See what Mumsnet testers thought of Eedi Family’s improved online maths lessons

[JustineBMumsnet]

This is the feedback thread for the Mumsnet users who tested Eedi Family online maths lessons with their child aged 9 to 14. Eedi Family is an online Maths learning platform that provides interactive maths lessons for children to build confidence in maths, and following a product test last year, Eedi has implemented a lot of testers’ feedback.

If you'd like to take part in this product test, we're still recruiting for testers to take part in the next couple of weeks. You can sign up here.

Here’s what Eedi has to say: “We believe that every child has the potential to thrive in maths with the right support. Eedi Family helps children build maths confidence at home while giving you the peace of mind that your child is making progress in maths in these turbulent times. Eedi will not only motivate your child to practice Topics they need to review, but our learning companion and live expert maths teachers will help your child improve in maths quickly with tailored feedback - so they can spend less time on devices and more time offline.

This is our second time on Mumsnet review - on our first early iteration we tested our beta product and got amazing feedback from Mumsnet testers. We’ve implemented much of that feedback, in particular:

- Children can now search for any topic so they can match what they’re doing in school (you still have recommendations though!)
- Children can now take a Lesson before reviewing Topics if they need a refresher
- We reduced Lesson and video length and encourage shorter but more frequent use
- We increased availability of live teacher support during the Lessons
- Added Achievements and Routines to increase motivation - this is a space we’re actively working and would love to hear your feedback here

We’re excited to engage with the Mumsnet community again and learn from your feedback.

Join us in trying an affordable alternative to private tuition that helps your child try their best and want to keep learning.”

Selected testers received a one month free trial of Eedi Family and were asked to complete at least one virtual lesson and quiz per week.

Testers, please give your feedback by answering the following questions as well as sharing any other thoughts you have and completing the short survey we’ve emailed you. Testers of Eedi Family were invited to start taking part in different weeks. Please wait until we email you before giving your feedback on the thread.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?
2. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?
3. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors?
4. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

All testers who give the required feedback will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £100 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Insight T&Cs apply

I supported my 10 year old daughter to use Eedi and there was a lot of good aspects to it there was also things that she struggled to use or understand.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

It was great that there was a lot of help either on chats or videos that supported the subject if the child didn’t understand the topic or certain question.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

The best feature was the lessons to help support the child’s understanding on the subject.

1. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors?

Yes they were very good and felt like this was a big plus to eedi.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

On our personal experience I probably wouldn’t recommend it as my daughter really struggled to understand the work and a lot of the mathematical terminology that was used. On numerous occasions she said that she hadn’t heard certain words or she hadn’t been taught them in school. Other children may be different and I can see the benefit of Eedi especially if it was something that you wanted to use either for children who are taught at home or to just supplement a child who is at school.

1. We liked the easy to navigate platform and links to topics he is currently working on.

1. I liked the reminder emails and the updates when my son had completed tasks. My son found it easy to log on independently, which is motivating when as a dyslexic learner being independent in this way is rare.
2. My son liked the chat based lessons, he liked the format and understood the content. I did have to read them out to him at times.
3. I would describe it as an online maths aid, that is self paced. My son has recommended it to his maths teacher who is going to research its uses fit the class.

1. I liked the range of topics that were available and suited to his needs.
2. The emails keeping me updated as he went off and did his work and the updates helped me see what he was doing
3. We used them when he was struggling
4. Way to help your child’s maths skills and to heal them whenever they are struggling

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

The topics were aligned to what she is studying in school, so follows the curriculum and reinforces what she learns in school.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

The chat based lessons and ability to talk to a teacher.

1. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors?

Good when she was struggling with a lesson.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

A useful resource to reniforce what is learnt in school.

My daughter did one lesson which she hadn't studied the subject in school and this didn't work, she panicked, cried and wouldn't log on again for a week so I think we may miss out on her getting the giftbox. But next time she logged on she had done the lesson in school that week and managed to resume the Eedi lesson and was much happier, so I think it is better as a revision tool than to actually learn the lessons.

