MindS ark

Teacher Manual

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction to Mindspark .................................................................................................................................... 3

1.1 What is Mindspark?............................................................................................................................................. 3

1.2 What is Adaptive Logic? ...................................................................................................................................... 3

1.3 MS features ......................................................................................................................................................... 4

1.4 IT Requirements .................................................................................................................................................. 4

2. Student Interface .................................................................................................................................................. 6

2.1 How to Login? ...................................................................................................................................................... 6

2.2 Students’ Personalized home page ..................................................................................................................... 7

2.3 Other Features .................................................................................................................................................. 10

3. Teacher Interface ................................................................................................................................................ 13

3.1 Teacher’s Home Page ........................................................................................................................................ 13

3.2 Topic Activation ................................................................................................................................................. 15

3.3 Key reports in MS .............................................................................................................................................. 19

3.3.1 Student wise report ................................................................................................................................... 20

3.3.2 Topic Progress Report ................................................................................................................................ 21

3.3.3 Student trail Report ................................................................................................................................... 23

3.3.4 Common wrong answers (CWA) ................................................................................................................ 24

3.3.5 Student wise topic progress report ........................................................................................................... 26

3.4 SETTINGS OPTION ............................................................................................................................................. 28

4. Best Practices across the country ....................................................................................................................... 30

5. Do I Know Mindspark? ........................................................................................................................................ 31

6. FAQ’s ................................................................................................................................................................... 43

1. INTRODUCTION TO MINDSPARK

1.1 WHAT IS MINDSPARK?

Mindspark is a computer based self-learning programme that helps the child improve his / her skills in

Maths. Through an intelligent program logic, it allows each student to follow a learning path that is based

on their need and at a pace he/she is comfortable with.

An intelligent computer system uses a complex adaptive logic to decide what problem to give a student

next, based on his/her response to the current problems and the problems answered earlier.

In school, the children have to do 2 sessions as per the time table and in home they are suggested to do

atleast 3 sessions. A session is a 30 minutes time tenure .Every day `1 hour of cap is given for children to

work on Mindspark.

1.2 WHAT IS ADAPTIVE LOGIC?

Mindspark has a built-in adaptive logic that allows a student to move at her own pace. This complex logic

determines which level to take the student after each question – based on his /her answer to the current

one, and also taking into account how he/she has answered previous questions on that concept.

Figure 1.1 Adaptive Logic

How does Adaptive logic work?

When a student answers a question correct, like Question number 1, 2, and 3 in the figure 1.1, he is

taken to the next level. When the student does not answer a question correct, for example Question 4,

the system gives the student a similar question consecutively – as question number 5 to confirm if the

student is struggling with this concept. If the student still fails to give the correct answer, the system takes

the student to a lower level without the student‟s knowledge. This helps the child to go back to his actual

level of understanding and work on the basics. When the student starts understanding and answering

correctly, he comes back to the level where he had struggled and also moves to a higher level once he

clears the level.

1.3 MS FEATURES

Available for classes 1 – 10

22 modules in Maths

CBSE; ICSE curricula synchronized

Over 28,000 finely graded questions

Internet based program

Works at the child‟s level

Can be accessed from school and home

1.4 IT REQUIREMENTS

Mindspark is a browser based application and hence does not require any software installation on

the client pc. Mindspark has been tested on Windows-XP, Windows Vista and Linux-Ubuntu

operating system. However Mindspark does not use any operating system specific files.

Mindspark will work fine on IE-8 and above, FF-3.0 and above. Mindspark has not been fully

tested on Google chrome. Mindspark requires a constant internet connection to source the

question content and to record the student responses.

Mindspark needs „JavaScript‟ to be enabled on its browser and uses adobe‟s flash plug-in version

10.x to play animation files. Unless these are set/ installed, Mindspark will not be useable. An

appropriate alert message with the problem is shown to the user when the minimum necessary

installations are not found on the client PC.

Voiceover support is available for the Mindspark content of class 1 & 2. To hear voiceovers,

headphone (preferable- Intex brand) is required.

Games for classes 1-3 once they clear the learning units.

Mindspark can also be run on a thin-client setup with either Windows or Linux as the server OS. It

is recommended to run Mindspark on open source OS like Linux-Ubuntu to save on Microsoft OS

licensing cost.

