In the mountains of southern West Virginia, McDowell County forms an isolated and tight-knit community. Once a thriving county supported by nearby coal mines, McDowell has changed a lot over the past decades. Downtown Welch, the seat of the county, reveals streets lined with now empty shops and a suffering local economy. One source of local pride remains McDowell County Schools and how the district has handled the shift to hybrid learning.

An order for laptops is still delayed. Some students hand in assignments by taking a picture and texting it to their teachers. Learners with a history of drug abuse or absenteeism are struggling. But despite these hurdles, hybrid learning is still in session five days a week.

McDowell County in general has faced several challenges in recent years. The region has been hit with the opioid crisis, poverty, lack of housing, an outdated internet infrastructure, and transportation issues that impacted their residents and students harshly. With the outbreak of Covid-19, McDowell County had to make a sudden shift to hybrid learning. Like many other rural communities in the U.S., existing challenges made this abrupt change all the more difficult.

How Have the Students Done with Hybrid Learning?

At the start of the pandemic, McDowell County schools gave families the option of coming to in-person school or virtual learning. 47% chose virtual learning while the rest chose to be on school grounds for in-person learning. For those who chose the option of virtual learning, parents and guardians had to ensure the school board that the student had an internet connection. The schools in turn made sure that the students had a device to use.

At the start of the pandemic, over 3 million children were estimated to not have high-speed internet in their homes. Many of these learners attend one of McDowell County’s seven elementary schools, two middle schools, and two high schools. For them, online learning was not a choice.

“At the high school level, every teacher has one period when they teach virtual students,” said McDowell County Schools Superintendent Carolyn Falin. “Then they do core subjects 3 days a week and teach another subjects the other 2 days of the week. So the students are not bombarded with being online all day long in front of virtual teachers.”

Students are expected to complete other assignments when they are not online. Hotspots are available at school parking lots if students have internet issues at home, if students are able to get there. Since the start of the pandemic, more internet access has been made available in the area, but some students live in regions where high speed connections are not possible.

Continuing Class with Hotspots, Paper, and Ink

Frazier McGuire, the principal of River View High School, discussed how teachers have been flexible with those students with limited internet access.

“We know sometimes students cannot login when they are supposed to. We know sometimes they cannot submit things when deadlines are due, and the teachers have been really good about extending deadlines and working with them,” said McGuire. Some students have been able to scan completed assignments and email them to their teachers, and some have even taken pictures of their assignments and handed them in via text.

For those students who are unable to get to the hotspots or have limited internet, the school sends them packets to complete at home.

“We do have some areas in our county where the students do not have access to internet in their home, so going full remote is difficult,” Falin said. “For one, we don’t have technology for all the kids yet, and two, not all of our kids have access to an internet connection.”

Shout out to FRES virtual teachers for scheduling guest speaker WVVA Chief Meteorologist @WVVAKAThompson and Jolly Saint Nick to join Wellness Wednesday! #CountyStrong pic.twitter.com/Q38Dx8Av0i

— McDowell Co Schools (@SchoolsMcdowell) December 17, 2020

K-2 students have been using Chromepads while grades 3-12 are using Chromebooks. However, some schools in McDowell have not received their orders for Chromebooks.

“Originally, we were told that we would have them over the summer, then it was moved to September, then it was October, and now I’m not sure when they will be here,” said McGuire. The schools did have backups for students to take, but that has also posed a challenge. The devices are older products and schools have had to switch them out several times for replacements.

What Support Is there for Families and Students?

With more students online than ever before, it is a pretty common occurrence now to have parents or guardians who are not as computer literate as their children. In response to this and to create better communications with the families of students, McDowell created a tech support group for parents and guardians to reach out to answer questions.

“We have virtual family tech support two days a week,” Superintendent Falin said. “A few teachers at each school are available to answer questions that parents might have on anything.”

There is also the question of providing support for students who have a history of drug abuse within families, poverty, and a history of absences. It was already difficult for schools to provide the emotional and social support those students need. In 2001, McDowell County schools were taken over by the state to address and provide aid to students who faced poverty crisis, repeated absences, and drug abuse in the home. Control was reinstated in 2013. Now, with remote learning, educators are seeing that students who did not have a history of issues with absences tend to choose to learn in person. But those who have a history of repeated absences are more likely to choose remote learning.