I wish you could log on to the parent account and the child account simultaneously. I was going to log on to the parent account but it said it would log me out of the child account so I didn't do it as I was worried I'd forgotten the password and it would be difficult to log on again.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

I thought the idea and platform it was on was great

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

The online live tutors and the bot for when the tutors were offline.

1. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors?

They really liked it and found it useful.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

An online resource to aid the learning that your child is doing in school.

I tested Eedi with my 10 Yr old who is in Yr 6. It took a week or so to get him completely on board with it, but later on I never had to remind him to finish his lessons.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family? It is a fun way to learn and improve on Maths concepts.
2. What was the best feature of Eedi Family? That my son could independently do his lessons without the need of my constant attention.
3. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors?

We never found any live help. It was always recorded explanations, some of which were very boring to get through. Some voices and style of speaking and explanation were better than others.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend? A fun way to help kidsto learn and improve on Maths concepts without any pressure and constant overseeing.

Finishing the lessons really made him happy.

My daughter has been testing Eedi for about a month now.

She’s 11 & has always been quite ahead in school, but has found Eedi really useful in refreshing her on things that she knew how to do but had forgotten bits about during lockdown.

She’s loved the lessons & has been doing a bit each day after school, encouraged by the flame rewards.

We did have an issue as each day her rewards were resetting, but I contacted Eedi & within 24 hours they had amended her account to show the correct rewards (making her happy again).

I think Eedi would be a really useful tool to use during the summer holidays when children have a large gap in their education.

My daughter didn’t find it to be ‘work’ as such as it was on her iPad, but I was happy for her to spend time each day doing it as I knew that she was learning new things voluntarily so it must have been fun & educational :-)

1. Good layout and a relaxed way of teaching. We liked the fact she could check with a teacher if needed.
2. The pre recorded videos explaining subjects when needed
3. My daughter liked they and felt relaxed with this approach
4. A great learning tool with no pressure on children

My daughter didn’t get the surprise box even though we did a lot of lessons so was disappointed.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

I liked the format, the online nature meaning you can use in your own time. I signed my 11yo daughter up to this.

2. What was the best feature of Eedi family?
   You can choose whatever part of maths that you are struggling with, and either start at "your" level or go a couple of steps back. DD liked creating an avatar.

3. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors?

All our lessons were reviewed by bots, we didn't get any real life teacher input. This was later explained to us as being due to the time of day we were using it; evenings mainly. Given that kids generally in school during the day; it seemed a bit of a shame to have missed out on live lessons as advertised. Frustration when having accidentally clicked a wrong answer nearly made us give up - the bot made DD repeat the whole session again.

I have to say, some of the questions were poorly worded so neither of us understood the concept. When explaining it, a different example was used that was worded differently. We spent a good 45 mins struggling with that.

4. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

A paid-for version of Khan Academy that only focuses on Maths. Honestly, I think Khan Academy is better but then we didn't see the live lessons due to timing.

As pp said, it was a complicated log in system that meant I had to log in before she could log in. Seems like an unnecessary step.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family? Lucas liked the smiley emojis where he could select how confident he felt about his answer - a nice visual touch. He also loved the name Eedi!
2. What was the best feature of Eedi Family? Hard to say as we generally found the site difficult to use - I'm not sure we did things "correctly" as found ourselves down a sequencing wormhole where neither of us as parents understood what the heck the question was. We used the site at the weekend and so no tutors were available and the pop up explanation box was even more confusing. Sadly Lucas found the whole episode so frustrating that he didn't want to use the site again.
3. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors? We never managed to find a lesson (again were using at the weekend so perhaps this is why). Every time we went into the site it led us to a question/answer session so it almost felt like we were being asked to answer questions prior to being taught?
4. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend? A useful site if you are home educating and want some supplementary help with maths. Certainly most useful if you're looking to access the content during normal school hours.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

It was fairly easy to use and I felt my DD got quite a lot out of it.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

If you didn't understand anything, the lessons were really good - I learned quite a lot too!

1. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors?

Very good - my DD found this very motivating.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

It's helpful, I thought it was a good platform and would be excellent for home educators.