Mindspark when run in a school environment, it is highly recommended to have a Linux OS

based proxy server, preferably Linux SQUID proxy software. Having a proxy server will reduce

the internet bandwidth usage and help improve the end user experience. This in turn will result in

savings for the clients on limited bandwidth plans.

Recommended Broadband Speed: For a single user environment running Mindspark, a

broadband speed of 128kbps should be sufficient while in a school lab environment, a dedicated

broadband speed of 1 MBPS per 20 computers or 2 MBPS per 40 computers is suggested.

These speed requirements may be lower if running on a leased line. However please note that

the ISP quality will also be an important factor when determining the exact broadband speeds for

a lab environment.

Processor Intel Pentium III or higher

Operating System Windows XP/Linux or higher

Internet Connection 1Mbps speed broadband line

Browser Internet Explorer - 8 or Mozilla Firefox 3.0 or higher version

Flash Player Adobe Flash Player 10.x version

Table 1.1 IT Requirements

2. STUDENT INTERFACE

There are 3 kinds of ids- admin id (for schools purpose which has the overall data of the school),

teacher‟s id (where teachers are mapped their particular classes) and student‟s id (the interface on which

the students work. All of them have to login through the same website address www.mindspark.in/login

2.1 HOW TO LOGIN?

Type the Mindspark website address in your browser. (Preferably Mozilla Firefox 3.0 or Internet explorer 8

which is enabled by Flash Player 10.x) Then type in your user name and password in the screen that

appears.

Figure 2.1, Login Page for both students and teachers

2.2 STUDENTS’ PERSONALIZED HOME PAGE

Figure 2.2 Student’s Personalized Home Page

1. Student name &

Class

6. Total number of Sparkies

collected by the student

8. Practice Sessions allows students to

practice more problems once they have

completed their topic

7. Students can view all their past reports

which includes number of questions, %

correct, Question trail etc

2 & 3. Students can

update/change their details

10. Teachers‟ message

to the Class will appear

here

5. Students can view their topic

progress. The Sparkie will move

towards the flag as the student

completes his topic

9. Students can choose

their Mindspark buddy

from variety of characters

4. List of topics

activated by Teacher

for the students to work

on

Once the student login‟s, the student home page will have the following contents

1. Student name and Class

2. My details

3. Change Password

4. Topics activated by the teacher

5. Topics progress of the child

6. Total sparkies won by the child

7. Reports

8. Practice Sessions

9. Mindspark Buddy

10. Notice Board

When the student clicks on a topic, he gets questions from that particular topic. Sample Question is

shown below. When the student answers the question correctly, he gets a message with a green band

indicating the answer is correct. When the student gives an incorrect answer, a message with a red band

is displayed along with the explanation of the correct answer.

Figure 2.3 Topic selection

Click on the topic to start

answering questions from

the topic.

Figure 2.3 Sample Question

Figure 2.4 Correct Answer indicated with Green band and wrong answer with Red band

2.3 OTHER FEATURES

Some important features in Mindspark:

Challenge questions: The student earns a challenge question after getting 5 questions correct in a row.

It is a higher order question which will test application of The challenge questions appear from class 3

onwards.

Figure 2.5 Challenge Question and Timed Test

Timed test – Timed test is designed to provide a specific type of reinforcement, practice or concept

clarity.Only certain topics have timed tests mapped. The timed test is a worksheet which has to be

completed within a specific time limit by the student. If student is not able to clear a timed test (more than

80% answers correct) then the timed test keeps repeating on alternate days of logins, till the student

clears it. This happens even if student starts with another topic.

Games: This is available only from classes 1 to 3. After 20 minutes of question session, games appear

for the children.

Remedial Questions:

A student comes to a remedial because he has struggled in the regular Mindspark questions on

a particular concept. A remedial is meant to help the kid learn the concept thoroughly by

teaching him to do problems step by step, and then giving him more practice on the concept - till

he gains mastery in it. Even if the student solves few questions correctly, it is necessary for him

to solve more number of problems to gain mastery.

Figure 2.6 Remedial Question

End session report: Usually a session in school is considered for 30 or 40 minutes. After the stipulated

time, an end session report appears. Also, when the child wants to logout, this report appears by clicking

on the End Session tab. This is a tool for self evaluation of the student on how he had performed in the

just completed session.