“The one thing that has made it more difficult is not having all the students in school,” said Principal McGuire. “It’s hard to provide them the support that they need and have gotten in the past.”

McGuire also discussed how, for their counselors to provide more support to students, they will call and check on them on a daily basis. Teachers will also keep track of attendance during class by seeing them on camera.

Although, this year has been a struggle, educators and board members are recognizing the positive impact that remote learning has created.

“Ideally, distance learning is not for everybody,” Principal McGuire said. “We have some kids who are doing really well in it, some are not. I do think that for those students who are getting ready to go to college, it is some valuable experience for them because a lot of the classes they take will be online. It has also forced students and staff to utilize technology they would not have used. It has forced people to step out of their comfort zones.”

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Finding out what you want to do in life can be challenging, but one nonprofit partnering with community colleges across the nation is making that easier. Roadtrip Nation recently announced a new resource to assist community college students to find their own career paths. The Roadtrip Nation Experience: Community College Edition utilizes project-based learning and storytelling that is available to students and educators within the community college setting. These resources are available via a new open-access platform the organization launched this week.

Roadtrip Nation’s Pilot Course Is Now Available Online

Earlier this year, the in-person Roadtrip Nation course ran from January through March, and took place in three locations. One was launched in conjunction with Project Self-Sufficiency in Newport Beach, CA, another nonprofit that helps single parents through education and training. The others took place at Linn Benton Community College in Albany, Oregon and Montgomery College in Takoma Park, Maryland. Using a five-lesson based video course, students learned critical professional, emotional, and social skills. They were introduced to professionals who told them how they landed their dream job.

Define your own road in life. pic.twitter.com/Zfw0UbhKtF

— Roadtrip Nation (@RoadtripNation) April 11, 2019

According to Roadtrip Nation, results of the pilot program showed there was a 36% increase of students who strongly agreed that they had goals after completing the program, a 20% increase in students who strongly agreed that the future appears brighter for themselves, and a 30% increase in students who agreed in that they know how to identify resources and steps they need to take to reach their goals.

Students who participate in the Roadtrip Nation’s online course will experience and learn of different ways to find their own path for their dream career, and their personal life fulfillment for themselves and their families.

What Does the Organization Do?

Known for their large green RVs and popular career exploration tactics, Roadtrip Nation takes students to find and explore possible careers choices that they are interested in by interviewing professionals in that career field and learning what led that professional to that career.

“One pivotal step can spark confidence in a future career. This is about delivering messages to students that they don’t often hear and showing them how to connect their interests to fulfilling future jobs,” said Mike Marriner, the president and co-founder of Roadtrip Nation, in a statement.

The course is available through the support of the Educational Credit Management Corporation (ECMC) Foundation.

Roadtrip Nation is a nonprofit organization that made it their mission to assist students from diverse backgrounds find their passions that they can turn into a career. According to their 2018 Form 990 tax return (the latest available), the organization spent over $8 million that year putting on various events and campaigns to this end.

Using storytelling to inspire students, Roadtrip Nation’s award-winning television series has shown students how to find their best path with a job that fits them and their personal needs.

Their most recent documentary, One Single Mom’s Journey, focuses on three single mothers who want to change their and their children’s lives for the better. The documentary introduces the viewer to single mothers Gabby, Kiera, and Maliaq, along with what they hope to achieve in the future. Roadtrip Nation shows students different opportunities available to them, and challenges them to find an expert in a field that they are interested in, and interview them by video to find out what actions they took and obstacles that were experienced to get where they are in their careers.

Featured Image: Sylvia Zhou, Unsplash.

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When Andrew Scivally began working on weekends and weeknights in 2009 with his brother Shawn, he was unsure of where their efforts would lead them. Eleven years later, their company, eLearning Brothers, is grossing $20 million per year and serves 94 separate Fortune 500 companies, including Ford, Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, and Amazon. This year alone, learners have launched nearly three million courses from the eLearning Brothers platform.