I did not like the endless emails, and DD's rewards kept resetting - she cried and cried one evening because her 'streak' was gone and she didn't think she'd get the reward any more? I didn't chase it up which was silly as I see the same happened to someone else above and theirs was reset. I'll be a bit annoyed if she doesn't because that was the motivating factor to get her to use it!

I did ask if she wanted me to pay to carry it on - despite glitches, I liked it and thought it was helpful - but she said no...

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

The ability to choose specific topics to work on - this was the best improvement on the last version but still didn't seem that closely aligned to the curriculum at times.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

The chat bot - engaging and fun.

1. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors?

We didn't access this. If I'm honest my DC just didn't engage with Eedi this time around. Having trialled it the first time and stuck with it despite its difficulties, they were looking forward to trying an improved version this time around but on finding it only slightly easier to navigate, but still quite difficult - and the methods of teaching very different to school, with no immediately obvious functionality to finetune the teaching to match their ability / level of knowledge - just played around with it for a bit and then tuned out. And this is a DC who is usually fully engaged in online learning and maths tutoring software. Just all felt a lot harder than it should do to get started, so they didn't.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

Online maths tutoring package for KS3. Great concept but just needs a drastic rethink.

We have trialled Eedi with my 11 year old (Year 6) daughter. To answer the questions:

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

My child enjoyed using it and found the interface quite user-friendly.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

The reports to the parents so that you know what your child has been working on and how they did. I would have liked to have been able to see in full the answers they gave to each question rather than just an overall score, so that we could support them with the appropriate revision at home.

1. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors?

We found it a bit glitchy and the chat service wasn't always available.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

An online maths programme with chat support available if you get stuck.

Overall opinion: My child enjoyed using this for the most part but found some aspects frustrating (It would log her out which meant that I had to login first before she could open her child user account). The chat wasn't always available but she wasn't that keen to use it anyway (having drilled into her about NOT using chat services to talk to people she doesn't know online - maybe she's a bit young for such a feature just yet).
As an adult, the volume of emails was a bit annoying.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

It seemed like quite good fun, the setup and the interface

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

DD didn't really get on with it tbh

1. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors?

DD wasn't able to access a live tutor and was very aware that she was chatting with a bot. It was hard to access the lessons she needed to consolidate her learning from school. Maybe it would be better for primary...? It didn't really tick the boxes for us.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

Automated, interactive maths support

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family? It was catered well for my 9 year old’s ability!
2. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

The online tutoring- really great value for money having them there the entire time my daughter was learning!

1. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors? She thought it was clever and I felt she was confident knowing they were there to guide her!
2. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend? Great help for children who aren’t just struggling to understand Maths but for children who lack confidence in general!

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

That it was accessible on iPads as well as laptops so could be taken with us when doing other activities (we are a home educating family with 3 children so made it easy to do maths lessons for one of the other was at a on activity).

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

Cross Platform use

1. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors?

Didn’t use this part as my son got really fed up with it as the quick fire questions that he got wrong never explained why or how to get them right. Found it frustrating and having used other things like this didn’t like that it wouldn’t explain or break down how to do it.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

Nice addition to other maths lessons and platforms but not something to use as a main learning resource and only with children that are happy to go away and research how to do something they go wrong on other sites or books

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family? The insight to have visibility about how my daughter is doing, and the opportunity to take action to help her with topics she is struggling with. As is normal, we only receive 2 x 10 minute parents’ evening slots with her teacher so being able to take immediate action is really valuable. I can see that this platform could springboard my daughter into the next level. Really good to see the ‘petrol dial’ showing where she is against the requirements of her year group.

The questions were well structured which meant that my daughter was also carrying out problem solving and comprehension at the same time.

Also, I always have the horror that was home-schooling at the back of my mind, but this platform would almost do the maths subject for her if we did happen to go back into a lockdown/school closure.

2. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?
   I liked the reporting. It was a clear summary of her progress and areas to improve.

3. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors?

My daughter thought they were fun. She liked chatting to the ‘bot’. I liked that there is someone there to explain things in the correct way.

