Pioneering Online Education In Africa
(Upbeat music) - Hello, good day. It is such a privilege and such a pleasure to be able to share with you pioneering online education in Africa. To share our story with you so that you might actually also learn how wonderful Canvas has been to developing and growing an online school in Africa. So our story started in January, 2018 and we were given a Canvas login and a password and told that we were starting a school. So out of something as simple as a Canvas login we have now created a wonderful school. Five years later, we have 8000 students.
We have been able to offer three different curricula. We have three schools that range from grade R right through to grade 12. So not only do we span different curricula we also span the different phases of a child's learning journey. And the other really important thing has been that Canvas has been there with us along the journey. So welcome.
And my name is Jackie Cook, and I have had the privilege of being part of Teneo school since January, 2018. And this is our story. So in Africa, particularly here in South Africa, in Kwa-Zulu Natal when we start a story we always start with (speaking foreign language). Which means, once upon a time. And this is our once upon a time.
So our vision was to build a school that could democratize education, could bring an affordable quality education to the children of South Africa and Africa. Because, it's not worth doing anything else. If it hasn't got quality and it needed to be affordable because those are the challenges that face us as south Africans and an education will change a life. It changes a life for the better and it brings so many advantages and so many possibilities. So this is our story.
We have discovered that Canvas is that fairy godmother. What would a fairy story be without a fairy godmother? It is that tool, that teachers have been looking for forever. It merges all the different aspects that a teacher has to do. It places it in one place. So a learning management system is what captured our imagination.
And in the early days we had a self hosted version of Canvas. And I will tell you that at first I didn't really understand what it was about. And then slowly the possibilities started to dawn on me. And I started to realize how it could organize my my learning material. It allowed me to create amazing content with the different features that were there.
And it allowed me via the conferencing that we used in the beginning. The conferencing tool to actually, in a live space communicate with children and teach children as I would in a physical space. I was able to do that. And the children were all there in class and they were in the front row and I could meet them face to face. And I could communicate, and I could teach in that space.
So Canvas has been there. It is flexible. So it has allowed me to curate these learning experiences for my children. The different ways in which it allows me to manage the content for them, to shape and curate that learning experience and to take them through those steps in their learning. So the real challenges have been that Teneo has grown at an exponential rate.
Exponentially, we went from in 2018 we had about 80 students that we finished with at the end of the year. We started to grow in 2019. And then as we know historically in 2020, we moved from being sort of far side form of teaching to mainstream because suddenly everybody discovered that this was a possible way of of running school, of doing school. We were forced by circumstances to do this. And Canvas was able to help us manage that growth and scale that growth.
And things like the ability to use the blueprints, to sync information through to a number of courses. Because we have smaller classes and we can have up to 10 students in one. Sorry, 10 classes in one grade. And to be able to sync content that is consistent across those courses. Allowed us to maintain a sense of, a central point of gravity that our teachers could use as they were teaching.
And the really amazing thing about Canvas, is that it is a portal to learning. So because this is a story, because this is about telling those stories. We have our courses, the pages and the modules and the way in which we can engineer that and put that together. And the way in which we can use it for our little children, is exactly the same as what we can use for the older children and still meet and hold their attention. And with our younger children, we invented long before there was the metaverse, I'll have you know.
The story verse, and the story verse is actually a Canvas course. And the story verse is where our students go, from grade R to grade three on a Friday morning into the story verse. And some of the older children will come to the story verse with the teachers and they will share their reading with the younger children. And in Africa, we love stories. Stories are the way in which we've always communicated as human beings.
And in that space our students can share their reading ability can learn how to read, can experience the wonder of that. And so our Canvas courses are to many of our children, that gateway, that portal. They're that magic carpet ride that takes them from where they are to another place. They're the platform nine and three quarters that gets you onto the Hogwarts express and takes you down a journey. It is the wardrobe into Narnia, and it can take you through.
For our older children it's a Stargate that they're able to go through and experience and be led through the content that they have. And that is the wonder of what Canvas has done for us. As a learning management system we are able to constantly find those new tools and you know, it's really simple. I'm possibly speaking to other educators and teachers in this forum. We are very easy to please give us some simple, little tweaks, little tools, and we are amazed.
