One of Dash's key features is the "My Assigned Learning" page where students find new recommendations. These recommendations serve as a personalized guide for the day's learning activities. Starting on November 19th, 2023, students are now able to see the source of their lesson recommendations. Previously, only guides and admins had access to this.
Below are details on the source of these recommendations.
Recommendation Sources:
1. App Roster
What is it?
These recommendations direct students to educational apps like ReadTheory or CommonLit that are already a part of their learning program. They usually provide a direct link to an assigned application.
Why is it important?
Quick access to these apps keeps all the educational tools centralized, and saves student's time searching for them. Rostered apps are selected based on their effectiveness in improving specific subject areas.
2. Academics Testing
What is it?
These contain the tests assigned to that day's learning time. These will be Edulastic mastery tests, Renaissance tests, or IXL Diagnostics and any other test that the academics team assigns.
Why is it important?
These tests adapt to a student's skill level and provide insights into their learning strengths and weaknesses. This helps tailor the recommendations to areas where they can either improve or excel as well as help the academics team to roster students appropriately.
3. Academics
What is it?
Occasionally, the Academics team manually assigns recommendations to students. These assignments can be a new supporting skill due to a student's specific struggle, a new skill that would greatly improve the learning experience of a student, or even just the reordering of one or more skills within the skills present in Dash for a day.
Why is it important?
These manual recommendations ensure that the learning path aligns with curriculum goals and educational standards while being tailored to each student. The Academics team consists of educational experts who continually update the recommendation engine to suit student's needs.
4. Knowledge Gap
What is it?
If a student answered questions incorrectly in mastery tests, these mistakes are analyzed, and categorized into Careless (when the student knew the content but didn't address the question with the attention needed) and Content (when the student doesn't know the content of the question and thus must revisit the material). Specific recommendations are generated to address them, and added to Dash. If any of these lessons had been mastered in the past, they will not count as a mastered level again when completed.
Why is it important?
This feature helps students to focus on improving areas where they've shown gaps in knowledge. Coaches use analytics and test reviews to pinpoint exactly which concepts need revisiting.
5. Skill Plan
What is it?
Each subject has a pre-approved skill plan, and recommendations are normally sourced from these plans. These are the main essential skills.
Why is it important?
Following a skill plan ensures that students receive a well-rounded education, covering all the necessary topics and skills in each subject. These plans are designed with input from respected sources in the educational spectrum and revised by the academics team.
6. Supporting Skills
What is it?
If a student is struggling with an essential skill, recommendations for "scaffolding skills" will be provided. These are foundational skills that build up to the one found to be challenging. A student is currently defined as struggling with a skill if they spend more than 2 sessions totaling at least 50 minutes in each skill without committing antipatterns in each session.
Why is it important?
Mastering these foundational skills can make it easier to learn the main skill, giving a student a step-by-step approach to overcoming challenges.
Priyanka Bhotika
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