Portal for students to learn anywhere to be launched next year

SINGAPORE — After a delay, the full roll-out of a nationwide learning portal will begin progressively from next year, and the initiative — which was originally aimed at primary and secondary schools — will include junior colleges and the Millennia Institute.

Called the Singapore Student Learning Space, the portal will allow pupils —who can log in with a username and password — to learn and revise at their own pace. Since last month, it has been piloted at 62 primary and secondary schools — about one fifth of the total number of primary and secondary schools here.

The portal, which was first announced in 2013 by then-Education Minister Heng Swee Keat, was to be implemented at all primary and secondary schools nationwide by last year.

The delay was because stakeholders such as students, teachers and the Ministry of Education (MOE) conducted several engagement sessions during the conceptualisation and development of the portal, said the ministry. Different groups of teachers and students gave feedback and took part in focus group discussions.

The portal contains “curriculum-aligned resources across grade levels and major subjects and time is required in terms of development of these resources”, a spokesperson added. “We hoped to ensure that the resources and tools will be able to meet the learning needs of students and can also complement teaching effectively.”

The portal will provide resources for major subjects — including English, Mathematics and Social Studies — that are “aligned to the national curriculum”, and help “empower our students to drive their own learning according to their needs and interests”, the MOE said in a press release yesterday.

Partnering the Government Technology Agency of Singapore, the MOE will work with educators to gather feedback and develop the portal further to meet the needs of students and teachers before it is rolled out to all schools.

Noting that the portal will be “accessible anytime and anywhere”, the ministry added that it will provide every student with “equal access to quality online learning resources”.

“This will allow them to learn at their own pace, revisit concepts, and read up on other areas of interest,” the MOE said.

It will benefit teachers as well: They can use it to co-develop, adapt and share new pedagogies with colleagues in their schools, as well as with their peers from other schools. The teachers can also use the resources to design learning experiences and environments that promote critical thinking and teamwork among students, the MOE said. Among other things, they can monitor their students’ learning progress and give feedback.

Students can access a variety of interactive resources such as videos, animation, games and quizzes.

The quizzes will be graded automatically and feedback will be provided on the students’ answers to help them improve their understanding of a particular subject.

For Social Studies, for instance, students can watch animation and video clips that explain the concept of a “common space” for people of diverse backgrounds to build a common sense of identity.

Admiralty Secondary School is among the schools that have piloted the portal. Following a visit to the school yesterday, Minister for Education (Schools) Ng Chee Meng described the portal as an “empowering tool” for students to have “self-directed and self-paced” learning. “The rewards for the students will be tremendous,” he said. “They will have access to (the portal) at their own time, even at home where if they want to review a lesson ... to deepen the understanding, all (the resources) will be available.”

To encourage more Singaporeans to venture overseas, the report by the Committee on the Future Economy — which was released in February — had recommended the MOE make available the portal to overseas Singaporean students for them to stay familiar with the national curriculum. On this, Mr Ng said that if there is interest, the ministry can explore providing access to Singaporeans abroad wherever they are.

In 2013, Mr Heng said the aim of the initiative was to allow every student, regardless of which school he or she is in, to have greater access to “high quality and relevant” learning resources.

Admiralty Secondary social studies teacher Tay Peiyong uses the portal to complement his lessons. He felt that its greatest advantage is in allowing teachers to monitor their students’ progress. “I will be able to know if my students understand the lesson,” said the 33-year-old. “If I know that students don’t really understand what I taught … I can help them.”

His Secondary 3 student Jannsen Low said the portal has been very helpful in his revision. “If I don’t understand something, I can go back home and research more (about the topic),” said the 15-year-old.

Parents also welcomed the portal. Housewife Adrienne Lee, 40, who has two sons in Primary 3 and Primary 6 as well as a two-year-old daughter, said she shares educational YouTube videos with her elder son on Facebook to help him understand a particular subject better.

Adding that children “absorb more” from interactive learning instead of classroom lessons, she said the portal — with its array of resources — will give her more options to educate her children.