Much cheaper than a one:one maths tutor.

4. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

A maths portal for children with gamification and rewards built in to motivate them. Aligned to the National Curriculum. Takes the headache out of maths for parents.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

It's good parental feedback.once setup had been sorted was easy to use.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family? Good to be able to use it on various platforms
2. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors?

My son unfortunately didn't use this enough. It 00 just while he had finished lockdown and a long period of self isolation and couldn't face much more screen-basedlearning.. Had we child it now I think he was 3 enjoyed this feature

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

I liked the weekly updates of what my dd had been doing.
Dd liked the interactive chat and the promise of the mystery box when she'd earned enough points (though there were a couple of times she didn't receive points for completing lessons).

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

The lessons for the different topics. It really helped my dd understand some of the topics that were unfamiliar to her with missing out on most of year 4 during lockdown.

1. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors?

My dd liked them. She liked interacting during the lessons as it made it more interesting than just having worksheets to fill in.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend

A good value online maths programme that has helped increase my child's confidence in maths.

Overall we liked it. My dd enjoyed maths for a change as its usually her least favourite subject. There were one or two topics she was unfamiliar with, likely due to missing school during lockdown, but she found the lessons helped her understand most of these.

The promise of a mystery box for completing lessons really helped motivate her in the beginning as she's not usually a fan of maths but is very rewards motivated. Once she'd earned enough points for the mystery box she still carried on with the lessons as she found it enjoyable which is a big win for the programme. She's really looking forward to receiving the mystery box.

Sorry! 4. An online maths platform to encourage and solidify your child's maths learnign

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

I like that it’s spent something online for my son, and that he has to take responsibility to get the tasks done.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family? The ability to see what he had (or hadn’t done!)

1. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors?

We didn’t use this but we talked about it together as I wanted to engage in a conversation with my son about good and bad ways of using chats.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

An online tutor & maths workshop for all ages to support school work.

I feel that the system needs more reminders to do the work as my son would ignore the emails!

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

I loved that there was the option to speak with a real tutor most of the time.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

Definitely the online tutor.

1. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors?

I thought both were great. My daughter had a slightly different view, being the one engaging with the service. She found that on a number of occasions, whilst doing a lesson, she would end up getting stuck in some sort of loop with the bot and was unable to progress with that lesson. I would assume it was just a glitch but it really frustrated her the few times she used the service.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

A great, affordable tutor option if your child is willing to engage.

In all I think the concept is great, and well executed.
My daughter was receptive at first but then found herself not wanting to log on as she felt it was just more of the same that she was struggling with at school.
I think that’s more down to her attitude though and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to someone.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family?

The explanations were clear and there was enough opportunity to ask for more help if needed. Although it was frustrating when a simple mistake or typo was made and we then had to go through a full explanation followed by worksheet, being able to say I understand and skip the rest would be good.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family?

The live tutors (if online at the right times)

1. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors?

It was OK, although some of the emojis didn't work properly on my (old but functional) phone which was awkward, especially when doing algebra questions - screenshot attached.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend?

An online maths platform.

It's a nice idea but it didn't engage DD at all so I definitely wouldn't pay for it.
I also noticed a few spelling mistakes, as per screenshot attached - makes it just seem a little less professional.

I forgot to say, there were a lot of emails. Some of them also said that DD had got something wrong but had watched a video and she now understands - DD had made the mistake but had never seen the video that I was given the link to, which was strange.

1. What did you like most about Eedi Family? How much detailed it covered. I also loved that they were quick to let me know how he was getting and how well he was understanding it.

1. What was the best feature of Eedi Family? The live chat. We didnt need to wait which for our youngest was superb.

1. What did you and your child think of the chat-based lessons with our learning companion Eedi and our tutors? Really enjoyed these. Different tutors obviously for the different parts of maths were great.

1. How would you describe Eedi Family to a friend? A great tutor style maths programme which would either teach or improve your childs maths.

The only downside we had with this was that since my son was dyslexic he struggled alot with the reading. It doesnt read the questions out loud and out programme which does this didnt actually work with the system.