New learning tool launched to help cost pressures and staffing crisis

As reported by The Telegraph, over 20,000 students are expected to make use of the virtual learning tool during classroom hours

A new learning tool is set to hit the education sector to help schools cope with the rising energy costs and the staffing crisis.

The tool, askOLA, was requested by some of the biggest academy trusts in the UK to be made available during classroom sessions to combat the struggle of employing teaching assistants in the midsts of cost pressures.

Students will be directed to online teaching assistants if they require extra help via a live chat option equipped with a virtual whiteboard. Online teachers begin the session by evaluating the student’s mental state and their ability to work through the learning difficulty.

There are currently 40 schools signed up with more than 20,000 students and 200 schools forecasted to join the initiative by the end of August.

“There’s an opportunity to do things differently and not replace teachers, because we haven’t got enough, but you can amplify capacity through digital,” says Sean Gardner, a school trustee and founder of Gluu, the company behind askOLA.

A monthly £5 fee is expected per student for unlimited access to a system of more than 600 online teaching assistants. The system is said to be vastly cheaper than salarying an on-site tutor with an approximate cost of £25-30 per hour.