GigaOM » gamified learning

Personalized learning site Alleyoop boosts science content with NASA, Nat Geo

Ki Mae Heussner — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 14:00:42 +0000

Hoping to encourage the next generation of astrophysicists, engineers and biologists, gamified learning platform Alleyoop is bulking up its science content with a handful of top-notch partners.

The education startup backed by publishing giant Pearson on Thursday said it was expanding its STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) options through partnerships with NASA eClips, National Geographic, National Science Foundation, Scientific Minds, Patrick JMT, Virtual Nerd, Adaptive Curriculum and Brightstorm.

Much of the new content includes videos that may supplement students’ in-classroom study or provide breaking science-related news, as well as video lessons, quizzes, flashcards and other assessments.

For Alleyoop, which wants to help students prepare for college with customized and gamified interactive subject-based content, the additional content provides a way to put individual lessons in a real-world context.

“We think science is a really interesting way to start embedding some of the 21st century skills,” said Gerard LaFond, VP of marketing for Pearson Education, adding that it provides students with complex situations, the opportunity to apply the scientific methods, and a chance to deepen critical thinking skills. It could also help parents re-engage students in their academic subjects.

“Parents have given us a lot of feedback that science is something their kids are interested in and it’s an interesting way to get them into school again — because it’s applied,” said LaFond, adding that it puts lessons into a real-world context and encourages people to build a reliance on startups they might already have.

The increased focus on STEM is particularly important given the amount of STEM jobs reports say are needed by the economy. A report this year from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology said that if the United States is to maintain its historic leadership in the STEM fields — and gain the related social, economic and national security benefits — then the country must produce about 1 million more workers in those fields over the next decade than we are currently on track to generate.

Image by Jose Antonio Perez via Shutterstock

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

ClassDojo scores $1.6M from top investors for gamified classroom management

Ki Mae Heussner — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 16:00:03 +0000

Test scores and academic performance get a lot of talk in education – and rightly so – but classroom learning isn’t just about ingesting information and mastering skills, it’s about developing habits of mind and building character. Teachers spend a significant amount of their time managing student behavior but, for the most part, they’ve had few tools to help them out.

Since launching last year, however, San Francisco-based ClassDojo has shown that game mechanics (and cutesy avatars) can go a long way in helping teachers not only keep their students on track but encourage positive behavioral skills. On Wednesday, the startup, which was part of education startup accelerator Imagine K12‘s first class, is announcing that it is officially launching out of beta and has raised $1.6 million in seed funding from top investors. The long list includes Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator (it was a personal investment), Ron Conway at SV Angel, Jeff Clavier at SoftTech VC, Kapor Capital, the Start Fund, General Catalyst, Morado Ventures, Lerer Ventures,Learn Capital, NewSchools Venture Fund and other angels.

Co-founded by Sam Chaudhary, a former high school teacher and McKinsey analyst, and Liam Don, a game developer and computer science PhD candidate, the mobile and web app lets teachers give students real-time feedback using any computer or mobile device and a smartboard or display screen.

Each student corresponds with an avatar that appears on a colorful chart and, during the class, teachers can award points (for creativity or teamwork, for example) or subtract them (for actions like tardiness or interruption) in full view of the entire class. All the data is automatically assembled into reports that help teachers monitor progress and follow trends, as well as share information with parents and administrators.

The founders said they developed the tool after speaking with hundreds of teachers who identified behavior management as their biggest problem. In fact, the startup said, 40 percent of U.S. teachers report spending more than 50 percent of their time managing student behavior.

“It has become this punitive, negative thing,” said Chaudhary. “We wanted to move it beyond that to being more about building opportunities for learning and building positive skills and helping teachers do that in a data-driven way, while also solving the pain point.”

It seems to be working. Since its launch, more than 3.5 million teachers and students in 30 countries have used ClassDojo and, when surveyed, users reported a 45 to 90 percent increase in incidents of positive behavior and a 50 to 85 percent decrease in incidents of negative behavior.

The animated avatars and whimsical feel of the platform make it seem more appropriate for younger students and the founders said they’re getting the biggest response from K-9 teachers, but they said teachers of higher grades are using it too.

Going forward, the startup is committed to providing the service to teachers for free but said it could earn revenue by selling additional tools to parents that help build positive character and learning traits.

“We’ve done a good job listening to what teachers want and building for teachers but there are two other important stakeholders, students and parents, and we haven’t done enough for them,” said Chaudhary. “There will be more for them in the coming months.”

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Gamified courses from Course Hero and Bunchball boost student engagement

Ki Mae Heussner — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 15:24:57 +0000

In some circles, the phrase “gamification” may have gone out of fashion, but Course Hero and Bunchball are intent on showing that it can still pack a punch in education.

In April, Course Hero, which uses free online resources to offer students digital study guides and other tools, launched a series of full-length online courses infused with game mechanics from Bunchball’s gamification platform. The companies Tuesday revealed some of the initial results from the partnership.

On average, users spend three times more time on the gamified courses than on all of CourseHero.com and total time on the platform has increased five percent since the Bunchball integration, Course Hero reported. The company also said that social sharing of achievements, which are awarded as students progress through the courses, has climbed nearly 400 percent since the Bunchball partnership.

These results only revealed student engagement, not retention of material, and in the future I’d be curious to see more data showing how gamification really contributes to learning. Other innovators in education, such as Khan Academy, recognize that while gamification can be incorrectly integrated with education, when incorporated in the right ways, game mechanics can be a positive force in learning.

Bunchball, which launched in 2007, has worked with companies from NBC to Cisco to Ford. But Rajat Paharia, Bunchball founder and chief product officer, said gaming techniques can be taken out of the gaming world to motivate any kind of behavior.

Gamifying Course Hero’s courses involved breaking down long lectures into smaller, digestible pieces, granting badges for passing quizzes and progressing through the course, awarding points for logging into the site over consecutive days, letting students share achievement through Facebook and Twitter and more. As students earn points and achievement, a leaderboard tracks the performance of the top 20 students on the site.

For now, the courses, which target high school and college students, as well as lifelong learners, focus on entrepreneurship, business and web programming. CEO Andrew Grauer said that given changes in the greater marketplace, in which people work at a company for a few years, as opposed to a few decades, the demand for continuing education is even greater. He sees Course Hero as a place where people can acquire the knowledge they need to move on to their next step.

“We think there’s a gap between the skills needed in the market and the skills employees have,” he said. “We see a huge opportunity for [teaching] tangible skills that students need to learn to be more marketable.”

Given increasing momentum behind other online education startups, such as Coursera, Udacity, Udemy and others, Course Hero will face a good amount of competition as it moves forward. But the traction it’s already enjoying will certainly help. The company, which offers a free basic membership and a paid premium package, said it receives about two to three million visits a month and has been profitable since 2o1o.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.