And we will use them because we want to create. So Canvas has become that virtual station in shop for us that those tools that we can use to create that space for our students. And the blueprint and the sync if I come back to that has been that magical dust that could help us make our lives easier. It certainly has been something that has helped me feel more organized in how I file things. We use our courses for the teachers in a number of ways.
You can use a course as a resource library that everybody has access to within a subject or a grade. And they're able to contribute and collaborate in that space and create really powerful experiences for the students. The courses are used as exam banks, It's where we store our assessments. Our courses can be used, every teacher's issued with a sandbox. Because if you're not playing, you're not learning.
And only learning comes from play, and we should never stop playing. So those sandboxes are there for our teachers to grow in their skill with Canvas, to develop it, to find those ideas. And when your new features come through Canvas there are these moments of wonder, have you seen this? Did you know that you can do this? This wonderful collaboration of learning that the teachers are experiencing in order to communicate that through to their children. And these virtual classrooms that we have created because of Canvas, have been made possible. Because something else that has been really amazing is that we are able to integrate other platforms, other tools into Canvas very seamlessly.
So Zoom, since March, April 2019 has been the conferencing tool that we use to create our virtual classrooms. We were able to use studio and to use that, to create content for asynchronous use for our students to better support them. In this space and in this virtual learning, the recordings that are held within the canvas course, have become another level of of assistance to students who might have missed something during a class. And their learning depends on them getting that reinforced. Listening to it again, listening to something again, going back to that moment, to be able to capture that moment again has been another one of those amazing magical things that has been made possible by Canvas.
Our students attend class in a live structured timetable. So they have a timetable that's structured from eight o'clock in the morning right through to quarter past two in the afternoon. They don't sit in front of the computer consistently because they have independent study time that is built in. So that's time away from their screens. And the way in which they can use the recordings allows them incredible flexibility.
And I think that flexibility always comes to mind when I think of Canvas, in terms of how you can manage and put the content together. So our live lessons give the children an opportunity to connect with teachers, to ask questions, for teachers to deliver the content, to deliver the teaching. And for the children to be able to ask questions, whether they ask through the chat, whether that's using their microphone. And they're also able to use those communication features that canvas has, and it has created this dynamic, amazing space for our children to work in and for our teachers to teach in. And the next part of this experience has been that successful education comes from a partnership between the teachers and the school, the students within that school, and then the parents.
And that has been something really, really worthwhile to see. Things like the parent Canvas login, observer login that parents are able to do has given parents eyes on what their children are learning. It has given them the ability to understand where the children are on the learning journey. It has allowed parents to support their children in that learning journey and to be part of it. And ultimately isn't all learning just exactly that, we learn from our parents.
We learn from the people who we encounter in life as teachers. And rather than our parents being removed, they drop their children off at a school. They don't know what's going on. Maybe they'll see a book now, and then they might not. Whereas with canvas, they have this incredible insight.
And often we say that, we don't have an open day once a year at Teneo school, we are open 24/7 365. Because when a parent has the opportunity they're able to log in and to see and to engage with what their child is doing. And we know that those students who have parents who are interested and are part of their learning journey, ultimately do better. It's just a fact, isn't it? The most engaged parents will always have the most successful children. And we are certainly finding that the parent observer login is helping our parents to understand that.
It's helping them understand the curriculum whereas they might not have known that. And that was something that was the preserve of teachers. Our parents are now able to be part of this. And so, we move through the learning journey of those three parts. Those, three core parts of what creates a solid, quality experience for children.
Canvas has also been there for the assessment. So the teaching, the learning and then the assessment is enabled by the features in Canvas. And our curriculum requires constant, school based assessment throughout the year. And the quizzes and the assignments allow us to set those up. And the marvel is, that the art teachers are able to use it as effectively as the math teachers or the science teachers or the geography or the history teachers.
