It’s been another tough year, but we’re always trying to improve and listen to what you need. We receive student feedback throughout the year, and focus on implementing changes that can really make a difference.
Here’s what we’ve done:
Live Online
You told us that ‘Live Online sessions run in WebEx were often unreliable’, so we transitioned to Zoom instead. This has proven to be more than 96% reliable. In our continued efforts to improve the use of the platform we also introduced zoom meetings to encourage further engagement.
Those of you that had to move to Live Online from Classroom said that you ‘...found it hard to concentrate, sessions were a bit too fast’, and that ‘the chat panel could become too busy in larger classes’. To tackle this we made sure that Live Online sessions became more bite-size, with more breaks and varied learning activities.
We also now provide recordings of live sessions so you can revisit your lessons.
Many of you have found these changes helpful and consequently have opted to stay with Live Online given its flexibility.
Booster courses
Due to the delayed exams, you told us that you were ‘...worried about forgetting what we had learnt’, so we’ve created booster courses for ACA, ACCA, ATT, and CTA, and recap courses for AAT with extra content, including question debriefs, to support you through your extended study period.
We also reorganised the timing of 1,500 progress tests and mock exams to ensure that these were at appropriate times for each course and extended your course access.
Wellbeing
You told us that you were ‘...worried about our wellbeing and motivation to study during the pandemic’, so we used Instagram to stream live interviews, to talk about issues such as mental health, wellbeing and how to study effectively from home.
Over 14 weeks, we spoke to 12 guests including experts from the ACCA, AAT, CIMA, ACA, AICPA, CABA, and MIA. Approximately 409 people viewed the live sessions (avg 34 per session) and we have had over 2,430 views across Youtube and IGTV.
We also built a microsite of curated content for new students, covering key skills, such as maths and English, that our learners would need if they’d had a break in their studies.
Finally, we released a series of brand new content that aims to support our students with their mental health and well-being such as - The Learn Better series podcast, a Mental Fitness webinar series and created a wellbeing hub.
Technology
You told us you were ‘...having issues logging into MyKaplan or when we were trying to reset our passwords’, so we initiated a project to look into the problem. We resolved a number of bugs in the system and redesigned the learner journey in MyKaplan to make login and account management more intuitive.
You also said that you ‘...wanted to be able to use digital learning resources on a variety of devices’, so we’ve begun the process of transitioning our content development to HTML5. This format is responsive and will support learning on different types of device.
And you told us that ‘...studying self-directed content online for a longer period of time was difficult’. So our ACA OnDemand pilot incorporated improved direction and reminders to take regular screen breaks. This has been rolled out in our new ACA product.
Additional support
You said that you weren’t ‘...sure what additional support was available, especially when you have an additional learning need’, so we created the Kaplan Accessibility page on our website.
We’ve also rolled out a series of training and best practice guidance to staff to help them support anyone with learning differences. Plus this year we have the additional support provided by our new SENCo lead, Poppy Laila.
For more info on how to access this support please visit our Disability, Access and Fair Assessment Policy page.
Want to give us your feedback?
If you’d like to let us know about an issue you’re having, or an improvement you would like to see, get in touch with us via Student Services and we’ll see what we can do.