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PSU EDUCARCHILE
Name of Educational Activity/ Project Title: PSU: a pre-college that goes with you
Year the project started: 2006
Reach of impact of the project: National
Project website: www.educarchile.cl/psu
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT
In recent years, in addition to the already existing geographic dispersion barrier and the
socioeconomic quality education inequity, Chile has had to face two new hardships: the 2010
earthquake and the 2011 student takeover of educational facilities phenomena. These two
new hardships have exacerbated the problem that students have in accessing the essential
education needed for the University application process.
PSU EducarChile is the first free of charge interactive online pre college in Chile that prepares
youngsters to take the Chilean mandated University Admission Test (“Prueba de Selección
Académica”, hence the acronym “PSU”). PSU EducarChile combines the selection of essential
content with a flexible and interactive digital platform. Given that the results of the admission
test are of key importance - the higher the score the higher the chance the student has to
make it into a University and be granted a scholarship - PSU EducarChile has broadened the
possibilities for youngsters with less opportunities can in fact, have a fair chance to go to the
University. Through innovative digital tools such as websites, texts, mobile phones, and social
networks, every year PSU EducarChile reaches 1.200.000 low-income students.
This has narrowed down the inequity gap, decentralized, and improved the quality of Chilean
education.
How to use PSU EducarChile is very simple: students go to www.educarchile.cl/psu and access
suggested contents according to their specific needs. It has over 57,000 Q&A’s and online
practice tests which allow them to keep a clear track of their knowledge progress, they can
also ask teachers online and design their own curriculum. In addition, these contents are
distributed through two of the major mass media reaching over 120,000 individual visits a
month, with a growth of 13% per year and 10,000 scholarships to browse free of charge on
mobile phones.
Furthermore, PSU EducarChile has empowered students with possibilities of good future
employment, both promoting the digitalization of the new generations, as well as the ability to
self-manage their own learning process.
PSU EducarChile is a good example of an outstanding educational practice since it encourages
a community of learners to share, build knowledge, and most importantly, collaborate with
each other by using all the media and spaces teenagers use to learn inside and outside schools,
such as websites, mobile phones, applications and social networks.
Note: By completing this form, all applicants must guarantee that their organization, or they
themselves, originated the above project, and should not hold Qatar Foundation liable for any
action or claim from a third party with respect to the project submitted.
Educational Transformation:
This tool welcomes important current trends: the progressive increase of digitization among
young people and the concept of flipped classrooms (in-and out-of-school learning through
digital content).Through this multimedia and very innovative environment, PSU EducarChile
encourages engagement and promotes collaborative learning and interaction between courses
and exercises, ensuring that the learning process includes peer’s reviews, comments and
companionship. In addition, since it focuses on individual needs and capacity, it offers a highly
customized virtual classroom, adjusting to the pace of its users.This will give students a high
standard preparation to cope with adverse situations, as proven by applications in the context
of the recent earthquake and student protests, overcoming geographical distance barriers,
diverse financial income and the inequality of educational facilities.Among the students who
have used this tool, in 2011, 156 students obtained the highest possible score
Innovation:
Increasing internet use has reduced geographical and socioeconomic gaps: with a population
of almost 17 million people, Chile has a penetration of 49%, of which 96% are Facebook users;
smartphone connections represent 57% of browsing. PSUEducarChile understands how
students thrive in a world increasingly connected and interactive and adapted to their needs
by providing them with tools that allow them to recreate a real situation through an online
simulation, strongly supported by social networks.
Historically, preparation for University admission tests has been through face-to-face classes in
a physical and paid facility; PSUEducarChile is a 100% virtual, interactive and immediate tool
that promotes the incorporation of technology and seeks to achieve learning by monitoring
students, understanding their dynamics and providing a work plan and continuous support,
supported by podcast and videos to teach difficult courses. It currently has 5,400 Facebook
Likes and 2,148 Twitter Followers.
