In these uncertain times, we’ve all had to face unexpected challenges that have left us with a greater need for adaptability and resilience. With school closures already in place and many more now imminent, educational opportunities are threatened and disruption widespread.
Over the past few days (and nights), our team have been working tirelessly to counteract this disruption and offer stability to students, parents and teachers as school gates are shut indefinitely in response to COVID-19. This is all thanks to our cutting-edge educational technology.
We’re proud to be supporting the Egyptian Government in facilitating continued education during such a critical moment in time. We provide the Thinqi LMS (learning management system) to Egypt’s teachers and students, which constitutes an integral part of the successful Egyptian Knowledge Bank project (EKB). This is an educational project designed to provide life-changing opportunities for students by giving them access to high-quality learning technologies, equipped with the latest digital tools and resources. In response to COVID-19 and the consequent closure of schools, the demand for access has rapidly escalated.
In conjunction with the hardworking people at Amazon Web Services (AWS), we have been able to significantly scale up our operations at short notice – the extent of which cannot be understated. Our platform was initially used to support Years 10 and 11. However, in response to the crisis, we have now scaled up to accommodate all year groups. The learning platform was also made available to the entire Egyptian population, not just teachers and learners, giving parents the opportunity to support their children’s learning. On 19th March, when the latest changes went live, the site hit 7.3 million page views in five hours, with 574,000 individual users actively engaging in digital learning during that same period. Thanks to this work, millions of users are now able to learn, develop and stay safe in these challenging times.
“These are exceptional times we’re living through and the challenges for educational institutions are substantial,” says our Head of Technology, Nik Goile. “With the support of our EKB colleagues in Egypt and AWS we were able to scale up our system from two school grades to the entire estate in four days. It’s been a crazy ride but I’m glad CDSM has been able to do its bit to help people impacted by this global pandemic.”
Technical Delivery Manager and Senior Developer at CDSM, Gareth Thomas, agrees. He says: “I have worked on Thinqi LMS since its inception six years ago, delivering a blended learning experience to students from all walks of life; from primary school children to adult professionals. In doing so, I have experienced many different challenges but this has by far and away blown those out of the water. It just goes to show that a relatively small group of hardworking individuals can achieve great things. I’d like to say a big thanks to our friends at AWS who supported us every step of the way.”
Transitioning from classroom learning to digital can often be a daunting prospect for teachers and students alike. Founded on decades of teaching and learning experience, our cutting-edge blended learning technology offers cross-platform access, in-depth reporting capabilities, and is expertly designed with the needs of today’s learner in mind – no matter what the challenge. We are pleased to be helping our users overcome the barriers imposed by recent events, and aim to ensure students are able to continue learning throughout this difficult time.
