Knewton - Detailed Review
Career Tools
Knewton - Detailed Review Contents
Add a header to begin generating the table of contents
Knewton - Product Overview
Knewton Alta Overview
Knewton Alta is an AI-driven educational platform that focuses on providing personalized and adaptive learning experiences. Here’s a brief overview of its primary function, target audience, and key features:Primary Function
Knewton Alta is designed to adapt to each student’s learning needs, offering personalized support and real-time feedback. The platform continuously monitors students’ performance and adjusts the learning content in real-time to maximize their learning outcomes. This adaptive approach ensures that students receive the support they need at the moment they need it, whether it’s through practice, detailed answer explanations, or remediation of pre-requisite skill gaps.Target Audience
The primary target audience for Knewton Alta includes students, instructors, and educational institutions. It is particularly beneficial for students who need additional support or those who are struggling, as well as for instructors who want to provide personalized learning experiences to their students. Knewton has been used by over 300 colleges and universities and has served 13 million students worldwide.Key Features
- Adaptive Learning: Knewton Alta continuously monitors student performance and adapts the learning content in real-time to ensure students are on the right track to achieving mastery.
- Personalized Learning: The platform provides just-in-time instruction and remediation based on individual student needs, helping to fill knowledge gaps and build towards mastery.
- Integrated Instruction: The learning experience includes text and video-based instructional content embedded directly within the adaptive learning environment.
- Performance Insights: Instructors have access to actionable data and insights through dashboards that show student performance, preparedness, and progress toward mastery. This helps in identifying at-risk students for early intervention.
- Affordability: Knewton Alta courses are available at a lower cost, with pricing options such as $39.95 per semester or $9.95 per month.
- Accessibility: The platform is WCAG 2.0 AA-level ADA compliant, ensuring all learners have the same opportunity to succeed.
Knewton - User Interface and Experience
User Interface
- The interface is structured to be accessible and user-friendly. Knewton Alta integrates seamlessly with learning management systems like Canvas, making it easy for instructors to create and manage adaptive assignments and quizzes. For example, instructors can add Knewton Alta assignments to their Canvas course space by selecting the “External Tool” option and choosing Knewton Alta from the list.
- The platform uses a clear and simple layout, with features such as “dots” or progress indicators to help users track their progress through assignments and quizzes. This visual reinforcement helps students stay oriented and motivated.
- The adaptive learning experience includes embedded text and video-based instructional content directly within the assignments, ensuring that students receive relevant support as they work through the material.
Ease of Use
- Knewton Alta is built to be easy to use for both students and instructors. Students start on the learning objectives selected by the instructor, and the platform continuously monitors their performance, adapting in real-time to provide personalized learning paths. This real-time adaptation ensures that students receive just-in-time instruction and remediation, addressing their specific knowledge gaps.
- Instructors have access to actionable data and insights through the gradebook, which provides transparency into student performance and preparedness. This makes it easy for instructors to identify at-risk students and intervene early.
Overall User Experience
- The platform is designed to be inclusive, with all features being WCAG 2.0 AA-level ADA compliant, ensuring that all learners have an equal chance to succeed.
- The adaptive technology at the heart of Knewton Alta ensures a personalized learning experience for each student. Students receive detailed answer explanations, integrated just-in-time instruction, and remediation of pre-requisite skill gaps, all based on their performance. This approach has led to significant improvements in student outcomes, such as 87% of students achieving mastery on their assignments and a 38% increase in quiz scores for struggling students.
- The user experience is further enhanced by the use of continuous user testing and feedback integration, ensuring that the platform remains user-centric and effective in its delivery of adaptive learning experiences.
