Evaluating free online courses: a case study on 10 Minute School

Abstract

This mixed method study measured the effectiveness of some of the free courses of 10 Minute School, which is the largest online educational platform of Bangladesh. About 2 million students follow the courses for extra help beside the classroom lessons. Over the years, computer mediated learning has been popular in Bangladesh and this platform admittedly played an undeniable role in that. Although incorporating technology is seen as an advantage in education in this era, it can be impractical if not applied carefully. As 10 Minute School is the first of its kind in the country, the challenges of computer assisted learning often remains unsupervised by the higher authority. Moreover, online courses need different teaching strategies than traditional ones. Previous research often showed their concerns on the robotic essence of online education. This explorative study investigated the efficiency of 10 Minute School to improve distant learning. Furthermore, it described the learning experience of the students to discuss pedagogical issues. This study conducted interview sessions with the users of 10 Minute School along with classroom observations. Secondary level and Higher Secondary school students were selected through purposive sampling as research participants. The interview questions were semi-structured and mostly open-ended to collect in-depth data. The results indicated the inefficiency of the 10 Minute School courses and the unsatisfied experiences of students. This study intends to draw the attention of the concerns and develop the online education quality for students.