Peer Help

An App that helps students to get in touch to help each other with school issues, and thus improve their academic performance.

During the last decades, there has been a growing worldwide expansion of private tutoring or “shadow education”. This is due to the existence of multiple factors that make the students not adapt correctly to the academic program, which causes the corresponding purpose of complementing the education received in the classroom.

In the PISA 2018 test results, Spain did not reach the 489 points that were obtained as the world average in the science test, and it ranked below most European countries. It should also be noted that 15-year-old Spanish students dropped five points in Mathematics and ten points in Science in the 2018 report compared to that of 2015. In addition, delving into the data in this report by autonomous community, our community, the Valencian Community, ranked below the Spanish average in both Mathematics and Sciences.

These poor results make Spain a country in which private tutoring as an academic reinforcement program can help improve student performance.

However, access to private tutoring is reserved for families of a high socioeconomic level, which not only shows a clear social differentiation around who can afford it, but also affects equal opportunities.

On the other hand, there are studies that highlight that relationships between equals are necessary for the autonomy of individuals, and that the activities in which students teach their own classmates have great educational and social potential.

In addition, in recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed our lives and many areas of the tertiary sector have been affected. Specifically, education was forced to teach online classes during quarantine, which meant a great change for teachers and students, since our society was not fully prepared for a change of these dimensions.

It was precisely this current socioeconomic context and the enhancement of the technological tools within our reach that motivated us to devise a way in which a “peer tutoring” program could be carried out, adapting it to new needs and making use of recent technologies, in order to contribute fundamentally to the improvement of academic performance in our country.

We have developed an App for Android smartphones and tablets that helps students from the same high school of similar ages and interests to get in touch to help each other with the topics studied in class, and thus improve their academic performance. With this App, users are given the opportunity to choose their own students or teachers, the topics they want to teach or learn in classes and even their schedules.

All users can act as a student, teacher or both, depending on their needs.

Users who participate with the role of student can create a "request" to receive help in a specific subject and topic, and on a specific date, to then be able to contact via email with the participants who offer themselves with the role of teacher. Users who participate with the role of teacher can agree to teach a requested class or offer their knowledge by creating a “class” on specific subjects and topics on a date that works for them.

We have also contemplated the figure of an administrator, who will control the correct functioning and responsible use by the students of the application.

To program our App, we used MIT App Inventor, which is a graphical, user-friendly and free web application integrated development environment. In our App, we used the local TinyDB database to store each user's own data on their phone, and the CloudDB for data storage in the cloud, so that all users can share classes and requests information. Other elements used are notifiers, text-to-speech converters and the ActivityStarter to create hyperlinks with other Apps on the phone. The functioning of our App is explained in our Demo Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoFIPTPxmRc).

Spain, given the results obtained in the exams that were carried out for the PISA Report, is a country in which the reinforcement of private tutoring could help improve the academic performance of students. However, access to them is reserved for affluent families, which affects equal opportunities.

Therefore, our App “Peer Help” proposes a new inclusive educational strategy as it is a project that offers selfless and free academic help for all high students, especially for those who cannot access conventional private tutoring due to their economic situation. In fact, in the context of the international crisis caused by the pandemic and the armed conflict in Ukraine, it can be an enormous help for many families.

In our high school, before the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a “peer tutoring” program in which teachers paired voluntary students so that during recess time they would meet in a classroom to review the necessary subjects.

This program seemed like a great idea to us, since it is a way of receiving academic reinforcement among students who are from the same high school, have studied with the same books, have generally had the same teachers, and are also people of the same or similar age. We participated in this program for a couple of years, so we know first-hand what it was based on and how the program worked in our high school.

On the other hand, in the ICT subject they taught us to program with the MIT App Inventor tool and we found it exciting to be able to create our own App for our Smartphone.

Once the research, programming and the drafting of the project was prepared, we presented our project to the teaching staff and some high school students, and the result was very satisfactory for us because they all liked it very much and they thought that it was a remarkably interesting idea.

Eva & Irene

1. USERS

We wanted to know the opinion of our target users, and thus find advantages and disadvantages of our App to meet their needs.

For this, we conducted a survey around 4 blocks of questions: problem, possibilities of use, functionalities of the App and possible incentives.