Knewton - Key Features and Functionality
Knewton Alta Overview
Knewton Alta, part of the Knewton platform, offers several key features and functionalities that leverage AI to provide personalized and effective learning experiences. Here are the main features and how they work:Adaptive Learning Paths
Knewton Alta creates customized learning paths for each user. Using sophisticated algorithms, the platform analyzes students’ strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles to deliver targeted content. This ensures that students focus on areas where they need improvement, rather than wasting time on topics they already master.Real-Time Monitoring and Adaptation
The platform continuously monitors students’ performance and adapts in real-time to maximize learning outcomes. Unlike periodic diagnostics, Knewton Alta adjusts its content and instruction based on the student’s current performance, providing just-in-time instruction and remediation to meet individual needs.Personalized Recommendations and Analytics
Knewton’s recommendation engine uses real-time psychometric data to provide intelligent, personalized content recommendations. The analytics engine offers real-time inferences for predictive analytics and student reports, including metrics such as Active Time, which tracks how much productive time students spend engaged in learning. This helps in identifying areas where students may need additional support or intervention.Content Integration and Knowledge Graph
Knewton’s knowledge graph and associated ontology allow for the quick and efficient integration of new content collections. This graphing system describes relationships between content in a way that is intuitive and machine-readable, enabling the platform to adapt to various learning environments and content types.AI-Driven Insights
The platform uses AI algorithms to analyze student data and provide detailed insights into student performance. For example, the gradebook gives instructors actionable data on student performance and preparedness, helping them identify at-risk students and trends in the class. This data also includes learning patterns, such as how students interact with the content, whether they struggle, use supports, or master it quickly.Accessibility and Compliance
Knewton Alta is WCAG 2.0 AA-level ADA compliant, ensuring that all learners have the same opportunity to succeed. This compliance makes the platform accessible and inclusive for students with various needs.Instructor Dashboards
Instructors have access to detailed dashboards that provide transparency into student progress. These dashboards show how students are progressing toward mastery, allowing instructors to uncover class trends and identify at-risk students for early intervention. The dashboards also offer insights into how the work completed in Knewton Alta prepares students for assessments.Cost-Effective
Knewton Alta courses are available at a flexible pricing model, making high-quality educational resources more affordable. Courses are priced at $39.95 per semester or $9.95 per month, which helps in lowering costs for students while maintaining educational quality.Integration with Existing Content
Teachers can upload their own content into the platform and tag it to Knewton’s taxonomy, allowing the AI algorithm to leverage this content effectively. This feature ensures that the platform can be integrated seamlessly into existing educational frameworks.Conclusion
Overall, Knewton Alta’s AI-driven features aim to create a personalized learning environment that maximizes student engagement and learning outcomes while providing valuable insights and support for both students and instructors. Knewton - Performance and Accuracy
Performance of Knewton
Knewton, particularly through its platform Knewton Alta, demonstrates strong performance in several key areas:Personalization and Adaptivity
Knewton Alta is highly personalized, adapting to each student’s performance to provide a customized path to mastery. It uses AI algorithms to adjust the learning content in real-time based on student interactions, ensuring that each student receives material that is appropriate for their current proficiency level.Real-Time Feedback and Remediation
The platform offers immediate and detailed feedback on each question, whether the answer is correct or not. This feedback helps students learn from their mistakes and fill knowledge gaps, promoting a growth mindset. If a student struggles with an assignment, Alta recognizes the knowledge gap and provides just-in-time remediation, even revisiting prerequisite concepts if necessary.Predictive Analytics
Knewton’s analytics engine provides predictive insights into student performance. For example, the Work Remaining metric predicts how much activity a student needs to complete to become proficient in a content area. The Active Time metric tracks productive learning time, distinguishing between engaged and disengaged interactions. These metrics help instructors understand how well students are prepared for exams and identify at-risk students early.Engagement Modeling
The platform incorporates a model of student engagement to make recommendations more effective. It recognizes that factors like boredom and confusion can impact learning outcomes and adjusts the content accordingly to keep students engaged.Accuracy
Data-Driven Improvements
Knewton’s accuracy improves with more data collection. The platform uses student response information to revise and upgrade its models and parameters, leading to more accurate psychometric inferences and predictive analytics.Matrix Completion Algorithms
Knewton employs advanced matrix completion algorithms to estimate student proficiency and the time required to gain proficiency in a content area. These algorithms help in predicting how much instruction and practice a student will need, even for novel content.Validation and Calibration