“In the beginning, it was just the two of us. We worked in our basements, we had a couple of laptops, and that was all it took to get the business started,” said Scivally, who serves as the CEO and co-founder of eLearning Brothers.

eLearning Brothers provides companies and organizations with the capacity to stand up their own online training. Many clients choose to use their templates to customize their own courses, while others pick off-the-shelf options. In addition, and among other offerings, the company provides a learning management system (LMS) to deliver the training.

How eLearning Brothers Got Started

Before joining his brother full-time, Andrew’s background was in the online learning and financial services sector. He was working at JP Morgan Chase building courses and managing learning development groups. Shawn’s background was also with JP Morgan Chase doing eLearning design. Afterwards, Shawn left to do training development work for Wendy’s, the fast-food chain, in Columbus, OH. Both brothers eventually moved back home to Utah to be closer to their family.

After relocating West, the brothers began working on the concept of their company. Starting in 2009, Shawn started building templates and selling them on their website while Andrew went out and made connections. When creating the templates, they used popular tools, such as Adobe and PowerPoint. After creating the templates, they would sell them to consumers. Gradually, they moved on to creating custom content.

“It was like this seed that kept growing in my brain. It just kept growing and growing. I was starting to get consumed with the idea,” Scivally said.

Scivally joined his brother full-time in 2010. They made $4000 in their first month, $2000 each to support their families. “One of the first things we were aware of early on was that there was always tons of work to get done. There is always something more to do,” said Scivally. The company continued to grow, and they started to create their own unique style.

Wearing bright orange shirts, the eLearning Brothers stood out from other eLearning companies with their creativity and drive. They want to pass these traits to their consumers.

“Our motto is that we create eLearning rockstars. Basically, when we think of rockstars, we’re not talking about drugs and crazy parties. We are talking about those creative or artistic passions and that desire to inspire people,” said Scivally. They felt that the rockstar image was perfect for the company and would allow them to convey to their consumers that they could create their own eLearning content or partner with and create their eLearning content with them.

Moving Forward Amid a Pandemic

The pandemic has posed a challenge for edtech companies and educators around the world. For the eLearning Brothers, it has been an opportunity. While the pandemic was unpredictable, the eLearning Brothers recognized that workplace trainings were still needed, especially with many shifting to remote work.

“Training still needs to happen. Companies are still onboarding employees, and they are still trying to figure out how to do product rollouts, systems updates, and all these things where they need to train people. However, now it all has to be online,” said Scivally.

Check out this amazing project created by our partner, Video Interact, for @Fendi. This was built using #CenarioVR and #Lectora! https://t.co/BODS6EPzNI

— eLearning Brothers (@eLearningBros) October 30, 2020

The eLearning Brothers acquired two companies in April this year: Trivantis and Edulence, for $38 million. Trivantis is an award-winning eLearning company known for two products, Lectora and CenarioVR. With these products, corporate trainings can be completed to better suit the workers, such as VR trainings for firefighters. CenarioVR creates an interactive element to engage the user by using 360 video and inputting it into the system. Edulence is known for their learning management system (LMS), Knowledgelink, where consumers can host platforms for their eLearning content.

“We had been a content business for so long, for 10-years, but I wanted to marry that with technology,” Scivally said when discussing the purchase of Trivantis and Edulence. Consumers are now able to create their own interactive learning that best fits their employees and workplace.

Their first acquisition product was released earlier this year in June as an authoring tool that combines VR, web-based, and desktop authoring capabilities. Their most recent announcement this past October was an arrangement with BizLibrary.com to offer more than 2500 off-the-shelf microlearning courses. The consumers will be able to present playlists that consent of training videos, games, coaching sessions, and other training materials.

“We’re going to continue to grow, grow our platform, and grow the business organically and through acquisitions,” Scivally said when talking about the future for eLearning Brothers.

Media courtesy of eLearning Brothers.

