Abstract:

The school lockdown due to the Corona pandemic is perceived as a major challenge by teachers, students and parents. The shift of teaching from the classroom to the children’s rooms results in a massive change in the organization of learning. With a view to the Corona situation in Germany and based on empirical studies on the German school situation, five major issues of distance learning are derived, namely the technical, social-organizational, didactical, content-related and also emotional challenge. In particular, the lack of familiar school structures, the lack of personal contact and issues for appropriate individual diagnosis and support are taken into consideration.

Several studies show that these problems are exacerbated by asynchronous distance learning formats, which were predominant in Germany in spring 2020. Therefore, and based on the identified needs for teaching and learning during the school closure, the MCM@home concept is presented as a promising tool for synchronous distance learning in mathematics education. MCM@home is based on the outdoor learning platform MathCityMap and adapts this system for distance learning settings. In MCM@home, students work on digital learning path and can thereby retrieve hints or the sample solution on demand. To access these learning paths, students only need a smartphone with internet access and the installed MathCityMap app (free of costs; no registration required). Within the feature Digital Classroom, the teacher is enabled to monitor the student's progress in real time and provide specific support and feedback to the learner via chat (text, voice message or photo).

MCM@home was piloted during the lockdown in spring 2020 and has since been used for digital math lessons in distance learning settings in several European countries. With regard to the theoretical considerations, both the benefits of MCM@home and its limitations are discussed. Finally, an outlook on the upcoming advancement of the concept is given. Within the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership ASYMPTOTE (2021-2023), MCM@home will be further developed as a stand-alone learning platform and supplemented with adaptivity and learning analytics functions.

Keywords:

Distance Learning, Learning App, Learning Platform, MathCityMap, MCM@home.