'Naver Class Band Active in Education Field... 2024 Guide Released and New Semester Campaign'

Naver announced on the 19th that it has released the "2024 Class BAND Usage Guide," which provides detailed instructions on how teachers can conveniently set up and use BAND.

Naver is also running the "BAND New Semester Campaign" to help users easily find class BANDs and parent BANDs for the 2024 academic year. On the campaign page, users can check the class BAND guide, search for joinable class BANDs by the names of daycare centers, kindergartens, and elementary, middle, and high schools, or create their own BAND.

The "Class BAND," operated as an official communication channel in educational settings, spread rapidly with the start of remote classes due to COVID-19. Since 2020, a total of 380,000 class BANDs have been created, and 740,000 students (users under 19) have used class BANDs over four years. Even after the resumption of face-to-face classes in 2023 following the endemic phase, the growth of class BANDs has continued. Last year alone, 60,000 class and parent BANDs were created, with 1.11 million members joining.

The reason class BANDs have been recognized as effective class management tools lies in their differentiated convenience and safety. Naver BAND offers free features optimized for class management, such as class announcements, sharing class materials and managing homework, quizzes and assignments, polls and missions, attendance checks, and remote classes. Additionally, teachers, students, and parents can communicate one-on-one in real time without exposing personal contact information. Another advantage is that students without smartphones can participate in class BANDs via PC.

Furthermore, as the usage of class BANDs increased, Naver BAND launched a child-exclusive service called "BAND Kids" in 2021 to allow students under 13 to participate safely. BAND Kids surpassed 1 million cumulative downloads last year and received great response. This service allows child users to join and participate only by invitation to BANDs created by teachers or parents, and its search function is restricted so children are not exposed to public BANDs, general content, or advertisements, ensuring safe use.

Naver BAND is also enhancing detailed features reflecting educational needs. Using the "Quiz" feature, teachers can automatically grade quizzes with pre-entered answers, and a "retry wrong questions" function has been added to help students fully understand the lesson content. The video call feature has also been improved to allow checking of participating members and participation rates.

Meanwhile, according to Naver, a recent survey of about 350 teachers using class BANDs showed that 97% of respondents would recommend class BANDs to other teachers. The main uses included ▲ delivering announcements (84%), ▲ sharing school and academy life with students (51%), ▲ sharing and storing class materials (46%), ▲ announcing and submitting assignments (44%), and ▲ sharing children’s activities with parents (42%) (multiple answers allowed).

The most satisfying feature was "Writing Announcements." This feature allows teachers to see who has read their posts and to write posts in advance and schedule their posting time. The "Photo Album" and "File Attachment" features also received high satisfaction.

In addition, class BANDs provide features that enable students to actively participate in class activities and foster a close and lively atmosphere. Teachers can set "missions" to help students develop positive habits, and students can complete and certify these missions with each other, gaining not only fun but also a sense of achievement and community spirit. When decision-making is needed within the class, the voting feature can be used to collect opinions, and anonymous participation is possible, ensuring fair voting.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.