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Turnitin announced on Oct 21st, that they had acquired ExamSoft from Spectrum Equity. ExamSoft, a software platform that provides exam functionality and security for educational institutions, will be working with Turnitin to secure and monitor educational institutions for flexibility for assessments at educational and professional levels.

“Turnitin and ExamSoft share a passion for student success and delivering innovative assessments,” said Chris Caren, the CEO of Turnitin, in a statement.

With ExamSoft and Turnitin working together, educational institutions will be able to ensure and promote academic integrity while also allowing the use of a combination of services to help students along the way.

How Turnitin Will Leverage ExamSoft’s Platform

Turnitin was started by four university students in 1998, and was launched two years later as a plagiarism prevention service. In 2002, Turnitin debuted an online grading platform for educators. Since then, the company has had over 26 million students and educators use their site.

ExamSoft is an education software development program from Dallas, Texas that creates software solutions that focus on providing high levels of security for educational and certification institutions. With their assessment platform, ExamSoft can enable the educators to create, administer, grade, and analyze assignments. Data reporting shows course and student performing results that can show educators what needs to change in how their students are learning, tracking student engagement, and find curriculum areas that need improvement.

Welcome to the Turnitin family, @ExamSoft! https://t.co/HJMCo2gAvr pic.twitter.com/5uKGWdBm2e

— Turnitin (@Turnitin) October 22, 2020

“We look forward to working with the Turnitin team to continue to advance integrity solutions across all levels and modalities of education to improve learning outcomes,” said ExamSoft CEO Sebastian Vos, in a statement. ExamSoft has a 98% client retention rate, over 1,900 worldwide programs, and has delivered more than 63 million exams.

Spectrum Equity is a company that is a leading growth equity firm that has been providing capital and strategic support to innovative Internet, software, and information services companies for over 25 years.

Academic Dishonesty with Distance Learning

In this time of distance learning, it is crucial to identify and stop students committing plagiarism on written papers and other assignments. It can be easily avoided if the students have an understanding about plagiarism and paraphrasing.

One study “Plagiarism Instruction Online: Assessing Undergraduate Students’ Ability to Avoid Plagiarism” by Pamela A. Jackson discusses students’ understanding of plagiarism in a traditional educational setting. The study shared the results of how students paraphrased certain sections from the test.

“Most students did provide a citation for their paraphrase; however, in general, the paraphrases followed the original passage too closely. Students often used exact language from the original passage without using quotation marks, rearranged the sentence structure of the original passage, or simply replaced certain words to make it their own,” reported Jackson in the study.

Students having issues with plagiarism was concern in the classroom before COVID-19 changed schools to remote learning. Now with remote learning, students could have more difficulties understanding when they are committing plagiarism in their work. With Turnitin and ExamSoft, more educational institutions will be able to promote and encourage academic integrity, original work, and independent research from students as they continue to study remotely.

Correction October 23: A previous version of this article misspelled the name of the previous owners of ExamSoft. They are Spectrum Equity, not Spectrum Effect.

Featured Image: Scott Robison, Flickr.

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Since the outbreak of the pandemic and education’s rapid move online, tracking student engagement has posed a significant challenge to school districts. The edtech developer CatchOn is trying to do something about that. This month, the company launched a tool to help educators look into how students are using online learning platforms, applications, and resources from home.

“I feel that CatchOn is playing a really important role. We are really excited to be able to support educators and provide the data analytics that will help everyone get used to this new learning normal,” said CatchOn Founder and Evangelist Jena Draperuns.

How CatchOn Measures Student Engagement and Online Learning Progress

Draper launched CatchOn in 2016, with her goal being to help school districts meet and adapt to changes within an instructional learning setting. By using real data and technology, educators can see where their students are excelling, staying on track, falling behind, or missing completely.

“When I first started this company, I wanted to help schools be able to change the focus, change the emphasis from what grades students were earning to understanding and embracing the differences in how they learn,” said Draper.

CatchOn’s new student-level data tool will allow educators to monitor when the students are using online tools and resources. Each user profile will measure their engagement and track their engagement, evaluate student engagement patterns, and communicate engagement.

