The number of coaching institutes has drastically increased in the past couple of years. This also means that the demand for coaching has increased.
Traditionally, coaching institutes work towards preparing students to perform better in academics. The preparation involves teaching the subjects through offline or online lectures coupled with frequent tests. However, since time immemorial students are known to avoid appearing for tests. They continue to harness negative feelings towards mock exams and try their best to relieve themselves of short-term anxiety. However, in the long run, this approach tends to harm their academic prospects.
Gradeazy, as a brand has always believed in simplifying problems and providing feasible solutions to challenges. Our online assessment platform is representative of our brand’s value system and we share solutions to craft a better learning experience for students.
Given our expertise in the matter, we believe we can rightly put forward some of the questions you may have in mind.
- Why do students want to opt-out of these tests?
- How can we inculcate a positive mindset towards tests?
- Can the tests be designed any differently to assess the performance of students?
We earnestly hope that this article helps you find answers to the above-mentioned questions.
We bring to you a list of factors that we need to consider for better results:
Teacher Expectations
Teacher’s expectations about their students affect the students’ learning opportunities. It is always good to communicate expectations. High levels of expectations can add to student motivation but at the same time result in too much pressure that they might avoid studies. Teachers need to strike the right balance between both of them.
Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation is the best form of motivation and is better known to surpass highs and lows. Every student has different reasons to perform better academically. Teachers should play a key role in capturing the essence of what makes their students driven towards success.
Feedback
Immediate feedback from teachers can enhance student motivation to remain attentive. This may lead to better performance the next time. With time, students tend to forget about the emotions they had felt during the exam and their level of preparation. Gradeazy’s analytics can help students receive instant results as soon as the window for appearing for an online test is closed. This can prevent any delay in receiving test results and keep their preparation needs under check.
Assessment
Teachers conduct tests to evaluate the level of preparation of students. Test can be conducted in online or offline mode. Offline tests can be time consuming and may lack feasibility at times. Online tests can help in ensuring students can give the tests from the comfort of their home. Opting for Gradeazy’s test platform makes it easier for students to opt for online tests with monitoring by their teachers. However, a few other options can also be explored in addition to the traditional mode of testing.
- Self-evaluation can aid students to understand their weak areas. Students are likely to get an insight into the reasons for avoiding a particular topic and strategy to be adopted to prepare them if they were to be faced in the examination.
- Open-ended questions can be incorporated to help students expand their thinking horizon. They may not directly help in producing expected scores in exams but can go a long way in driving the concepts better.
- Online worksheets can be prepared and made available to students. Gradeazy also provides a facility to guide students for better recollection. This enhances student willingness to attempt worksheets and revise their subjects in a systematic and planned manner.
However, the way the questions should be formed and the environment of the study place will require greater research depending upon the students’ needs.
The nature of the exam will also directly influence how the students take the exam, prepare for the same, and additionally, what they learn and take away from it. The length of the exam, along with the format of the testing and the frequency all have a huge impact on the final effect on students. The institutes have to keep everything into consideration before designing the next series of tests.
Group Projects
We all value collaboration in the present times. Whether your student is an introvert or extrovert, there is always something to learn in group tasks. Group projects can lead to a flexible, fun environment coupled with opportunities for learning and growth.
The Importance of Failure
Winning is necessary in today’s world, if you don’t win, you will be left way behind. But no great win has ever come without failure first. Institutions should thus create a culture where risk-taking and efforts are given priority and are rewarded.
Not the Simple Classroom Model
Students can take the place of teachers and vice versa. The flipped classroom model will teach students how to deal with stress, to speak valuable words and numerous other skills that will come in handy in the future.
These suggestions may come across as easy to read and understand but difficult to apply. This requires us to see the role of coaching institutes beyond just preparers for the targeted exams. While academically coaching institutes may be delivering their best but they can still play a pivotal role in shaping the lives of students. They can make them mentally resilient to take up the challenges that life may throw at them in various instances. Gradeazy would like to responsibly contribute to this task in our own little way. Book a demo and see how you and us together can help students learn and grow better.
