Personalized Learning for Students, Grades 3-12
Q&A with Julia Francis, VP of Customer Success
Q: What got Alludo started thinking about online learning for students?
A: Curating and hosting a community catalog as a community source for choice-driven PD content has worked so well with our customer school districts’ teachers and staff. Extending this to content for students was a natural progression.
While the Alludo Content Catalog is hosted by Alludo, it’s built by a community of educators from school districts across the nation, for educators. These districts started requesting us to design, craft, and roll out student games and courses, and we noticed similarities across their needs. We thought, why don’t we organize this content for students in a similar fashion to what we have done for educators?
Q: Were you having a growing demand for student learning games / courses?
A: Our customers were looking to expand use of Alludo beyond teachers and staff. We put our heads together with customers to evolve and expand to students. We started developing choice-driven online learning games/courses for high school students. At first, the topics centered around digital citizenship, technology and applications, and compliance related skills and learning. Then it shifted.
We had more school districts approaching us to develop online learning courses and programs for middle school and elementary grades. And the topics those districts were requesting weren’t just for technology and online/asynchronous learning, but also social emotional learning (SEL), career readiness, and other skills that are important to students’ health and well being.
Q: What were some of the other important topics for students?
A: In addition to digital citizenship, technology, asynchronous/online learning, SEL, and career readiness, districts used Alludo for summer school programs, special curriculum centered on initiatives like the election process, and STEM related programs.
Q: At what point did you realize this student online learning content should go into the Alludo Content Catalog?
A: Similar to adult learners, we saw the same pattern happening with our student content. There were specific initiatives that required standard training across school districts. Del Norte Unified School District was an important contributor to Rainforest and the Alludo Content Catalog. Del Norte USD shared with us the California standards for instruction, scope, and sequence for student technology learning which gives a guide by grade level of where students should be. Similarly, CommonSense Media also has lessons and instruction by grade level for different types of student learning needs.
From district to district, the student learning needs are very similar across the board. We thought if we can organize it so districts can easily hone in on relevant content by grade levels, we’d be delivering something school districts could really use.
Q: How does Rainforest work?
A: School districts can come to the Alludo Content Catalog and search for microlearning activities, or short learning modules that can be taken any time, any place. Districts can re-use and benefit from the foundational online learning content in Rainforest exactly how they find it, or they can enhance the content they find there in a way especially suited for their district. Education learning leaders don’t have to spend their precious time reinventing the wheel on content they and everyone else needs. They can just reuse that and create what hasn’t been done yet. Then they can take whatever custom content they created and pull it back into the community content for other districts to use. This is what’s really exciting. Districts helping districts help students. It’s exponentially powerful.
Q: Who has provided content to Rainforest?
A: In addition to Del Norte USD whom I mentioned above, Oxnard Union High School District, San Jacinto’s North Mountain Middle School, Mater Dei High School, and Palm Springs Unified School District also contributed valuable student learning content into Rainforest.
Q: What has the feedback been like so far for the people using it?
A: The Alludo Content Catalog, and specifically Rainforest, has been a great addition to school administrators’ existing learning programs. With the student content in the Alludo Catalog, teachers have a different way to engage students at times when they really need it such as in homeroom, during independent study time, and advisory period. It’s been a great way for teachers to have an alternative to support them on the instruction and curriculum side. For students, they have so much choice in what they can go in and learn about on any given day. And Alludo is gamified learning, so students engage and have fun while they’re learning!
Q: What’s next for the Alludo Content Catalog, and specifically Rainforest?
A: Thanks to the partnerships and the collaboration of all of our Alludo school districts we are adding, enhancing, and growing the content in the Alludo Content Catalog all the time. It keeps getting better.
Q: How does someone begin using the Alludo Content Catalog?
A: If you’re not already an Alludo customer, and you’d like a demo of the Alludo Catalog and Rainforest or if you are an Alludo customer and are interested in contributing or sharing ideas about new content, let us know here. Let’s talk about how to get started with choice and voice for your student learning!
