EdTech Show Daily

Elluminate Announces General Availability Of Elluminate Plan! V2

Enables Educators to Organize, Script, and Package Content and Activities to Simplify and Facilitate Live Online Delivery

Elluminate, Inc., the leading provider of web, audio and video solutions for real-time online learning and collaboration, today announced general availability of the latest version of Elluminate Plan!™, which enables educators to organize and package content and activities before the live, online session, automating routine tasks and allowing instructors to focus on delivering material, facilitating interaction, and optimizing the online learning experience.

With Elluminate Plan! V2, users can decrease session plan development time by 50%. The Elluminate Learning Suite™, which includes Elluminate Plan! as well as flagship product Elluminate Live!® for real-time interaction and collaboration and Elluminate Publish!™ for creating post-session content for mobile learning, supports the entire online instructional cycle.

Unlike other products designed for self-paced exploration, Elluminate Plan! was specifically developed for use in a multiuser, instructor-led, real-time eLearning environment. Instructors or course designers organize, script and package content and activities ahead of time. Then during the Elluminate Live! session, each action, like advancing to the next slide, creating breakout rooms, loading and presenting a quiz, web touring, or playing a multimedia file, is triggered with a single click.

Elluminate Plan! V2 enhancements include:

• Significantly expanded command set to build in even more interactivity
  
• Ability to set session parameters for easy automatic setup before class begins
  
• Drag-and-drop construction and editing that facilitates plan development
  
• Plan validation tool that enables self-service troubleshooting and cuts development time
  
• Support for Spanish, French, and Brazilian Portuguese in addition to English
  

Elluminate Plan! ensures that content is delivered consistently across multiple sessions by multiple presenters. Institutions can package content and methodologies for real-time delivery by a wider group of instructors to facilitate the use of live eLearning and collaboration systemwide.

Elluminate Plan! is sold as part of the Elluminate Next>™ bundle, which also includes Elluminate Publish! for creating standalone files or industry-standard video files from Elluminate Live! recordings. In addition, Elluminate Professional Services offers the Next> Boot Camp, an intensive, one-day, onsite training session for Elluminate Plan! and Elluminate Publish!

“This spring, we conducted an Elluminate Plan! pilot with a group of volunteer middle school math teachers,” said Guadalupe Vander Ploeg, Sr. Manager, Teacher Effectiveness, K12, Inc. “Using the lesson plans we developed, each session was delivered multiple times by different teachers. As a result of the pilot, parents reported very high satisfaction rates with the additional support. We are currently analyzing student academic achievement scores and hope the additional instruction had a positive effect.”

“Although the Next> Boot Camp is designed as an onsite session, Elluminate Professional Services was very responsive in adjusting the training to meet the needs of our remote population," Vander Ploeg added. “Throughout the school year, we offered 10 boot camps of four online sessions each, which received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the teachers.”

"Live interaction in the virtual classroom is key to transforming teaching and learning on a global level, but the eLearning landscape is evolving,” said Maurice Heiblum, President, Elluminate, Inc. "Elluminate’s ’learning-edge’ solutions take educators beyond the virtual classroom with tools for session planning and post-session content distribution. Our solutions address activities across the entire instructional cycle, integrate with existing applications in the academic infrastructure, and scale easily from the department or campus level to complex, multicampus enterprisewide deployments.”

For more information, visit Elluminate.

Super Stars Literacy Students Make Substantial Gains In Literacy Achievement

Highlights from 2008-09 Evaluation Report

Super Stars Literacy (SSL) today announced results of its 2008-09 program evaluation, which showed that the award-winning after-school program was able to surmount challenges posed by growth and the struggling economy to succeed in achieving its goal of significantly improving the literacy and behavioral development of students in underserved areas. Results showed that an overwhelming majority of SSL’s 270 students improved their literacy skills by at least one skill level and demonstrated improved emotional and behavioral maturity. SSL was also within reach of its graduation goal of 80 percent of students who had been in the program for three years achieving grade-level benchmark literacy skills by the end of second grade.

“2008-09 was a benchmark year for Super Stars, not only did we establish ourselves as an independent non-profit organization, we tripled our size, both in terms of the number of students served, as well as the infrastructure required to operate the larger organization,” remarked Super Stars Literacy Executive Director Mike Mowery. “Despite the challenges these changes posed, the evaluation results show that our dynamic curriculum is effective on any scale and adapted to any education environment to deliver success in improving the academic performance and emotional development of our students.”

The Oakland-based education and community evaluation firm Gibson and Associates (G&A) conducted the SSL evaluation, which included development and piloting of observation rubrics; interview protocols and surveys; two rounds of classroom observations; SSL staff, parent, classroom teacher surveys; SSL staff interviews; as well as analysis of program data, parent participation, and planning documents. G&A measured SSL’s effectiveness against the program’s four strategic Program Outcomes. These outcomes and highlights of the results include:

Outcome 1: At the end of each program year, 80 percent of SSL participants will improve by at least one literacy skill level.

