Epiphany Learning is a new service that is designed to help personalize learning and empower students with a greater educational voice. The application has elements of common learning management systems, but also allows for students to create dynamic, educationally relevant profiles as well. It's a great service, so let's take a closer look!
To begin, Epiphany Learning is free for teachers to try out for 6 months so you can see if it fits your needs. For administrators and districts looking to test the application, you can contact them directly for more information. But, before we get in too deep, let's check out this introductory video from the team:
One of the central elements of Epiphany Learning, and in my mind the most beneficial, is the Learner Profile. This Learner Profile allows for students to create individualized dossiers that showcase their learning styles, learning skills, goals, hobbies, and so much more. It is an absolutely amazing tool to help students gain a voice in the classroom and it's great for bridging the distance between parents, students, and teachers.
The Learner Profile
The Learner Profile can easily help teachers see what types of learning styles a student prefers, how comfortable they feel with certain skills, what they view as their strengths and struggles (and what their parents and teachers view as their strengths and struggles), their hobbies, goals, interests, possible career choices, and so much more. As I mentioned, it's an exceptional way for students to showcase their abilities and interests and it's a practical way for teachers to be able to connect and build better relationships with each of their students.
Student Strengths and Struggles
In addition to all that, Ephiphany Learning also keeps track of student assessment scores, to help make that process more transparent. Since, in general, students have no idea what they score on major assessments (i.e. the MAP tests, the ITED, etc.) or what these scores mean, the learning profile can help to begin a more clear and effective dialogue about these scores.
Another feature I love is that when students are selecting their personal interests and hobbies, they're also able to link to possible careers and find out more information about how their interests align with job opportunities. And one of the upcoming features is that this section will also be linked to the Department of Labor to get even more detailed job ideas. Since students tend to only be exposed to the jobs of their parents and their friends' parents, I think this is a great way to help students think about what other opportunities are out there that are in line with their personal goals and interests.
Finding Out Possible Career Options
As for the goal setting feature, this is another that I'm particularly fond of. Epiphany Learning uses a slightly modified version of the SMART goal system to help students keep track of their long term goals. They allow for students to link to evidence towards the completion of their goals, add personal reflections, and basically help students explore the steps they need to take to accomplish what they want to accomplish.
Setting up SMART Goals
Outside of the Learner Profile, Epiphany Learning also offers the services you would expect from other learning management systems. You can track behavior points, give out and receive assignments, align those assignments to any standards you want to (even in multiple subject areas), keep track of grades and attendance, and pretty much anything else you can think of. Soon, they'll even be able to easily create e-portfolios based on the artifacts that have uploaded to the system.
The Learning Path
Another excellent feature is the dynamic schedule system which allows for schools and teachers using a seminar system (where students have more choice in what lectures, activities, and assignments they complete, so long as they are meeting specific standards) to easily organize and keep track of which students attend which seminar and if they are meeting their learning needs.
There are a ton of other excellent features present in Epiphany Learning, but the ones outlined above are my favorite and what I feel have the most educational impact. For those interested, I highly recommend testing it out and if you do, the team will contact you within a few days to make sure you're navigating the system all right and not running into technical difficulties.
Along with all that, the team has just released an update that allows for dynamic scheduling, so learners can better manage their own time and schedule, it's a pretty great feature.
In short, if you're looking to personalize learning in your classroom and give your students a greater voice, either in a very big way, or a more simple traditional way, Epiphany Learning is an excellent tool for the task. The Learner Profile is an outstanding resource for helping teachers better connect with their students and parents, and can go a long ways towards giving students more power in the classroom. With all that being said...
The opinions expressed in this review are my own.
I was not compensated for writing this review.
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