Instructor Introduction to the Exercise Program

By BrainSkills LLC. Reprinted with permission.

Introduction

The BrainSkills Online Brain Training Program is based upon the successful LearningRx clinical cognitive skill training program. The underlying program has helped over 25,000 students significantly improve their learning capacity. Cognitive training can make students smarter. It is proven!

Computer Requirements

• Broadband internet connection
• Headphones
• Ability to run Flash 9 Player (free download from Adobe). Will need to download before you can view the exercises. Select Adobe and download the 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.

Getting Started

• School needs to set up an account with Brain- Skills and designate one or more administrators or teacher supervisors to register and manage students.
• With an administrator account, participating teachers can review the exercises and register students for the Gibson Cognitive Skills Test (GCST). Details on the registration process are available in another document.
• Students need to take the GCST first to establish a baseline for comparison to gauge  i improvement. To take the test students login at The Gibson Test of brain skills.
• Teachers can go to BrainSkills to login using their admin login credentials.
• This will provide the teacher with access to jump to any level or speed for any exercise to see the full range of the exercises. When students login, they are guided through the exercises and don’t have he option to jump to any level.
• Once students have completed the GCST, they can begin the exercises. Students use the same test login credentials, but login at BrainSkills.
• Instructor should introduce the exercise to the students on the first day
  ♦ Explain rationale and basis for doing the exercises
  ♦ Define process and timetable
  ♦ Introduce each of the exercises briefly

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. An introduction to phonemic awareness will be added by May 2008.
• 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.
  ♦ Each new level adds new material, so students need to review the instructions to    understand the change.
  ♦ Each new speed is the same material, but it just goes faster.
  ♦ The goal is to pass a level at the highest speed possible.
  ♦ A score of 90% or better is required to pass a round.
  ♦ Students will be automatically advanced to higher speeds and levels based upon performance.
  ♦ Students may become stuck on a given speed/ level. There is still value in practicing even if a student does not pass at that moment. It is important that students not become frustrated once they reach more challenging levels. Once sufficient practice has been achieved at that level, the student will be passed to the next level at a slower speed if they passed at least one speed on that level.
• 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. Students can spend more time on a given day in another session, but it is probably good not to do more than one hour at a time.
• 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.
• 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.
• During the one-hour daily session, the automatic game rotation logic is set so that most students should be able to complete a cycle working on all exercises at least once. The goal is to advance as many levels as possible during each session, but diligent practice, even if no levels are advanced in a particular session, is still valuable.
• 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 the following link: Index of BrainSkills.

The Meantime Volume 7 Number 3