According to G&A, results suggest SSL is within striking distance of its 80 percent goal, which is a stretch target. In 2008-09, target performance was met by over 70% of students tested.

Outcome 2: At the end of their third year in the program, 80 percent of SSL second grade participants will achieve benchmark in reading accuracy and fluency skills or reach proficiency on California Standards Test (CST) in English Language Arts.

Though the total number of students who have completed the seven year-old program’s three- year curriculum remains small, according to the G&A report, the results of the small pool of SSL graduates is “impressive and suggests a positive pattern.” At Hoover and Parker Elementary Schools, where students have been in the SSL program for at least three years, 74% of the 2nd graders achieved benchmark in reading accuracy and fluency skills.

Outcome 3: At the end of each program year, 80 percent of students, parents and teachers will report improvement in participants’ academic, social-emotional and behavioral skills as measured by student, parent and teacher surveys.

According to the G&A results, over 80% of SSL staff, parents, and classroom teachers who were surveyed noted improvement in nearly all measures of SSL students’ academic, social-emotional skills, and behavior.

Outcome 4: each program year, 80 percent of SSL participants’ parents will attend at least one program event.

According to G&A results, “the strong participation of parents in the SSL events and field trips mirrors the positive view that the majority of parents have of SSL in general.” 82% of SSL parents attended at least one event during the 2008-09 school year, which included field trips to the Chabot Space and Science Center and the San Jose Tech Museum, as well as library trips and parent’s night.

About Super Stars Literacy

Dedicated to building early literacy skills in primary grade children in communities with limited resources, Super Stars Literacy currently serves over 200 students at five Oakland, Calif., elementary schools. The program was originally founded in 2002 as a program of the Junior League of Oakland-East Bay, Inc., and earned independent non-profit 501(c)(3) status in 2008. 

For more information, visit Super Stars Literacy.

Study Shows Multimedia Math Program May Hold Key To Mathematics Improvement For Struggling Students

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's iSUCCEED MATH™ generates dramatic improvement in Virginia math scores

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt today announced the results of a recent Virginia study evaluating the instructional effectiveness of its iSUCCEED MATH™ program. The study reveals that iSUCCEED MATH not only improves students' mathematics problem-solving skills and strategy use, but enables struggling students to outperform higher-performing classmates.

"The results of this study continue to support innovative multimedia solutions for students who struggle with mathematics," said Mike Lavelle, K–12 president, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. "We are committed to equipping teachers and students with programs like iSUCCEED MATH that are proven to positively impact achievement by providing students with the necessary tools for success."

The study, performed by Educational Research Institute of America (ERIA) included two middle schools (students in grades 5–8) in a Virginia school district. Results of the math portions of state and local school assessments separated the students into high-performing and low-performing classroom groups, and only the low-performing group utilized the iSUCCEED MATH curriculum throughout the 2008-2009 school year. According to post-study test results, the iSUCCEED MATH students outperformed their peers — a particularly significant achievement considering that their pre-study test performance was statistically inferior.

Research shows that programs like iSUCCEED MATH, which focus on fundamental mathematics skills early on, can minimize and even prevent later math learning difficulties, allowing students to develop an affinity for math and achieve success in advanced courses. The iSUCCEED 5-Step Teaching Cycle guides instructors through diagnosing individual needs, prescribing appropriate lessons, directing practice and recapitulation opportunities and assessing student progress.

The iSUCCEED MATH™ program is a premier data-driven math intervention solution for grade 3–8 students who struggle to master mathematics fundamentals. The program's age-appropriate, individualized instruction is specifically designed to close gaps in conceptual understanding. This innovative system combines technology and print material with multimedia, multisensory instruction, incorporating the best practices of teacher-directed group instruction, interactive courseware and active practice with games, fact fluency and one-on-one tutoring. Additionally, comprehensive courseware scaffolds systematic, "step-by-step" individualized instruction with skill building, problem solving and computational fluency building, and every lesson includes powerful assessments that correlate to state standards.

iSUCCEED MATH's multimedia, multisensory system principles derive from compelling research that identifies effective approaches to mathematics teaching and intervention. The program's curriculum aligns with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Standards, as well as individual state standards, providing ideal depth of coverage while emphasizing the Response to Intervention (RTI) approach.

About Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company is a global education leader and the world's largest publisher of educational materials for pre-K–12 schools. The Company publishes a comprehensive set of best-in-class educational solutions, ranging from research-based textbook programs to instructional technology to standards — based assessments for students and educators. The Company also publishes an extensive line of reference works and award-winning literature for adults and young readers. With origins dating back to 1832, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt combines its tradition of excellence with a commitment to innovation. 

To learn more, visit Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.