And that is the dynamic quality that has allowed us to be so successful. The features in the quiz and in the assignments have shaped and enabled us to be able to meet the requirements from the curriculum. As far as time to tests, we're able to use the timing. We're able to set specific time periods in which work must be done according to what the curriculum requires. The timed assessments and the the moderation of those quizzes, even our children with special needs can be accommodated because the moderate feature within a quiz allows us to add on the extra time for a child who has be been given a particular concession for that.
The other part has been the grade book. And I know that this was one of the things that was magical for me in the beginning, was that I could use the speed grader to mark the work. And the marks were just transposed automatically through to my grade book, but they didn't just stay there. The grade book had all those features that allowed me to rate the marks according to the prescriptions from program of assessment. And it allowed me to see how my students were doing.
Then you brought in the new analytics and those analytical features that have helped us understand where our students are doing poorly, where they need extra support and where they're doing well. And those quizzes and assignments, we can use them informally and as another teaching tool. So that has been a wonder, to set a short little quiz at the end of a section of work. And when the answer comes up, it's there to assist the child to see where they went right and where they're in wrong. And so, as we move through the curriculum and through the year.
We're able to better report on what our children are doing, on understanding where they need a bit more remediation. And one of the areas we really want to start working on is mastery parts, so that we can accommodate the different strengths of our students and the different abilities that students have. And personalize their journeys a lot more. And all of this has been made possible because of Canvas LMS. And we want to thank Canvas for being such an amazing tool that we have used, that we have discovered and most important to us.
Besides the quality and the affordability of the education that we deliver, is that what we are able to deliver has academic integrity. Nothing has no quality, if there is no academic integrity to what we deliver. So there it is. I hope that you will also see those and benefit how those benefit you. And that our story can be shared with other people so that more and more children who need a quality, affordable education can also benefit from this.
And so that's how I end my story this afternoon. And everybody keeps learning happily ever after. Thank you very much.
We have been able to offer three different curricula. We have three schools that range from grade R right through to grade 12. So not only do we span different curricula we also span the different phases of a child's learning journey. And the other really important thing has been that Canvas has been there with us along the journey. So welcome.
And my name is Jackie Cook, and I have had the privilege of being part of Teneo school since January, 2018. And this is our story. So in Africa, particularly here in South Africa, in Kwa-Zulu Natal when we start a story we always start with (speaking foreign language). Which means, once upon a time. And this is our once upon a time.
So our vision was to build a school that could democratize education, could bring an affordable quality education to the children of South Africa and Africa. Because, it's not worth doing anything else. If it hasn't got quality and it needed to be affordable because those are the challenges that face us as south Africans and an education will change a life. It changes a life for the better and it brings so many advantages and so many possibilities. So this is our story.
We have discovered that Canvas is that fairy godmother. What would a fairy story be without a fairy godmother? It is that tool, that teachers have been looking for forever. It merges all the different aspects that a teacher has to do. It places it in one place. So a learning management system is what captured our imagination.
And in the early days we had a self hosted version of Canvas. And I will tell you that at first I didn't really understand what it was about. And then slowly the possibilities started to dawn on me. And I started to realize how it could organize my my learning material. It allowed me to create amazing content with the different features that were there.
And it allowed me via the conferencing that we used in the beginning. The conferencing tool to actually, in a live space communicate with children and teach children as I would in a physical space. I was able to do that. And the children were all there in class and they were in the front row and I could meet them face to face. And I could communicate, and I could teach in that space.
So Canvas has been there. It is flexible. So it has allowed me to curate these learning experiences for my children. The different ways in which it allows me to manage the content for them, to shape and curate that learning experience and to take them through those steps in their learning. So the real challenges have been that Teneo has grown at an exponential rate.
Exponentially, we went from in 2018 we had about 80 students that we finished with at the end of the year. We started to grow in 2019. And then as we know historically in 2020, we moved from being sort of far side form of teaching to mainstream because suddenly everybody discovered that this was a possible way of of running school, of doing school. We were forced by circumstances to do this. And Canvas was able to help us manage that growth and scale that growth.
