What is behind the changes?
Diagnostics - Inner Workings
Following a period of impressive usage, data, and feedback from TUTOR schools, we set out to tune up the diagnostic process, with enhancing its educational impact and encouraging further pupil engagement in mind.
The feedback we received from the TUTOR community matched our own understanding of the limits of Diagnostics V1, and so we envisaged a V2 with greater precision in identifying gaps, and with a more bespoke and dynamic output for each pupil.
Where Diagnostics V1 focused on ‘stages’ of our Complete Mathematics curriculum, and a pupil’s relative security on each stage, V2 zeros-in further by splitting each stage up into its various constituent topics.
Our expert maths team determined a list of ‘Key Concepts’ across the stages and topics, and went about authoring a brand new question bank especially for the new diagnostic process.
Instead of posing five questions on a single stage at a time, Diagnostics V2 question rounds contain multiple threads of topic-stage questioning running concurrently. In doing so, TUTOR is able to identify which topic areas pupils are strong in, and which they are weak in, much more efficiently, and precisely.
The output is no longer a stage to build on from, but a bespoke curriculum pathway beginning with goals from topics that a pupil is least secure in (by relative position in the whole curriculum), and building up.
Pupils fill in their knowledge gaps and acquire new knowledge in the most pedagogically appropriate order, encountering topics they are most strong in only once the rest of their knowledge has been built up to a similar level.
Diagnostics - The Experience
Alongside the upgrade to the inner workings of Diagnostics, we have also redesigned the user experience of the process. Our aim is to improve usability, encourage engagement, and to ensure pupils get the benefits of this key area of TUTOR.
Now, new pupils will be taken directly into the diagnostic process immediately after they log in to TUTOR for the first time. In this way pupils begin their TUTOR learning journey with an active mathematical recommendation. TUTOR introduces itself, in the form of a chat, and takes the pupils through the steps of the diagnostics.
In the diagnostic process, pupils do not answer mathematical questions. Instead, pupils state if they are confident with the mathematics displayed. This reduces the cognitive load of the diagnostics, encouraging more pupils to complete the process and start learning as quickly as possible.
A brand new set of mathematical problems have been authored especially for this update.
As part of this, we have included ‘Read Aloud’ functionality for all of these questions, as well as for the TUTOR chat, to assist learners with a lower reading age as well as those with accessibility requirements. We know this is something that lots of TUTOR users have been requesting and are really happy to include it in this release.
Focus 5
In order to deliver truly bespoke, dynamic, goal-level mathematical recommendations following the upgraded Diagnostics, we have created ‘Focus 5’.
Learners can access the next five goals that TUTOR recommends they prioritise directly from the dashboard, no navigation or scanning required.
We’re excited about the impact of this Focus 5 release, but also the huge potential this has for the future. In delivering sets of goals at a time, rather than a whole course, TUTOR can adapt to a pupil’s activity and progression much more dynamically.
We can serve up a prerequisite goal to revisit if we’ve identified some knowledge gap through a memory boost quiz. We can add in a practice activity covering multiple goals into one of the slots. We can introduce variety into sets of goals to encourage deeper learning. We can loop in recently completed goals to revisit at impactful moments for long-term memory.
There is still a place for Courses, which is how Diagnostic recommended Goals have been delivered to pupils on TUTOR up until now. All courses remain active, with any existing completion progress unchanged. Teachers can still create bespoke courses and assign them to pupils. All previously diagnostic-assigned courses will also remain assigned, only the tagging has slightly changed.
