The position
The method
OLOtutor does not promise results because it is digital. The methods it implements were sound before the software, and would remain sound without it. The software is there to make them sustainable in class, where the real constraint is not knowing the method but the precious time of whoever teaches, which has to be protected.
Digital is not there to teach in your place. It is there to lower the cost of applying methods you already know, but could not fit inside your hours. Four concrete examples:
I dieci riferimenti
Every teaching feature of the platform rests on a precise reference. For each one: what it says, what it does in here, where to verify it.
Butterfield and Metcalfe (2001)
A mistake made with confidence, once corrected, is the one you remember best.
Inside OLOtutor: It orders the review queue according to the confidence you declare on each answer.
Butterfield and Metcalfe (2001), Errors committed with high confidence are hypercorrected. Journal of Experimental Psychology: LMC, 27(6).
Eric Mazur, Peer Instruction
You vote, you talk it over with your neighbour, you vote again: peer discussion shifts the answers.
Inside OLOtutor: The two-round vote of the classroom poll.
Mazur, E. (1997), Peer Instruction: A User's Manual. Prentice Hall.
FSRS 4.5
The best moment to review something is just before forgetting it.
Inside OLOtutor: It calculates the return date of every review card.
Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler 4.5, an open and documented algorithm.
Interleaved practice
Alternating different topics costs more effort in the moment; recalling them this way costs effort but leaves far more behind.
Inside OLOtutor: The order in which questions come out: interleaved, not in blocks.
Rohrer, D. and Taylor, K. (2007), The shuffling of mathematics problems improves learning. Instructional Science, 35.
Retrieval practice
Retrieving from memory consolidates more than rereading.
Inside OLOtutor: Training quizzes, excluded from the averages.
Roediger, H. L. and Karpicke, J. D. (2006), Test-enhanced learning. Psychological Science, 17(3).
Flipped lesson
Content is met first; class time is for working on it together.
Inside OLOtutor: Study happens at home on the assigned materials; in class you work on applying it.
Bergmann, J. and Sams, A. (2012), Flip Your Classroom. ISTE.
Analytic rubrics
A judgement can only be discussed if the criteria are written down beforehand.
Inside OLOtutor: Four-level grids for assessing assignments.
Brookhart, S. M. (2013), How to Create and Use Rubrics. ASCD.
Competence frameworks
Competences are described in the words of the official frameworks.
Inside OLOtutor: Six reference frameworks, five with the full official text.
DigComp, LifeComp, GreenComp, RFCDC, EntreComp, CEFR. European Commission and Council of Europe.
Open Badges 2.0, WCAG 2.1 AA
A recognition is worth something if it stays readable outside whoever issued it. An interface is worth something if everyone can use it.
Inside OLOtutor: Badges in an open format and an interface compliant with accessibility criteria.
1EdTech, Open Badges 2.0. W3C, WCAG 2.1, reference of the EN 301 549 standard.
AprilTag, tag36h11 family
A printed card is enough to collect the answers of a whole class.
Inside OLOtutor: Classroom response without devices: the camera reads the cards.
Olson, E. (2011), AprilTag: a robust and flexible visual fiducial system. IEEE ICRA.
Una nota onesta
The digital transposition of an experimental protocol does not automatically inherit the results of the original study. The implementation aims to preserve the active mechanisms documented by the research, and verification happens in the field.