A group of Moroccan IT and digital professionals based in France have launched an interactive and free e-learning platform, Laclasse.ma, to facilitate remote teaching for Moroccan tutors.
Launched on April 13, the platform is part of Morocco’s solidarity effort in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to enable the continuity of lessons for students and teachers.
Laclasse.ma has a simple and easy-to-use interface to allow people who are not used to technology to use it as well.
“The founding team is aware of the struggle most teachers are facing to get acquainted with online teaching methods overnight,” reads the platform description page.
The platform has several features that simulate real-life classrooms, including a virtual whiteboard, a screen sharing function, and a camera and microphone interactivity the teacher controls.
The features also include a function for sharing notes, videos, and documents, as well as private and public chat between students and teachers.
After the end of a session, the platform archives it so students can review it at all times.
Teachers can create virtual classrooms, assign course subjects, and invite students to join.
Teachers can also set up a calendar to notify their students of classes in advance or monitor the number of students enrolled in their class through a dashboard.
As for students, they can create a user account to instantly access all their lessons and interact with their teachers in real time during classes. Students can also create study groups to discuss the lessons.
The platform works on multiple devices, including computers, smartphones, and tablets, and teachers and students can access it from any location in Morocco.
As of April 23, 10 days after its launch, Laclasse.ma has recorded 13,000 users and 26,000 sessions.
Six weeks without in-person schooling
The initiative came in response to the suspension of classes in Moroccan schools on March 13 as a preventive measure to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The suspension of classes led the Ministry of National Education to venture into remote learning to ensure students keep learning from home.
On March 16, the ministry launched the remote learning initiative via the website “Telmid TICE” and television channel 4, “Athaqafia.”
The website provides lessons grouped according to level and subjects. It includes hundreds of pre-recorded lessons in video format, and its database receives regular updates.
Meanwhile, the “Athaqafia” channel broadcasts lessons daily according to a preset schedule. The lessons progress according to the regular school curriculum.
In addition to the government-led plan, several teachers across the country took the initiative to gather their students in virtual classrooms, through different softwares and platforms.