One idea that we at SAGrader support wholeheartedly is the concept of iterative learning. Within our SAGrader assignments, we suggest that instructors allow students to submit multiple times. Why? For two reasons: 1) Our own research has shown that it’s a great way for students to learn the material — often resulting in a score [...]
In most classrooms, a teacher calls on a student then celebrates a correct answer and admonishes a wrong one. But research from U.C.L.A. suggests that allowing students to make errors can actually improve learning. For years educators have assumed that repeatedly reinforcing correct concepts in class gives students exposure to the proper information, while shielding [...]
Here at The Idea Works offices the SAGrader development team has been hard at work ensuring that SAGrader is the best program available for improving student writing. While we are constantly making improvements to our software, two recent items deserve considerable mention. Our Context engine As part of our grading engine, SAGrader examines the context [...]
What’s the number one goal of Education? Ask almost anyone involved in education and they’ll agree: student achievement. However, while there is a general consensus that student achievement should be the focus of our Education efforts, there are very different views on what exactly student achievement means. According to Christopher Sessums in a recent article [...]
As textbook costs rise, major publisher take a new approach toward an electronic format. But will students and administrators go for it? Recently, a lot of buzz has been generated about the future of textbooks. While some see the traditional textbook as an irreplaceable part of Higher Education, a growing number of people are calling [...]
For years baseball clamored about RBI men. RBI men were the cream of the crop. The guys who got the big contracts. However, about a decade ago, baseball guys started to look at things a little differently. In 2003, the book Moneyball was released. It outlined the strategies of the Oakland A’s – a team [...]
If your students aren’t always enthusiastic about writing assignments, maybe it’s time to try something other than “Tell me what you did on your summer vacation”. Students will get more out of writing if they’re excited about the topic. Ask a 12-year-old to tell you why he likes Call of Duty, and I bet he’ll [...]
When the school year ends in the next few weeks, more than a handful of students (and teachers?) will look back and think: “What was the point of all that?” For some, it only takes a glimpse of life outside the classroom to start questioning the purpose of school. Especially when all the fun seems [...]
Meris Stansbury of eSchool News recently wondered how students’ reading and research habits have been influenced by our Google-centric culture. She cites research commissioned by the British Library and the Joint Information Systems Committee that says: [Web users] tend to seek information horizontally–meaning they skim, or bounce from page to page, without reading in depth [...]
