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 1: Who are you?
2: What does this cost?
3: When will the Public BETA open and how long will it last?
4: What will happen then?
5: What will the final product cost?
6: How can I participate in the Public BETA?
7: Is there a plan to reward beta testers when the product goes to release?
8: How is EduCAD-ST different than...?
9: Does EduCAD-ST align with grade levels?
10: What is the difference between the Public BETA and the Release product?
11: Will you retain a Beta group during the release?
12: What about privacy issues?
- Who are you?
- EduCAD Learning Solutions, Inc. is a company that was founded to develop the applications based on the patent for Computer Adaptive Diagnostics. You can read all about them using the link at the top of this page.
SocraticTutor.com is their web based interface to the application developed leveraging the patent.
- What does this cost?
- During the Public BETA there will be no charge for using the application. You will be asked to provide feedback occasionally.
- When will the Public BETA open and how long will it last?
- The Public BETA will open in January 2008. It will run until we have 250,000 student users active or until the end of June 2008.
- What will happen then?
- The application will be updated to the latest version and then will be released as a product that can be purchased.
- What will the final product cost?
- We are looking at a number of various business models to see which will work best for the user community. At this time we have no idea what the final cost will be for access to the product. We do know that our primary goal is to ensure that the product is affordable by students that are in the inner city, so we will be seeking to ensure that we come up with a model that ensures that.
- How can I participate in the Public BETA?
- By signing up on the Public BETA page you are indicating that you wish to participate in the Public BETA.
You will get an e-mail confirming completed signup immediatly after you register. On or about Jan 15, 2008 we will be sending invites for people to complete the registration of the student accounts. This e-mail will contain a link that will permit you to create the accounts. Once the accounts have been created an e-mail will be sent with the Parent/Teacher login and password, and another e-mail will be sent for each unique student account. Please be aware that part of the Public BETA is testing the load on our servers so we will be ramping up the user community involved in the Public BETA in such a way as to not overload our server capacity. Thus, it may take some time between your request and when access will be granted.
- Is there a plan to reward beta testers when the product goes to release?
- Yes, we will have a plan to reward early adopters.
- How is EduCAD-ST different than...?
- EduCAD-ST is built on patented technology. In addition, although it is web-based it has been designed to act like an application. These two things ensure that the product, and how it works, will be far different than any other experience you may have had with web-based learning solutions.
- Does EduCAD-ST align with grade levels?
- There is no attempt made at assigning grade levels to the diagnostic components. This is due to the way that EduCAD-ST works through a diagnostic component.
For example, in Fractions - Addition and Subtraction, in schools a student may be exposed to the simplest forms in fourth or fifth grade. As they progress through the grades they will then come back to the familiar concepts and expand upon them. So at first they will be presented with proper fractions and no borrowing at the earliest levels, and then they will be presented with more complex concepts like borrowing in subtraction or improper fractions as they move up in grade level.
EduCAD-ST doesn't separate the complexity by grade level. When a student goes into the diagnostic module for Fractions - Addition and Subtraction they are automatically presented more complex fractions as they are able to successfully complete simpler forms. Thus a student using EduCAD-ST and completing the Fractions - Addition and Subtraction diagnostic will have completed a course of study that stretches from grade four through grade six.
- What is the difference between the Public BETA and the Release product?
- During the Public BETA we will be rolling out upgrades to the application about once a month. These upgrades my be visible, like new diagnostic areas, and less visible, like load balancing on the servers that run the application. We may be trying out new features within the application on the Public BETA that may or may not make it into the final product release based on user feedback. We will be offering different users different portions of the application based on their levels of use, so we can gather feedback on contemplated features and function as well as user interface design issues.
Once we have completed the Public BETA and have released the product, we do plan on adding enhancements and continuing to upgrade both features and functionality, but the time between upgrades will be in longer steps between upgrades of the release. So, while we may make changes and enhancements throughout the Public BETA as we can add features and functionality, enhancements on the actual running application will be done no more than once per quarter to once very six months.
- Will you retain a Beta group during the release?
- Yes. Based on usage we plan on offering invitations to select users of the product that will allow them to run versions of the pre-release.
- What about privacy issues?
- SocraticTutor.com only collects minimal demographic and psychographic data that is used in our reporting and to refine the experience for the user. We do not require, nor want, personal information.
We will ask only for the students age, grade, country and province/state and city [outside the US], zipcode [in countries where they use them] and the school type (pubic/private, etc). Optionally the student first and last name may be entered by the person making the registration.
You will be asked for an email address for registration and initially a password will be generated for you that you can change.
Please take the time to read the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use for Socratic Tutor (and EduCAD-ST).
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