Premium Edulastic Updates: Back to School 2020
Pear Assessment
This year we are excited to introduce some incredible updates that will take learning and teaching to the next level. We’ve listened to educators and over the last year have been working hard to deliver updates that will bring instruction and learning to the next level this year.
No matter whether you are teaching in the classroom or remote, Edulastic will help you guide students on their learning journey. In addition to the new 2020 back-to-school features for everyone, we have updates for Premium Edulastic subscribers that will make instruction even better this year.
Student grouping, practice assessments, dynamic questions, and playlists are just some of the many changes that will help you power instruction. Read on to learn about these exciting updates and more! Or sign up for an online training to get a live overview of what is new!
Edulastic Premium Updates for Back-to-School 2020
1. Student Groups
Differentiate the learning process and provide students with assessments and support that meets them where they are at.
Student groups are a great way to differentiate assessments and instruction. Use student groups to filter and view specific student groups when looking at reports, and to deliver assessments to specific groups. This update makes it easier for instructors to deliver specialized assessments, track progress, and to guide students who are at a similar skill level. You can mix students from different classes into the group to track targeted students (IEP, struggling students, ELL students, or students who need an extra challenge) While you can view student progress within the group, their grade book still stays within their class. Admins(coaches and intervention specialists) can create their own remediation assessments and assign to groups without needing teacher involvement.
2. Give Students Practice Assessments
Better ways to help assign and support student practice online.
Want to give students an assessment as a form of practice? Now there are several new updates that will help students practice problems, maneuver through lessons, and learn from worksheets and homework on Edulastic. To get started, go to the test settings, and then use the drop-down menu and select “Practice Assessment.”
- Use Pre-set Redirect to pre-determine how many times students can re-take an assignment, lesson, or test. Choose to redirect only incorrect answers if you so desire.
- Give students the ability to check their answers as they go.
- When looking at mastery reports, you don’t necessarily want to see the practice assignments. Filter practice assessments from mastery reports to focus on the assessments that count.
- Timed assignments give students an idea of how long the learning task should take, and also provide an additional layer of cheating prevention.
3. Playlists
A stronger and more organized way to craft modules and deliver bundled assessments & assignments.
Brace yourself: this one is going to be a game-changer! Now you can organize assessments, assignments, or lessons through playlists. This new function is extremely useful not only for organization, but also for delivering assignments throughout a curriculum or learning modules.
A playlist offers a linear track for learning advancement and a place where instructors can package and deliver lessons, practice, worksheets, homework, learning resources, formative assessments, and more formal checkpoints. It’s a prime way to guide, monitor, and keep track of learning.
After delivering a playlist, students can work through the assignments as you’ve assigned them and you can view progress and overall progress as time goes on. See overall progress on the playlist, or drill down to specific modules.
4. Parent/Guardian Portal
Give parents and guardians insight into the learning process.
With a new parent portal, teachers can invite parents/guardians of a student to view the student progress on assessments in Edulastic. This added insight is great no matter whether you are in school or working from home as it can allow the parent to be able to better understand and support their child.
5. Dynamic Questions
Prevent cheating by randomizing the numbers in an equation.
This highly requested feature will help prevent cheating by mixing up the numbers used in a mathematical question. For questions that involve calculations, you can now set it to be a dynamic question and it will
6. Gradebook
Track student progress on all assignments, at a glance.
Now you can get a nice glance at what you’ve assigned and how students are doing through the new Gradebook tab. This tab lists the assignments across the columns and students along the rows. You can view if students still need to complete the assessment or what student grades are all in one place.
7. Student Player Skins
Practice that truly mimics the look and feel of your state test.
Many educators around the country use Edulastic to prepare students for state assessment. We are happy to share that with Edulastic, state test prep just got better.
With the new release, teachers can choose how students will view the assessment. Apart from the standard Edulastic “skin”, teachers can choose a “player skin” that matches their state assessment. Options include PARCC, SBAC, and more. Talk about giving students a practice experience that truly matches what they can expect on testing day!
Edulastic updates are driven by the feedback we hear from teachers. We continuously work with our customers and teacher community to learn about how we can make Edulastic even better. And these aren’t the only updates you’ll notice when you get the rolled out release! If you haven’t already, learn about the additional updates available to everyone on Edulastic.
At Edulastic we are proud to offer a robust free product for teachers everywhere. We are aware that there is a lot of ongoing uncertainty about whether school will be in person or online this year. With Edulastic on your side you can rest assured that you’ll be able to feel prepared for instruction no matter whether in-person or distance learning will take place. We are here to support teachers and hope you enjoy the new features!
