School Program Implementation Start-Up Summary

Phase I

By BrainSkills LLC. Reprinted with permission.

Introduction

The BrainSkills Online Brain Training Program
Below is a summary of program implementation requirements and steps.
 

Computer Requirements

• Broadband internet connection
• Headphones
• Ability to run Flash 9 Player (version 9.0.28 or later). Will need to download before you can view the exercises. Select Adobe and download the free Flash Player.
• Ideally, computers will have latest version of Internet Explorer (IE7) or FireFox browser. We have found that in general, FireFox is more efficient.

Gibson Cognitive Skills Test

• Series of 7 short tests that measure a total of 11 cognitive skills that are combined to report seven core cognitive skills.
• The assessment is a screening tool that provides insights into each student’s cognitive skill strengths and weaknesses. It serves as a baseline to measure student progress.
• It takes about 35–40 minutes to complete all 7 tests.
• The test is currently being standardized. Results won’t be available until summer 2008.
• Once an account is set up, log in at www.gcstest.com to register and view students.
• Each school will need to appoint a program manager to register each participating student through the administrative portal. See separate tutorial on how to use the administrative portal.

BrainSkills Exercises

• Basic Module—includes eight different exercises which help to strengthen processing speed, visual comprehension, attention, memory, logic, reasoning and other foundational cognitive skills.
• A second module focused on auditory/phonemic awareness cognitive skills is scheduled to be ready for the fall semester 2008.
• Each exercise has multiple levels with increasing complexity and multiple speeds.
• Students need to do the exercises one hour per day, five days per week for a minimum of twelve weeks up to one semester per module. Focus and diligence are required to gain the full benefits.
• Beginning in the fall 2008, if a student completes the basic module before the end of the semester, they can proceed to the auditory/phonemic awareness module in the same semester.
• Students can also work from home if they have a computer and internet access.
• Students login for exercises at www.brainskills.com; use the same login information from the test.
• To preview the exercises, administrators can log in, user ID = admin and password = admin0, to view all the levels and speeds. They can select any level or speed to experience the range of challenges.
• When students log in to work on the exercises, they won’t see the full matrix of levels and speeds that administrators view. They will only see a menu from which they can select an exercise. They will be automatically advanced through the levels and speeds based upon performance. The program will automatically start a student where they left off from the previous session.
• Ideally students will spend one hour per day, five days per week on the exercises for a semester. The program can be broken up into two 30 minute sessions if needed. Students can also work from home if they have access. Currently, the game rotation logic is set so that after six minutes, the next time a student finishes a round, it will take them back to the menu. That exercise will be disabled and the student has to select another exercise. Once a student has completed each exercise, the cycle will repeat. In the future, the logic may be refined so that students spend more time on those exercises where they have not advanced as far as on other exercises. If a student completes all the levels in a given exercise, that exercise will be disabled from the rotation.
• The advancement logic will be refined throughout the spring semester 2008 to guide students through the exercises to ensure they spend enough time on each exercise.
• Administrators can log into their account at www.gcstest.com any time to view test results and individual student progress on the exercises.
• To view a tutorial on the exercises select Index of BrainSkills.

The Meantime Volume 7 Number 3