CANVAS Adaptive Lessons Fall 2021 EML3041 Computational Methods

What are the adaptive lessons?

These lessons are a part of your overall grade under the HW online assignments. The lessons will show up under the modules in CANVAS for all eight chapters of the course. A lesson will take you through a combination of videos, text, and quizzes. The adaptive platform used is RealizeIT.

What is RealizeIT?

RealizeIT is a personalized, adaptive learning platform that allows a student to progress at their own pace through a learning path that is created and adapted for each student throughout the course progression.

How Does It Work?

Personalized adaptive learning engages with each student differently. Based on your interactions with the course, the system finds out how much you already know and decides what you need to learn, constructs your proper learning pathway, and starts the learning cycle.

The system continues to learn more about you as you go ahead on your learning pathway, which is continually being re-evaluated based on your continued participation. This continual reevaluation allows the learning system to select the most appropriate content (text, video, lecture, etc.) that helps you learn best and then constructs a specific lesson based on your learning preferences.

I would like to look at the textbook content first and the video next? Can I do that?

When you get to the video screen, you can click on the next button, and you will be asked if you “Would you like alternative version of this content”. Click on “Yes, add it to my Lesson Path” button and you have access to the textbook content related to the video. In some of the pre-requisite lessons, the textbook content will show up before the videos (if available) as many of you will only need a quick review.

When are the lessons available?

The modules will be available by 8:00 AM on a Friday and are due by 2:00 PM on the following week’s Tuesday. You have 11 days to do the modules – this is so that you can pace yourself as several modules are assigned every week.

What are the significant tips for success?

Personalized learning is a unique way of learning. Your interaction with the content is what helps the system develop your learning path. It is essential to read the required content within the RealizeIT system.

Plan your time accordingly! Do not wait until the last minute to complete the modules. The earlier you begin, the more time you will have to practice.

How do I get started with Personalized Adaptive Learning?

Accessing RealizeIT

You will access it through a Canvas assignment. No separate login is required.

Your Personalized Learning Path

Your personalized learning path is your custom pathway through the course content. After RealizeIT figures out what you know and any knowledge gaps, you will see a color-coded map of the Milestone.

RealizeIT Learning Path

There are some key features included in the learning map view.

1. What to do next: The next step or lesson that is recommended by the system will be circled in blue. The next recommended lesson is also under What to do next on the overview page.

2. List view toggle: The list view toggle allows you to toggle the view between the learning map view and a list view. The list view lists the lesson names instead of displaying them in a connected map.

3. Learning map key: Use the color-coded map key to interpret your progress and level of knowledge along your path.

How do I save my progress?

RealizeIT automatically saves your progress. You can leave a lesson and choose to continue later.

If you decide to exit a lesson, RealizeIT will give you two options:

1. Save for next time: This will save your progress in the lesson and allow you to pick up where you left off later.

2. Discard progress: This will discard any progress in the lesson and return you to the overview page.

Leaving the lesson to try later will not negatively affect your grade, as long as you still complete it prior to any due date your instructor may have set. If you discard progress on a lesson that you previously completed, the prior progress (and score) will remain, but any new progress will not be saved or affect your score.

How does RealizeIT score and grade my work?

Your CANVAS grade will be what you do till the deadline date. You can continue to access it after the deadline date, such as for test preparation, but it will NOT update the CANVAS grade. The assignment score is calculated based on a combination of the following:

1. Your progress, referred to as Knowledge Covered – How complete is an assignment. If there are 10 nodes in the assignment, completing 9 of 10 means you get 90% credit for Knowledge Covered.

2. Your understanding, referred to as Mastery, is how well you have performed across all the assignment activities. Sometimes you may have to work on activity more than once to reach the highest mastery level, especially if you have made many unsuccessful attempts.

3. The CANVAS grades for the adaptive lessons show up a day after the due date deadline, although you know your score from the mastery you achieved. Any mastery over 90% earns you full points on CANVAS.  A score of 90% and below earns you corresponding points. For example, a score of 86% makes you 8.6 points out of a possible score of 10.

How do I get the highest possible grade for my work in RealizeIT?

Follow the simple instructions below to earn the highest possible grade:

1. Start Early – Early start to your assignment gives you the maximum time to complete the assignments and get a high score.

2. Follow System Recommendations – Learning activities are recommended based on your performance. Following recommendations tend to be the most efficient way to learn your lessons and earn maximum grades.

