Successful Short-Term System Migration at Online High Schools
Kashima Education Group Addressing Diverse Needs and Future Vision

The Kashima Education Group operates three wide-area correspondence high schools (credit-based): Kashima Gakuen High School, Kashima Asahi High School, and Kashima Yamakita High School. The replacement of the learning system with learningBOX across all three schools, a large operation involving approximately 12,000 students, 100 staff members, and over 500 affiliated learning support facilities, was completed in the short period of about six months. Behind this success, the project members faced various challenges. Following the initial case study interview, we present the content that could not be fully captured, delivered in a roundtable discussion format.

▼Case Study of Kajima Education Group

Case Study - Kajima Education Group | learningBOX e-learning system

In this issue, we interviewed Kajima Kyoiku Group to learn about how they were able to reduce the high cost of procuring terminals in bulk and the approximately 2,900 hours spent on information entry through the use of learningBOX. We hope you will find it useful.

Correspondence High Schools Exceed 300, With New Openings Prominent

Otani:Thank you again for your time today. First, could you tell us about your schools' characteristics and educational philosophy?

Mr. Kobayashi:The Kashima Education Group's correspondence division is committed to the educational philosophy of "providing learning styles that meet diverse needs, meticulous support for each student's future, and offering free and easy-to-use learning regardless of device." We partner with learning support facilities nationwide to provide a learning curriculum and environment for the correspondence general education course.

Mr. Osako:Our educational goal is "to cultivate individuals who can contribute to society in their own way," aiming to develop self-reliant students who have a sense of purpose and can create their own future.

Our characteristics include the ability for students to enroll from anywhere in the country, diverse learning styles, and kind, detailed support for each student, focusing on their path to graduation and future career.

Otani:Basic School Survey by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology reveals the number of correspondence high school students for the 2025 academic year is 305,221 (preliminary figures announced on 8/27), setting a new record for the highest student enrollment. When do students typically enroll at your schools?

Mr. Osako:In the Kashima Education Group's correspondence division, new students can choose between enrollment in April or October. Transfer and re-enrolling students can join at their desired time.

Mr. Kobayashi:The number of correspondence high schools has exceeded 300, and the opening of new schools is also noticeable.

Otani:One of the factors cited for the increase in student numbers is the rise in students who refuse to attend school, but there is also a diversification of needs, such as balancing academics with sports or entertainment activities.

Seeking a Partner Company to Collaborate With on Addressing Diversifying Needs

Otani:In the midst of diversifying needsand Your school currently has about 12,000 students and more than 500 affiliated study support facilities. What did you focus on when replacing the system?

Mr. Osako:We were given a mission from the schools to adopt a system that was "not dependent on specific devices" for the system replacement. However, as project members, we also prioritized the system provider's scalability.

Otani:Could you elaborate a little more on that point?

Mr. Osako:Other major online high schools often have their system company organized as part of their group or have a close partnership. However, establishing a system company was too challenging for the Kashima Education Group. To respond to changing times and the diversifying needs of correspondence high schools, we wanted to select a company that would work alongside us as a true partner.

Technology, including AI, has been evolving rapidly. We wanted to be able to flexibly adapt to the latest technologies and utilize them in teaching materials and deliver them to our students. We chose your company because you offer a scalable service that is not constrained by fixed ideas.

Mr. Kobayashi:It's also great that learningBOX regularly adds new features through updates..

Otani:Thank you. We are indeed putting a lot of effort into utilizing technology, including AI. We are committed to developing features that will continue to be useful to everyone.

Three-School Cross-Functional Project for System Migration

Mori:Your system replacement project aimed for migration within one year after the policy was decided, and the actual implementation after selecting learningBOX took a short period of about six months. Looking back on this project, what was the internal reaction like?

Mr. Osako:It was a crucial project undertaken by the schools, forming a cross-functional team across the three schools: Kashima Gakuen High School, Kashima Asahi High School, and Kashima Yamakita High School. The staff understood the directive that this absolutely had to be accomplished, so I believe there was a good cooperative structure.

