Compass Learning Updates Renzulli Learning Program -- THE Journal

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Compass Learning Updates Renzulli Learning Program

By Dian Schaffhauser
06/26/12

Compass Learning has bolstered the features of Renzulli Learning, an online program that allows students to tell teachers how they best learn, and teachers to use that information in guiding instruction. The 2012 version of the application includes a streamlined process for designing and assigning lessons, a "quick view" showing each student's differentiated resources, an updated teacher dashboard for managing student assignments, and easier navigation.

Renzulli Learning features a "profiler" that students work through in about 20 minutes to help determine their biggest interests and preferred learning and presentation preferences. Then teachers can use those findings to locate and automatically assign learning activities from a database of 40,000 online resources that mesh with that profile, based on the topics being studied.

"The Common Core Standards ask students to think critically, reason deeply, and write to defend a point of view--in short, to demonstrate the kinds of skills they will need to be successful in a globally competitive world," said Arthur VanderVeen, vice president of strategy for Compass Learning. "As we ask more of our students, we place new demands on our teachers, who need new tools and resources to help students achieve and demonstrate this deeper learning."

The streamlined workflow in the new release of the product is intended to make it easier for teachers to preview, select, and add resources to differentiated lessons. Users can set a minimum and maximum number of resource matches to control how many differentiated resources a student receives; they can multi-select to require or exclude resources; and they can add favorites to differentiated lessons.

QuickView pulls up resources culled from the database to work well for each student's personal learning profile, making it quicker to customize differentiated lessons to each student's interests and learning needs.

The improved teacher dashboard provides access to lessons with a single click. Teachers can also access the online resources or create a new lesson directly from the dashboard.

A new "Teach" tab organizes differentiated lessons, projects, and assignments in one location.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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