UCL EDUCATE company to launch personalised videos for students with knowledge gaps in science

Tassomai, which uses quiz-based online learning, is to offer short video clips to students who lack knowledge in specific science concepts. Its algorithm will work out where the deficits lie, identify the weakness and will pick out videos that are targeted to their learning needs.

The development comes in the wake of research carried out by Tassomai into their product, during the company’s participation in the UCL EDUCATE project.

Professor Rose Luckin, Director of UCL EDUCATE, said: “Tassomai’s evidence-led approach and the subsequent adaptations of its product to enhance student learning epitomises the very existence of UCL EDUCATE.

“The research work carried out by Tassomai demonstrates that the EdTech being developed is purposeful, robust and fit for purpose. The impact of what we do on the UCL EDUCATE programme is clear to see in the evolvement of the Tassomai product.”

Students in 450 schools that work with the company will have access to a suite of 150 videos designed to target gaps in knowledge, from September.

Tassomai – which joined the UCL EDUCATE programme in February 2018 and is a holder of an Evidence-Applied ‘EdWard’ – is launching this latest initiative after its own evaluations revealed that the watching of focused videos had a significant impact on a student’s knowledge, recall and memory retention. In a research project overseen by the UCL EDUCATE programme, the team measured the impact of brief, targeted intervention videos on short and long-term attainment.

When quizzed on a topic, GCSE science students who had been shown a related video subsequently answered correctly 70.7% of the time, compared to 27.6% for the control group that had not seen the video.

All the students who answered correctly were questioned on the same topic a week later. Those that had originally watched the video answered correctly 52.3% of the time, compared to 41.5% for the control group, a 10% uplift in long term recall.

Dr Alison Clark-Wilson, EDUCATE’s principal research lead, said: “This is a fantastic example of what we on the EDUCATE programme set out to achieve, which is working with EdTech companies to help them to ensure they’re making evidence led design decisions such that they can gather this evidence in an academically rigorous and valid way.”

Links

• View Professor Rose Luckin’s research profile
• View Dr Alison Clark-Wilson’s research profile
• UCL Knowledge Lab
• Department of Culture, Communication and Media
• Tassomai