3. Complete All Activities – Work on all the activities. Review the lesson content before trying to answer the lesson questions. Making too many unsuccessful attempts will take several successful attempts to make a significant improvement in your grade. You can always click on Exit button to “Discard Progress” if you think that you are not prepared enough. Of course, your attempt will not be recorded.

4. Earn Green Stars – Try to earn as many green stars () as possible. You may continue to practice and revise each activity until you have reached a solid understanding of the material.

5. Get Greater than 90%: Please do not spend too much time trying to get 100%. Anyone getting strictly greater than 90% on any adaptive lesson will get full points for that particular adaptive assignment. You are better off spending the rest of the time on solving the end-of-the-chapter problems in the textbook.

How do I maximize my personalized learning experience?

To help you get the most out of your personalized adaptive learning experience, there are some helpful features and tips you can take advantage of.

Revise or Practice to Improve Score - You can go back and work on any lesson in a RealizeIT assignment to improve your score whenever you would like to do so. To review the full lesson before attempting to improve your score, select “Revise” and then complete the lesson again. You will be presented with the lesson content again, and then the questions. If you do not want to see the lesson content but just the questions, Select “Practice” instead.

Review Activity Without Changing Your Score Before the Deadline - If you wish to review the content or both the content and the question but do not want to change your grade, the recommended way to do so is to select Redo Lesson, review the content you desire, and then click the Stop button and select the Discard progress option. This will exit the lesson and discard any new progress but keep any earlier score you have earned.

How can I check my grade?

Check if the grade shows up under Grades in CANVAS. It takes at least 24 hours after the deadline date for it to update on CANVAS.

1. If you see a score for the quiz in your CANVAS grade sheet, you have successfully taken the lesson;

2. If you see a - sign or a 0, that means you have not taken or submitted the lesson or did not get a score greater than zero;

Do not be concerned if your grade does not show up 48 hours after the deadline. Let me know then. I will manually update grades if I must.

Are doing these lessons enough practice?

The answer is a categorical NO. Remember, just doing these lessons will not be enough to succeed in the class or understand a particular chapter. In addition, you should do the questions given in class, look at the multiple-choice question solutions, and most importantly, do problem-set questions in the textbook that are given at the end of each chapter.

How do I retrieve the questions or content from a lesson for review after the deadline date?

Just go back to the assignment. You can review as much as you like. It will NOT update your grade on CANVAS, though, as the deadline has passed.

What if I believe that I am getting the right answer, but it is being marked wrong?

The answers have been tested several times by the instructor, TAs, and student testers. But if you believe that your solution is being mismarked, send a screenshot directly and immediately by email to kaw@usf.edu, and I will look into it. If your answer is correct, I will update your score manually.

What if my lesson gets stuck?

A lesson getting stuck is an infrequent occasion. These occasions are mostly local issues like loss of internet, or you may have a privacy badger or popup blocker, or similar software installed. Allow any privacy badgers and popups to work. Logoff from the RealizeIT screen and log back on a different browser (chrome or Firefox), and you can go back where you left off. If it does not work, send me a screenshot at kaw@usf.edu, and I will investigate. If your issue is considered an anomaly, I will update your score or give you an alternative link to do your homework.

What if equations are not displayed correctly in a lesson?

Sometimes there may be an issue in the system displaying this question when a student is in a Resumed lesson.  To resolve this issue, click on Exit, then Discard Progress.  This action will allow you to resume the lesson from where you started so that you can have the questions delivered appropriately from the system.

I have done my lessons and I want to review them for the test. What do I do?

Realizeit provides students with the quickest and most appropriate way for students to improve their score on any node (your score on CANVAS will not change after the deadline). You simply go back to adaptive lesson. You will be presented with Quick Practice, Practice, or Revise.

Quick Practice will be suggested when students have a very high mastery level as the Quick Practice will only ask 3 questions; no content will be delivered.  

Practice will be suggested when a student has a high mastery level but the system feels that the entire question block should be presented without content.  

Revise will be suggested when the student has passed the node but the mastery level is not high enough that the system feels that an entire “re-do” of the lesson with all content and questions would be appropriate.  

​All of these operations will have an effect on the mastery of the node. All of these suggested actions by the system are independent of the color of the node.  The colors of the nodes are determined by the mastery bands settings.

If you click on the lesson, you may get a choice of Revise, Quick practice or View content. The View content option will display all content for the student but will not ask the students any questions.  This is a good way for students to review the content of the lesson without the penalty of answering questions incorrectly and jeopardizing a high score on the node.