Khan Academy Armenia has completed its series of free workshops for students and teachers in the Lori, Shirak, and Kotayk marzes. The initiative has been undertaken by the Czech NGO People in Need, as part of the EU-funded Covid-19 Solidarity Program for Eastern Partnership.
The series of workshops—organised in conditions of pandemic-induced restrictions and difficulties—aimed to expand the applicability of Khan Academy’s free online educational resources in the Armenian language. They worked by promoting the comprehensive and efficient use of the platform's opportunities, tools, and modern teaching and learning methods for teachers and students.
To ensure relevance and the largest possible number of beneficiaries, the workshops were conducted in the three marzes of Armenia with the greatest number of schools, students and teachers after Yerevan. Additionally, these marzes have hosted large numbers of displaced people following the 2020 NK War.
The closing events were held at the Kotayk governor’s office, the Vanadzor Technology Centre (VTC) and the Gyumri Technology Centre (GTC). The ceremonies summarised the program results for Kotayk, Lori, and Shirak marzes accordingly. Between September 2021 and April 2022, 1500 students and 150 math and natural science teachers from middle and high schools in the three marzes were involved in the project.
At the closing events, certificates were awarded to all teachers who completed the training. Soon, five participants will be selected from each marz to serve as Khan Academy ambassadors, and they will have the opportunity to share their expertise within other projects.
The contest results organised for fifth to twelfth graders from the selected marzes have been officially summarised as well. Certificates of appreciation were awarded to those who received scores of 100,000 points or more on the Khan Academy platform. Special prizes were awarded to the top four scorers from each marz. Among the four winners in Kotayk Marz and all participating marzes, Mari Matevosyan had the highest score (7,077,880). In Lori Marz, Mariam Yaribekyan set the highest score with 3,101,482 points, and in Shirak Marz, Lyova Karapetyan led with 6,612,356.
On April 11, at the end of the event in Gyumri, Sona Koshetsyan, executive director of the Ayb Educational Foundation, expressed her contentment with the opportunities created for an impressive number of the workshop participants: "With EU funding and jointly with People in Need, we have worked closely with the students and teachers in three marzes to efficiently introduce modern educational technologies that promote the culture of self-learning. I hope this success, achieved by the teachers and students, will pave their further educational path.”
Tinatin Japaridze, People in Need’s regional director of the Covid-19 Solidarity Program for Eastern Partnership, attached great importance to the project: “We implement various projects in Armenia, but this stands out since it enables us to work in various fields simultaneously and in response to the pandemic. We are happy to contribute to this effort.”
Armine Hovhannisyan, a project participant and a teacher at the Vanadzor Special School of Advanced Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences, noted that the training had been a success, “I enjoyed listening to the trainers and completing the assignments. One of the final topics was the flipped classroom method. Despite having attended several other classes on this topic, I would single out Ayb’s format as unique. We’ve been using Khan Academy’s platform in a hybrid format; the children are free to master their time while completing assignments, which, I believe, is conducive to more pleasant learning.”
Mari and Arpi Matevosyan, two sisters, representing Kotayk marz with the two best results and having scored 7,077,880 and 5,001,011 points accordingly, mentioned that their initial goal was to score three million points. Still, after promptly crossing that threshold, they continued until they could reach their highest possible benchmark.
Khan Academy Armenia, which is the Ayb Educational Foundation’s project on the localisation of electronic resources, pursues the primary objective of ensuring free quality education in the Armenian language for students and teachers, enhancing access to online resources and thus contributing to the establishment of an independent learning culture. Since 2017, Khan Academy Armenia has been localising various exercises, video tutorials, articles and other educational materials on natural sciences, arts and humanities that are freely accessible to everyone, everywhere.
