Using Tassomai’s new computer science revision course
Donna Robertson, Curriculum Leader of IT and Computer Science at Harrow Way Community School, talks to the team about her experience of Tassomai’s new computer science course…
My computer science classes trialled Tassomai’s new course over the autumn term and really enjoyed having a tailored way to learn and revise the subject. I worked with Tassomai over the summer on their new content and saw their diligent approach to ensuring the course is really beneficial for students.
Trialling new content
My students loved the experience of being part of a trial and feeling involved in some real end-user testing of a product. Having helped with the course’s development, it is equally rewarding for me to see them all getting so much from it and using what they are learning on the app in their lessons.
As with any new product, there were a couple of things that needed tweaking, which is all part of the trial and making sure that the course is as good as possible for its wider release this year. Knowing this, my students have been diligently reading and analysing every question, hoping to find mistakes to flag or corrections that could be made – this has been brilliant for engagement, even though they’ve only found the odd typo or two!
I’ve been in touch with the Tassomai team and they’ve been really receptive to my feedback on the course so far. It’s great to work with a company that really listens to teachers and takes their ideas on board, especially when they are developing a new course like this.
Growing their knowledge
At Harrow Way, the science department has been using Tassomai for homework for a while, so the students are already used to the technology and are in the practice of using it. Their ‘Tassomai Trees’ are already fully developed, but they have watched their computer science trees grow from scratch.
I have set 3-4 Daily Goals as their weekly homework and they are already seeing rapid growth in their TassoTrees! Of course, if they don’t keep up with this set of goals then they are held back at lunchtime until they have finished them, so there’s an added incentive too.
Data for teachers
We are using the computer science courses with our year 10 and 11 students in the run up to their GCSEs, though I plan to introduce it to year 9s soon as well as a good way of getting them engaged with the subject and giving them a core understanding of the basics. As a teacher, I can see where individual students’ trees have grown and see at a glance the areas where they may be struggling.
There’s a whole range of statistics I can look at from my Teacher Dashboard to see how students are getting on – I find it interesting to know how long students have spent on a quiz and who has gone above and beyond their Daily Goal. I’ll often give students a nudge if I can see that they have completed, for example, 2.3 Daily Goals and are just shy of their target for the week, but generally they’re all good at completing it on time.
We haven’t used the platform for long enough to have firm data on the impact it’s having on the students’ grades yet but it’s certainly had a positive effect on many of my students’ engagement. We have used another company in the past to quiz the students but it wasn’t tailored to the exam boards and did not work well for us, so I think Tassomai will definitely be the way forward.
Why Tassomai is good for computer science
Computer science is very theory based and a lot of the exam questions are between 1-4 marks, which means that the content really lends itself to short answer questions, like Tassomai’s format. Students have to know the core facts and then they can learn around the topic in class and where to apply that knowledge for longer questions.
My students are using the ‘review’ section of the app quite a lot and revisiting where they’ve gone wrong on past questions, which I think is a brilliant use of their time and a great way to learn how to improve. I keep asking them ‘what’s your tree telling me?’ and we can review where they have red and orange leaves and how they can improve. I am able to look at their usage and give instant verbal feedback, which isn’t always easy to do for this subject.
It’s also been really helpful for planning interventions and providing my manager with evidence about individual students, so it is part of my assessment criteria for my own performance management as well.
Overall, we are really happy with how the trial of this subject is going so far and can’t wait to see the course rolled out to more schools.
Further reading: