All of a sudden there is huge interest in building a solid base of objective learning data. Fortunately, there is easily enough time to do this given the switch to online learning and increased student enthusiasm to engage with this now they know their teacher holds the trump grade cards.

I spoke to one of our schools yesterday about TAGs and downloaded a gradebook based on our End of Module (section) Assessments which aim to provide a syllabus knowledge audit. Voila!

Teaching benefits:

1. Objective assessment of students reduces marking disputes
2. As outcomes are penalised by scorecard gaps there is a clear incentive to get a move on
3. Excel download to add to central school records
4. A question-by-question record approach generates huge amounts of learning data to provide teaching insights beyond a simple summative outcome for
5. Filtered report option to evidence outcomes/activity

A solution that can take the heat out of online lessons.

In order to enhance integrity, assessments can be completed within online lessons. An excellent advance relative to the quality of lessons that can be delivered due to onerous online restrictions.

All of our courses provide the same opportunities to support TAG

We are currently offering a 6-month subscription to accommodate this shift in circumstances.

January 2021

Before online lessons commence again there are many grounds for reflecting a little on how these are run, what they achieve and if the experience can be improved.

A good place to start is the experiences of teachers that have isolated or have had to teach isolated year groups/classes. Almost all of our discussions with teachers indicate that online lessons in its current form help to maintain a timetable and register, but that these lessons can be frustrating, stressful and achieve far less than physical classes. 

In many ways this is because VC tech was not designed for larger meetings for young people with video cams switched off and participants muted or for meetings where you need to understand what everyone is doing and make sure everyone completes the same task. The difficulties shouldn’t be surprising and can be highlighted with some simple analysis.

Dear Parent,

While students are isolated, they are expected to keep up with work set on EzyScience.

Login basics

The website is www.ezyeducation.co.uk and login is via the two fields in top right corner of the home page. When logged in students should use the menu on the left margin. Hover over the icons to reveal where the links lead to.

Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to reset passwords if there are any login difficulties.

Work set

Work set by school will show at the bottom of the Learning Zone Home Page or via the full “Assignment Hub” accessed via the left menu. Click the start button to begin or resume if the activity has been paused – users will be taken back to the pause point.

Combined Science Snapshot Booklet:

Separate Science Snapshot Booklet (3 in total):

The free Augmented Reality app allows students to create a very personalised experience on their phone which can work without a connection. This is how it might work if a user decided to set up all the required practicals:

School Enquiries

Individual Purchase

The main thing to appreciate is that the update process cannot delete students or their records. It will simply update the class allocations for students and teachers and add new users.

Things to avoid

• Do not include any school reps in the import.
• Do not create any new classes. The update process will identify and create any new classes and fill with relevant students and teachers.

 How does it work:

1. You need to have School representative permissions to complete this process.
2. Archive any students and teachers that no longer participate in the course. This is best achieved by selecting relevant classes, selecting all students in the class and then use the archive students button (mauve). Check to make sure all students have been archived and that none are remaining in the relevant classes.
3. Create a spreadsheet which includes all students for the current year. This should include name, email, status, school name and class allocation. See below:

4. When the spreadsheet is ready it should be imported as follows:

5. When import commences, the system will identify any existing emails and change the class allocations for each student. Old class allocations will be removed and replaced by new class allocations.
6. Any new emails will prompt the creation of a new user. The system will generate an email confirming login credentials.
7. At the end of the process any redundant classes can be deleted from the system. This will mean that although students will retain access to historic assignments teachers will not.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for further support.

EzyEducation Ltd 

September 2020

Andrea Fleming, Head of Physics, Upton Court Grammar School

“We were very grateful we had EzyScience during lockdown.  Although we have set our own lessons EzyScience has complimented this work in terms of the videos and ongoing assessments to ensure our pupils have understood the work.  The online capability has allowed our pupils to access the work and engage with the subject matter whenever and wherever they can at the most convenient time."
 
"Many of our pupils were fasting during Ramadan so having EzyScience when they felt able to work with the feedback even at odd hours of the day was invaluable." 

"Without the usual end of year examinations, the ESAs also gives the chance to see where pupils are likely to be for the following year.  Certainly, we are very grateful to have taken on EzyScience this year, having it already up and running before the lockdown has made a big difference to us and to our pupils.”

Combined Science End of Section Assessments Y9

ESA Learning Map for a single Y9 class

Every answer to every question recorded with dual student access to personalised records and feedback.

August 2020

For most students, engagement doesn’t just happen. In this respect digital is no different to any other activity in schools. Regardless of the quality of digital or other activities, engagement has to be managed and clearly evidencing engagement is perhaps the most important aspect of this.

We have responded to this with some exciting service enhancements which use automation to take all the work and effort out of managing engagement while improving student awareness and accountability.

Effortless 121 reviews in just 2 clicks – rapid access to personalised assignment hub data or student gradebook via links in school management.

A lot of additional functionality has been introduced over the last few months (hopefully you have noticed some helpful improvements). Before covering these, I need to start with some details regarding necessary GDPR actions.

GDPR

During March 2020 we will delete personal data held in our archive. As this should contain students and teachers that are no longer subscribed this should not present any issues for schools.

Please make contact to advise any reason why we should not delete your School’s archive.

Snapshot Booklets - School Discounts

We have upgraded the tech support for these. This delivers a vastly improved student experience.

1. Students with course access can enjoy the support of the Booklet and call up video support via their phone but can also directly link into courses via the screen options on their phone. Students can buy direct for £9.99 a book or enjoy a heavy discount if a bulk school order is made (30 books min). £4.99 a book or £6.99 a book for Combined Science and £9.99 for a set of 3 Single Science books.
2. Please note that the new technology does not support legacy booklets. These can be identified as they do not have any Zap instructions on the front page. New booklets will be required.
3. Overall our expectation is that these books will have significant impacts on independent learning by integrating digital and print via mobile devices.
4. Although we did not have time to produce booklets for Edexcel GCSE or Edexcel iGCSE. We will produce these for the next school year.

When reading the examiners' reports for the 2018 and 2019 GCSE Science exams it is clear that there is a good deal of room for improvement in students' responses to questions relating to the Required Practical Activities (RPAs). For example, in the 12 Foundation Tier papers for the AQA Separate Sciences and Combined Science examinations, more than 50% of the marks relating to the RPAs were scored on two papers only. This situation was particularly acute in the Combined Science papers. While the picture was slightly more encouraging for the Higher tier papers, it was only on very few occasions that significantly more than 50% of the available marks were scored.

There are two main aims to this monthly EzyScience newsletter:

• To demonstrate how the science our students study at GCSE relates to the science being conducted every day around the World and to show just how relevant their GCSE science studies are. As well as encouraging a general interest in science we would also hope to help prepare students for those unexpected questions that, at first glance, are not connected to the content they have been taught and which always raise such a stink on Twitter immediately after particular papers have been sat!
• To provide students with opportunities to practise the more generic data analysis and communication skills that can turn a good exam performance into an outstanding one.

Following our first Augmented Reality offer we are delighted to launch a new and much improved range of snapshot booklets supported by our new Augmented Reality partner ZapWorks.  

The App is free and simple to set up and generates AR experiences rapidly. It provides access to a video play or download option, PDF material and links to more detailed video content or formative assessment activities within our courses. All achieved without letting go of your device.