We’ve been working in education technology longer than most — going on eight years. In that time, we’ve collaborated with countless education partners, chatted with thousands of instructors, released hundreds of product updates and conducted a respectable amount of original research. Our journey hasn’t been easy. We’ve made all sorts of mistakes along the way […]

We hear a lot of great things from our dedicated instructors on how SAGrader helps them save time and effort. Instructors, however, are just one piece of the puzzle. Just as often, we receive accolades from students who love using SAGrader for its dynamic feedback and rock-solid effectiveness in helping them get better grades. It’s […]

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 […]