I literally do not know what they’re thinking.
Efficacy
Good Enough vs. Better Enough: The Macmillan Example
Macmillan’s new white paper on their approach to efficacy is an illuminating counterpoint to Cengage’s Unlimited strategy in the battle that’s unfolding in the curricular materials industry.
Pearson Releases a Significant Learning Design Aid
In my view, the work itself is a significant contribution. It also is a positive indicator about Pearson’s future direction as a participant in and influencer of that community, although how strong an indicator is a much harder question to evaluate. And it gives us another clue about the co-evolution of educational institutions and ed tech vendors that we are likely to see over the next years and decades. In this post, I’m going to evaluate each of these aspects in turn.
Pearson, Efficacy, and Research
A while back, I mentioned that MindWires, the consulting company that Phil and I run, had been hired by Pearson in response to a post I wrote a while back expressing concerns about the possibility of the company trying to define “efficacy” in education for educators (or to them) rather than with them. The heart […]
Pearson’s Efficacy Listening Tour
Back around New Year, Michael wrote a post examining Pearson’s efficacy initiative and calling on the company to engage in active discussions with various communities within higher education about defining “efficacy” with educators rather than for educators. It turns out that post got a fair bit of attention within the company. It was circulated in […]
Head in the Oven, Feet in the Freezer
Some days, the internet gods are kind. On April 9th, I wrote, We want talking about educational efficacy to be like talking about the efficacy of Advil for treating arthritis. But it’s closer to talking about the efficacy of various chemotherapy drugs for treating a particular cancer. And we’re really really bad at talking about […]
Efficacy, Adaptive Learning, and the Flipped Classroom, Part II
In my last post, I described positive but mixed results of an effort by MSU’s psychology department to flip and blend their classroom: On the 30-item comprehensive exam, students in the redesigned sections performed significantly better (84% improvement) compared to the traditional comparison group (54% improvement). Students in the redesigned course demonstrated significantly more improvement […]