Edmentum Roadmap 2015

At Edmentum, we work hard each year to invest in our products in ways that will have the greatest impact for educators and the most achievement gains for students. This post is the first in a series that will outline more specifically what we are delivering this year and the benefits you will see. I will cover advances you will see across all of our products, and my colleagues will be adding details in the coming weeks on the specifics for our online courseware, assessment, intervention and foundational learning Products.

Research and Efficacy

When we state that we provide proven solutions, we mean it and have the research to show for it. We produced a lot of exciting research last year, and more work is happening right now that will be published in 2015.

In 2014, we created a Technical Manual for our Study Island program. The manual describes the item- and test-development process for the Study Island benchmark assessments and the Study Island standards mastery programs. Further, the manual also includes statistical information that supports the rigor of our current benchmark exams. To complement the Study Island Technical Manual, we are releasing additional technical manuals for our Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) benchmark and Accucess products in 2015 that will provide the evidence of validity that you expect. Additionally, we have studies on benchmark equating, benchmark predictive validity, and Study Island construct validity underway.

More white papers will also be available in 2015 that will demonstrate the research base for our Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses, Plato Courseware courses, and secondary intervention offerings.

User Experience

At Edmentum, we strive to design products that are easy to use, mobile optimized, and accessible to all. We begin by listening to users to understand the needs and challenges you face. Next, we create innovative, yet simple, solutions that empower administrators to make informed decisions, provide instructors with time-saving tools to boost student achievement, and engage students with effective, standards-aligned instruction. Finally, we conduct usability tests prior to release to ensure that our products deliver the best possible user experience.

We believe our products should work the way you work. Rather than forcing our users to learn and adapt to our technology, we try to design our technology to work the way you expect it to, empowering you to find information, make decisions, and take action with as few taps/clicks as possible.

We develop all of our solutions to support mobility and take advantage of the latest advanced in mobile technology. Check out the new learner interface in Plato Courseware or Edmentum Sensei for Study Island on your mobile device to see what we mean.

Built to Standards

Edmentum will continue to show significant investment in curriculum and assessment development this year to ensure that we have state-of-the-art digital content that meets the rigorous requirements of next-generation standards and assessments.

This includes significant work in building our products to end-of-year state assessments for both the Common Core consortia–based assessments and state-specific assessments. These assessments will have the latest technology-enhanced item types to provide your students with visibility to them prior to taking the end-of-year tests, as well as higher DOK levels and aligned text and type complexity.

Our curriculum products, such as Plato Courseware and EducationCity, are building content to changing standards. These changes will offer you content built to the latest rigorous standards and incorporate years of best practices in how to provide engagement that leads to increased student achievement.

Stay tuned to the Edmentum Blog over the next few weeks for further details on all of the great additions to Edmentum’s products that will be coming out in 2015.