IOWA CITY, Iowa—ACT, the nonprofit learning, measurement and
navigation organization behind the ACT® test, today announced a
breakthrough software capability designed to guide students to education
resources that address their individual learning needs.
The Recommendations
and Diagnostics (RAD) engine, delivered through an
application programming interface (API), was recently integrated into ACT Academy™, ACT’s
free online learning tool. ACT Academy helps students improve their academic
skills by giving them access to the world’s leading collection of online
learning resources. Each student receives a personalized study plan, based on
ACT Academy’s diagnostics or scores on the ACT test, PreACT® or an official
ACT practice test.
As students take quizzes or tests on ACT Academy, RAD continuously
tracks their mastery of specific academic skills. Then, based upon the results,
it recommends education resources—including lessons, videos, games and other
content—that address key skills the student has not yet mastered. It’s all done
in real time.
RAD was developed by ACTNext™, ACT’s multidisciplinary
innovation unit, using the principles of computational psychometrics (AI-based
algorithms fused with psychometric theory).
“The RAD engine makes it easy for students to identify their own particular academic deficiencies and address them,” said Alina von Davier, senior vice president of ACTNext. “It’s the first of its kind, and it’s a huge step in providing students with personalized learning, one of ACT’s key goals as it transforms into a learning, measurement and navigation organization.”
While ACT Academy is the first online learning platform to integrate
the power of the RAD engine, it will not be the last. ACT envisions many more
potential uses of the capability in the future. RAD can be integrated into any
system that has a set of learning standards underlying its instructional
content and it was developed in such a way to make it adaptable by assessment
and learning programs with ease and efficiency.
For example, in addition to ACT Academy and the ACT®
Holistic Framework® , the RAD engine may interface with
other measurement resources based on skills hierarchies, such as specific state
learning standards, Next Generation Science Standards and the Common Core State
Standards.
ACT is also partnering with Smart Sparrow - a courseware
design platform provider - in order to deliver RAD in an easy-to-configure way
to thousands of courseware design teams worldwide.
Since its launch earlier this year, ACT Academy has helped more
than 170,000 students improve their readiness for college and career for free. The
Academy provides students with access to a huge collection of videos,
interactives and quizzes designed to increase learning and prepare them for
success on the ACT test and in college and career.
With the addition of the RAD engine to ACT Academy, ACT now
provides students with the industry’s leading personalized learning experience.
