Online learning empowers disadvantaged Roma students

The research team of Krisztina Megyeri, Zsófia Koós and Brigitta Szilágyi examined the initial experiences of an online catch-up programme launched at the Ámbédkar School. The school primarily serves disadvantaged Roma students, including young people who had previously dropped out, or had come close to dropping out, of mainstream education. The programme began in September 2021, and the study focused mainly on the development of ninth-grade students’ mathematics and IT skills. The findings were published in the journal PROSPECTS in June. 

The students practised using the EduBase online learning platform. For each topic, the system generated new parameterised exercises, provided immediate feedback, and allowed students to make repeated attempts at solving the tasks. This was particularly important because, for many students, the problem was not that they lacked knowledge of material appropriate for their age, but that they were missing foundational skills from earlier grades. 

“You cannot simply skip over missing foundations. If students are given tasks suited to their own level and receive immediate feedback, they can experience a sense of achievement, which can later become the basis for their motivation to learn,” said Krisztina Megyeri, a researcher at Corvinus University. 

Forty students began the school year in the ninth-grade class examined, and the results of 27 students were analysed in greater detail. On average, they completed 31 online tests across 10 subject areas and achieved an average score of 62 per cent. Girls tried a wider range of topics and performed better on average, while boys completed more tests and spent more time practising. 

According to the researchers, the success of the programme cannot be measured solely in percentages. It was already a significant step forward that the students learned how to use an online educational platform. This may seem surprising after the Covid period, but many students did not have a stable internet connection or a computer at home, meaning that they had not developed even the basic digital skills needed for online learning. 

When doing maths becomes enjoyable 

“The programme had a difficult start, as the students had significant gaps in their ability to use online tools. After addressing these, we carried out a comprehensive assessment to determine how far back we needed to go with each student, and this became the starting point for their development. Students could move on to the next level only after successfully completing the previous one. If someone wanted additional practice, they could return at any time to a topic they had already completed, where new exercises would be waiting for them. It was striking to see that, in the area of basic numeracy skills, several students continued practising even after reaching the required level. This represented a major success for them because receiving a score above 80% on a test had been a very rare experience in their lives, so they wanted to experience that sense of success again and again,” said Brigitta Szilágyi, a researcher at Corvinus University and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), and a member of the research team. 

Subject teachers were initially somewhat sceptical, but after seeing the positive experiences, they became supportive of the programme. Following the successes achieved in mathematics, teachers of other subjects also asked the researchers to develop catch-up and skills-development programmes for their courses. The school’s management created a highly supportive environment from the outset, which also contributed to the programme’s success. Students participating in the project began communicating with one another more frequently, and when one student understood a task, they would start explaining it to the others. This kind of peer collaboration had previously been less common in lessons. 

The study’s main message is that helping students catch up requires more than simply teaching the same material again. It is essential to identify the right starting point and create a learning environment in which students can practise independently and at a pace that feels safe for them. An online platform can help ensure that students do not feel ashamed of falling behind and can instead approach their learning gaps as manageable problems they are capable of working through.