Inclusion and Diversity:
Chile is a long and narrow strip of land with a high degree of centralization. Therefore, its
geographical distribution and the existing social inequality make it harder for students from
remote Chilean Regions and lower incomes to have access to the same opportunities. These
students cannot prepare well for the process of admission to higher education due to their
inability to afford the few local support institutions.
PSU EducarChile focuses primarily on public school students, who represent 89% of the total of
its users, with particular emphasis on those who are farther away from Santiago, delivering
free education and quality content which complies with the Government’s suggested
educational curriculum. Of all the students who go online, 62% do it from the country’s
Regions; reinforcing the concept that youngsters of rural populations can indeed access these
contents, also compensating for their low general educational standards compared to the
central areas
Quality of Learning:
Chilean mandatory University Admission Test measures the knowledge gained in high school
years and passing it is a requirement to attend University with a minimum score needed to
sign up for certain careers. The gap in scores between students from public and private schools
is 53 average points, which represents a disadvantage when applying, reducing the options for
low-income groups when it comes to access education and the possibility of breaking the
country’s barriers of poverty and social inequity.
To PSU EducarChile, quality of learning means the possibility of access to all available
resources, thus, it provides students with material and content approved by the Chilean
Ministry of Education. It organizes essential lessons and concepts through materials that allow
students to select key teachings they must handle in a prompt and dynamic way, free of
charge. In 2011, the curve of scores increased in 12 average points over the previous year
between the total numbers of its users.
Scalability:
PSU EducarChile is an online platform, with flexible content, taking into account the reality and
environment of each one of the students that use it. It can adjust according to size of the
school, the geographic area, even different curricula. It reaches a greater number of people by
using mobile applications; furthermore, the fact that students don’t need to be physically
present makes for a much bigger scope.
PSU EducarChile is a useful tool for any educational scenario in which not only to teaching
through the media is critical, but also to following up the studying process, linking contents
with collaborative online experiences and testing. It has a nationwide impact, going against
centralization; the tool has also been replicated in the websites of Chilean Regions,
implemented both in the Antofagasta Region and in the province of Choapa. A new pilot
project was applied in 30 schools in Santiago and 180 public schools of the 6th Region in 2011
and 2012.
Partnership and Participation:
The private sector’s contribution comes by means of permanent development of mobile
applications, through the main telephone companies (“Entel,” “Telefónica” and “Claro”),
companies which also show their support by granting scholarships that enable students to
browse for free (10,000 scholarships annually).
In addition to this, two of the main communication media in the country (“Terra” and “LUN”)
are linked to PSU EducarChile to massively offer this service to its young users, thus
contributing to increase coverage.
Furthermore, we have a network of 200 schools that have committed to promote the use of
PSU EducarChile among its students, guiding them in school as to the needed curricula.
Monitoring and Evaluation:
Platform Statistics (external): applying “Google analytics” and the local company "Certifica."
They measure the number of users, most viewed websites, and most used content. It allows
the monitoring of month-to-month trends.
Portal Annual Survey (internal): multiple choice survey where users assess the PSU from their
experience. Every year, an average of 4.000 people complete this survey which results in
updates and suggested changes.
Focus Groups of Users (internal): observations carried out annually of schools which have
committed to the use of this tool. It has a qualitative component and a quantitative
component in order to monitor opinions and the tool’s real applications. A number of 20
schools were observed in 2011.
External Impact Assessment (external): held every 2 years, at the request of the Department of
Education and it consists of 3 panelists that evaluate the following areas: technological,
pedagogical and the initiative’s management.
Dissemination:
FLACSO-IPPE Latin American Seminar on use of mobile phones: PSU EducarChile was chosen as
an initiative to be presented in 2012 as a key educational experience.
Workshop for six pedagogy schools of the main Chilean universities: oriented to making future
teachers become acquainted with the initiative so they can later implement it in their
classrooms and contribute to its improvement.
Latin American Websites Network (RELPE, Spanish acronym): PSU EducarChile is part of this
network that consists of over 12 sites, and it has been shown as a successful one, explaining
how it works and benefits students of any of these 10 latin american countries.