To carry out the survey, a QR (https://forms.gle/Msc3wzAK7RWs...) was distributed through the Google forms tool, which was used for its creation and data analysis.

The survey was conducted in our high school, the IES Juan de Garay, surveying a total of 310 people distributed as follows: 1st ESO (78); 2nd ESO (33); 3rd ESO (47); 4th ESO (57); 1st BACH (47); 2nd BACH (48).

The questions asked were the following:

+ ITEM 1. Who do you usually ask for help when you don't understand something?

Results: Students mainly use technology (32.3%) or consult their peers (40.6%).

Conclusion: An App used among peers on the Internet could be well received.

+ ITEM 2. Do you help your classmates to study when they don't understand the topics studied in class?

Results: 93.2% of students interact with their classmates when they do not understand the topics studied in class. Of them, 55.5% do it with great normality.

+ ITEM 3. Do you like to explain topics that you master to your classmates?

Results: 51.9% answered directly yes. In total, 69.3% recognized that they like it.

+ ITEM 4. Would you participate in the "peer tutoring" program as a student or teacher?

Results: It is observed that 27.4% of them would, while 43.9% would, although not always. Conclusion: An App of voluntary participation could attract their attention, since in the "peer tutoring" program of our high school, students compromised to teach or receive classes the same day of each week at recess during an entire academic year.

+ ITEM 5. Why would you not participate in the "peer tutoring" program?

In order to analyze the reasons why the program was less successful than expected, we asked them why they would not participate in this program. Our main goal was to solve these disadvantages with the App and even incorporate some benefits.

Most of the students surveyed thought that the main drawback was having to study at recess time. In addition, they highlighted other drawbacks such as COVID-19 and the fact of not knowing who they were going to pair up with.

Taking all this into account, the idea that the App could be successful was reinforced, since students could select the schedules to teach or receive classes, study online or outdoors, and also, they could choose the users with whom they could pair up.

+ ITEM 6. Do your colleagues help you when you have doubts?

Results: In total 99% have received help from their peers at some point.  Conclusion: It is observed they would be interested in our App, since there are many students willing to help other colleagues.

+ ITEM 7. If there was an App to give or request classes to classmates, would you use it?

Results: It is verified that more than 70% of the students would be willing to participate if there was an App with the characteristics that are exposed to them.

+ ITEM 8. What role would you like to play if you participated in the “peer tutoring” program?

Results: Most of the students would like to participate as both teacher and student (35.8%). It should also be noted that participating only as a student would be more in demand than as a teacher (30.6% vs. 17.4%).

Conclusions: An App in which it is possible to play both roles would be widely accepted.

+ ITEM 9. Do you use your mobile phone to do your homework or study?

Results: Only 8.1% do not use the mobile phone.

Conclusion: This question was asked in order to analyze the feasibility of the idea and we verified that most of the students use their mobile phones in their studies.

+ ITEM 10. Do you have the possibility of making a video call to study?

Results: The vast majority could make a video call (85.5%) compared to 14.5% who answered that they would not have this possibility.

+ ITEM 11. Would you be willing to exchange classes? Example: I explain Mathematics to you in exchange for you explaining English to me.

Results: When specifically asking if they would be interested in exchanging classes in order to explain the topics they master and in turn get help on those in which they have difficulties, 75.5% of them thought it was a good proposal and they would probably be interested.

+ ITEM 12. Would you be interested in giving or receiving classes if you obtained some academic benefit? Example: Get extra points in specific subjects.

Results: It is observed that there is great interest in obtaining academic benefits; specifically, 91% stated that they would be interested in it.

Conclusion: These results reinforce the possibility that in the future the collaboration of teachers will be requested to encourage the use of the App.

+ ITEM 13. Would you be interested in negotiating a price for giving or receiving academic help?

Results: Most of the students would like to negotiate the price of this help, specifically 61% if we add the ones who answered yes and probably yes.

+ ITEM 14. Would you be willing to pay to receive good help when preparing for an exam?

Results: A good part of the student body would probably pay to receive help. A total of 50.7% of the students would most likely assume a small payment.

+ ITEM 15. What features would you like this App to have?

In addition to the different consultations guided by the survey questions, we wanted to obtain comments on possible ideas for use, and improvements or drawbacks that could be detected.

