YourLabs’ CEO was interviewed for the Arizona Sonora News Service of the UA School of Journalism about the challenges of starting a company. Check out the video below and the full article at: http://arizonasonoranewsservice.com/start-companies/
YourLabs at AzCI Pitch Day
YourLabs CEO, Ravi Budhu, was interviewed by Fox 11 news for the Arizona Center for Innovation Pitch Day. Along with a handful of other companies, Ravi pitched YourLabs and KES to a group of entrepreneurs, state officials, angel investors, and venture capitalists. It was a great experience! Learn more about YourLabs and KES at http://www.yourlabs.com
YourLabs at FETC 2014
The YourLabs team had the pleasure of attending the Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC) 2014. FETC is one of the largest educational conferences in the nation and we met over 400 enthusiastic and bright educators from all over the world.
The National Science Foundation sponsored our booth in the Incubator Pavilion at the 3 day event. We also gave a talk at one of the concurrent sessions about our learning analytics platform called the Knowledge Evaluation System.
We had a blast at FETC and can’t wait for next time!
YourLabs Awarded NSF Grant
The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded YourLabs, LLC, an e-learning software provider and graduate of the Arizona Center for Innovation, a Phase 1 Small Business Innovative Research Grant. Ravi Budhu, the company’s CEO, says “We are very excited to be awarded this prestigious and hard-earned grant. These funds will be used to further develop our Knowledge Evaluation System so we can help further creative educational solutions for 21st Century learners.”
The YourLabs Knowledge Evaluation System (KES) is a complete learning and assessment platform that gathers detailed student feedback for real-time discovery of gaps in student understanding while informing teachers and students of knowledge level and common mistakes being made in the problem solving processes. “Our technology allows teachers to evaluate and improve critical skills in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). By using KES to capture and analyze detailed student feedback in problem solving, teachers can discover how students learn, exactly where mistakes are made, and patterns of learning behavior. This real time data makes instruction more efficient and effective,” says Budhu. KES is also aligned with new Common Core State Standards adopted by multiple states.
Global competition in STEM subjects has seen the US ranking decline. Traditionally, teaching has been centered on practices that are centuries old. However, there has been a slow shift to inherent or discovery learning where the process of getting the right answer must be understood. “KES not only determines whether a student got a problem right or wrong but empowers teachers with data to evaluate critical thinking and problem solving skills — the kind of skills required for 21st careers. KES measures knowledge mastery not just test taking mastery,” says Budhu.
Data collected by KES allows for complex data mining and gives users the means view, analyze, and understand student data from multiple levels — from a single problem, to a classroom, to an entire school, and all the way up to district and state. Budhu adds that “KES will make it easy for education administrators and policy makers to compare performances within the U.S. and abroad, and make curriculum adjustments as necessary.”
Welcome to YourLabs!
The YourLabs team is excited to launch our Knowledge Evaluation System!
The YourLabs Knowledge Evaluation System (KES) is a complete learning platform that gathers detailed student feedback for real-time discovery of gaps in student understanding and identification of what students know and don’t know. It assesses knowledge mastery rather than test taking mastery. Designed to run on any device, KES is both a community driven content repository and customizable diagnostic application that makes teachers more efficient and effective. Using YourLabs’ rich analytics and student feedback data, immediate instructional decisions can be made and students who need the most help identified. KES is aligned with Common Core State Standards and the Technology Guidelines for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. It delivers analytics to evaluate critical thinking, conceptual understanding, procedural skills and fluency, and problem solving ability.
KES analytics empowers teachers to make timely interventions and customize course content to optimize learning. Students can compare their performance with their peers, view detailed solution methodologies, and the real-world concepts associated with classroom activities. This student self-reflection and ability to take immediate corrective action via the content on KES, will help teachers better customize instruction at each step in a problem solving question, in assignments and homework, and ultimately, in the entire classroom.
Data collected by KES also allows for complex data mining and gives users the means to view, understand, and analyze multiple levels of learner data from a single problem, to a classroom, to an entire school, and all the way up to district and state. It provides administrators with data to understand common problem solving errors in their schools and misconceptions of fundamental principles in order to take action to improve instruction, teaching practice, and learning.