My Learning Spot

Technology Based Augmented Learning for Schools, Colleges and Corporates

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Mylspot Books

Analysis of data is part of our daily lives, irrespective of profession. A school teacher may wish to organise students into study groups based on their marks across subjects. A shop keeper may want to identify which customers to focus on when offering a category of products. A tour operator may require the best train connections for a trip involving multiple destinations. An editor may want to determine if the sentences in a paragraph are well formed. All these questions and many more can be answered by applying concepts from computational thinking to appropriate datasets. This book is aimed at teaching the set of skills required for these kinds of analyses.
This book provides the reader a firm grounding in the concepts underlying computational thinking -- iteration, variables and filtering. It then explains how to express these concepts using flowcharts and pseudocode, and, finally, how to apply this learning to glean useful information from datasets. In the process, the reader will also learn how to maintain and process information using structures like lists and dictionaries, and how to use abstractions like graphs and recursion to navigate complex relationships and hierarchical structures. At the end of this journey, readers should be able to spot the key patterns that occur repeatedly during computation, and apply these patterns to data based problems that they may encounter in their daily lives.

GATE Companion Series

  • Content for GATE CS/IT curated by an expert team including former IIT Professors
  • Questions from the past 20 years GATE CS/IT question papers.
  • Grouped and organised by topics relevant for the GATE exam.
  • Concepts for each topic explained succinctly for easy understanding.
  • Step-wise interactive method of practicing solutions for each problem.
  • Concept-wise feedback to understand areas of strength and weakness.

Phy, Chem, Maths 11th/12th

  • Complete coverage of CBSE portions
  • Questions from past papers (20 years)
  • Each solution constructed by expert to ensure correctness
  • Hints encourage learners to attempt solutions by themselves
School

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Mentored study

  • Lesson plan provided: each unit contains concept review, practice session and a test
  • Based on progress, mentor will assign additional assignments to fix learning gaps
  • Detailed analytics on understanding level for each concept

What Students Think

“Excellent product! Learning to solve problems in this manner gives me the confidence to face any problem in the exam”

“I attempted problems I have always had trouble with using ThETA, and I finally understood how to approach these problems. It was so easy to understand. Moreover, I was so engaged that time just flew while I was learning”

“Very useful app. Content is well planned and evenly spaced. Looking forward to more such courses on ThETA”

“The app is a new one as I have never seen an app like this before – bringing down the entire syllabus in to a single app. The thing which i liked the most about the app is the app size and it’s offline facility, which I think is the one which makes your product unique.”

Student feedback

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Corporate training

  • Activity plan provided, with each unit containing background review, quiz questions and activities
  • Activities consist of programming on servers, clients or embedded hardware platforms
  • Activity links automatically to programming platform on Mylspot or local company work-bench
  • Hints provide step by step guide to carry out the programming activity
  • Detailed analytics to show progress on absolute, relative and chronological progress of proficiency in each competency area

Augmented Learning Workshops using Mylspot

Mylspot in association with partners conducts augmented learning (AL) workshops at schools and colleges to identify and narrow learning gaps of students. Students are provided with a tablet containing specifically curated problems set in a familiar and interesting context - for example the game of cricket. Based on automatic analysis of the student's performance, additional learning items are revealed to each student: more challenging problems for those with high performance, and for those with lower performance, easier problems or problems chosen from those pre-requisites which are identified as areas of weakness.

Augmented Learning

One to One

Technology based 1-to-1 tutoring makes personalised learning accessible to all

Mylspot’s proprietary methodology of curating and presenting learning content has the following unique characteristics:

  • In conventional learning systems. each problem or activity is treated as an indivisible atomic unit to which metadata such as concept categories, and correct and incorrect user response can be tagged. In the Mylspot method, each learning content unit (problem or activity) is broken into steps . Each step corresponds to the use of a specific concept or method needed to solve the problem or perform the activity. It is the step that is tagged with metadata (concept linkage and the Bloom’s taxonomy indicator of the linkage).
  • A learning content unit can also be multi-part , in which a broad problem is described and each of the problem’s facets is explored in a part. Multi-part can also be used to capture different ways to solve the same problem or perform the same activity.
  • Since most learning systems do not delve into the structure of the solution to a problem (or method to perform an activity), they also have no mechanism to hand-hold the learner through the process of discovering the solution. The learner has limited choice – either they can attempt the solution on their own, or else they can look up the entire solution from the answer explanation. In Mylspot, the learner is exposed to the solution gradually through a series of hints . Each hint exposes only one step of the solution to the learner. This way, learners are given an opportunity to work out the remaining part of the solution on their own.
  • The presentation of carefully curated learning content using Mylspot methodology resembles a dialogue between an instructor and a learner in a well structured classroom or 1-1 tuition setting. Given a problem, the teacher asks a leading question and helps the learner construct a step of the solution. The learners are then encouraged to work through the solution themselves.
  • Mylspot methodology has been extensively validated both theoretically and through field experiments. Game theory modeling shows that while learners are reticent about disclosing their learning deficiencies in normal settings, the Mylspot mechanism incentivises learners to voluntarily reveal their weak areas. Learners who are doubtful of their knowledge will opt to lose some marks to gain access to a hint so that they can fully capture the remaining marks. Those who are not so doubtful will opt to do the problem on their own without the use of a hint. This has been empirically validated through extensive experiments carried out with several hundred learners in different settings.
  • Mylspot analytics uses the learning gap information revealed by the use of hints to determine the (absolute, relative and chronological) level of learners in each conceptual area. By picking assignments from only the weak concept groups, Mylspot ensures that the learning gaps are properly fixed in sequence, and hastens the achievement of proficiency in the target area.

Events
  • 27 Feb, 2018: Dean's seminar presentation at IIMC, Kolkata "Can we assess learning outcomes at scale without using exams? Can Game Theory Provide Answers?" examines the issues with high-stakes testing and explores alternative assessment methods using computer adaptive learning. The game theoretic foundations behind the Mylspot methodology is explained in the presentation.

  • 7 Jun, 2018: IITM signs MoU with TN State Government to pilot augmented learning programs at 100 TN State Government schools using Mylspot technology. See signing event photo.

  • 26 July, 2018: Mylspot demo to 100 TN State Goverment schools at the Anna Centenary Library. See photos here and here .

  • 23 Aug, 2018: Presentation at the (Cambridge Mathematics Symposium India) on "Design of Maths Curricula: An external perspective" presents the need for curating content specifically for eliciting feedback and encouraging thinking, based on Mylspot learning method. See presentation .