To perform this analysis, students were asked what features they would like the App to have in order to get more information when developing it. Highlighting the most recurring answers, the most desired features were choosing the topic of the class, selecting their partner, that it was a free and easy-to-use App, and being able to indicate their interests or hobbies in their profile to find people with the same interests.

+ ITEM 16. What drawbacks would you see in an App of this type?

The students pointed out as possible drawbacks the fact that the App was not free and that some users were not responsible.

Conducted survey

2. TEACHERS

In order to have other points of view different from the students, we interviewed some teachers.

First, we asked them if they liked the "peer tutoring" program and why. They were then asked why they thought the program was not as successful as it could be and how this situation could be improved. Later, we told them a bit about the idea we had of creating an App based on this program, and later we asked them what features they would like the App to have and what drawbacks they found. Finally, we asked them if they would be willing to manage the App and if they knew of a similar one.

In general, when we asked them about their opinion on the "peer tutoring" program, they told us that it was a beneficial idea for students, especially for those who start to lose track of the classes and they need an extra hour to assimilate the contents. However, they commented that in order to carry out the program properly, the high school would need to offer more time to carry out these reinforcement classes, which would imply that the students would have to stay more hours than they are already in the high school. They also pointed out that one of its other drawbacks was that the program was carried out during recess, which is intended for rest.

On the other hand, some highlighted that the program was not as successful as it should be because a part of the student body is not willing to improve. Additionally, they thought it was a clever idea to encourage these students through activities or extra points in the subjects.

Subsequently, after explaining the general aspects of the App we were developing, we asked them to tell us what features they would like it to have, as well as to point out the drawbacks that according to them it could have. On the one hand, they pointed out functionalities that we already had in mind or that we had already incorporated, such as the possibility to detail subjects and the course. On the other hand, they emphasize that an important problem that it could have would not depend on the App, but on the students, since there could be cases of students who do not make proper use of it, which reinforced the idea of creating the figure of the administrator.

Today's youth show great ability to use electronic devices and social networks, so a new App for smartphones and tablets in which students can interact to give and receive academic help among peers is an ideal combination to modernize and carry out something similar to the “peer tutoring" program in the coming years.

After in-depth research, we concluded that there is no App with the same functions and features as “Peer Help”, so there really is no direct competitor to the developed App. However, some possible existing competitors would be the private tutoring Apps in which students select an adult tutor (such as Tusclasesparticulares or WeSmartly), private tutoring centers, and even groups created by students of the same class on WhatsApp.

The App developed is safer than these alternatives since it provides confidence to users because the members of the user community know each other personally from high school and are approximately the same age. In addition, the App is free, a fact that promotes equal opportunities among students.

Possible competitors

A possible distribution strategy of the App among the students has been designed. The lines of action defined have been the following:

1. Contact the principal of our high school or the head of studies to communicate with the tutors of the different courses.

2. Give an informative talk to the tutors about the operation and management of the App.

3. Inform students in tutoring classes about the existence and operation of the new App "Peer Help”, distribute informative leaflets and hang posters in the main meeting places for students in our high school (the library, the hall, the cafeteria, etc.).

On the other hand, it has been thought of contacting the administrator of the IES Juan de Garay website to include a link to download the App. In addition, we want to write an article in our high school newspaper “El Juande” (https://eljuande.com/).

If in the future the App starts to be used in other high schools in our district or in our city, Valencia, we want to contact a regional newspaper with a large audience, such as El Levante or Las Provincias.

Knowing the weakness of students for social networks, we also thought in the creation of an Instagram account to answer questions and keep students informed about the functionalities and improvements of the App or interesting news about education in our community. In addition, we have not yet created a website to promote and inform people about our App, but its creation has been considered as a future project to improve the proximity with our users.

After releasing the App, we would have a trial period of about a year to see how students receive it and make improvements that arise from its use. 

Once its operation is consolidated in our high school, we would have to look for advertisers and sponsors (such as local companies) and contact the principals of the high schools of our district to see if they would be interested in implementing its use. In this way, perhaps in a couple of years the App could be used in all the high schools of our district, Patraix, and even in the city of Valencia. 

