Product Update: Improvements to Practice

We are excited to kick off 2021 with some updates to our Practice assignment! 🎉

We listened to feedback from hundreds of teachers and students and have changed Practice to be more engaging, motivating, and effective for your students.

What changed?

The biggest change is that now, when students get an answer incorrect, they only have to get two correct in a row to move on to the next question instead of three.

Students who tried it out said that they felt two in a row still focused them on learning from their mistakes, but alleviated the pressure of needing to get three correct in a row.

Only having to get 2 answers in a row correct to continue was way less stressful than having to get 3 in a row like before. It also encouraged me to want to keep going with the practice. - 12th grade student

Teachers who tried it out were really pleased with the level of student engagement they saw and didn’t notice any change in students’ understanding of the concepts (as measured by post quizzes).

This has been the most successful NoRedInk implementation this year…I've had the best participation and in-class completion rate. - 7th grade teacher

We’ve also changed our scoring with regards to “hints.” Previously, if a student used a hint while frozen, their answer wouldn’t be counted towards their “correct in a row” answers to get back on track. Now, students can use the hint and earn progress towards their assignment.

Finally, we made some visual updates to students’ Practice interface:

1. A brighter, more prominent progress bar lets students know exactly where they are within their assignment.
2. Animations when students reach new levels of mastery offer encouragement and excitement.
3. Students will no longer see the purple “Not Quite” screen, something students said they didn’t like.

Why did NoRedInk make these changes?

We know that student engagement is a prerequisite for learning. When students feel stressed, frustrated, or bored, completing an assignment can start to feel like an impossible task.

In listening to your feedback and testing alternative remediation strategies, we concluded that two in a row could be equally effective as three, while improving student engagement. When we tested two in a row in classrooms (both real and Zoom-based), we saw that students had higher completion rates of Practice assignments while showing no drop in post-quiz scores. Students confirmed that they were able to focus on learning the content better because of the reduced pressure to answer correctly.

NoRedInk has always prioritized student engagement with our adaptive practice engine and sentences that are personalized to students’ interests. We’re confident that this change is another step in the direction to help all students have a positive learning experience.

Will anything be different in my teacher account?

Nope! You’ll assign practices the same way as always, and existing assignments will automatically use the new system. Students will also be scored in the same way (working their way up 4 levels of mastery), and your Assignment Results and Gradebook will look the same. You’ll also be notified if students are stuck in the same way as before (if a students gets 7 questions incorrect in a row).

Have feedback on these changes? Share your thoughts with us here.