A lifelong legacy of a motivational switch for all children.

• Education and learning support industry

YARUKI Switch Group
To find the "gem" in each and every person in the world.
And we'll do everything we can to help it shine.
People are "motivated" and exercise their "self-power" while
This embodies the Group's philosophy of "contributing to the creation of a society in which people can live happily.

 

 

Why did you decide to implement learningBOX?

Three years ago, when we decided to implement learningBOX, we operated the licensing system differently than we do today. We had a written exam that tested your knowledge and a practical exam that tested your skills. The written test was paper-based, but it took a long time to mark and there were problems with grading errors. Otherwise, there would be a blur in the grading. It takes a lot of man-hours to concentrate on a particular member of the team. Also, we used to hold the test once a month, but the number of people taking the test was large and it was difficult to pass. It is possible to give a pass or fail result for each unit, but it takes a lot of time to clear all the exams. Also, we needed to secure a place for the test, so we had to rent a community center and hold the test in a large scale. It was quite difficult to rent a place to hold the written and practical exams at the same time. It would have been fine if it was only in Tokyo, but even if we had our own classrooms, there were places in Kyushu, Sendai and Kansai. If we had a lot of students in Kansai, we would prepare a schedule for the exam in Kansai, and then I would be there as a supervisor and run the exam. Every time we take a taxi to the venue, we have to carry two big bags and go to the venue. ...I decided that I wanted to get a handle on the written exam first. And in many cases, those who don't pass the test easily end up doing it after the test. The service we provide for children is also aimed at "not doing nothing, but repeating things over and over until they are established.

From there, we started looking for an e-learning system to use for training in our company-owned classrooms. But what we hadn't done before, especially investing in a system, is something that's hard to move forward with in the education industry. Especially in terms of cost. So, we wondered if there was a system that was affordable and easy to get started with, that allowed us to create our own content and distribute videos. When I was looking for a solution to this problem, I came across Tatsuno's learning box. For this price, you can try it out! And. The impetus for this was completely in-house research.

 

How much research did you do?

I've searched quite a bit.
We had a strong impression that once you have an e-learning program created, it takes a lot of time and money to modify it. So, in addition to the price, we also focused our search on the keyword "easy to create by ourselves".
 

Why did you insist on creating content in-house?

After all, if you had a "box," you could make it! That's how I felt. The video doesn't have to be so pretty, but that's okay first. And since we end up coming up with our own content for the exercises, I think it would be a twofer to tell you what the content is and have another company create the content for you. I thought. We started with the idea that if we were able to create our own content, we would be able to create more content faster.
 

What was your experience of using the learning box to create your own e-learning? Was it difficult?

As soon as it was introduced, it was no problem for me to make them, but it was more difficult to tell the other staff that it wasn't so difficult to operate (laughs). Now, I use the textbook to make the old questions, but for the new questions, I use the question generator form. The question generator form is beautiful, easy to create, and anyone can make a question.
 

What kind of effect do you see after implementing learningBOX?

The fact that the learningBOX allows students to take the exam multiple times has been very well received by the students. The training exams that we offer are not meant to be dropped, but to help people understand and consolidate their knowledge quickly, so by using learningBOX, they can build on it and get to the point of understanding by themselves, which is great.
Also, the time it takes for students to pass their exams has become much shorter: before we introduced the learning box, the average was about 8 months, but now it's a whopping 2.1 months.
 

It's so much shorter now! Has that made more people want to "learn"?

In the case of learning box, I think the most important thing is that I am able to do it now... With learning box, I can take a unit today and try to solve a problem once in 5 to 10 minutes, and if it doesn't work, I can use the textbook in the classroom to study the part I made wrong and deepen my understanding. And it's possible to try again, isn't it? I feel that being able to learn in my free time is a big advantage.

 

Has the implementation of e-learning been effective in terms of knowledge retention?

I feel like I'm doing more than I used to.
There are several reasons for this, and with the introduction of e-learning, the traditional manuals have started to work better. It means that you can now use the manual more often to check where you made a mistake on the exam.
A lot of times, manuals don't take root just by being there. Our CEO, Mr. Takahashi, often says that out of the 100 challenges, only about 10 go well, but the content of those 10 is the know-how, or the manual. So, I want you to take the manual for granted.
 

I got the impression that you also put a lot of effort into internal training.

Yes, that's right. In our corporate philosophy, there is a key phrase, "Finding the 'gems' of each and every person in the world," and "Doing our utmost to help them shine," and of course, each individual has a different pace and ability. We want each child to develop his or her own strengths, and this is the same for all of our employees and directors. However, if we are providing a service, we need the children to develop to a certain level. Therefore, we would like to maintain our desire to "educate the individual with the individual," even with the introduction of e-learning. The essential thing is not to provide grading or progress lists, but the importance of those is about 10% overall. It is the same for both children and adults to see their status and changes and adapt them to individual backgrounds and situations in the field. We believe that how we can create an environment that allows them to grow up in a short period of time, by being involved and responding to them on an individual basis, is the essential nurturing and 'personalized instruction. Therefore, I feel that the introduction of e-learning has enabled us to provide more individualized support.

Based on the effectiveness of the current implementation, you've told us that you plan to expand the use of the learning box, but can you tell us how to use it in the future?

Currently, we only conduct training exams for our directly-managed employees. However, even if the directly-managed classrooms are strong, it is not possible to provide good education unless all the classrooms in the country are strong, as there are many more franchise classrooms. That's why we've been thinking about expanding the training program to include franchised classrooms for some time now. I had a feeling that this was a good idea, but then the training participation rate would be lower. Because the classrooms are far away from each other, and because of transportation costs, it's not easy for the owners of the franchised classes to make the decision to attend. But it's not always possible for the head office to visit all the schools. That's where the learning box comes in. We want students to pass the exam and reach a certain level of proficiency, so we're thinking about distributing short lecture explanatory videos as a way of learning. The speed of understanding inevitably differs for each person. Of course, there are people who can pass the exam with the traditional textbook alone, but for those who have a tougher time with the textbook alone, we'll supplement it with lecture commentary videos and then check the textbook again. I think we can expand the training and examinations to franchise classrooms by creating a system that allows students to choose how to pass the exam. The effectiveness of the learning box at our directly operated classrooms has been highly evaluated, and we are moving forward with the move to franchise classrooms within our company.
Also, now. Cool IE (fully customized tutoring tutoring cram school)We have prepared manuals for each of the other brands as well. We are planning to start this in other brands as well, because we are worried about the lack of effective use of the system. If we want to do this for the whole company, we would like to change to a dedicated server and be able to adjust the maintenance.

A lot of people who are involved in education work are rejected by IT. I think there are more of them than in any other industry. But we live in an age where IT is essential for children, and if you can't respond to their comments that they've never cram school, but have had experience learning on a tablet, it's not good for them anymore. It's important to have a clear understanding of what kind of times children are living in, and to accept and introduce them to this technology without showing rejection.

 

postscript

How did you like this case study?

YARUKI Switch Group's flexible approach to education and the idea that the system doesn't nurture people, but uses the system to nurture people, made us learn something new. We were reminded of the fact that IT technology and individual development are not contradictory, and that it is possible to create a synergistic effect by combining them.
LearningBOX will continue to develop with the users in mind, so as not to miss out on new ideas!

Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to speak with us.

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