Wednesday, March 7, 2012

KP Compass 7 Success Stories: One year of pioneering online mastery


KP Compass has been live for just over a year now.  Born from over ten years of experience creating the next digital textbook for culinary arts as a software solution, KP Compass achieves the company's dream of putting digital content with a next generation mastery system in the palms of the students' hands.  KP Compass is used in over 100 institutions. Here are a few success stories we've gathered from these early pioneers as they learn how to use this new method of reaching students that goes above and beyond the simple e-book/iBook.


Job Corps Centers FTW

At the Potomac Job Corps Center, Chef William "Tee" Danley teaches a different set of youth than your standard public school.  They come in at different times and he has to teach the entire lot of them according to when they entered.  He took KP Compass's Culinary Arts curriculum and aligned the modules to the Job Corps National Standard (called TAR) and created 11 open entry modules. Students are required to complete each module before they can move on to the next.

From day one, the students became engaged with the system.  Chef Tee's first problem was that he didn't have enough computers to satisfy the students in class or in their dorms.  Seeing immediate results from the system, he realized that students were completing the modules at an accelerated rate of up to 200%, which made them more knowledgeable and gave them more time for labs.  He says, "This is the most amazing program I've seen in my entire 20-year teaching career and it has truly transformed my class into what I want it to be, a dynamic and engaging system that grabs my student's attention."

If you have ever been to a Job Corps Center, you know that teaching these kids out of a book is tough. Chef Tee found that using computers and having students compete in the mastery system really drives their spirit of competition.  He makes full use of the built-in leader board because it takes advantage of their competitive natures.  "I've never seen my students this wrapped up in book learning and now they come to class understanding what they are doing rather than just going through the motions.  The best part is the access to the videos. I rarely need to show them what to do. They already know it!"

Chef Tee has had incredible success with KP Compass.  Feel free to contact me and I will share his contact information with you so you can hear it for yourself.

Charter School Success

Chef Aaron Link teaches at Vista Academy, a new charter school in Denver, Colorado.  When Aaron first called wanting some online videos, he found out about KP Compass and how it goes beyond just offering videos with a few simple quiz questions online.  He immediately noticed how the leveling system fits the model at his school by assessing levels of knowledge rather than assigning letter grades. He teaches youth on a variety of levels and loves how he can customize the content, even individualizing the instruction for a single student to help him/her through the class.  This is the level of care and attention to detail that makes Aaron's program one of the finest in the region.

Watch Aaron talk about his experience in this short 3 minute video.

http://youtu.be/r6qKTP38nM4


High Schools with Video Testimonials

NW Career and Technical Academy is nestled in the far outskirts of Clark County in Las Vegas, Nevada.  This multi-million dollar career center was built with technology in mind.  When they adopted the Sous Chef, it became an incredible in-class resource for the students and instructors.  Clark County had visions of going one-to-one using mobile technology, and KP Compass gave them the opportunity to put the Sous Chef content and videos directly in the hands of the students.

But don't take my word for it.  Watch these videos and hear what they have to say.

Michael Pitman, Dept Chair http://youtu.be/bXfEwt57Bkc

Shannon Kelly-Smith, Freshmen and Sophomores http://youtu.be/3oGijSsJF30

Brenda Hitchins, Baking and Pastry http://youtu.be/bQ0q75Jhp-k

And from the students themselves! http://youtu.be/fVI4XLc8w6M

Overcoming the Computer Hurdle

Chef Henry, from Roanoke Public Schools, admits he doesn't use computers much at all and the prospect of having to use an online system would not be his first choice for an instructional aid.  Chef Henry worked at CIA for 20 years and just entered into education in the past year.  He wanted a way to engage his students, which textbooks weren't doing, so he turned to KP Compass.

Despite the slight learning curve, Chef Henry learned how to use the system and got his students online in less than a week.  He saw immediate changes in student engagement with the content and got valuable feedback from the mastery system.  He admits that the online system will change the way he teaches, and he is willing to make these adjustments because of the positive student response.

Jack on Leveling and Aprons

Jack Aldrich has always had a dynamic class at Huot Technical Center.  Jack deals with many youths who are unmotivated in the school system.  He devised a way to encourage student participation and drive competition with a system of colored aprons that shows what "level" each student is in the class.  Students get higher level aprons by completing paper quizzes.  If they do poorly on a quiz, they will have the opportunity take it again to gain that level of achievement.  In their final year, if they make the grade they will receive their very own chef's coat.

When Jack saw KP Compass' leveling system, he was amazed by how similar it was to his own classroom motivational practices. Using KP's Automatic Remediation and Mastery System, Jack no longer needs to print out paper tests and manually enter scores into a spreadsheet.  The system not only allows for students to take quizzes online but because of the mastery system, they rarely get the same questions in a row.  The students have embraced this new format and have become even more engaged in his class.  Jack takes full advantage of KP ARMS and the leader board.


Michael Riggs at a College

Chef Michael Riggs, at Bowling Green Technical College in Kentucky, has always been a pioneer in instructional technology.  He started implementing digital resources using the Sous Chef back in 2004, and technology is an integral part of his growing program.  When KP Compass became available in the fall of 2011, he first tested the new system with one class to see how his students would react to online instead of using computers in the classroom.  The results have been very positive.

Chef Riggs customized the modules to his course and had his students purchase KP Compass instead of a textbook for use at home.  He picked out the learning modules related to his Garde Manger class and further customized them with additional information.  When the students log in, they know what they are expected to learn for the semester and they test themselves in the mastery system prior to coming to class.  He made it a mandatory exercise to achieve at least Apprentice level to gain class participation for the work done.  He has also seen improvements in the students' research and writing skills by having the digital assets online.  As a result, his students now come to class ready to discuss topics and perform skills.  KP Compass has really maximized his time in the kitchen and labs.

Now going into the Spring semester, he has fully implemented KP Compass in all five of his college courses.  Next year, they are looking at ways to implement the Kindle Fire or similar tablets to completely eliminate textbooks in his program.

Rick Teaching Teachers

Chef Rick Martinez teaches a different set of students.  At Middle Tennessee University he is in charge of getting teachers ready to teach culinary arts through two semester-long courses.  His students are all adult learners who intend to become educators.  He has to teach a lot of information in a very short time frame.  He found KP Compass and loved how the content could be molded to fit his two classes.  Once the course was customized, his students purchased the "books" from KP and used them to study before meeting once a week.

As the semester progressed, Rick noticed that his students were more engaged and ready to go into labs, saving him a lot of instructional time.  The mastery system allows him to check on their progress through the learning modules and see how prepared they are for the final exam.  Since the class is still in action, we will ask at the end of the semester if they preferred KP Compass over the textbook / lecture style of teaching.