KlasCement is a teachers’ resources platform aiming at supporting and guiding teachers in their daily practice. It is professionally managed connecting all educational stakeholders and giving them the opportunity to interact based on personal user profiles. 

KlasCement was created in the late ‘90s by teachers and pupils as an independent network to connect teachers all over Flanders. Nowadays, it is endorsed by the Belgian Ministry of Education and continues to be maintained and updated by teachers who ensure the quality and pertinence of the learning resources shared on the platform. This bottom-up approach works: at the moment, KlasCement has 250,000 members, and the network reaches 70% of teachers in Flanders.  The platform is open to contributions of learning materials and other resources which can be consulted and/or uploaded by parents, students in teacher education, and educational organisations The network counts many members from other regions and countries.

The pandemic posed unprecedented challenges to teachers, school boards, pupils and parents and when classes were suspended in March 2020, teachers were required to use the digital means to continue their teaching activities.  

However, KlasCement quickly adapted its operations by introducing new pages and upgrading some existing tools:

1. Several thematic pages containing information about (distance) learning (for all ages and educational levels) and teaching materials were uploaded almost immediately after the suspension of face-to-face classes.  . These pages provide inspiration and material to accommodate students, teach from a distance or to support your child as a parent.

2. Teachers can also turn to KlasCement for information and materials relating to preteaching as well as for educational videos to help them explain specific subjects from a distance. Users can also download complete lessons and workbooks

3. Pupils also practice on oefen.be themselves - free of charge and without logging in. By means of filters, content can be refined on age, course, level of education and subject matter.

4. In an online teachers' room – the largest in Flanders – teachers can share their practices and knowledge:  an interaction that allows teachers to ask each other questions and get advice from their colleagues and peers.

Finally, KlasCement provides live support and webinars on distance learning. Up to 300 participants took part to each of these sessions.  This approach proved successful: since the suspension of face-to-face classes in March, KlasCement saw its membership numbers increase from 200,000 to 250,000. There was also a significant rise in sharing teaching materials and other contents and the popularity of the teachers' room grew.

For this school year 20/21, KlasCement intends to reinforce the current strategy:  the teachers' room will be actively promoted in order to further activate the knowledge the network has..  The webinars will be also become a more recurrent practice.  Finally, KlasCement will continue research how AI can make the site even more user-friendly and how it would help ensure teachers with the same profile can find each other faster and more efficiently in the teachers' room.  This too will ensure that the available knowledge is activated and disseminated. 

More information:  Belgian Ministry of Education

Eurydice Belgium – Flemish Community Unit