Nevertheless, there were various opinions and challenging aspects. Some operations were completely different from before, and we had considerable difficulty brainstorming ideas from scratch.

Mori:From my perspective, having accompanied you throughout the process, I thought it was a very good team. You even called each other by your first names, right?

Mr. Osako:Although it was a cross-functional organization of three schools, a key factor was that the members had previously been together at Kashima Gakuen High School and had worked together for ten years.

Mr. Kobayashi:Still, because the team was large, information sharing was sometimes difficult.

Mori:The method for booking schooling (in-person instruction) was completely different among the three schools under the previous operation. You did a great job standardizing it.

Mr. Osako:Mr. Kobayashi handled the technical aspects, and the members responsible for content creation focused mainly on the teaching materials. There were disagreements, but we managed to discuss them and move forward by finding a compromise.

Mori:The project's success seems to lie in having a diverse group of members.

Mr. Osako:We truly built it from scratch, so we had many conversations. Once the system deployment starts and operations begin, the number of stakeholders expands, and it inevitably becomes difficult for everyone to maintain the same level of enthusiasm as the initial project members.

The challenge now is how to proceed with future business improvements while coordinating effectively across the three schools.

We hold regular meetings every Monday with the project members from the three schools and share the content with your company. We are having multi-stage discussions to implement enhanced features.

Mr. Kobayashi:We plan to continue the Monday regular meetings and explore the best ways to move forward.

Having Experienced the Academic Year Transition, We've Managed to Get on Track

Otani:It's been two years since the successful system replacement and the introduction of learningBOX. Are there any shortcomings you've noticed compared to the previous system?

Mr. Kobayashi:The introduction of learningBOX has not been a negative experience at all. However, because we create and operate various groups as needed, we have to carefully consider who is given what level of authorization.

Mr. Osako:learningBOX truly opens up many options, depending on the user. I feel that a certain level of training is necessary for teachers and staff who are not comfortable with device operations. The required skills differ for administrators, staff, and learning support facilities, so we want to ensure that everyone can use it effectively.

Otani:Please let us know if there is anything we can do to support you. Could we also hear about your future outlook?

Mr. Kobayashi:We plan to sequentially digitize the remaining paper-based tasks. Additionally, there is a request within the schools to integrate with LINE.

Mori:We also receive requests for LINE integration from other customers. These days, people don't have personal email addresses or rarely use them. Integrating with LINE would likely make communication with students even smoother.

Mr. Osako:Two years after the introduction of learningBOX, we have experienced the academic year transition and are finally getting on track. 

Moving forward, to enhance the quality of education, we want to allocate more time to the educational content itself, such as the quantity and quality of teaching materials and the utilization of video content. We hope to support our teachers by utilizing AI-powered features like material creation assistance and grading assistance (AI Assist).

Expanding the Scope of Utilization by Using learningBOX as a Platform

Otani:What kind of feedback have you received from teachers and students since adopting learningBOX?

Mr. Osako:The learning support facilities have reported that the improved operability makes it easier to engage with the system.

Mr. Kobayashi:A comment from one student stood out to me from the survey results: "This is a wonderful system. Thank you."

Otani:We are very happy to hear it described as wonderful.

Mr. Kobayashi:An external party even asked if the system was scratch-developed (developing an original system from scratch), and they were surprised when I replied that it was a SaaS (Software as a Service, which allows users to access software over the Internet).

We want to continue expanding the scope of utilization by using learningBOX as a "platform" for communication and information aggregation. We look forward to continuing our partnership.

Otani:We look forward to it as well. We will take the requests you've shared back to our company for consideration.

Mori:Thank you very much for sharing your valuable insights today.

Thank you very much for your valuable insights!

▼Use Case in Education

Schools | Use Case | learningBOX e-learning system

learningBOX is an LMS (Learning Management System) for schools and cram schools. It streamlines teachers' work by enabling them to create and grade quizzes, share information, and manage teaching materials online, and its AI-assist function shortens the time required for writing and grading questions, allowing teachers to spend more time with students. The introduction cost is low and reliable.