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A: Yes! When you first create an account you will be given 3 free credits so you can try out some lessons to see how they work. Whenever you click "Start Interactive Lesson" or "View Hands-On Plan" one credit will automatically be deducted. You can earn more credits as a Lesson Writer (see below). You can also watch our video about how the lessons work here.
A: Most of our hands-on lesson plans are still in paper form in giant notebooks, since our old website didn't have a place to attach them. We're in the process of scanning in and attaching all the hands-on lesson plans. If you're eager to get started on a lesson or unit just drop us a note in Contact Us and we'll track it down and send it out.
A: If you’re looking for a complete curriculum, sign up for an Unlimited Annual account: a student progressing at an average pace will use 300 lessons in the year, and you’ll be provided with an hour of personal curriculum planning support. If your child is advanced or intellectually curious, he or she could easily complete 500+ lessons a year. But if you’re already happy with your curriculum for the core subjects, just search for units and lessons in Technology, The Arts, Personal Development and Philosophy to fill in the weak spots. If you're not sure, give us a call at 503.567.8271 or drop a note in the Contact Us section and we'll help you decide where to start. We'll even send you some free resources to help you plan and track academic progress.
A: We've only set up the basic version of our accounting system so far, which means that when you create an Unlimited Annual account and use up your first 300 credits, we'll reset your account to 300 manually until the end of the year if you use them up (just give us a call when you're ready). Please note that the Unlimited Annual account is meant for one student.
A: Actually, you could really help us with this....what features do you want? Here are some we're planning to implement this year, but please tell us what you really want.
Student Features
-Rate and review lessons
-Automatic bookmarking in case you didn't meant to exit the lesson
-View and print transcripts of completed lessons by date or by unit
Teacher Features
-Create Courses (add the lessons you select and assign due dates; bulk add teachers and students from a spreadsheet)
-Gradebook (quiz scores will be entered automatically, and you can enter scores for the hands-on assignments)
-School Accounts (allow you to create teacher and student accounts and courses, and run analytics tracking academic progress)
Lesson Writer Features
-Notification of changes made to your lessons, with an "undo" button
-Better file management system to see all the sound and graphic files for your lesson in one place; easier bulk edits
(And once we get all the core features of the Interactive Curriculum Project in place, we'll be launching the Premium Curriculum Project to allow Lesson Writers to charge extra for extremely high-quality lessons, and the Private Curriculum Project to allow Lesson Writers like professors, consultants and employers to restrict access to their lessons.)
What other features do you want? Drop us a note or give us a call.
A: Yes, please contact us requesting a consultation and we’ll help you draw up a customized plan to use this system in your classroom or school. You may even qualify for one of our startup grants, or at least a Partner program where your school gets tuition credits for lessons your team creates, if you begin before we launch the Complete Curriculum Program.
A: Yes, this system will work on any web-enabled device, even smartphones. Unlike video-based learning, ours requires much less bandwidth. We can help you cobble together a system of antique and modern desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones until you can demonstrate the system’s effectiveness to your school or district. You can use the system in the school (half the students are online while half are doing hands-on learning) or just use the online lessons for homework. In our lab school, sometimes we even had students share computers with headphone splitters and this worked well for most students too; in fact, sometimes it helped kids stay on task better than working alone.
A: Drop us a note in the Contact Us section telling us about your interests and qualifications, and if you're accepted we'll send you the link for the Lesson Writer Lesson. It will walk you through the process of creating a lesson and the system's Terms & Conditions for use. Then you can create any lessons you like, or earn extra credits for creating or improving specific lessons on our Lesson Writer Team.
A: Right now, you will automatically earn 50 credits for creating a new lesson. You can earn 125 per lesson if you write one we need on a specific topic, or if you are part of a school or a College of Education creating units of lessons (your organization also earns credits). Each individual Lesson Writer can earn a maximum of 600 credits per year unless your lessons are so amazing that we offer you a consulting position with the company.
