Relevant initiatives

Redooc - The maths as you have never seen before

Chiara Burberi, Nicolò Ammendola

2013

National

No

Online course, Teaching Methodology, Video, Didactical resource

Maths

Italian

Teachers, Students

Redooc is a platform for education in mathematics that has 3 elements:
- video lectures that explain theory in a simple way
- exercises proposed as an online game
- user profile that shows the summary of the activities performed and the results obtained.
Of the current 83 videos that cover all the math of 1st year of High School, 21 are free and 2 are available on Oilproject, in math class.
For example, there are videos about the equations. There are 6 videos to investigate the linear equations (literal equations, entire and with divisions).
For each video there are exercises, divided into 3 levels, 8 for each level. After the registration and the creation of a personal user profile, it is possible to trace the activities carried out, results achieved and scores.

This initiative is dedicated to mathematics. Many interesting video lessons are available; these are divided according to the disciplinary setting: arithmetic, algebra, geometry, factors and hypothesis, relations and functions.
An example of the products in the portal is the lesson about the introduction to inequalities http://redooc.com/it/content/details/contentKey/introduzione_alle_disequazioni. The students could have a second teacher at disposal for tutoring and clarifications.
A tool that will be very useful to portal’s users is the search of the lessons that are divided into origin schools: each user will find the more suitable lesson for its own competence and didactic preparation.
In addition, it will be possible keep track of the activities, changes, scores and status phases with the free creation of a personal account.

"Redooc is a web platform built as a big game online: video lessons, games, stories and exercises divided by levels and complete explanation, starting from daily life to put into practice the concepts more abstract. [...] Our great challenge is to make learning fun, starting with the math."
(Chiara Burberi, founder of Redooc)

The website https://redooc.com/it/ appears, to those who visit for the first time, colourful, funny and easy to understand, due to its graphics features and the aesthetic and organisational criteria according to them it has been defined and structured. In addition to that, I consider really interesting and winning the idea of presenting different contents (topics and themes divided by type of school and, in accordance with ministry guidelines, in the categories Arithmetic and Algebra, Geometry, Data and Prediction, Relations and Functions) through curious and unusual questions relating to typical situations of daily life, in particular of that of the students. Questions such as: What is the shape of the playgrounds?, How much can you spend on each your friend?, Which grade do you need to take to have the average of 6?, How many pairs of socks you carry in your suitcase?, How do you organize your wardrobe?, How much do you have to save for the trip to Africa?, What is the way to go out of the maze?, How is Valentino Rossi related to the sets?, And what will happen if I intersect Vale races with those of Stoner?, How many beers could your friend Luca drink tonight?, How many invitations can you send to avoid a full house at the disco?, Which is the ideal size of the ice cream cone?, What is the link between WhatsApp contacts and their photos?... are nothing more than a fun and effective device with which the site is able to draw the attention of the student regarding topics (plane geometry, linear equations, mean, powers, monomials, inequalities, systems, geometric transformations, domain/codomain, ...) usually presented in the classroom by teachers in a more serious, formal and abstract way, and, probably for this reasons, also in a more boring way to the boys’ eyes.
Each of these curious questions is showed by the website as a "challenge", and is associated with a video lesson, in which two young male voices describe with a formal language but with informal tones and in a funny way, the theoretical basis of the topic concerning that specific challenge. At the end of the video lesson, the student finds the solution to the challenge. For each video there are some associated exercises, divided into three difficulty levels, with which it is possible to consolidate the contents of the video lesson.
In this regard, a strength of the site consists of the presence of a monitoring and evaluation system. In fact, the registration to the website provides the creation of a user profile, in which the students can check in real time, step by step, the activities carried out, with the relative scores obtained, and then assess their own level of preparation. All the above mentioned features make this site a very interesting tool and in my opinion a very good and effective one from a didactic point of view.
However a great weakness of the Redooc platform should be taken into consideration: the user has to pay a subscription for using it. The single registration allows to fully use materials on the site for only 30 days; expired the probationary period, user who choose not to subscribe, is allowed to see only a small portion of the contents (see the video lessons “Free”). I believe that this aspect strongly limits the applicability of the project in everyday teaching, especially in more difficult and problematic school settings, as that where I teach (Professional Institute). The website is definitely inspired by the commendable belief that we should make the learning of mathematics as simple as possible but then, contradictorily, gives the student an unexpected and, in my opinion, inappropriate difficulty, when it constrain the student to subscribe to work fully with the tools provided by the site.

“In the Redooc website the organization of the topics is very cute in and draws the attention of the user. [ ... ] I think it's very useful for children with difficulties or who want to increase their knowledge. In fact, lessons are well planned by school year, type of school and argument, and explained in a funny way and with examples of everyday life that appeal students. I would recommend it to all because it is a very nice and interesting website.”

“The website is well structured and it has a search engine with which you can easily find any topic.”

“Redooc website is what I personally liked most among those proposed by Professor because of its design and coloured look. I feel it closer to the mathematics that we study at school; the language is simple and clear, and topics are explained very clearly . I think it's very useful and all professors would use it to make math lessons more comprehensible and funny.”

“I find it a good choice that of explaining algebra topics relating them to MotoGP or Formula 1. This encourages students to have a greater involvement to topics generally misjudged or badly judged. Video lessons are reviewed by two young male voices who joke at times and make lessons fun and cheerful. This implies a higher interest in learning certain subjects, usually considered difficult or nothingness.”

“Show examples of lessons with current elements of interest to teenagers, such as the example of WhatsApp to address the definition of domain and codomain. It could be useful to review an argument in a funny way.”

“It would be a project to be easily applied at school if there were not a registration fee to access Redooc platform and its topics.”

“To be able to look at the lessons and do the exercises you're forced to be register with the website; moreover arguments are only up to the third year.”