The models used by Knewton are continuously tested and calibrated against actual student outcomes. This process helps in detecting bias and improving the confidence bounds of the predictions, such as those related to the Work Remaining metric.Limitations and Areas for Improvement
Dependence on Data Quality
While Knewton’s accuracy improves with more data, the quality of the data is crucial. Poorly designed questions or inconsistent student interactions can lead to less accurate models and recommendations.Potential for Overreliance on Technology
There is a risk that instructors might rely too heavily on the platform’s recommendations without considering other contextual factors that could influence student learning. Balancing technology with human judgment is essential.Content Integration
While Knewton allows teachers to upload their own content, ensuring that this content is properly tagged and integrated into the platform’s taxonomy can be time-consuming. Streamlining this process could enhance user experience.User Engagement Variability
The platform’s ability to detect engagement can sometimes be challenged by factors like students leaving learning application windows open while engaging in other activities. Improving the algorithms to better handle such outliers could enhance the accuracy of engagement metrics. In summary, Knewton’s performance and accuracy are strong due to its adaptive and data-driven approach. However, it is important to address potential limitations such as data quality, the need for balanced use of technology, content integration challenges, and refining engagement detection algorithms. Knewton - Pricing and Plans
Pricing
- Course Pricing: Alta courses are available at two main price points:
- $44.95 per semester
- $10.95 per month
Features
- Adaptive Learning: Alta combines Knewton’s adaptive learning technology with educational content to deliver a personalized learning experience. This includes adaptive assignments and real-time feedback to help students stay on track.
- Content and Analytics: The platform provides personalized recommendations for students, analytics for teachers, and content insights. It uses a knowledge graph and real-time psychometrics engine to deliver intelligent, personalized content recommendations and analytics.
- Scalability: Alta is built on a service-oriented architecture, allowing it to scale and handle concurrent activity from a large number of students efficiently.
Tiers
While there are no explicitly defined tiers like those found in other products, the pricing is straightforward and based on the duration of the course:
- Semester Plan: $44.95 for the entire semester.
- Monthly Plan: $10.95 per month.
Free Options
There are no free plans or trials mentioned specifically for Alta. However, the pricing is designed to be affordable and accessible, making it a cost-effective option for both institutions and students.
In summary, Knewton’s Alta offers a simple, affordable pricing structure with a focus on adaptive learning and personalized education, without multiple tiers or free options beyond the cost-effective plans provided.
Knewton - Integration and Compatibility
Knewton Overview
Knewton, an AI-powered adaptive learning platform, integrates seamlessly with various educational tools and platforms to provide a comprehensive and personalized learning experience. Here are some key aspects of its integration and compatibility:Integration with Learning Management Systems (LMS)
Knewton can be integrated with popular Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as Canvas. For instance, to integrate Knewton Alta with Canvas, users can create an assignment within Canvas, select “External Tool,” and choose Knewton Alta from the list. This allows teachers to assign adaptive assignments and assessments directly within their Canvas course space.Compatibility Across Platforms
Knewton’s platform is built to be highly scalable and compatible across different platforms. It leverages Amazon Web Services (AWS) to ensure reliability and scalability, particularly during peak usage times such as the beginning of the school year. This infrastructure allows Knewton to manage large traffic spikes and scale up quickly as needed.Cross-Device Compatibility
The platform is accessible across various devices, ensuring that students can engage with the content from anywhere. Since Knewton is cloud-based, it can be accessed through web browsers on desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones, providing flexibility for both students and teachers.Content Integration
Knewton allows for the integration of a wide range of content, including open education resources (OER) and content uploaded by teachers. Teachers can tag their own content to Knewton’s taxonomy, enabling the algorithm to leverage this content for personalized recommendations. This flexibility in content integration makes it easier for educators to adapt the platform to their specific needs.Data Analysis and Storage
Knewton uses Amazon Elastic Map Reduce (Amazon EMR) to analyze large data sets, which helps in calibrating its recommendation and analytical models. The platform also utilizes Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for storing configuration files and backups, ensuring that data is managed efficiently and securely.Global Compatibility
Given its partnership with Wiley and its use of AWS, Knewton complies with data regulations in various countries, making it a viable solution for educational institutions worldwide. This global compatibility is crucial as Knewton has partnerships across the U.S., Europe, East Asia, and other regions.Conclusion
In summary, Knewton’s adaptive learning platform is highly integrable with various educational tools, compatible across different devices, and scalable to meet the needs of a global user base. Its use of cloud services ensures reliability and efficiency in managing large volumes of data and user activity. Knewton - Customer Support and Resources
Customer Support
- Support for Knewton Alta is provided by the Knewton Alta Support Team. Users can contact this team for any issues or questions they may have.