Figure 2.7 End Session Report

3. TEACHER INTERFACE

The teacher interface is the main channel through which the topics are activated for the students.The

teacher interface also consists of the crux of mindspark which is the data. The data is presented through

various reports in the teacher interface.

3.1 TEACHER’S HOME PAGE

To Login to Teacher interface, type www.mindspark.in/login in your browser. Note this is the same

address as the student‟s website address.

Figure 3.1 Teacher Interface

First the teacher activates the topic through “Activate Topics” tab. Once the students start working on the

topic, the teacher can view various reports through the “Reports” tab. The teacher also has the facility to

change students‟ password/his or own password through the settings tab. Comments with attachments

can also be sent through the settings tab. Teacher can also send a message to her entire class through

the Notice Board.

Default Curriculum

Schools should set a default curriculum through their admin id. This can be done by clicking on Activate

topics and selecting the desired curriculum.

Figure 3.2 changing the default Curriculum

The chosen flow will be set to default for the school.

Figure 3.3 Setting the default Curriculum

3.2 TOPIC ACTIVATION

Step 1: Click on Topic Activation Tab

Step 2: Select the class and Section

To activate a topic for a particular class, select the respective class and section. Usually the topics are

mapped with the syllabus of each class and only those topics appear in the topics list. If more topics are

to be activated “Show all topics” option is selected.

Figure 3.4 Select Class and Section

Step 3: Click on the see/customize tab to view the sub topics and customize the flow.

Despite setting the default flow for the entire school, Mindspark has the facility to customize the

curriculum at class and topic level.

Figure 3.5 Steps to choose the flow for each topic

One can also customize the topic if they want to cover or exclude topics which are not mentioned in the

CBSE or ICSE or Mindspark recommended flow. Once customized, it cannot be changed for the entire

academic year.

Figure 3.6 Syllabus Customization

Once the flow is selected, click on the save button to save the curriculum settings.

Step 4: Tick the check box to activate the topic.

After viewing the sample questions and choosing the curriculum, tick the check box on the left hand side

of the topic and submit. The topic will be activated and the date of activation will appear next to the topic.

Figure 3.7 Topic Activation

To deactivate the topic, uncheck the check box and submit. The date of deactivation will appear in the

fourth column and the topic will no longer be available for students. The minimum criteria to deactivate a

topic is the average class progress should be at least 75%.

Guidelines for teacher before activating /deactivating the topic:

1. Teacher should activate the topic which she/he teaches in the class (Topic synchronization with

class and lab)

2. Teacher checks the TT-Learning units with the sample questions to confirm whether the learning

units mentioned covers the portion of classroom teaching, she then has to decide which “flow”

she wants to select. This should be done one week in advance before the lab session, so that if

there is any content issue/query, support team has enough time to respond.

3. Teacher should be aware that once she select the flow- Mindspark recommended/ ICSE/ CBSE /

Customization and activates the topic it cannot be reversed even if 1 student starts the topic. The

changes in flow will no longer be available for the entire academic year.

4. Once the topic is deactivated and if teacher wants to reactivate again, the provision is available.

5. Teacher should be clear with the customization logic

6. Teacher should keep track of topics activated and its progress.

Tick the check box and submit

to activate the topic

7. Teacher should activate the topic and deactivate the topic with desired progress achieved

(Average progress-75%)

8. It is advisable that the topics activated and flow selected is common with all the sections of same

grade.

9. Teacher should aware that they can download the topic progress in excel sheet for their records.

3.3 KEY REPORTS IN MS

To view reports, click on the report tab on the teacher interface.

Figure 3.8 Types of reports

Types of reports

3.3.1 STUDENT WISE REPORT

This is a date wise report of MS usage by students in a class.

Choose the class and section. To get the live data during a session, the “from date” and “till date” have to

be the same. Then click on generate to view the report for the selected period.

All the underlined fields in the table can be sorted in ascending and descending order. Students

answering very quickly and having high error percentage may be clicking randomly. This is highlighted in

pink.

Figure 3.9 Student wise report

3.3.2 TOPIC PROGRESS REPORT

Topic progress report shows the completion level of a topic of every child in a class. The topic progress

report gives data in minutes unlike student wise report that spells out the time in seconds. This report has

hyperlinks to individual student trail which shows the entire set of questions students have attempted in

this particular topic. Home usage record can be checked with session id and time from the student trail

option.

