Oasis Academy Arena students receive instant feedback thanks to Horizons iPad rollout

Oasis Academy Arena distributed an iPad to each pupil and teaching staff member in January 2021. In total, 590 iPads with rugged keyboard cases were provided as part of the Horizons program. Since January, the iPads have had a significant impact on the school.

One shining success is the Mathematics department, who have been able to transform the way they use exit tickets to assess students’ understanding of lessons thanks to the Horizons program.

At the end of each class, students fill out an exit ticket, answering two to three questions to evaluate their understanding of the lesson. Previously, this was an arduous and time-consuming process for the teachers. They would have to print out the questions on paper, cut them to the correct size, distribute and collect them during the lesson, mark the papers, and hand them back during the next day’s lesson. Now, the teachers upload the questions and answers onto Microsoft Forms.

Oasis Academy Arena Head of Maths, Tashi Phunstock says “A lot of time is saved by doing it digitally… it may take a little extra time for the teacher to put the exit ticket on Teams add the link, to load it up, but once it’s up there it saves a lot of time.”

During class, the students use Teams to access the questions on their iPads. They then work out the exit ticket problems in their exercise book, and then use their iPad to submit their answers into Microsoft Forms, where they receive immediate feedback on their work.

The students have noticed a difference. “The kids have already commented that it allows them to know whether they’ve got [the questions] right or wrong instantly, and they’re able to correct the work in the exercise book quite quickly,” Phunstock says.

Along with the exit tickets, the Horizons project has helped teachers provide students learning resources digitally, for example past exam practice papers. Students are able to access these resources via their iPads both during lessons and at home. They can work on revision in their own time, and then bring that back to school.

Phunstock also saw a difference in the usage of resources. “We’ve saved a lot of photocopying paper… and this really saved me, in my view, hours and hours of photocopying time,” he says.