Introducing Student Weekly Goals

We’re thrilled to announce an exciting addition to DreamBox for students in grades 3-8.  By now your students have noticed our new Student Weekly Goals feature.  This new feature motivates students to complete the target of 5 lessons each week by communicating the goal and celebrating when they achieve their goal with congratulatory animations.  Like before, students will see their weekly completed lessons counted in a popout tab on the right side of their screen. But now we’ve added the target of 5 lessons and communicate to students that the weekly tally begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday.

We set this target of 5 lessons per week based on a multi-year analysis of student growth and performance using millions of anonymized student achievement data points from both within DreamBox as well as on external tests.  Our research scientists dug deep into anonymized data and independent efficacy studies to create this goal that optimizes learning outcomes for students.  The analysis was clear: that when students complete five or more DreamBox lessons per week, they experience the strongest improvement gains in both mathematics comprehension and testing results – over 50% more growth on external benchmark and state tests.

These findings were consistent during the beta testing of this feature; introduction of Student Weekly Goals contributed to an impressive 10% improvement in lesson completion. By embedding this target directly in the student experience, it’s easier for students to track their own progress and for teachers to help motivate their students to make the most progress in their math learning. Teachers who wish to set goals higher than 5 lessons per week can continue to set and communicate that goals for students in their classroom as they have in the past. At this time, teachers cannot change the weekly goal that students see within DreamBox.

Here’s how it works:

When a student logs in, DreamBox will display the popout from the right-hand side that indicates the student’s weekly goal.  The goal is in effect from Sunday to Saturday, covering the full school week.  Students can minimize the slide or make it appear at any time by clicking “my lessons” or the tab on the right side of the screen.

As students complete lessons, the counter will update to show progress.

Once a student reaches their goal of 5 lessons completed, they will be congratulated with a celebration animation that indicates the goal has been reached for the week.

When a student completes more than 5 lessons, they will also receive congratulatory notifications for doubling (10 lessons) or tripling (15 lessons) their goal.  Students can complete more than 15 lessons in a  week, but they won’t receive goal notifications or continued celebrations after 15 lessons completed. Just as our research has shown that 5 or more lessons per week results in significant learning gains, we have also found that there is no benefit to completing more than 15 lessons. Students can complete more than 15 lessons in a  week, but they won’t receive goal notifications or a continued celebrations after 15 lessons completed. Just as our research has shown that 5 or more lessons per week results in significant learning gains, we have also found that there is no benefit to completing more than 15 lessons.

We’re extremely excited to see the impact of this new feature as it motivates students to achieve more in math.  If you want to share your experiences or have any questions or suggestions for the feature, please join the discussion on DreamBox Nation.