Don't wonder about engagement. Know exactly when engagement is occurring. Student Level Data on @catchon, coming soon. Learn more, now. https://t.co/1hBcqJ3vqv

— ENA (@ENAconnects) October 15, 2020

With measuring a student’s engagement, the educator can monitor their engagement with their course, assignments, and evaluate the time on each task with each subject. This can allow the educator to determine if a more personalized lesson for the student is needed, especially if the student is struggling in certain subjects or assignments. Tracking their engagement allows monitoring of the student online activity outside of the school property and ensuring that they are in attendance and working on assignments, and to track access to applications that are not approved.

When evaluating student engagement patterns, educators will be able to compare where students are excelling and where they are having issues with assignments. This will allow educators to better analyze and determine what personalized plans need to be made for each student. The ability to communicate will allow the educator to share data reports with the schools districts, individuals, and the parents while realigning priorities.

In 2018, CatchOn partnered with ENA (Education Networks of America), another leading provider in tech that started in 1996 that delivers data analytic solutions to education, library, healthcare, and government organizations.

How Will This Change Online Learning?

Lillian Kellogg, ENA’s Senior VP, provided insight on how CatchOn is addressing those concerns of how disadvantaged students will be able to keep up with their peers.

“If your students are not engaged and you have no way to monitor their engagement, that learning loss is just going to grow,” Kellogg stated.

Kellogg discussed a school district in Santa Fe, NM who provided devices to the students when COVID-19 hit but were having trouble connecting with their students. “With CatchOn they saw that there was no engagement, so they deployed someone to go to the student’s home and find out what was happening,” said Kellogg.

CatchOn would be able to identify what is preventing these students from connecting, whether it is lack of internet at home or another issue that interferes with the students success. Once this issue is resolved, the school district and educator can create a specialized plan to work with that student.

“It certainly shines a light on those students who are missing in action,” said Kellogg.

Featured Image: Iris Wang, Unsplash.

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Jack Dorsey, the Co-Founder and CEO of Twitter and Square, announced an investment of $3 million through the charitable organization #StartSmall to BUILD (BUILD.org). The funds will be used to scale and support their digital educational programs, which concentrate on racial equality through youth entrepreneurship.

“This grant will serve as a catalyst to accelerate our digital transformation and ultimately enable BUILD to provide entrepreneurship education to youth in underserved communities across the nation,” said Ayele Shakur, the CEO of BUILD, in a statement.

The funding will specifically assist the COVID-19 Virtual Design Challenge, which will allow its users to incorporate real-world learning and creative thinking to create youth driven solutions directed towards mental and physical wellness.

BUILD Creates Social Entrepreneurship Programs

BUILD was founded in 1999 with a goal to focus on racial and economic inequality and show how experimental learning can change the lives of those from struggling communities. Using a curriculum of six cores: collaboration, grit, problem solving, communication, innovation, and self-management, BUILD works with diverse backgrounds to create success. For students from struggling communities, BUILD’s Opportunity campaign can be life changing.

Since launching, BUILD has grown to operate in five cities across the United States and has partnered with schools across the nation.

We are so proud & thankful to share @Twitter + @Square Co-Founder & CEO, @jack Dorsey is donating $3million through his #StartSmall initiative to support https://t.co/bSefNMuSJ0’s digital initiatives, that reimagine education during COVID-19 & beyond! https://t.co/UHEO6dSoDc pic.twitter.com/tWsiN0qbzu

— BUILD National (@BUILDNational) October 9, 2020

Following the outbreak of COVID-19, BUILD launched the COVID-19 Virtual Design Challenge. The initiative presents students with an exercise in project-based learning, asking them to create mental health and wellness interventions in response to the pandemic.

The Inequitable Effects of COVID-19

McKinsey & Company research published this summer explores the effect that students of color and from low-income households have faced.

“Learning loss will probably be greatest among low-income, black, and Hispanic students,” the authors write. In the study, the learning loss for students of color and low income were reported to be higher than the typical learning loss during summer breaks.

Learning losses are projected to occur across Black, Hispanic, and low-income communities. The learning loss for regular schools during summer breaks are reported to be 10.3% for African Americans, 9.2% for Hispanics, and 12.4% for low income students.

Jack Dorsey and #StartSmall

Jack Dorsey co-founded Twitter in 2006 and served as the CEO until 2008 when he was forced out of the company. A year later in 2009, Dorsey founded Square, a mobile payment company that would allow users to use their credit cards on a mobile device. Dorsey later returned to Twitter two years later to serve as CEO until 2015.

Earlier this year in April, not long after the coronavirus hit the United States, Dorsey announced he was giving $1 billion to #StartSmall, a public fund being used as a way to provide relief during the pandemic. The public can see at #StartSmall.llc who has made donations, and where those donations are going. It is planned that once the pandemic has slowed down, #StartSmall will shift the focus to girl’s health and education, and Universal Basic Income (UBI).

Featured Image: JD Lasica, Flickr.

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As the country continues to see the number of COVID-19 cases grow, business owners and their workers go on working daily. A recent announcement on September 30 from EdCast and edX, along with their partners Adecco and the International Chamber of Commerce, could make a difference for thousands of businesses. EdCast pledged a $315 million investment for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) workforce education for employees. The investment will waive access fees to Spark by EdCast that features access to edX programs for one year. This investment is planned to help 100,000 plus SMBs that have been impacted by the pandemic.

The goal behind the investment is to help employees of SMBs to grow in their work, explore new fields and interests, and gain valuable skills that can help them to achieve their personal work goals. This is a continued part of a collaboration for Future of Work Alliance that was started earlier this year.

How Small and Mid-Sized Businesses Can Use Spark

Spark, EdCast’s Learning Experience Platform (LXP), enables remote upskilling, training, and learning programs. The employees of SMBs will be able to earn credentials through edX, a platform for education and learning with over 30 million users, after completing graduate level courses from top universities.

“Small and mid-sized businesses are struggling to adapt to the new normal, facing challenges that range from health and safety to financial to employee management,” said Karl Mehta, the CEO and Founder of EdCast, in a statement.

For many employees, this can improve their work skills, and their resume for potential employers. When using Spark, employees can gain badges and certifications on a variety of subjects, from communication, cybersecurity, and even mindfulness. Spark is available online and on mobile applications for workers to review and study on the go. It can be accessed on all major digital platforms, such as MS Teams, Google Search, and FB Workplace.

How This Impacts Employees

SMBs and their employees have faced several challenges since the start of the COVID-19 earlier this year. Some of these challenges differ, with some temporarily being laid off from their work to others being out of work for months and having to rely on government assistance programs. According to a recent Pew study, many Americans are still struggling to find steady work. “Even if they didn’t lose a job, many workers have had to reduce their hours or take a pay cut due to the economic fallout from the pandemic,” the report states.

The study also discusses how 1 in 4 adults continue to struggle to pay their bills since the start of the coronavirus. Some report withdrawing funds from retirement and savings accounts to make ends meet. Others have reported having to borrow money from family or friends. With access fees waived, employees of struggling SMBs now can grow certain job skills, and apply to higher paying, more secure jobs.

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As many learners across the U.S. continue to learn remotely, the online study platform Quizlet has launched new AI capabilities. Their machine-learning-powered Learning Assistant, unveiled this month, provides users with tutoring assistance, tests with the ability to assess writing, and personalized study paths.

Developers intend the Learning Assistant to help users develop a faster, deeper understanding and recall for any subjects they are studying. The product is currently available to Quizlet Plus subscribers.

Quizlet Learning Assistant Offers Personalized AI Tutoring

“We created the Learning Assistant because Quizlet is a company driven by learning science and we’re obsessed with finding the best ways to help students study and learn more effectively,” said Nitin Gupta, Quizlet vice president of product, in a statement.

The Learning Assistant allows users to create personalized study sessions to give them exactly what they need in order to excel in the subject area. After completing a short diagnostic that tests users to see what they understand, and what they need more help with, the Learning Assistant creates a particular and personalized study path for the user. This ensures that each user is in the best section to begin studying. Learners begin not too far ahead or behind in a subject that would cause more confusion and slow the user’s progress down.

Natural Language Processing Features

The AI also utilizes a smart grading system to help users retain information from their tutoring lessons faster. Using Natural Language Processing (NLP), the AI will interpret the answer to determine if the user is correct. This can allow the user to develop a better understanding of the concept, rather than just focusing on the vocabulary in the study.

The Learning Assistant also allows the user to track their progress. This allows the user to track their personal educational goals as they go through their subjects, and where more improvement is needed. Users can use this system to manage their time more efficiently and review key concepts if needed.

“We know from listening to our users, that students are looking for structure and support to make meaningful progress,” Gupta stated.

This comes after Quizlet was recently certified by Digital Promise as a “Research-Based Design Product” and received Series C funding of $30 million in a round led by General Atlantic in May. The funding earned the company unicorn status and allowed it to continue product innovation with an emphasis on data science and machine learning.

While the new Learning Assistant will provide additional resources for users learning remotely from home, there have been concerns with AI tutoring and education in the recent years.

Effective Use of AI in Education

According to the study Artificial Intelligence Applications to Support K-12 Teachers and Teaching: A Review of Promising Applications, Opportunities, and Challenges by Robert F. Murphy, AI systems work best when assisting teachers in the learning environment, instead of replacing teachers entirely. With an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS), students can be measured in certain subjects and given feedback to help them progress to a higher level.

“Because of the personalized nature of the learning environment within an ITS, many of these systems are used in schools to help teachers accommodate a wide range of student abilities in heterogenous classrooms—a well-known challenge for many teachers,” reported the study.

As remote learning continues for many student populations around the world, AI learning capabilities may be able to fill in some gaps. But the logistics of that process will fall ultimately on the shoulders of teachers themselves.

Featured Image: Windows, Unsplash.

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Everyday more educational apps are being downloaded to provide students additional help with subjects. While these apps are great resources, a study from the International Digital Accountability Council (IDAC) released on September 1 looked into the data privacy protections in 496 edtech apps from 22 countries. While the study did not find any intentional misconduct, the authors did find security risks that require attention.

“As parents, teachers, and schools scramble to prepare for teaching and learning this fall, it is important to take a close look at the privacy and security features of edtech apps that are likely to see much greater use,” said IDAC President Quentin Palfrey, in a statement.

The goal of the study was to identify apps that could be used by a wide range of teachers and parents to promote remote learning, rather than edtech apps used strictly by the school district. Language learning, study help, book or library readers, learning games, virtual classroom, and team communication apps were used in the investigation by IDAC. The majority of the apps are being developed in the United States. Manual testing for ed tech apps was done on 78 Android or iOS apps on July 15. Meanwhile, automated testing was done on 421 Android apps.

IDAC Identifies Five Areas In Which EdTech Apps Could Improve

The study showed five areas where improvement was needed in the ed tech apps. The first area is the collection of location sharing and persistent identifiers. A persistent identifier is connected to the hardware in a way that it cannot be reset, making it easier for third parties to access information. In the case of a persistent identifier, digital items that can be accessed over the internet. The only way for users to avoid this tracking is to get a new device.

Second, IDAC identified issues where personal data was being exposed, allowing personal data of the student’s, such as name and email, to be shown. Having personal identifying information, also known as PII, exposed allows attackers to easily gain access to valuable and private information, especially those of young students. 13 edtech apps that IDAC investigated were found to have exposed Android advertising ID (AAID).

Next, IDAC authors found significant examples of third party communications. Personal information, device information, contextual information, and app information were all given to third parties. 79 of 123 ed tech apps were shown to be sharing information with third parties in the manual testing.

Location Sharing, Personal Information, Third Party Communication, and More Are Common with these Apps

The fourth was ID bridging. “ID bridging occurs when the Android ID is sent simultaneously with the Android Advertising ID (AAID),” according to the study. This was used to track and develop specific advertisements to students using those ed tech apps.

The final issue found by the IDAC was privacy issues being created by software development kits (SDK). Third party SDKs are sections of code that developers can embed in ed tech apps to perform a specific task. “Mobile analytics and advertising SDKs pose particular risks in ed tech apps – especially apps that have younger users – because of their monetization capabilities,” the authors write.