- For specific inquiries or concerns, users can reach out to the support team via email at support@knewton.com.
Help Documentation
- Knewton Alta offers comprehensive help documentation that guides users through various aspects of the platform. This includes instructions on how to integrate Knewton Alta with learning management systems (LMS) like Canvas, creating courses, adaptive assignments, and tests/quizzes.
Adaptive Learning Resources
- Knewton Alta is an adaptive learning courseware tool that helps students identify and address knowledge gaps. The platform provides immediate and detailed feedback on each question, reinforcing key concepts and filling knowledge gaps.
- The content, including instructional text, video examples, and assessments, is organized by learning objectives and served up at the precise moment a student needs it. This adaptive technology adjusts to students’ proficiency levels with each interaction.
Instructor Dashboards
- For instructors, Knewton Alta provides meaningful and actionable data through instructor dashboards. These dashboards offer insights into student performance, helping instructors identify class trends and at-risk students for early intervention.
Additional Resources
While Knewton Alta does not fall into the “Career Tools AI-driven product category” specifically, it is a valuable educational resource that supports learning and teaching through adaptive technology. If you are looking for career tools, you might find resources like those mentioned in the career development presentation from the University of New Mexico, which includes various assessments and tools for career exploration and skill identification. However, these are not part of the Knewton Alta platform.
Knewton - Pros and Cons
Advantages of Knewton
Knewton, particularly through its AI-driven product Alta, offers several significant advantages that enhance the learning experience and outcomes for students.Personalization
Knewton’s platform leverages AI to provide personalized lesson plans, adapting to each student’s unique needs, strengths, and weaknesses. This personalization ensures that students progress at their own pace and in their own style, which is particularly beneficial for those who are struggling.Adaptive Learning
The platform uses a knowledge graph and real-time psychometrics to deliver intelligent, personalized content recommendations. This adaptive learning approach helps in identifying and addressing knowledge gaps effectively, ensuring students receive the right amount of instruction and practice needed to gain proficiency.Improved Engagement and Performance
Studies have shown that students using Alta, Knewton’s AI-driven platform, stay engaged throughout the semester, with a 25% increase in weekly usage. Students who complete Alta assignments perform 22% better on tests, and those using the AI-driven Review Center perform 9% better on exams.Efficiency and Cost-Effectiveness
Knewton’s system automates grading, saving teachers a significant amount of time. The platform also utilizes open educational resources (OER), which keeps content costs low for students. For instance, Alta can be purchased for just $40, compared to the typical cost of a college textbook.Scalability and Flexibility
The Knewton platform is scalable and flexible, allowing it to support a wide range of content areas and handle large amounts of data. This scalability enables the benefits of adaptive learning to reach a large number of students across different domains.Real-Time Feedback and Analytics
Knewton provides real-time feedback and analytics, helping both students and teachers track progress and identify areas that need improvement. The platform’s predictive analytics engine and personalized recommendation system are continuously refined as more data is collected.Disadvantages of Knewton
While Knewton offers several advantages, there are also some drawbacks and challenges associated with its use.Initial Struggles and Market Position
Despite its technological achievements, Knewton faced significant challenges, including a decline in investor sentiment and industry excitement. It was acquired by Wiley after its valuation dropped from a high of $180M to an estimated $10-25M. This transition has required Knewton to re-establish itself in the education market.Potential for Overload