The average progress in the beginning is the value averaged out on the entire class. Ideally 75% of topic

progress has to be present before the topic is deactivated. The red stars indicate that child has gone to a

lower class level to clear the basics. The green star indicates that child has gone to higher level. The red

line indicates that the child has failed to understand a particular sub topic.

Indicates student gone to a higher class level

Indicates student gone to a lower class level

Indicates learning unit not cleared

Figure 3.9 Topic Progress Report

To View the Topic Progress,

select Class, Section, and Topic

Red Band indicates the student has not

cleared the learning unit which is mentioned in

the last column

3.3.3 STUDENT TRAIL REPORT

A Student trail provides the teacher with all the questions the student has attempted in a particular topic

or session. One can also view all the questions where the student has given wrong answers by clicking

on “show only wrong answers”

Figure 3.10 Student Trail

Type the child‟s name and the

topic to view the student‟s trail

Clicking on “Show only wrong

answers” will show all the

questions answered incorrectly

3.3.4 COMMON WRONG ANSWERS (CWA)

This report is a collection of the misconceptions or concepts which children have failed to understand.

The common wrong answers get updated at the end of every session and teachers are requested to

remediate misconceptions based on this report. Choose the class section and topic to view the CWA for

the particular topic.

The common wrong answers in the particular topic can be helpful to teachers to understand where

exactly the class is struggling. The next day she can revise or clarify the topics of that concept alone and

proceed further. Shown below is a sample common wrong answer.

Figure 3.11 Features of Common wrong Answer

3.3.5 STUDENT WISE TOPIC PROGRESS REPORT

This report gives a snapshot of the child‟s individual performance on all the topics he has attempted.

Again, this report is linked to the student trails from each topic.

Figure 3.12 Student Wise Topic Progress report

Search Question:

The teacher can search for a question which the child has attempted. You need to have the session id

and the question number to search the question.

Topic wise Practice

The teacher also has the facility to view practice session report. Click on the reports tab on the home

page and click on “Topic wise Practice”. Choose class, section, time period and topic for which you want

to view the Topic wise report.

Figure 3.13 Selection of Class, section and Time period

Student Name and the list of topics

with topic progress is listed here

It will display the name of the students along with the number of questions answered by the student in the

practice topic. Clicking on the student name will show the questions attempted by the student in the

practice session.

Figure3.14 Topic wise Practice Report

Timed test Report

The teacher can view the timed test report. This report gives information about the number of students

who attempted the timed test in a particular topic. It also lists the percentage of students who cleared it

and the names of the students who couldn‟t clear them at all.

Figure 3.15 Timed Test Report

Revision session report

The revision session is given to each child at the end of every month to brush up the concepts he / she

has done over the past few weeks of the month. This session can be activated from 25th to 31

st of every

month only.The report is available under the reports section.

3.4 SETTINGS OPTION

Teacher details

Every school is given admin id. Teacher logins should be created using the admin id. To create a

teacher‟s login got to Settings and then Teacher Details.

Click on Teacher

Details to create

Teacher Login

Click on “Add Teacher”

Enter the teacher details and the classes the teacher handles. Click on save details. Firstname.lastname

will be set as the teacher‟s username and password. In the above snap shot if the firstname entered is

aarthi and the last name entered is Laxman, the teacher‟s username will be “aarthi.laxman”. Her

password will also be the same as her username. She can then login in to her account and change the

password.

Reset student password

This option lets the teacher reset the password for the student in case he has login issues. The password

will be reset to default (firstname.lastname) or it can be set to blank. The 1st and 2

nd standard students

don‟t have a password set.

Comment

The teacher can send us a mail from her interface with a feature of attaching screen shots.The sent

comment will be addressed on a priority basis and addressed accordingly.

The above were the features in the Teacher Interface. Using this data we can build case studies to show

how Mindspark helps the child to understand concepts.

4. BEST PRACTICES ACROSS THE COUNTRY

1. Schools have remediation plans, monthly reports as their discussion points in their group staff

meetings

2. “student wise topic progress” printed individually in every student‟s school diary and also send mailers

to parents informing that report has been sent where parents can see the topic progress done by

students in MS and where they need to do more of home session.

