15-year-old student turns teacher to help peers via online platform

AMMAN — Distance learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, has inspired 15-year-old Ahmad Abu Al Rub to turn YouTube into an education platform, helping his peers become “successful online learners”.

Abu Al Rub who is a student at Bilal Bin Rabah School in Al Qwaismeh, told The Jordan Times during a phone interview on Sunday that the idea of launching a “teaching initiative” occurred to him when he was helping his peers remotely and posting explanations on his school’s Facebook page.

“With the encouragement of my friends, family and teachers I created a Facebook group for communication with and support of my peers,” he said.

Abu Al Rub live-streamed his own lectures on the Facebook group currently having over 11,000 members, then he switched to YouTube where he created a channel to “empower students of his age”.

On his channel, Abu Al Rub posts lectures at noon every day. Each lecture is 30 minutes. He teaches mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, earth sciences, Arabic and English.

“Now there is always a post-lesson discussion on the Facebook group, which helps us learn from each other, as well as, interact while staying safe at home.”

“Students who were struggling with online learning reached out, I started with zero subscribers, but now I have almost 18,000 subscribers,” Abu Al Rub noted, believing that simplicity is the key. 

According to Abu Al Rub, this experience has helped him uncover and develop his skills in teaching, in addition to utilising them in helping others.

“What helped me the most in creating an engaging distance learning experience is that I am the same age as the students I am teaching,” he said.