To correct these issues in the edtech apps and to be more reliable and trustworthy for parents and teachers, IDAC has recommended steps that developers take to ensure ed tech apps are safe for students.

IDAC recommends that developers should refrain from location and data sharing unless necessary, be more transparent in their privacy policies, use best practices to check that no PII was being released to third parties, ensure safeguards and privacy controls are in place, determine if the identifier is the most appropriate one and share is necessary, and carefully review third party SDKs.

Access the full report here.

Featured Image: Ramil Al-Zayat, Unsplash.

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As students prepare to return to class this fall, there are many questions going through the minds of teachers. Many are wondering what schools need to do to get students back on track. A recent study from education software provider Illuminate Education examines the impact COVID-19 has had on K-5 students and suggests recommendations to help catch their students up.

According to the study released on Aug. 25, K-5 students have experienced two to four months’ worth of learning loss in reading and math at a time when they should be logging learning gains. Then the school year ended. Each summer, K-5 students experience the ‘summer slide,’ or a learning loss between the spring and fall semesters. But this year the learning loss is expected to be larger due to COVID-19.

“The data are telling us what we already suspected: this fall, educators need to be ready to use the appropriate tools to identify and contend with student learning loss, particularly in grades K-2,” said Dr. John Bielinski, Sr. Dir. of Research & Development at Illuminate Education, in a statement.

To measure where K-5 students are, Illuminate Education used its Fastbridge Platform for three assessments to determine and compare where students are and what is needed to get them back on track this fall.

How Illuminate Education Determined Learning Loss for K-5 Students

Scores from three specific FastBridge assessments were evaluated. The first assessment, aReading, is a computer adaptive reading assessment that measures reading ability on foundational reading skills, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. The second assessment is aMath, another computer adaptive assessment that measures concepts and problem-solving skills in whole numbers and fractions, computation, algebraic thinking, geometry, measurement, and date analysis and probability. The third assessment was CBMreading. CBMreading is a timed sample of a student’s oral reading fluency to document the number of words read correctly in one minute.

Students at different levels recorded varying behavior. Learners in grades K-2 showed significant learning loss on the aReading and aMath tests. Meanwhile, 5th graders logged their biggest losses on the CBMreading assessment.

The typical American pupil could suffer nearly seven months of learning loss if in-person instruction does not resume until January, analysts suggest https://t.co/cM0Zv3EddL

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) August 30, 2020

These findings corroborate other studies. Many estimates and models have predicted learning loss in some form for students across regions and grade levels. However, the details of these losses will vary.

According to the study COVID-Slide: Research on Learning Loss and Recommendations to Close the Gap, “Schools should expect to have higher numbers of students needing remedial reading and math instruction as well as strategic supports in order to achieve grade-level learning goals.”

The greatest amount of loss in reading was witnessed among kindergarten students, and oral reading loss was the most noted for Grade 5 students. All K-5 students had high rates of a learning loss in math. According to the study, performance in reading could be around 1 to 2 months behind, and performances in math could be 2 ¼ months to 4 ¼ months behind. Oral reading performances could be 2 to 4 months behind.

What’s the Next Step?

To address this issue, Illuminate Education’s authors suggested to increase Tier 1 instruction to address the areas with the largest learning loss gaps with Tier 1 being a universal intervention made available to all students. They also recommended a sharp focus on a strong core instruction, look to the norm as a common goal for all students, using a front load intervention and progress monitoring quickly and efficiently as possible for those students who are further behind, and more focus on reading and math for the students in K-3.

The study mentions that it is still difficult to predict how individual students will do with virtual learning. “Students who participated in frequent virtual interactions with teachers, especially one-on-one with videoconferencing, and completed homework assignments will likely have smaller losses than students who did not,” the authors write. “Nonetheless, in many instances this information will not be easily available when students return to fall instruction.”

Students who lack access to their virtual classes have a greater risk of falling behind their peers, and in order for students to be successful during this time, a firm understanding of what each student’s technological access looks like at home is needed.

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