3. The Common wrong answers are discussed by teachers for first 10 minutes in the class. Creating

work sheets from CWA and distributing them amongst students for practice. This ensures MS being

taken to classrooms effectively.

4. Home Usage graph (month on month basis) is fixed in the lab‟s notice board indicating the teachers

to look at it and encourage more home sessions.

5. Policy of deactivating topic only after reaching an average progress of 80%. This is a very strict rule

and the teachers who deactivate topics below 75% have to report with the reason.

6. Include a % of MS usage in the assessment reports.

7. Felicitating Mindspark toppers in the assembly/MS Lab.

8. Follow up and compensation of missed sessions

9. MS co-coordinator present in lab on regular basis at new schools. Making MS co-coordinators

address the concern of monthly reports and prepare action plans on it.

10. Extra sessions for slow learners on non-working Saturdays, before school and zero / free periods.

11. Daily Scrum Meeting/stand-up – Morning 8.00 am and EOD (30 -40 minutes)

What I did yesterday?

What I will do today?

Road Blocks/ Issues/ Concerns

12. School has other activities, hence give mindspark as homework BA (Bridging activities) to increase

home usage

13. Zero login tracked on a daily basis and informed to MS school coordinator periodically.

5. DO I KNOW MINDSPARK?

1. How many hours can a child do Mindspark in a day?

2. Internet Explorer 8 and Flash Player 8 x is installed in the MS Lab. Will Mindspark work?

3. Explain the process of topic activation.

4. In the activate topic exercise, what do the hyperlinks indicate?

5. If you choose a customized curriculum, the students will not be taken to a higher/lower class

level in that topic. True or False

6. Which report allows you to see the challenge question attempted by students -

(1) Common wrong answer (2) Topic Progress (3) Student trail

7. In which report will you find the number of time test, number of practice questions and

number of challenge questions attempted by a student?

(1) Student wise (2) Topic progress (3) Topic wise practice

8. Can there be access to the student trail from the topic wise progress report? Yes/ No

9. Can the teacher leave a comment to an individual student? Yes/ No

10. How will you identify the student who has done more attempts in the topic?

(1) Student trail (2) Topic Progress (3) Common wrong answer

11. Name the link(report) that is connected from Topic progress report.

12. Can revision session be activated all through the month?

13. Is it possible to view the timed test questions attempted by students? Yes/No

14. In the monthly revision question wise report, what does the green and red flag indicate?

a. Green flag – Wrong in MS session, right in revision session and Red flag – Wrong in MS

session, wrong in revision session)

b. Green flag - higher level Red flag- lower level

c. Green flag- doing well Red flag- not doing well

15. A student is unable to login and has forgotten password. With which option can the teacher help?

16. Is there a self evaluation tool for the student at the end of each session and in general in MS?

17. How can the common wrong answers be taken to classroom teaching?

6. FAQ’S

1. What is Mindspark?

Ans. Mindspark is a computer based adaptive self-learning programme. It is a learning system that allows

the student to construct her own learning – at a pace she is comfortable with. It is an interactive system,

where the student is not learning passively but learning interactively by answering questions of

progressively increasing complexity levels.

2. How does Mindspark help clear student misconceptions?

Ans. Many students have misconceptions related to basic concepts that they carry forward from an early

age. It is important to identify them and help the student overcome them. Most often, a student does not

try to clear these misconceptions due to a lack of opportunity or fear of embarrassment. Mindspark

questions are designed on the basis of detailed classroom studies and research in student learning, to

specifically target common student errors and misconceptions.

3. Is it possible for a student to learn by only answering questions?

Ans. Mindspark is an adaptive learning program. This means that it will judge the current level of

understanding in a particular topic and ask only those questions that will gradually help the student to

understand the concept she/he was not clear about. Each question, at every step will be 'just beyond' the

current level of understanding, and not very much beyond, as the student should be able to answer it

correctly and learn in the process. This process – of learning through answering questions – has been

found to be effective in other programmes too internationally.

4. Is it in line with the syllabus of the boards?

Ans. Yes, it is in line with the NCERT recommendations as well ICSE, CBSE and various state boards.

5. If a student wants to give a suggestion or points an error, how can you help?

Ans. Above each question there is a link “comment” which the child can click on and enter comments or

asks a question.