The system can generate more problems for students when they get answers wrong, which might lead to a feeling of being overwhelmed. Students cannot skip problems, and this can result in a deeper workload, potentially causing frustration.Dependence on Technology
Knewton’s effectiveness is heavily dependent on its AI algorithm and the quality of the data it processes. Any issues with the technology or data accuracy can impact the learning experience and outcomes.User Engagement Challenges
While Knewton aims to keep students engaged, some content may still cause students to quit working due to difficulty or boredom. The platform must balance providing challenging content with maintaining student engagement. In summary, Knewton’s AI-driven platform offers significant benefits in terms of personalization, adaptive learning, and improved performance, but it also faces challenges related to its market position, potential for student overload, and dependence on technology. Knewton - Comparison with Competitors
Unique Features of Knewton Alta
- Continuous Diagnosis and Personalization: Knewton Alta stands out for its continuous diagnosis of student interactions, which informs a personalized learning path. This includes assessments, instructions, and refreshers delivered just in time based on the student’s needs.
- Integrated Multimodal Instruction: The platform integrates multimodal text and video instruction within the adaptive experience, providing students with the support they need at the moment they need it.
- Detailed Feedback and Remediation: Knewton Alta offers detailed answer explanations for both correct and incorrect answers, and it delivers refreshers based on continually diagnosed knowledge gaps. This is a significant improvement over other platforms that may only provide basic or static feedback.
- Actionable Data and Predictive Analytics: The platform provides actionable data, including performance metrics, learning pattern insights, and test readiness metrics. This helps instructors identify at-risk students before exams, which is not typically available in non-adaptive courseware.
Potential Alternatives
Other Adaptive Courseware
- Competitive Adaptive Courseware: Other adaptive courseware platforms may require students to work through diagnostic or prerequisite assignments before receiving personalized content. These platforms often lack continuous diagnosis and may not provide integrated instruction or detailed feedback.
- Examples: Platforms like McGraw-Hill’s ALEKS or Pearson’s MyLab might offer some level of personalization but typically do not match the continuous and integrated approach of Knewton Alta.
AI-Powered Learning Platforms
- DreamBox Learning: This platform uses AI to provide personalized math education. While it is highly adaptive, it is more focused on math education rather than the broad range of subjects covered by Knewton Alta.
- Curriculum Associates’ i-Ready: This platform offers adaptive assessments and instruction, but it may not have the same level of integration with multimodal content or the detailed feedback system of Knewton Alta.
Key Differences
- Content Flexibility: Knewton allows teachers to upload their own content and tag it to Knewton’s taxonomy, making it highly flexible. This is a unique feature that sets it apart from other platforms that rely on pre-curated content.
- Scale and Data Utilization: Knewton’s platform benefits from a large scale of data collected from millions of students, which improves the accuracy of its models and recommendations. This is a significant advantage over smaller or less data-intensive platforms.
Knewton - Frequently Asked Questions
What is Knewton Alta?
Knewton Alta is an adaptive learning platform that uses artificial intelligence to provide personalized, data-driven educational experiences. It is designed to help professionals engage with professional development courses by creating customized learning paths based on individual strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles.
How does Knewton Alta personalize learning?
