eSquirrel – Digital Basic Education

ESquirrel’s Digital Basic Education course supports the promotion of digital skills. It makes it possible to search for knowledge acquired and to consolidate learning in a playful way, using squeezes and gaps in the relevant subject areas.  

The course will cover the following themes:

The societal aspects of media change and digitalisation: It deals with secure passwords, security on PCs and online profiles, but also opportunities and risks in digital daily life, digital professions, wear and tear, health and ergonomics.

Information, data and media literacy: It addresses searching and finding (fundamental and applied search), comparison and assessment (copyright, source criticism, media representation and stereotypes) and the use of information systems.

Operating systems and standard applications: This theme deals with operating systems, their basics, desktop systems and mobile systems, as well as the basics of word processing, spreadsheet calculation and presentation software.

Media design: It looks at the reciprocating and production of media and communicating the further development of content.

Digital communication and social media: This theme addresses communication tools, the impact of problematic aspects and the design of digital identities.

Security: It shows how to protect devices and content, as well as personal data and privacy.

Technical problem solving: This section addresses technical needs (computer components), the usefulness of digital devices (network basis) and also technical problems (failure search network).

Computational Thinking: The work on algorithms and the use of programming languages will be addressed.

The course is aimed at:

• Teachers
• School pupils
• Guardians

Pedagogical approach:

eSquirrel’s pedagogical approach combines blended learning with mobile learning and gamification. Digital courses can be customised and adapted to the underlying documents. The design of the learning units is also reflected in the digital course. Tasks can be repeated as often as many times as possible, making it easier to transfer knowledge into long-term memory.

The gamification approach aims to increase motivation and maintain the pleasure of learning. ESquirrel contains the following gamification elements:

• Quiests: Quiests are small tasks that make learning more varied. They serve, among other things, to deepen and refresh knowledge and to encourage more diversity in learning.
• Tasks: Tasks are part of a quist and consist of drag-and-drop questions, gaps, referencing or sorting tasks, multiple-choice or multiple-response questions, as well as decision-making and open questions.
• Chapters: Several quests are grouped together in one chapter. If all quests are completed within the chapter, it shall be deemed to have been completed.

Technical conditions:

Minimum required storage capacity of the mobile device:

• iOS: 70 MB (30 MB according to App Store) for eSquirrel App + Course
• Android: 45 MB for eSquirrel App + Course
• It is also possible to use the app offline

Costs:

eSquirrel is free of charge in its basic functions.

In addition, ready-made eSquirrel services are available at a fee, including for adult learning. This includes the “Digital Basic Training in the Workplace” course.

Awards:

eSquirrel was certified by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research with the ‘Quality Label for Learning Apps’ in 2021, awarded the Finalist Human Resources Award in the Newcomer of the Year category, as well as the Comenius EduMedia Award, and won the first place in the German-Austrian Semifinale for the Global EdTech StartUp Award.

What makes the Digital Basic Education course a good practice?

The introduction of eSquirrel’s free basic digital education course in the eSquirrel Learning App is good practice as it enables the promotion of digital skills. The course uses a playful approach to deepen the knowledge acquired and addresses a wide range of relevant topics. The pedagogical approach combines blended learning, mobile learning and gamification, which supports long-term learning and increases motivation. The minimum technical requirements and the free base version make the course accessible to many. Recognition and awards by education authorities underline the quality of the offer.