eSpark

eSpark is an online learning site with interactive learning paths featuring videos, games, and assessments. Sessions start with students selecting whether they want to focus on reading or math. Then they take a pre-assessment. After, they work through quests (basically, sequences of content and assessments). Notably, each day's quest begins with a check-in that focuses on how students are feeling. 

The quests involve watching videos and playing games while answering a series of questions along the way. The content, created by eSpark and curated from a variety of providers like PBS or Flocabulary, seems grade level appropriate and gets increasingly difficult as one moves from grades K-6 assignments. The quest directions are read aloud for the early grades, and gradually fade away for older students. After students answer questions, they get feedback that varies depending on the type of activity. Many activities signal results with a green arrow for a correct answer and a red X for incorrect. Some activities also include alternate instructions and explanations. The quests and learning paths are meant to differentiate instruction based on student progress; although, it was difficult to determine the success of this during our review. Teachers can track student progress on their dashboard, looking at overall weekly activity as well as specific progress toward standards mastery.

eSpark is a potentially useful tool for independent student work, especially for students who need additional practice outside of class time. It offers a nice variety of independent paths through content as well as short, assignable content for addressing specific needs. The mood check-ins and the reports are also useful. Students get some choice of activities. The Small Group Skills offer quick reinforcement for lessons, and the quests and learning pathways offer extended exploration of content. 

Content does vary in quality, given that much of it is curated from different sources. This makes grade level and skill match a little challenging. Some videos in a pathway seem to match better than others for a particular grade level, and the mix of formats could confuse some students. The pace of some videos can be quick, and text can be challenging to read. What makes this more challenging is that there aren't controls like captions, video speed, or a rewind button. They've also made a design decision to have the videos pause whenever students click off-screen. This means that students can't take digital notes.

Teachers will also need to work with students after they use eSpark to modify their daily instructional goals. Some of the Small Group Skills activities (approximately 15 minutes in length) might not include enough data to make full instructional decisions. For instance, kindergarten students can watch a video about counting by ones, two, or tens. But since there are only five questions at the end of the video, teachers likely won't have a large enough sample size to know if students truly mastered these various standards are not. There's also insufficient data to determine where students' learning may have broken down. This doesn't make the activities useless; it just requires teachers to do follow-ups and compare data with student progress on the learning paths. Similarly, in the reading section, the sixth grade lessons around plot development include several videos, songs, and texts to read. The story is engaging, but there's not inadequate follow-up when students answer the comprehension questions incorrectly. Lastly, the questions could be better worded to align with newer Common Core assessments, so expect to have to do some additional test prep instruction.