Knewton Alta uses sophisticated algorithms to analyze a user’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as their learning style, to deliver targeted content. This ensures that users are not wasting time on topics they already master, allowing them to focus on areas where they need improvement. The platform adjusts the difficulty and type of content in real-time based on the user’s performance and engagement.
What features does Knewton Alta offer for tracking progress?
Knewton Alta provides real-time progress tracking features that allow users to monitor their performance, identify areas of improvement, and celebrate their achievements. Users can visualize their progress and set milestones to stay motivated and focused on continuously enhancing their skill set.
How does Knewton Alta support engagement and motivation?
Knewton Alta offers engaging and interactive content, including video tutorials, quizzes, and simulations, to keep users motivated and excited to learn. The platform’s adaptive nature ensures that the content is neither too easy nor too hard, maintaining an optimal level of challenge to keep users engaged.
Can Knewton Alta be used in various learning environments?
Yes, Knewton Alta is flexible and can be used across different learning environments. It is designed to integrate with various types of content and can be used for professional development, upskilling, reskilling, or expanding one’s knowledge base.
How does Knewton Alta use AI and analytics?
Knewton Alta leverages AI to analyze student interactions and provide personalized recommendations. It uses real-time psychometrics and inferential engines to update its estimates of user knowledge and abilities, allowing for accurate predictions and targeted interventions.
What kind of support does Knewton Alta offer?
Knewton Alta provides comprehensive support features, including real-time feedback on assignments and quizzes, and tools to help users manage their time and stay on track with their professional development goals. The platform also offers priority email and phone support for users.
Can Knewton Alta be used by large organizations?
Yes, Knewton Alta is scalable and can be used by large organizations. It employs a service-oriented architecture that allows its inference engines to process concurrent activity from tens of millions of users, making it suitable for large-scale implementations.
How does Knewton Alta handle content integration?
Knewton Alta uses a knowledge graph and its associated graphing ontology to describe relationships between content. This allows for flexible and efficient integration of new content into the platform, enabling quick adaptation to different collections of content.
What are the benefits of using Knewton Alta for professional development?
Using Knewton Alta can lead to improved performance in courses, especially for users who are struggling. It helps users achieve mastery of subjects by completing personalized assignments, and the benefits persist over time to future assessments. Additionally, it increases the pace of learning and provides practical and effective learning experiences.
Knewton - Conclusion and Recommendation
Final Assessment of Knewton Alta
Knewton Alta stands out as a formidable tool in the career tools AI-driven product category, particularly for professional development and continuous learning. Here’s a detailed look at its benefits and who would most benefit from using it.Personalized Learning Experience
Knewton Alta leverages advanced artificial intelligence and adaptive learning technology to create customized learning paths for each user. This approach ensures that learners focus on areas where they need improvement, rather than wasting time on topics they already master. The platform analyzes individual strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles to deliver targeted content, making the learning experience both effective and engaging.Engaging and Interactive Content
The platform offers a variety of learning resources, including video tutorials, quizzes, and simulations. This diverse range of content caters to different learning preferences, keeping learners motivated and engaged. Active engagement with the material enhances information retention and practical application in real-world scenarios.Real-Time Progress Tracking
Knewton Alta provides real-time progress tracking features, allowing users to monitor their performance, identify areas of improvement, and celebrate their achievements. This feature helps users stay motivated and focused on their professional development goals.Career Development
For individuals looking to upskill, reskill, or expand their knowledge base, Knewton Alta is an excellent choice. It offers a wide range of courses that can help achieve career goals, making it particularly beneficial for professionals seeking continuous learning and development opportunities.Who Would Benefit Most
- Professionals: Those looking to enhance their skills or transition to new roles will find Knewton Alta highly beneficial.
- Organizations: Companies aiming to develop their employees’ skills and improve overall performance can leverage Knewton Alta to create a more skilled and adaptable workforce.
- Educators: Instructors and educators can use Knewton Alta to design and adapt learning technologies for online learners, gaining valuable insights into learner data analytics.