Teachers tell us why they love MyWorks!

 “I’ve never seen it before in teaching, I think it’s superb.”

Bickley Park School, purchased a subscription to the online version of MyWorks KS3 Geography in January 2011, this is Marcus Cash’s his first full year using MyWorks and he is “very much enjoying it”.

For Marcus, his enthusiasm for MyWorks stems from his students’ positive response to MyWorks: “They like the varied nature of the quizzes. […] Most of them love to get 100%”. This desire to get the best possible result, leads his students to re-take the quizzes independently, something Marcus has encouraged by attaching a reward system to MyWorks: “I say if you get 85% or more you get a plus, 100% two pluses”.

With the online version of MyWorks, Marcus has access to the online mark book which he is now starting to use to provide detailed feedback to students regarding their progress: “For children who are a little bit slower, to demonstrate to them that they are getting there is quite valuable.” In fact, for Marcus, the mark book is one of the most impressive and useful things about MyWorks: “I’ve never seen it before in teaching, I think it’s superb.”

Getting set up on MyWorks was a straight-forward experience for Marcus, and thanks to the customer support he’s received he now feels confident using the more advanced features of MyWorks: “I did have problems transferring from one academic year to another [and] you sorted all that out. [Now] I feel comfortable enough to reconstruct the mark book at the beginning of every academic year”.

Finally, for Marcus the best thing about MyWorks is that it gives his students variety: “The nice thing about MyWorks is that they get taught the same thing from a different angle […], because when you’re using MW you’re learning [and] you’re being taught. […] That is the most powerful aspect of the whole thing.”

"Super quizzes give a very accurate level, which really helps monitor progress"

Hannah Beecham, ICT teacher at The Marches School and Technology College has been using the online version of MyWorks KS3 ICT since January 2011.

For Hannah, the great benefit of MyWorks is that it makes setting and completing homework easier for students and teachers alike: for teachers it’s "easy and quick to allocate homework", whilst students find the quizzes "quick […] to access and complete". As a teacher, the self-marking nature of the quizzes is a "bonus".

From a student-progress perspective, Hannah finds that "super quizzes give a very accurate level, which really helps monitor progress", and by being constantly aware of which students have completed their homework she can easily identify and "speak to students who have not completed homework".

Finally, Hannah’s experience of MyWorks customer service has been very positive: "[you’ve] been really helpful though all the issues we have had, and [have] answered all our questions."

“You can get a very meaningful overview… It’s not a case of setting the homework as an onerous
task – getting it in, chasing it all up and then marking it – it’s done for you, and you’ve got the
feedback.”
 

Dan Crosdale is the Advanced Skills Teacher of Science at All Saints Catholic College in Huddersfield, and
even though the department has only had MyWorks Science for a few months, Dan has already found it has helped him utilize the school’s Moodle VLE: “It’s easy and ready-made,” he commented.

Dan uses MyWorks KS3 Science in a number of different ways, such as a plenary at the end of lessons, or
as whole-class homework exercise for his year 8 groups; “It was really convenient and very easy to set, explain, and to go through.” In the future, he plans to divide his classes into groups, and use MyWorks on laboratory laptops as fun end-of-lesson quizzes.

Not only did Dan find that students enjoyed using MyWorks quizzes for their homework, he also saw other important benefits right away: “From our point of view it was very good because some of the pupils who are quite quiet – who don’t generally get involved in class – were actually coming out with some good marks.”

But what impresses Dan the most is the ability to get quantitative feedback on students’ progress. As MyWorks supports APP, he’s found it very useful to be able to track students’ knowledge of certain topic areas: “You can get a very meaningful overview… It’s not a case of setting the homework as an onerous task – getting it in, chasing it all up and then marking it – it’s done for you, and you’ve got the feedback.”

“Having MyWorks on a computer engages students from the start because they enjoy using the quizzes more than textbooks. The product suits them and they can work at their own pace.”

Russell Bowen is E-Learning Coordinator at Balcarras School in Cheltenham. Russell and his colleagues have been using MyWorks Maths, Science and French in the classroom since December 2009, and have also invested in the resources for ICT, Geography and Business Studies.
 
When Russell began his search for professional assessment resources, his primary motivation was to make life easier for his colleagues, many of whom did not have the time or skills necessary to create their own. MyWorks was the perfect solution for his school, easy to use straight away and engaging for students:

“Having MyWorks on a computer engages students from the start because they enjoy using the quizzes more than textbooks. The product suits them and they can work at their own pace.”

Russell is impressed by how well MyWorks is suited to the differing needs and abilities of his students; he and his colleagues are even more impressed by the active engagement encouraged by the resources: "The recap and study slides make the quizzes more than just summative and move them towards being formative through their responses to the students – they’re more than just tests, they’re actually responsive, which is very valuable in helping students to really understand a topic.”
 

