Addressing Unfinished Learning with Courseware

In a recent webinar, Casey Stone and Dr. Katie Babb from Edmentum’s educational consulting team discussed ways schools can mitigate unfinished learning with Courseware, Edmentum’s standards-aligned digital curricula. Here are key takeaways to consider when implementing a program in your own school to address unfinished learning.

Identify Programming Needed

The first step is to determine what kind of program (or programs) you want to implement to help address unfinished learning. What do you want the program to look like? How will you identify which students belong in the program? And when will students have time to attend the program? For example, the program could be a part of mainstream instruction or it could be an elective class that students attend during the school day or it could be held after school.

Prioritize Power Standards

Once you have confirmed programming decisions, it’s time to identify and prioritize which standards you’re planning to address throughout the program’s run. These standards are known as “power standards.” Prioritizing is key, particularly for short programs that take place during summer school or during a single semester. Your state education agency’s webpage is your best resource to determine which power standards should take priority in your program.

Additionally, Courseware is helpful during this step, as it allows instructors to easily build a custom course that focuses on the specific standards you want your students to zero in and offers accelerate mini courses that teach the essential prerequisite skills students need to be successful in high school math and ELA.

Use Data to Streamline Intervention

Now that you have prioritized power standards, this is a good opportunity to consider using student data to further support individual intervention plans. You could start with the preexisting student data that is already available to you (such as transcripts, benchmarks, and report cards) to make initial instructional decisions. Then, consider Courseware’s pretests and posttests (along with practice assignments and mastery tests) to determine which content students should be exempt from once they’ve shown mastery.

Utilize Responsive Pedagogy

Next, pivot from student data to the student experience—the most memorable lessons are those that encourage students to interact with the content they’re learning. As a part of the curriculum, Courseware offers interactive courses and activities that support students’ individual needs and prepare them for success in fun and engaging ways, such as:

• Augmented reality (AR) in our English 9 and Biology courses that bring learning digitally to life

• Project-based learning (PBL) activities that encourage students to research and present solutions to real-world problems

• Flex Assignments that offer the right content to the right student at the right time

• Interactive worksheets and guided notes so that students can actively process and apply what they’re learning

Focus on Outcomes

Finally, it’s important to define what your desired outcomes are for your program. What kind of data are you hoping to use to determine if your program has been successful and if your students have met proficiency? The benefit of Courseware being an online program is that real-time data is readily available whether you want to focus on quantitative results (test scores, attendance, and homework completion), qualitative results (final team projects, discussions, and constructed responses), or a mixture of both.

Looking for more summertime learning ideas? Read about four ways that students can earn credits over the summer with Courseware!