Trying to figure out how your child can make the best use of his or her vacation? It is a problem faced by almost every parent. Camps are a way out. Others may be interested in learning a language or a musical instrument, or may simply want to catch up on reading or films. Yet others might want to rough it out on the mountains or in the forest.

How about teasing your child’s maths skills, and that too while sitting at home? Thanks to Mindspark, interactive learning has never been so much fun. In this scheme, a child is not a passive learner but actively participates by answering online questions with immediate explanatory feedback on every answer submitted.

The online learning system was launched by Education Initiative Pvt. Ltd (EI), an Ahmedabad-based company. EI specialises in conducting diagnostic tests called Assessment of Scholastic Skills through Educational Testing (Asset) across India.

“The Mindspark programme comprises finely graded questions. This allows the system to ensure that a child is thorough with a sub-concept, before moving on to the next level. Also, it helps in pinpointing exactly where he or she may be facing a difficulty,” explains Sudhir Ghodke, director of EI.

What makes the online course appealing, apart from the finely graded questions, is perhaps the innovative use of visuals and animation. Such child-friendly techniques encourage students to develop a liking for subjects such as science and mathematics, feel the makers. To make the process even more interesting is a system of rewarding points using “Sparky”, an animated light bulb, which is the icon of Mindspark. The points are awarded on the basis of how well a student is doing.

But is the programme not regular run-of-the-mill stuff? What special benefit will a child get from it?

“Effective learning takes place when the material presents a challenge that is just beyond the cognitive level of a student. By implementing this, Mindspark ensures that every child learns during his or her interaction with the programme,” says Sandeep Shah, vice-president of EI.

Users of trial packages, too, second it. Says, Hardik Shah, a Class VII student of Riverside School, Ahmedabad, “The way of questioning is just superb. I love the way the questions keep getting more and more difficult. This makes me use my analytical skills.”

Deepank Takkar, a fifth grader of Tagore International School, New Delhi, too, seems satisfied. “The thing I enjoyed most was the way the programme helps one to improve on a type of problem. For instance, if I had difficulty in adding fractions, it would repeat those riders so that I could better myself,” he says.

EI is not only making children rack their brains by manufacturing educational packages, but is also planning to upgrade the questioning skill of schoolteachers. It has launched a nationwide question-forming skill competition, for which teachers across the country will send questions.

“Traditionally, framing questions has been seen as a mechanical activity undertaken by a teacher with the sole purpose of testing what a child has absorbed from the textbook. The repetitive nature of the task and the lack of variety due to limitations of the syllabus and textbooks ensure that setting a question paper becomes a monotonous chore. The EI project is a unique way of recognising and rewarding the best in the teaching profession,” says Ghodke. The participating teachers have to send at least three questions in one or more subjects — that is, English, Hindi, maths, science and social studies — which will be judged by a panel of experts.

It is a known fact that a good question challenges and stimulates a child to think deeper, apply the concepts learnt and, more importantly, gives him or her a sense of satisfaction on having mastered the concept. This is precisely the motive of EI’s question-making contest. Moreover, it provides a teacher with the unique opportunity to exercise his or her creative faculty and come up with something original. In many ways, the EI package seems to be a way of weaving fun into learning.