And things like the ability to use the blueprints, to sync information through to a number of courses. Because we have smaller classes and we can have up to 10 students in one. Sorry, 10 classes in one grade. And to be able to sync content that is consistent across those courses. Allowed us to maintain a sense of, a central point of gravity that our teachers could use as they were teaching.
And the really amazing thing about Canvas, is that it is a portal to learning. So because this is a story, because this is about telling those stories. We have our courses, the pages and the modules and the way in which we can engineer that and put that together. And the way in which we can use it for our little children, is exactly the same as what we can use for the older children and still meet and hold their attention. And with our younger children, we invented long before there was the metaverse, I'll have you know.
The story verse, and the story verse is actually a Canvas course. And the story verse is where our students go, from grade R to grade three on a Friday morning into the story verse. And some of the older children will come to the story verse with the teachers and they will share their reading with the younger children. And in Africa, we love stories. Stories are the way in which we've always communicated as human beings.
And in that space our students can share their reading ability can learn how to read, can experience the wonder of that. And so our Canvas courses are to many of our children, that gateway, that portal. They're that magic carpet ride that takes them from where they are to another place. They're the platform nine and three quarters that gets you onto the Hogwarts express and takes you down a journey. It is the wardrobe into Narnia, and it can take you through.
For our older children it's a Stargate that they're able to go through and experience and be led through the content that they have. And that is the wonder of what Canvas has done for us. As a learning management system we are able to constantly find those new tools and you know, it's really simple. I'm possibly speaking to other educators and teachers in this forum. We are very easy to please give us some simple, little tweaks, little tools, and we are amazed.
And we will use them because we want to create. So Canvas has become that virtual station in shop for us that those tools that we can use to create that space for our students. And the blueprint and the sync if I come back to that has been that magical dust that could help us make our lives easier. It certainly has been something that has helped me feel more organized in how I file things. We use our courses for the teachers in a number of ways.
You can use a course as a resource library that everybody has access to within a subject or a grade. And they're able to contribute and collaborate in that space and create really powerful experiences for the students. The courses are used as exam banks, It's where we store our assessments. Our courses can be used, every teacher's issued with a sandbox. Because if you're not playing, you're not learning.
And only learning comes from play, and we should never stop playing. So those sandboxes are there for our teachers to grow in their skill with Canvas, to develop it, to find those ideas. And when your new features come through Canvas there are these moments of wonder, have you seen this? Did you know that you can do this? This wonderful collaboration of learning that the teachers are experiencing in order to communicate that through to their children. And these virtual classrooms that we have created because of Canvas, have been made possible. Because something else that has been really amazing is that we are able to integrate other platforms, other tools into Canvas very seamlessly.
So Zoom, since March, April 2019 has been the conferencing tool that we use to create our virtual classrooms. We were able to use studio and to use that, to create content for asynchronous use for our students to better support them. In this space and in this virtual learning, the recordings that are held within the canvas course, have become another level of of assistance to students who might have missed something during a class. And their learning depends on them getting that reinforced. Listening to it again, listening to something again, going back to that moment, to be able to capture that moment again has been another one of those amazing magical things that has been made possible by Canvas.
Our students attend class in a live structured timetable. So they have a timetable that's structured from eight o'clock in the morning right through to quarter past two in the afternoon. They don't sit in front of the computer consistently because they have independent study time that is built in. So that's time away from their screens. And the way in which they can use the recordings allows them incredible flexibility.
And I think that flexibility always comes to mind when I think of Canvas, in terms of how you can manage and put the content together. So our live lessons give the children an opportunity to connect with teachers, to ask questions, for teachers to deliver the content, to deliver the teaching. And for the children to be able to ask questions, whether they ask through the chat, whether that's using their microphone. And they're also able to use those communication features that canvas has, and it has created this dynamic, amazing space for our children to work in and for our teachers to teach in. And the next part of this experience has been that successful education comes from a partnership between the teachers and the school, the students within that school, and then the parents.
And that has been something really, really worthwhile to see. Things like the parent Canvas login, observer login that parents are able to do has given parents eyes on what their children are learning. It has given them the ability to understand where the children are on the learning journey. It has allowed parents to support their children in that learning journey and to be part of it. And ultimately isn't all learning just exactly that, we learn from our parents.