"With MyWorks they have everything analysed. It’s instantaneous – it’s a really good way to do it”

David Hemsley is KS3 Science Coordinator for Calday Grange Grammar School in the Wirral. Even as customers of the MyWorks Science VLE version, they subscribed to MyWorks online because they were impressed by the way the online mark book allowed them to store and monitor students’ marks throughout the year.

Without any software to install, David found set up was quick and easy, so the department was using MyWorks to set online homework for its students in no time: “Teachers have got going without any problems – it’s straightforward – click on a task, click on the kids, and you’re off!”

David uses the topic-based quizzes as homework to support the subjects he covers in class, and then when he views student marks online afterwards he gets a real impression of how well individual students have understood the topic.

He is also impressed by the feedback and recap material that automatically appears if a student answers incorrectly: “That’s really good. I like that because when students hand in normal homework, staff have to read through it and provide written feedback which can only help to improve a few points. But with MyWorks they have everything analysed. It’s instantaneous – it’s a really good way to do it”

He especially likes the dedicated revision material because the animations teach his students what they need to know. Before a recent test he even reminded his students that they could access MyWorks revision on their own to help prepare.

In the future David plans on putting MyWorks into their scheme of work and setting it as designated homework for the whole year. As Calday have three separate departments for Biology, Chemistry and Physics, MyWorks allows them to collate a set of comparable marks for the year group which they can use to accurately judge student progress.
 

"It’s something we can set the girls both at home and at school – it was that element of independence that we really liked.”

Howard Hoare is the Director of E-learning at Millais girls’ school in Horsham. Several departments at the school already used SCORM-compatible versions of Boardworks products in their teaching, so when they heard about MyWorks resources for their Moodle VLE, they gladly welcomed an assessment solution that complemented the Boardworks resources they already owned.

On first trying MyWorks, it was the range and ease of use of the resources that most impressed them: “It’s something we can set the girls both at home and at school – it was that element of independence that we really liked.” They also found that the curriculum coverage more than catered to their needs: “When we first got it we were amazed by the extent of the quizzes across all subject areas.”

Because of the versatility of the different quiz types, Millais use the MyWorks quizzes in class, but what really suits their students is the ability for the quizzes to act as an independent learning tool away from the classroom: “Girls have time to consider their own answers and be involved. By putting these resources on the VLE, the girls can go in independently and find quizzes that they want to use – so it’s there to support their learning.”

As Director of E-learning, Howard is leading the school’s plans to further integrate the school’s VLE into teaching and assessments, and he has really appreciated not only how MyWorks has helped them make better use of their VLE, but also all the time and resources it has saved: “We were always struggling with having the time to create quizzes and things like that – so it was much easier to buy a ready-made resource and load it up directly – it only took a matter of minutes to install MyWorks and that saved us hours of work.”
 

“I really like the fact you can see all the most recent marks, on one screen in front of you – it makes it very easy”

The Cooper School in Oxfordshire have been using MyWorks KS3 Science since the summer of 2010, and already Kate has found MyWorks Science a great way to set and mark homework for two sets of students with different levels and abilities.

Kate uses the flexibility of the MyWorks assessments to build them right into her class teaching – using separate mini quizzes as a starter and plenary, and then setting a related super quiz as a homework activity. Setting homework was easy – Kate just used the helpful drop-down menu to choose topics by quiz or curriculum schema.

Her students have found the quizzes attractive and fun and are certainly happy to sit down with the quizzes on the department’s laptops or their own – “They just find it much easier to pick up the laptop and log in at home rather than worry about finding a pen and the right worksheet.”

Her students also like the fact that when she sets them a quiz for homework, she can send them a personal message reminding them of the deadline, just in case any of them have forgotten their planner.

And of course, as the quizzes are self marking, neither she nor the students needs to worry about keeping tally; they can see marks as soon as they are completed;

“I really like the fact you can see all the most recent marks, on one screen in front of you – it makes it very easy”. Kate can then use the mark book feature to see marks and percentages for each question to get a better idea of how her students performed on each topic.

"It offers both variety in the classroom – which is very important – and free-and-easy homework setting"

Mark Farrar is Vice Principal of Reepham High School & College which currently uses the full suite of MyWorks resources.

As an important ambassador for introducing other schools in the region to virtual learning environments, Reepham High School has spent considerable time and resources on making the most of its new Fronter VLE. This is where MyWorks was able to help: “We wanted something they could put straight into Fronter that’s dead easy to teach from.”

Like many schools however, they’ve found that the process of populating a VLE hugely time consuming: “The idea that teachers can do five hours teaching and then spend hours producing fantastic resources – when they’ve got lessons to prepare, books to mark and stuff like that – just isn’t realistic.”

But with MyWorks, they saw a huge opportunity: "The best thing to make a VLE succeed is to get staff using it with something that’s simple, straightforward, and teachers can benefit from, and straight away our teachers can say 'I can benefit from MyWorks – it saves me work.' That’s the key thing."

