية بناء الكفاءات لدى المتعلين و اساليب التقييم الحالية لا تمكن من ذلك لانها نمطية و احادية التكوين لا تنفع حتى الفئة الممتازة منهم . و لا تغطي الكفاءات التحتية التي تسهم في تشخيص حقيقي صلب قد يصدق امام التقييمات الدولية .ان اخطاء المتعلمين قد تتحول الى حوارات لتشخيص الفهم و بناء فهم اخر من قبلهم بعيدا عن المسارات المصممة بدرجة الية لا تمكن من التقييم الحقيقي الذي يطرح امكانية الاستغناء عنه ككيفية و ليس كقيمة اذ التقييم عماد و اساس التعليم.

StudyLab360 is a good tool and supportive of our traditional education system. It would be great, if it can address the learning gap that exist across schools and classrooms in Nigeria today. Being a grade-based testing tool, it reinforces the traditional grade system that doesn't explain and provide a comprehensive assessment of students. It looks more like a summative assessment tool. But I know it can be improved upon for use as a formative assessment tool too. And it can be upgraded to assess non-cognitive skills such as critical and creative thinking, communication, collaboration, problem-solving, citizenship, etc. It'll be good to see such improvements of this tool in the future.

In reply to by Daniel Imeli

Thanks for your comment, Daniel
StudyLab is infact, a formative assessment tool.
There is bank of topic based practice questions that come with video explanations so students could use the formative feedback while practicing. There are 7000 videos solving questions in Physics, Chemistry and Math. Other subjects have text based feedback.
And still it reports the analytics of that topic practice to the teachers.

It also has a lesson bank with a well designed content distribution system that school teachers, and publishing partners can use to make interactive learning content available to students and even monetize it.
With regards to assessing non-cognitive skills, this can definitely be worked into the roadmap for the app.

Thanks

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