Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) today unveiled a new open source online platform called Oppia. The online education tool helps anyone create interactive activities, objects and environments for teaching others online. The search engine giant has named the online interactive activities as “explorations.” Anybody can build an exploration and people around the world are free to contribute to it. The best part is, it doesn’t require any programming skills. Even laymen can create an exploration. You simply have to drag and drop objects and give them a flow.
Google says Oppia is a feedback-based system
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) said that Oppia helps you teach others by modeling a mentor. It poses questions, which the learner is required to answer. Then the tool processes the learner’s response to decide which question to ask next, whether to dig deeper, what feedback to give, or whether to shift to some entirely new topic. The company said it works like a smart feedback system, which actually teaches the learner to do something rather than simply giving the correct answer. Google says feedback is crucial in any learning process. You can’t become at master at the piano by watching videos.
Oppia goes beyond just presenting content. It collects data on how learners interact, and helps exploration authors fix the defects or weaknesses in an exploration. If an exploration doesn’t respond appropriately to a particular answer, the exploration authors can create a new learning path. Learners receive customized and personalized feedback upon submitting answers. You can easily embed explorations to any webpage. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is currently developing a Responsive UI for mobile devices.
Will Google continue to own and operate Oppia?
However, it’s still unclear whether Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) plans to keep improving the new tool by devoting immense resources. The Mountain View-based company’s disclaimer says that Oppia is not really a product of Google. It indicates that the search engine company is expecting a community to form and take over the online education tool.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares were little changed at $1,220.10 in the early trading session on Thursday.