We learn from the people who we encounter in life as teachers. And rather than our parents being removed, they drop their children off at a school. They don't know what's going on. Maybe they'll see a book now, and then they might not. Whereas with canvas, they have this incredible insight.
And often we say that, we don't have an open day once a year at Teneo school, we are open 24/7 365. Because when a parent has the opportunity they're able to log in and to see and to engage with what their child is doing. And we know that those students who have parents who are interested and are part of their learning journey, ultimately do better. It's just a fact, isn't it? The most engaged parents will always have the most successful children. And we are certainly finding that the parent observer login is helping our parents to understand that.
It's helping them understand the curriculum whereas they might not have known that. And that was something that was the preserve of teachers. Our parents are now able to be part of this. And so, we move through the learning journey of those three parts. Those, three core parts of what creates a solid, quality experience for children.
Canvas has also been there for the assessment. So the teaching, the learning and then the assessment is enabled by the features in Canvas. And our curriculum requires constant, school based assessment throughout the year. And the quizzes and the assignments allow us to set those up. And the marvel is, that the art teachers are able to use it as effectively as the math teachers or the science teachers or the geography or the history teachers.
And that is the dynamic quality that has allowed us to be so successful. The features in the quiz and in the assignments have shaped and enabled us to be able to meet the requirements from the curriculum. As far as time to tests, we're able to use the timing. We're able to set specific time periods in which work must be done according to what the curriculum requires. The timed assessments and the the moderation of those quizzes, even our children with special needs can be accommodated because the moderate feature within a quiz allows us to add on the extra time for a child who has be been given a particular concession for that.
The other part has been the grade book. And I know that this was one of the things that was magical for me in the beginning, was that I could use the speed grader to mark the work. And the marks were just transposed automatically through to my grade book, but they didn't just stay there. The grade book had all those features that allowed me to rate the marks according to the prescriptions from program of assessment. And it allowed me to see how my students were doing.
Then you brought in the new analytics and those analytical features that have helped us understand where our students are doing poorly, where they need extra support and where they're doing well. And those quizzes and assignments, we can use them informally and as another teaching tool. So that has been a wonder, to set a short little quiz at the end of a section of work. And when the answer comes up, it's there to assist the child to see where they went right and where they're in wrong. And so, as we move through the curriculum and through the year.
We're able to better report on what our children are doing, on understanding where they need a bit more remediation. And one of the areas we really want to start working on is mastery parts, so that we can accommodate the different strengths of our students and the different abilities that students have. And personalize their journeys a lot more. And all of this has been made possible because of Canvas LMS. And we want to thank Canvas for being such an amazing tool that we have used, that we have discovered and most important to us.
Besides the quality and the affordability of the education that we deliver, is that what we are able to deliver has academic integrity. Nothing has no quality, if there is no academic integrity to what we deliver. So there it is. I hope that you will also see those and benefit how those benefit you. And that our story can be shared with other people so that more and more children who need a quality, affordable education can also benefit from this.
And so that's how I end my story this afternoon. And everybody keeps learning happily ever after. Thank you very much.
Canvas LMS has been central to achieving Teneo Education’s vision of democratising a quality, affordable education in Africa. Canvas has the flexibility to shape itself around the requirements of different curricula and to partner with other programmes to curate a virtual learning space. Scaling an online school using the Canvas features has been an exciting and rewarding journey since January 2018. Teneo’s growth has been exponential and we enroll students for most of the year. Canvas has helped us manage both the academic and administrative aspects of a well-run school.
Teachers have courses for: creating content, resource libraries, exam banks, assessment and for portals that transport their students on learning journeys. Canvas provides the tools they need to make teaching seamless. Students have courses where they learn in virtual classrooms, their learning material is always accessible and all this from wherever they may find themselves. Parents have easy access to support their children’s learning. Recreating the elements of a physical school in a virtual learning environment has become a reality for Teneo Education because of Canvas LMS. Teaching, learning, assessment, delivered in real-time by passionate experienced teachers is central to the online school model we have built.