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It’s All About Improvement
Improving educational outcomes is at the core of everything we do at Skoolbo. It is our reason for being and we are nothing short of obsessed by it. Skoolbo may look and feel like a game, however every component has an underlying rationale of maximizing student improvement. Our blog “Ten Essential Components of Great eLearning” provides a greater breakdown of the educational pedagogy underpinning Skoolbo. Always remember Skoolbo is a learning company that happens to use games as a central medium in learning as opposed to a gaming company that adds some learning.
We’ve been analyzing the 10 million correct answers that students have made on Skoolbo over the last seven months since launch. In particular we’ve looked at what evidence of student improvement is showing across the system.
There are nearly two hundred literacy and numeracy concepts within the Skoolbo Core Skills program. To determine improvement for an individual concept we look at the early performance of a student (average score of the first two games) and compare it to the average of the later performance (ninth and tenth game) of that concept. Typically children will have answered around 150 questions on the concept after 10 games. There are more than 60,000 questions on Skoolbo so the children have to learn the skills as opposed to memorize the answers.
Across the entire Skoolbo system:
- Early Performance: Average Game 1 & 2 Score =13.20
- Later Perfomarnce: Average Game 9 & 10 Score =14.87
- Average Improvement After 10 Games = 12.66%
In other words we are finding a 12.66% improvement across the entire range of Core Skills literacy and numeracy activities. It should be noted that 10 games takes a child only 10 minutes, so significant improvement is occurring at an extremely rapid rate.
In addition to individual concept skill development children are also given benchmark literacy and numeracy tests every 100 games on Skoolbo. Literacy is tested after 100, 300, 500 games and so on, whereas Numeracy is tested after 200, 400, 600 games.
- Average Improvement in Literacy after 100 Games = 19.19%
- Average Improvement in Numeracy after 200 Games = 12.17%
- Average Improvement in Literacy after 300 Games = 23.26%
- Average Improvement in Numeracy after 400 Games = 15.25%
Interestingly we are seeing higher improvements across literacy as opposed to numeracy, although both are significant.
Are Children Randomly Guessing?
An important facet of the Skoolbo methodology is to provide the student with two possible answers. Research suggests this is an optimal way to be build automaticity in skill development. One concern that is sometimes raised with us is do the children simply randomly guess? We are seeing an average accuracy performance of 89% across the entire Skoolbo system which conclusively indicates that random guessing (where you would assume 50% accuracy) is not an issue. We are currently analyzing thinking time taken on each individual question and we’re establishing algorithms to determine when a particular child is guessing based on both their results and thinking time. Later in 2013 we will introduce an alert system for parents and teachers to indicate if randomly guessing is an issue for a particular child.
What do Children Find Most Difficult?
One of the most exciting aspects about eLearning is what it can tell you about how children learn. When designing curriculum it’s incredibly important to know just how difficult children find a particular concept.
| Literacy Concept |
Accuracy |
Avg Improvement |
| Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives (Grammar) |
76.9% |
5.22% |
| Alphabetical Order (Alphabet) |
78.5% |
30.28% |
| Verb Tenses 1 (Grammar) |
82.1% |
9.72% |
| Verb Tenses 2 (Grammar) |
83.3% |
14.89% |
| Sound Introduction 3 (Phonics) |
85.3% |
49.68% |
| Listening 1 (Early Comprehension) |
85.4% |
24.06% |
| Sound Introduction 1 (Phonics) |
85.4% |
31.58% |
| Spelling 3 (Spelling) |
85.7% |
11.36% |
| Sentence Construction 2 (Grammar) |
85.8% |
1.52% |
| Spelling 5 (Spelling) |
86.3% |
1.78% |
It was to be expected that Grammar concepts feature highly on literacy areas that children find complex. The most surprising aspect to us as educators was the difficulty that children have with Alphabetical Order – their accuracy rate is considerably lower than that of Spelling. Pleasingly we are seeing a rapid improvement rate (30.28%) on Alphabetical Order.
| Numeracy Concept |
Accuracy |
Avg Improvement |
| Addition to 10 – Missing (Number) |
76.0% |
6.62% |
| Addition to 20 – Missing (Number) |
77.0% |
16.37% |
| Addition to 6 – Missing (Number) |
77.1% |
20.42% |
| Time – Analogue 4 (Time) |
78.2% |
21.66% |
| Number Pattern – Decreasing 2 (Pattern) |
78.4% |
54.60% |
| Number Pattern – Increasing 2 (Pattern) |
78.4% |
16.89% |
| Time – Analogue 5 (Time) |
79.0% |
0.79% |
| Subtraction from 6 – Missing (Number) |
79.3% |
1.78% |
| Counting to 10 (Number) |
79.4% |
12.60% |
| Two Digit + One Digit With Carry |
80.9% |
14.32% |
It’s clear from the data that children have more difficulty with slightly abstract versions of the original concept. This is particularly highlighted when comparing “Addition to 10 – Missing” as opposed to straight “Addition to 10”.
|
Example Question |
Accuracy |
|
| Addition to 10 – Missing |
4 + ___ = 9 |
76.0% |
| Addition to 10 |
4 + 5 = |
87.6% |
We also found that children have considerable difficulty telling the time on an analogue clock (accuracy = 78.2%), whereas they find using a digital clock almost trivial (accuracy = 96.2%).
Skoolbo Curriculum Selection Algorithm
The Skoolbo Curriculum Selection Algorithm is designed to give every child the optimal curriculum regardless of his or her actual age. It starts by pretesting the child in both literacy and numeracy and then continues to reassess after each game. An optimal blend of new content; not yet mastered content; and revision content is served to each child. Literacy and numeracy content decisions are made separately and it’s common for us to see children with skills significantly advanced in one over the other. We are also seeing a wide range of ability across most classes. For example most 2nd grade classes tend to have around 70% of children operating at a typical 2nd grade level, while the remaining 30% are spread across from a kindergarten through to 5th grade level of ability. Many teachers have indicated that this in built differentiation is one of the strongest features of Skoolbo.
Feedback
Thank you to the countless teachers, parents and children who have provided us with wonderful feedback. Please be encouraged to contact us with any suggestions as to how we might further add to the lifting of educational outcomes.
With best wishes,
Shane Hill
Skoolbo Founder
shane@skoolbo.com