Mark also sees the ability for students to access MyWorks resources from any PC a big help in getting students to revise from home. Not only that, but the resources provide a lot of flexibility when planning lessons: "It offers both variety in the classroom – which is very important – and free-and-easy homework setting".

Finally it’s the ease-of-use of MyWorks that best ensures that Reepham teachers can make the most of their VLE: "They know it’ll set a homework task, mark it, and then send the results to them, so there’s a big incentive to use it and it’s been a real catalyst in getting staff using the VLE."

“It’s got good visuals, good graphics, and that keeps their attention and engages them.”

Phil Smith is Head of Maths at Dr Challoner’s High School in Amersham. With 30 years of teaching experience under his belt, Phil is a passionate advocate of using ICT to deepen and extend students’ understanding of maths.

Phil likes the fact that the quizzes aren’t timed as this enables students to work at their own pace, correcting their own work and receiving feedback. And students are really engaged with the variety of the material: “It’s got good visuals, good graphics, and that keeps their attention and engages them.”

But what really impresses Phil is that MyWorks empowers students to take responsibility for their own learning: “In terms of self-assessment, and pupils assessing their own progress, the quizzes give them all the necessary feedback and they can build up their own portfolios … It builds in personal responsibility – that’s a key thing about the product.” 

David O'Flaherty is ICT Coordinator at Hinchley Wood School in Esher, Surrey. He has signed the whole school up with a three-year subscription to the online version of the MyWorks Suite. He says:

"We invested a lot of money over the years in the infrastructure, and what we needed was digital content. So we compared two or three different products, and having received feedback from staff and students, we felt that MyWorks was the resource that was really going to make a difference."

"This is an ICT solution that will certainly save teachers’ time and will be an asset in any school."

Boardworks, creator of MyWorks, has added a formative assessment solution that is hosted online and covers a wide range of subject areas from key stage three to A level. The home page provides a clear indication of the features and benefits of the product throughout excellent videos and descriptions.

On the log in screen there are three help buttons: a quick start guide for students; a quick start guide for teachers; and a MyWorks handbook for teachers. The quick start guides link to an A4 pdf document that has three simple steps to start using the system.

This is excellent for teachers who are non-ICT specialists as within minutes of logging on tasks can be set and allocated to students. If help is required at any stage of the process, there is a team of MyWorks experts on the phone or online via instant messaging.

The first task is to allocate activities from the menu. Teachers who are confident in the use of ICT will find this stage straightforward without the need to consult the help guides. These teachers can then guide and support other teachers to roll out the system.

The key stage three ICT activities are engaging and motivational, with elements such as drag and drop, matching pairs, multiple choice and fill the gaps. Activities can be searched with ease and are categorised by national curriculum levels. If a student is unable to provide an answer, there is an option to revise the topic and direction to revision material.

This is not only an online formative assessment tool, but also a motivator for students to learn topics in an interactive way. It can be used to facilitate extension material at home and the mark book allows teachers to view the results of classes or individuals.

This is an ICT solution that will certainly save teachers’ time and will be an asset in any school.

VERDICT 9/10

"MyWorks KS3 Science should be in every Science teacher's toolkit."

MyWorks KS3 Science should be in every Science teacher’s toolkit. It offers a comprehensive and versatile package at excellent value for departments on a tight budget. It engages students across all levels of ability and allows teachers to provide instant feedback on understanding and progress. Teachers can easily populate their classes straight from a school database, adding or deleting students as the need arises. Individual students can be set a superb variety of differentiated tasks across all KS3 topics. Activities can be accessed either in lessons or later at home. Navigation throughout is clear and simple so training requirements are minimal. Keyword searches and filtering allows the user to find classes and set assignments easily. MyWorks provide full back up and support and help is never far away for teachers and students alike. MyWorks KS3 Science suits all forms of presentation media from interactive whiteboards to handheld devices. This ticks lots of boxes for raising student achievement, from depth of subject knowledge, through challenge and stimulus to clearly evident pedagogy.

"At first glance, the activities are colourful, informative and interesting for the pupils and I was pleasantly surprised by just how engaged all of the pupils were whenever we spent time using the software."

"The content is thorough, gives a good overview of the topics / grammar and the software looks and feels crisp and up-to-date. Pupils’ scores are recorded immediately and are easily accessible for the class teacher. This means that it is very easy to set the group or indeed individuals, specific tasks within the lesson (providing of course that you are in a computer lab – I am fortunate to have i-desks in my classroom) and receive instant feedback. Pupils like this too and many went back and redid certain exercises in order to improve their previous score and subsequent overall average."

"The support and communication from the team at MyWorks has been excellent and most efficient. In my view, the price is very reasonable too and it becomes even more so if you opt for a three year contract and bundle all the languages together. Unlike some software packages, there is only one fee and you can then add as many pupils / classes as you would like."

To read the full review go to: www.boardworks.co.uk/mfl_89/case-studies