6. The student feels the questions he/she is getting are too easy (or too difficult). Why is that?

Ans. Mindspark is an adaptive learning programme. In Mindspark, at the start of a topic, the system gives

some basic questions to see if the fundamentals are clear. And then, since it is an adaptive system, the

difficulty level of questions gradually starts increasing, taking the students to more and more challenging

questions. So the question difficulty level is at a pace that the students are comfortable with. Like this,

every topic, subtopic and concept is covered thoroughly and comprehensively. If a student finds

Mindspark difficult, it might be asking difficult questions to estimate the understanding of the topic; it will

eventually tune the questions appropriate to the individual‟s learning level.

7. For which subjects is Mindspark available?

Ans. Mindspark is currently available only for Maths. However, we are planning to introduce Mindspark

for Science and English in the near future.

8. For which classes is Mindspark appropriate?

Ans. Mindspark has been designed currently for classes 1 through 10.

9. Would using Mindspark help my students get more marks?

Ans. The focus on Mindspark is to help the child learn well, with understanding. We believe that when

children learn the basics with understanding, this has a long term impact on how they perform on those

topics as well as those built upon them. Thus we expect a strong correlation between performance in

school tests and regular practicing on Mindspark. Studies have already indicated that students

understand concepts better by using Mindspark; we will also be conducting studies to establish the

improvement obtained in school marks.

10. Does my child need to do Mindspark every day?

Ans. The recommended mode of use of Mindspark is 30 minutes a day, 4 days a week. The minimum

recommended is 30 minutes per day 2 days a week. Mindspark provides a student regular practice and

we believe that there can be no substitute for that. In some cases, where the student misses practice on

some days, he can spend a little more time on the remaining days.

11. How does a student check previous reports?

Ans. When a student ends a session, she will see a summary report with the questions answered in that

session. There will also be a link above this summary that says “See previous reports”. She can click on

the word “reports” to get a list of reports from 30 previous sessions. She can then click on the numbers in

the serial number column to view any particular report using the date against it.

12. How does a student change the topic?

Ans. If another topic has been activated by the teacher, student can click the “Change Topic”‟ button

available on the question screen, and choose another topic. Please note that the student can only change

to a topic “allowed” by the teacher.

13. If a student has problems with her password, what should she do?

Ans. When logging into Mindspark, if the student gets a message “Username and password do not

match” – then she may be making a mistake while typing the username and password. If she is copying

the password then she could try typing instead. Probably, an extra space may get copied and as a result

the student may be unable to login.

The student can use the “Forgot Password? ” link under the Login details to be reminded of a forgotten

password or reset her password.

14. How does a student change the e-mail id?

Ans. Important: Please note, that a change in the student e-mail would also change the username.

Login to Mindspark

Go to My Details (top menu, first option)

Change Student e-mail as needed

Save and Finish

Navigate “Back” on the right corner of the page.

15. How does a student change the parent’s e-mail id?

Ans. The student will be able to change the parent‟s e-mail id, to suit your preference, by following these

steps –

Login to Mindspark

Go to My Details

Change (Parent‟s e-mail, School, Address as needed)

Save and Finish

Navigate “Back” on the right corner of the page.

16. What are challenge questions? When do they come? When do we see an answer?

Ans. Challenge questions are meant to give students exposure to tougher problems. A student gets two

attempts to answer a challenge question. On the second attempt of a challenge question, a hint may be

given. If the student answers incorrectly in the second attempt, the system will give correct answer.

Not all topics have challenge questions for all class levels. As students continue using Mindspark, they

will get questions, which challenge them and help them to strengthen their understanding!

Note that not getting a challenge questions does not affect student‟s session progress in any way.

17. How should a student avoid typing errors while giving answers?

Ans. Students can use these pointers while answering questions:

The size of the blank given is an indicator of the expected length of the answer. So if the blank

provided is small, avoid typing long sentences.

Try to make sure there are no typing errors or spelling mistakes. Mindspark doesn't accept most

wrong spellings yet.

Avoid commas, full stops, etc. in questions where you need to type in words.

To write fraction, use the back forward / (usually next to the right shift key) to separate the numerator

and denominator. For example half or 1 by 2 can be written as 1/2. Do not use the back slash (\).

Read the question well to indicate units in the answer if necessary.

