How Smart Osvita Fills Knowledge Gaps for Displaced Students in Ukraine With Open LMS
Established in 2016, Smart Osvita is a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Kyiv. Its mission is to improve secondary education in Ukraine by advocating for school reforms that will modernize teaching practices and improve student outcomes. The organization provides teachers with resources and training to help them implement modern instructional methods in their courses and better serve their students. The organization also provides resources to assist children impacted by the ongoing Ukrainian-Russian war.
The Challenge: A Pivot From Offering Teacher Development to Providing Continuing Education Services for Displaced Learners
When Smart Osvita was established, its primary goal was to improve learning experiences for Ukrainian children. The organization facilitated workshops and provided resources for teachers, helping them understand and integrate modern educational practices into their teaching methods. Smart Osvita worked closely with Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science, signing a memorandum of cooperation and assisting in the creation of the New Ukrainian School reform (NUS) and related website.
The NUS was created to be a place where students would be encouraged to ask questions, think critically, and apply their knowledge to real-world situations, while the NUS website served as a communication platform and resource hub for teachers, parents, and students. Through the NUS, students would learn to be innovators capable of making responsible choices and respecting others’ basic human rights.
Six years after being established, Smart Osvita had to correct its course when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The resulting war displaced millions of civilians and cut off access to crucial services like in-person education. It’s estimated that as of 2024, 5 million Ukrainians have been displaced as refugees abroad while another 3.7 million are displaced within Ukraine.
Prior to 2022, Smart Osvita had primarily served as a resource for teachers. However, the overwhelming number of students in need of a reliable education compelled the organization to refocus its efforts on helping children finish the 2021-2022 school year. To complicate matters even further, many of these students and teachers experienced war-related trauma, and there weren’t enough educators available with the skills to handle these students’ complex learning needs.
The Solution: A Flexible, User-Friendly Learning Management System
Smart Osvita wanted to provide courses so students could continue their education online despite the volatile situation in Ukraine. The NGO offered catch-up courses for learners from first through tenth grades to help bridge learning gaps for students. It also wanted to ensure that teachers had the skills and resources necessary to teach online classes and help students catch up with the curriculum. The teachers had to be trained on effective digital course delivery, but they also needed access to mental health resources. The teachers needed to know how to address students’ psychological needs (as well as their own), as these needs could greatly impact learning and teaching.
The organization needed a platform that was user-friendly so even the youngest learners could easily navigate the system. The platform also needed to be robust enough to deliver training for teachers so they could earn professional development certificates that would help them respond appropriately to students’ needs and be more effective educators.
The NGO partnered with Open LMS to provide these services to its users. Open LMS’s flexible and customizable platform, along with its intuitive interface, made the learning management system a perfect solution for Smart Osvita’s needs. The platform’s flexibility also empowered educators to differentiate their instruction, ensuring young learners received the specific support they needed to be successful.
“Teachers use Open LMS to work with student groups. They can divide their groups into subgroups and further personalize learning.”
The Results: Satisfied Learners and a Continued LMS Partnership
With the help of Open LMS, Smart Osvita continues to distribute essential learning content and courses to students throughout Ukraine. Open LMS currently hosts Smart Osvita’s “Now I Know” course, a language and mathematics course for students in fourth through tenth grades. Learners benefit from small class sizes and a competency-based curriculum to fill knowledge gaps and prepare them for future courses.
In 2024, 838 students enrolled in the course, with 57 teachers providing differentiated, small group instruction to learners. Students and teachers report that the Open LMS platform is easy to use and navigate. Smart Osvita and Open LMS will continue to develop their partnership and explore further opportunities to serve the students and educators of Ukraine.
“I was personally impressed when setting up our fourth graders. We were able to onboard them very easily. There’s always a percentage of users who have difficulty when it comes to onboarding with a new LMS, but with Open LMS that number is not higher than 10%.”
