Throughout this summer, we have met with teachers from many different content areas and grade levels to discuss ways they might use Learnicsᴵᴸ in their classrooms. These conversations have also sparked conversations about ways to improve Learnicsᴵᴸ and the Insight Link continues to evolve in positive directions based on teacher feedback. Our programmer has been amazing at taking suggestions and integrating them into the app, enhancing our analytics displays and student experience.

This week we have added the ability for teachers to add recommended websites when creating assignments. This feature takes us one step closer to our goal of creating a complete online learning experience platform and adds the potential for some new analytics. 

One of our Teacher Ambassadors created a lesson in which he provided several recommended sites and asked questions based on these sites. In this case, the teacher provided YouTube links to three sea shanty songs. The clips were vetted by the teacher so that they did not have ads and were short, 2-4 minute clips. This activity was part of a larger lesson in which students would explore the intersection of economics, art, music and culture in 19th century Massachusetts. The use of video clips is a teaching strategy that sets the stage for students to conduct their own research on “why the whaling industry became such an important industry in the 19th century.”

The lesson creation page has grown leaps and bounds since the spring due to teacher feedback. When a teacher creates their assignment in Learnics, they now have the ability to:

1. Provide directions for the assignment in the description field
2. Set a due date 
3. Assign points to the assignment
4. Add recommended websites for students to view
5. Select Google Drive file
6. Select student reflection questions, as well as write their own

Each of these features are available within the Learnics teacher dashboard and teachers may also choose to connect their Learnics assignment to their Google Classroom classes. 

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The Learnics Team relies on teacher feedback as we strive to improve the Insight Link. This new feature was created out of a discussion we had with teachers who expressed their concern to provide students with credible, vetted websites, at least at the beginning, to ensure students access the information that is needed for a specific learning outcome. With the data generated by Insight Link, teachers can examine how students engage with the resources provided. This is an important consideration during distance learning and relates to student accountability. Questions can be answered such as “Did my students access recommended websites for this assignment?”

We encourage teachers to use the Insight Link for themselves. Please use this link to engage with this lesson as a student. If you have never used the Insight Link before to log your work, check out our Getting Started page for students.