DIGITAL EDGE LEARNING

MOBILE APP | EDUCATION | WEB APP PORTAL

CLIENT BACKGROUND

Digital Edge Learning specializes in combining technology and K-12 education with their flagship Digital Delivery instructional tools for educators. Digital Edge Learning is headquartered in Redlands, California and provides educational tools throughout the state of California. The Digital Edge Learning team is composed of former educators that understand the importance of integrating technology within the modern day classroom. For decades, school administrators have sat in on teacher’s classrooms and recorded, by hand, an evaluation while the teacher taught. The Digital Edge Learning team worked with Logic Solutions to create a mobile application that streamlined the process of providing feedback and analysis to teachers in their classrooms.


THE PROBLEM

School administrators are required to perform mandatory walkthroughs of their school classrooms, completing a lengthy survey regarding student engagement and course efficacy. Admins use this process to provide meaningful feedback to teachers and analyze successful tactics.

However, the paperwork process associated with walkthroughs is time-consuming and inefficient. Staff must manually input the information into a computer database. Because of the heavy administrative burden involved in completing walkthroughs, principals rarely have time to provide teachers personalized, meaningful feedback.

The entire walkthrough and feedback process consumes approximately 45 hours of an administrator’s time per week.

Goals:

  • Replace time-consuming paper survey with an electronic alternative
  • Eliminate wasted resources by cutting down on the amount of time spent conducting and completing the entire walkthrough and feedback process
  • Streamline the entire walkthrough process to provide faster results and meaningful feedback

PROJECT OVERVIEW

  • Developed iPad tablet app
  • Stores evaluation and report information in the cloud
  • Streamlined assessment and walkthrough process
  • App provides faster results and more meaningful feedback
  • Eliminated 37.5 hours of administrative work each week

TECHNOLOGIES

Appcelerator Titanium, SQLite, MySQL, Drupal

THE SOLUTION

Digital Edge’s digiCOACH is a Drupal iPad-based formative coaching system for K-12 school administrators and instructional leaders. digiCOACH combines modern mobile technology with proven educational research to drive effective professional development decisions and provide teachers with instant feedback.

Administrators use digiCOACH while conducting classroom walkthroughs to record observed criteria based on five focus areas highly correlated with increasing student achievement: Engagement, Checking for Understanding, Schema, Cognition, and Learning Environment. The app displays a list of predetermined criteria for each focus area, and the user may skip sections that are not relevant to the walkthrough by swiping past the screen. By tapping on any item in the list, an administrator “checkmarks” that he has viewed the standard in practice.

The user-friendly interface significantly improves the walkthrough process, making it quicker and more highly focused. digiCOACH functions in classrooms without an internet connection; information is stored locally on the device until a user synchronizes with a secure cloud database.

As a user records observed criteria, he or she can provide immediate email feedback to a teacher—eliminating traditional paperwork and processing time. The user can choose from a bank of positive strategies and coaching tips, but may also write custom messages (a Wi-Fi connection or data plan is necessary to transmit email).

digiCOACH cloud management tools collect data synchronized from the apps to create reports that can be used to drive professional development decisions. An administrator can access and filter reports based on focus area, grade, subject, teacher, and time of walkthrough. He/she can also create grade and lesson subject comparison reports.

Logic’s programmers developed the digiCOACH mobile app on the Appcelerator Titanium platform. The app stores data locally in a SQLite database, and synchronizes with a MySQL back end database.  Logic’s programmers designed the digiCOACH web portal using the Drupal Content Management System.

Because Digital Edge Learning required a high degree of visualization with reporting tools, Logic programmed a significant amount of custom reports that met the needs of administrators and professional coaches.

digiCOACH is not an instrument for teacher evaluation, rather the walkthrough criteria deals solely with instructional strategies and student engagement. Focus areas correspond with many school and district Professional Learning Community initiatives.

Automatic emails and feedback allow teachers to adapt to instructional strategies and trends in student engagement instantly. This feature completely redefines the procedure of coaching walkthroughs and empowers educators to provide the best learning tactics for their students.

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