Typically when we describe the benefits of Video Reporting Technology — say, here in this blog — we illustrate its utility and appeal. Video reports, we know, are easier to understand and more interesting to view than conventional reports, especially for users from less educated or affluent backgrounds.
But that’s not all.
Video reporting can enable efficiency as well. Understanding why requires a little peek under the Spotlight hood.
Our software platform features an analytics layer that student data passes through, on the way to that data being converted into easy-to-understand text and animation; this output — dynamic spoken and on-screen language and animated images — is all then seamlessly stitched together, or concatenated.
That analytics layer — essentially an extensive series of business rules — poses questions of the data. These questions can be extremely nuanced — e.g., Did the student show they understand how to add fractions with unlike denominators, and if not, where should the parent turn for supporting resources? — but can also be fundamental: Did the student take this test at all?
Every state administers several assessments; individual students may take more than one of these, such as a general English-and-math test and specific end-of-course assessments. The solution is either overwhelming — parents receive a PDF-based report for every test, each one representing a file they must manage and review — or clunky, such as a PDF report with a field that is blank, but for the text Your child did not take this test.
Our platform combines “suppression rules” with its dynamic concatenating capability to deliver the right message with the right content for each student. A report can cover each test a student took — and only those tests — by smoothly telling the “story” behind them, as with an introductory sentence like, “It looks like your student took the following tests, like all 8th graders…” As for those other tests that the student didn’t take? We just leave those out — or even convey a clarifying message, like, “You’ll notice your student didn’t take a Science test. That comes next year, in fifth grade.”
Managing information today can be overwhelming, whether you’re the one producing it, as with a school district representative, or receiving it — like a parent. Spotlight is doing its part to make information manageable — and sometimes, even fun.