MyFoundations Lab

Goals

MyFoundationsLab aims to support adult learners achieve their educational goals rapidly. In many cases that means improving college and career readiness through accelerating remediation in math and literacy, or preparing for a specific exam such as the GED, Accuplacer, or Compass placement test. MyFoundationsLab courses can support learners with varying goals such as remediation, credit recovery, and test prep. Additionally, the program intends to equip adult learners with the skills necessary to be successful in their chosen career.

Approach: The Program

Multiple versions of MyFoundationsLab exist; all of them include basic skills in literacy and math. The core version targets foundational skills in reading, writing, ESL and math. The program has a customizable curriculum that is personalized to each learner’s needs based on an initial diagnostic assessment (or set of assessments) and adaptive technology developed by Knewton. Each version contains courses with curriculum including instruction, practice, and assessments. This curriculum can be modified by each instructor to meet the needs of a particular program.

Approximately 75% of MyFoundationsLab customers use the product in physical classrooms, while the other 25% use the program online. The program has built-in capabilities which help instructors monitor student progress and intervene when a student is struggling. Regardless of whether the program is used in-person or online, the instructor gets access to a dashboard that allows him/her to see details for each student. The dashboard also allows an instructor to intervene when a student is struggling. It sends alerts to the instructor when a student has not logged in after a period of time, when a student’s grades decrease or when a student has exhausted resources on a particular topic and needs intervention.

All of the content in MyFoundationsLab has been tagged to specific skills and topics. As a student takes each diagnostic assessment, his/her mastery is tracked. Then the system delivers a personalized learning path that includes content from the assessment that the student did not master. The personalized learning path contains chapters featuring specific topics or skills that match the unique needs of each student.

After completing the diagnostic assessment(s), the student can open a chapter and begin. Each chapter includes instruction, practice and assessment on a particular set of skills. The instruction typically includes a video, an animation, and a text based option with audio. Many of the videos are also available in Spanish. A student can choose to take the chapter assessment (called a “Skills Check”) at any point to prove mastery of a particular topic or skill. Once a student completes a chapter, the adaptive learning engine (Knewton) will recommend what to learn next, guiding them through the content. These recommendations are made based on data collected on each student as well as how other students have mastered material in the MyLab online learning program. If an instructor wants, he/she can choose a sequence for the content, which will trump the recommendations made by the system.

There are many ways to customize the system:

• If a student demonstrates mastery on a particular topic, they are deemed capable by the system and can move onto other content. The “Mastery Level” (typically set at 80%) can be adjusted up or down. Out of the box, mastery for MyFoundationsLab is set at 80%, but the instructor can modify the mastery for each topic. A student can prove mastery of a topic by obtaining an 80% or higher on the diagnostic test, on his/her homework and assignments for a specific skill, or on a “Skills Check,” which is like a post test for a specific chapter.

• Instructors can choose a specific version of the program based on their goals and the needs of their students. For example, an instructor can choose the GED Prep version for students who are planning to take the GED exam, or the version that is contextualized to the Healthcare industry for students who are interested in pursuing credentials in that field.

• The order of content can also be customized. Instructors have access to the full collection of course content including reading skills, writing skills, grammar for non-native speakers, math skills, and study skills (which include basic soft skills for college readiness like time management and test anxiety).
• Prerequisites can be set for specific content. For example, an instructor can decide that a student cannot take the “Skills Check” before completing a portion of the content for that chapter.
• An instructor can set a specific number of times that a student can repeat a particular assessment.

There is not a standard prescription for the frequency of student use. In some cases, MyFoundationsLab is used to support GED preparation and students are expected to use the program two or three days a week over the course of a year. In other cases, it is used in a “Fast Track” program or a bootcamp, in which case students are expected to use it every day over a shorter period of a time.

The content can be self-paced but the team at MyFoundationsLab suggests that structure often creates a more successful environment for students. The instructor dashboard allows instructors to set dates for assignments, which syncs to their students’ calendars within MyFoundationsLab. That way, students get alerts when assignments are due, which support them with time management.

Approach: The Content

All content in MyFoundationsLab has been specifically designed for adult learners. The content for each version is specialized, usually by linking to standards for a particular exam, but each instructor can modify the content to fit the needs of his/her students.

The content contains over 90 topics with over 30,000 assessment items. Pre-built pathways are available for GED, Compass, WorkKeys and more. The curriculum provides instruction starting at a 4th grade level in reading (based on the Lexile system). Writing instruction ranges from a 4th grade level through freshman (college) composition, and math instruction ranges from basic arithmetic through trigonometry. Study skills include basic soft skills for college readiness like time management, test anxiety and organization, and also cover more advanced topics like financial literacy. The program also offers ESL (English as a Second Language) content, which was designed by 13 ESL experts at Pearson. The ESL content includes basic grammar, reading and listening skills.

In December 2014, MyFoundationsLab content will expand to include adult basic education levels one and two for ELA and math. For ELA, levels one and two include pre-literacy skills down to letter identification, and for math, content will begin at number recognition.

Implementation and Training

There are a variety of ways to implement MyFoundationsLab. The program can be used with high school students as early intervention, as prep for the 2014 GED, as basic career readiness and more.

When Pearson takes on a new client they offer a few optional training models that clients can choose from. There is an implementation team that provides live training, as well as online training for the program. There are also monthly webex trainings for instructors on topics like getting classes set up and running courses.

Business Model and Pricing

Pearson sells MyFoundationsLab at the institution level, most commonly to community colleges and universities, but also to K-12 institutions.

Pricing is per student and is based on the duration of use.

• 10 week access: $33.00/student ($13.20/student/month)
• 6 month access: $60.00/student ($10.00/student/month)
• 12 month access: $100.00/student ($8.33/student/month)

Who is Using It

As of summer 2014, about 650 educational institutions are using MyFoundationsLab (85% higher ed and 15% K-12). Currently 110,583 students have registered for the program. Approximately 75% of MyFoundationsLab customers use the program in physical classrooms, while 25% use it online.

There are multiple customers in every state in the US as well as users internationally in Canada, South Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Russia. Most current international customers teach in English-based schools.