A retired Aberdeenshire maths teacher has developed a groundbreaking app to offset the “unfairness” of private tuition.
The brainchild of former Peterhead and Kemnay Academy teacher Diane Duguid, the app is up and running after being successfully trialled at an Aberdeen school.
Diane, from Oldmeldrum, moved into the oil and gas industry a decade ago – where she worked designing lessons for drilling simulators – before being made redundant in 2021.
From Aberdeenshire maths teacher to app wizard taking on private tutors
Since then she has been hard at work on the app, which has been carefully designed to get students through their Higher maths course.
Her aim is to provide an affordable alternative to private tuition – something of a bugbear of Diane’s.
Animated, interactive lessons are split into chapters and sections dealing with every area of the Higher maths course – in all 14 topics.
Intelligent Learning Solutions costs £10-20 a topic, which represents around two hours of tuition. The entire Higher course costs £190.
Diane said she spotted a gap in the market with thousands of students priced out of tuition for a core subject.
‘You’re talking big money. It’s a lot to ask of families’
“A lot of students, particularly since the lockdowns when they didn’t have the teacher support they needed, are needing extra support.
“And I thought, the only people who can get that help are the ones whose parents have enough money. Which is just not fair.
“It’s really causing a lot of financial difficulty for some families.
“Private tuition is about £30 to £60 an hour, and you have to commit to it, so it’s really big money.
“And the thing that really upsets me is there’s no regulation – absolutely anyone can be a tutor. It’s just wrong.
“The last parent I spoke to about maths tuition said she was paying £50 a week. Her child got one hour a week with the tutor, and that was it. That’s right through from September to May.
“You’re talking hundreds of pounds, big money. It’s a lot to ask of families.
“I really believe that if one student has a tutor, they should all have a tutor.”
‘The sites out there are a nightmare to read’
Intelligent Learning Solutions is the formal name of the app. Though Diane refers to it as Math Morph, after Tony Hart’s beloved clay character of the 80s and 90s.
“But you don’t want it to be too childish, because it’s Higher students it’s aimed at – young adults. But I wanted to make things as clear and as easy to use as possible.
“If you look at the BBC Bitesize website, which is the one that’s always recommended to students, it’s in black and white, it’s all in italics, and it’s in formal language. It’s a nightmare to read.
“You also have to take into account different learning styles, so I’ve built that in.
“It’s in human speak – or teenager speak – rather than teacher speak or mathematician speak.
“Often students use YouTube, but get put off because it’s in a language they can’t grasp, so they give up and they’ve ended up wasting their time.”
The ultimate test: Getting the thumbs up from students
It was when her app was given the thumbs up by school students themselves during a trial that Diane knew she was onto a winner.
“That was before I’d got the software engineers involved, it was just in its raw format. We put it into the school library.
“The students got the best results they’d ever had, they absolutely loved it. They said they preferred it to having a teacher, which was a bit embarrassing. Something like 70% of the students said they wanted it.
“After that I upgraded the branding and the look and all the rest of it.”
She added: “I’d love to get it into libraries. That way it really would be open to all.
“Even though my app is significantly cheaper than private tuition, there are still families who won’t be able to afford it.”
Future plans and ‘playing around with AI’
Diane has come a long way since losing her job in the oil downturn. But she has big plans for her app, and is only just getting started.
“The app I’ve got can be used for any subject, and that’s my plan.
“I plan to make versions for physics, chemistry, biology, and also maths at National 5. And I’d like to take the maths app global, because maths at this level is basically the same all over the world.
“I’ve also been playing around with AI.
“I thought: ‘If I was in the classroom right now, what would I be saying to the students?’ All those things that the teacher adds.
“I made one lesson as a trial, and took it to a rector at one of the Aberdeenshire schools. He said he’d put me in touch with the director of education because he feels we can use this, for example when a teacher is absent, the students have still got a teacher teaching them.”
For more information on Diane’s app, head to www.ilsolutions.uk
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