18. Why are some questions or question types repeated?

Ans. Sometimes some questions or question types are repeated so that some important concepts or

ideas get strengthened. If a student answers a question incorrectly, she will get a similar one to make

sure that she has really understood the concept. Questions are repeated in special conditions when the

system determines that extra practice is needed. The student should therefore attempt these questions

patiently and answer them correctly.

19. Some questions have detailed explanation while others don’t. Why?

Ans. Many of the Mindspark questions have detailed explanations that help understand how those types

of problems are to be solved. Similar questions may have briefer explanations. In the case of challenge

problems, two attempts of the problem are provided instead of explanations so that students can think

about the possible solutions and improve their problem solving skills.

20. What happens after a student has finished all the topics assigned to her?

Ans. Once the student has finished all topics, she has the flexibility of visiting any topic she wishes to

revise or practice it. Please note that data that is aggregated for the progress on every topic is based on

the student's last complete attempt.

21. What happens when there is a promotion of class in Mindspark?

Ans. Mindspark is an adaptive programme, and hence contrary to expectations, there will not be any

drastic change visible when a student is promoted to the next class. Specifically, the topic list being the

same for students from class 1 to10, you will not see any change in the topic selection screen. The

recommendations for each class need to be observed carefully in order to make a topic selection. Based

on the topic selected, questions will automatically adjust themselves to the student's class level and

ability.

When the class change takes place, if the student is currently in the middle of a topic, she will continue

along that topic until she sees questions corresponding to her current class level. This logic holds for all

the topics that she has completed partially (when the change is made). If she keeps answering questions

correctly, the system will not inhibit her from moving to questions of higher classes and more difficulty.

If she is starting a new topic or repeating a topic (after the class change is made), she will be started at a

level appropriate to her current class level. Essentially, it is important to understand that using the

adaptive learning logic the student is not restricted by what class she is in.

22. If the sums in Mindspark have not been taught in school, should my student still continue or

stop at that level?

Ans. Yes! Mindspark is designed as primarily a learning program. The child is free to continue if she is

able to attempt these questions.

23. How do parents know whether their child is doing in Mindspark regularly or not?

Ans. Every week Mindspark will mail out a detailed report to the parents and teachers. These reports will

show how far the child has reached on each topic, the time taken by the child, the success rate and the

number of logins and so on. In addition, it will also provide the teachers with data for the entire class.

24. The program ends a child's session on its own sometimes. Why is this?

Ans. Mindspark is designed to help the child learn but there is a limit after which the rate of learning

decreases very quickly. To take care of these things, Mindspark will log the child out automatically after

every 30 minutes of a session.

25. Is there an ideal browser for using Mindspark?

Ans. Mindspark has been designed primarily for Internet Explorer version 7.0. It will also work on Mozilla

Firefox. We recommend that you use one of these two browsers to relish the Mindspark experience.

26. Why is a child unable to view visuals and animations on some of the questions?

Ans. This is probably because the Flash Player plug-in is not installed on the browser. This is an

additional bit of software that is needed to view the animations and some of the visuals. You can

download the Flash player from this link http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/

27. Why do some of the questions take time to appear?

Ans. Apart from reasons related to internet speed, there may be times when Mindspark is trying to figure

out the next best question to ask. This may involve looking at many past questions the student has

answered and then determine the gaps in understanding that need to be addressed. Sometimes,

questions with animations may take a little more time to appear.

28. What does one do when the image does not load or page blanks out as soon as the submit

button is clicked?

Ans. Students may face this problem due to a slow internet connection. This is usually a temporary

loading problem. We recommend that when a question is taking time to load, students should not hit the

refresh button as that would take them to the reports page. They should wait till they are sure the image

has not loaded (an empty box with a small red- cross mark will be seen, in this case) and only then they

should press the key.

If this also does not work, we recommend that they should log in and try again to see if this ever happens

another time. If the problems persist, we would request the students to clear the browser cache and try

again.

For Internet Explorer 7

From the Tools menu, select “Internet Options”

Choose the General tab

Under browsing history, click Delete

Next to "Temporary Internet Files", click Delete files

Click Close, and then, click OK to exit.

For Firefox 3 for Windows

From the Tools menu, select Clear Private Data, and then check Cache. Click “Clear Private Data Now”.