Bolster Academy for the IB Diploma Programme
About the project
Over the last 10 years, we have been working with teachers to help first-year mathematics students in higher education get over their math anxiety and improve their performance.
Last year, we were selected as one of the winners of the IMPACT EdTech ‘Remote Schooling’ Open Call; A program co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme that aims to boost innovation throughout Europe in secondary education.
With the help of the programme, a handful of IB DP mathematics teachers and IB alumni, we have been working to develop the best possible IB DP mathematics learning tool. As you are reading this right now, we are preparing and running our first pilot projects in IB DP mathematics classrooms across Europe.
Trusted by universities & colleges worldwide
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Winner of the 2020 Impact EdTech Awards
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme within the framework of the IMPACT EdTech Project funded under grant agreement No 871275.
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Bolster’s IB DP Mathematics Offering
Interested in trying us out in your classroom?
What we offer
Bolster Academy is a mathematics homework & assessment tool that helps students with their math anxiety and performance by better engaging with them while saving teachers time. For students this means we provide them with a personalized learning journey that takes into account every student’s unique learner profile. For teachers this means we automate all of their repetitive administrative tasks so that they can focus on the more fun and creative side of teaching.
Personalized feedback
The Bolster Academy learning environment analyses the students’ input and identifies where and what the mistakes are, which enables it to automatically give them hints specific to their learning path. These students get this feedback regardless of their input; whether it’s a wrong answer or a correct step towards the answer.
This means it provides personalized learning, even with large groups. It offers students the personalised help they need while practising while allowing the teacher to focus on the creative part of teaching.
Automated testing
Using a large number of settings, teachers can create numerous different types of tests: diagnostic, formative, and summative. For example, you can change the window of availability, the number of attempts, the minimum passing grade, whether or not the questions are presented in a random order, or assign a password to the test.
Learning analytics
As a teacher, you are able to get a quick overview of the progress and score of all of your students. You are then able to zoom in on both subchapter, topic, or even individual exercise attempts. Of course, you can also see how one individual is doing.
These learning analytics allow teachers to proactively identify red flags, and improve their teaching or curriculum design by adding more focus on a specific topic, or redesigning a component of the course.
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The Bolster Academy learning environment analyses the students’ input and identifies where and what the mistakes are, which enables it to automatically give them hints specific to their learning path. These students get this feedback regardless of their input; whether it’s a wrong answer or a correct step towards the answer.
This means it provides personalized learning, even with large groups. It offers students the personalised help they need while practising while allowing the teacher to focus on the creative part of teaching.
What teachers say about Bolster Academy
Anne Eastaugh
Maths teacher
"The feedback that we have had from students has been overwhelmingly positive. The students are easily able to maneuver through the theory pages and exercises, and the motivation in support classes has become more dynamic and engaging. The Bolster Academy staff are generous with their time, and have provided me with detailed responses to all of my queries."
Steven Richardson
Maths teacher
"As a lecturer I have really enjoyed the flexibility that Bolster Academy offers. Bolster Academy has been well received by our students, and we have received positive feedback on how it has helped to direct students’ study, motivate students to practice, and provide feedback to help students identify weaknesses and misunderstandings."
Michael P. McAssey
Statistics teacher
"The platform allows teachers considerable flexibility to customize the course to their preferences. We have observed a greater success rate in our course since we began using the Bolster Academy platform, and now that it is completely set-up for us we have much less administrative work to perform so that we can focus more on our teaching activities."
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