In order to launch the App in other high schools, one of the necessary evolutions of the App is to create different subsets per high school, where each one has its own community of students to contact, and its subset of requests and classes related to their subjects and topics.

To program our App, we used MIT App Inventor, which is a graphical, user-friendly and free web application integrated development environment. In our App, we used the local TinyDB database to store each user's own data on their phone, and the CloudDB for data storage in the cloud, so that all users can share classes and requests information. Other elements used are notifiers, text-to-speech converters and the ActivityStarter to create hyperlinks with other Apps on the phone. 

Flowchart

Editor interface

Blocks editor

Screens

We have estimated a possible projection of users of our App. Assuming that in our high school many of its students used the App (about 500), and in later years the same success was achieved in a nearby high school such as the IES Vicenta Ferrer Escrivá high school (another 500 users), and finally in at least 10 of the high schools in our district, we could obtain up to 5000 users for our App in a few years. It is important to mention that each high school would have its own users and lists of requests and classes.

Users projection

A priori there are no financial, legal or cultural barriers to implement the App in our high school; the biggest obstacle we found is to combine our new university studies with the implementation of the App, since the high school is very receptive to its implementation.

We thought of uploading the download link of the App on the high school's website. Additionally, we want to write an article in our high school newspaper “El Juande” (https://eljuande.com/), in which we have actively participated multiple times, since it is read by students and residents of our district. 

Our App is based on a “peer tutoring” program that proposes an inclusive educational strategy as it is a project that offers selfless and free academic help for those who cannot access conventional private classes due to their economic situation. In fact, in the context of the international crisis caused by the pandemic and the armed conflict in Ukraine, it is an enormous help for families.

One of our goals is to supply a technological tool that promotes equal opportunities for those who cannot afford private classes given the current economic and social crisis. Therefore, it is important to mention that our project is aligned with solving some of the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda, such as SDG 4, "Quality education", which pursues goals related to equal opportunities both in relation to access to education as well as the elimination of disparities in education. In short, we do not understand education without inclusion, therefore, it would also be related to SDG 10, "Reduction of inequalities" and SDG 17 "Partnerships to achieve the objectives", since we consider that the educational community is immensely powerful in achieving such an aim.

The budgets of a possible financial plan for the project have been estimated, contemplating some of the commercial possibilities mentioned in a period of about 5 years.

In this, it has been considered as INCOME the contribution received in exchange for advertising from some nearby companies (bookstores, bakeries, etc.) and later from larger companies to which the price of advertising is increased.

On the other hand, it has been considered as EXPENSES, in the first place, the payment that must be made to register the App in Google Play. Later, another part of the income obtained can be reinvested in advertising our App in some media or even in newspapers such as the newspaper El Levante or Las Provincias. It has also been planned, making an estimate, that an incentive can be generated for the figure of the administrator and for a possible group of student volunteers who could oversee updating and maintaining the App. Finally, if the App is very lucrative and the benefits are higher than expected, the idea is to support and encourage other projects of our high school.

Considering the evolution over time, income and expenses have been planned as follows:

1. In the first year it has been considered that it will be difficult to obtain some type of income.

2. For the second year, it has been considered that it is possible to get two local advertisers and receive €50 from each of them, which is the usual price for local sponsorship. In this second year it has been considered that, to help evolution, the App must be included in the Google community so that it can be downloaded from Google Play, a fact that generates a cost of USD 25 (Google rate). Therefore, there are about €79 left to distribute among the programmers, and it can be donated to support some small expense of the high school.

3. The third year an estimate of 4 possible local advertisers and some larger advertiser who can provide €100 has been made. Therefore, an income of €300 would be obtained, a part of which would be used to pay for an ad for the App in a local newspaper and thus begin to make it more widely known. The rest can be distributed to incentivize students who are in charge of maintaining the App and to support other high school’s projects.

4. For the following years, we have projected the figures assuming that more local companies or businesses will be obtained to support the initiative. Thus, more benefits will be available to reinvest in advertising, and to obtain more incentives to increase the motivation of students who want to contribute their technological talent to evolve in functionalities and improvements of the "Peer Help" App.

In this way, we managed to balance our budget so that the total benefits were zero, since we have declared ourselves 'non-profit'.

Budget