Student Achievement

Program Uses Video to Teach Math, Physics

By The Associated Press — February 22, 2010 2 min read
BRIC ARCHIVE
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Leo Shmuylovich knows a lot about how tutoring can take a student from confused to confident.

The Washington University graduate student has worked as a tutor for several test-preparation companies over the years, helping St. Louis-area high school students prepare for college-entrance exams.

In that time, he noticed that similar problems hindered many students working on math and science concepts.

“All the students had the same issues coming up,” he said. “One key step confused everyone.”

Now, Mr. Shmuylovich has launched his own idea for adapting tutoring in the digital age. And Washington University’s Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies has taken notice, awarding him and his business partner its highest prize for student-led entrepreneurial ventures.

Working with his friend, graphic designer Josh Salcman, Mr. Shmuylovich created Virtual Nerd. The tutoring subscription service, found at virtualnerd.com, uses hundreds of online videos similar to those on YouTube to guide students visually through math and physics concepts, such as expressions, polynomials, and factoring a trinomial.

What is Virtual Nerd?

SOURCE: Virtual Nerd

“I’ve had a lot of people who say, ‘I’m not a math person,’ ” Mr. Shmuylovich said. “But I think that everyone is built to do math.”

Options for Students

Mr. Shmuylovich and Mr. Salcman wanted to offer tutoring services that could be tailored to students’ needs without being prohibitively expensive. The service costs about $40 a month, a sum that might buy only an hour or two of face-to-face tutoring time from more-traditional services.

Virtual Nerd is part of a rapidly growing tutoring industry, which is estimated by some measures to exceed $3.4 billion each year. Those who praise the concept say it fits perfectly within the needs of that marketplace.

“I think that students are obviously becoming more virtual in a lot of the things they do,” said Ken Harrington, the managing director of the Skandalaris Center, adding that Virtual Nerd makes the technology friendly.

Digital Directions

This month, Education Week began a special technology feature that will appear in every issue of the newspaper, covering news, trends, and ideas about digital learning and administrative uses of tech tools in schools.

Read the winter issue of Education Week Digital Directions to learn more about digital tools for customizing learning, the role of e-learning in personalizing education, teacher use of whiteboards, Twitter in the classroom, and student perspectives about how schools could use technology more effectively.

The service gives students the option of using its hundreds of videos to zero in on a concept they are struggling with. For example, students may want to use the service to learn to multiply binomials using the “Firsts, Outers, Inners, Lasts,” or foil, method for solving such a problem. One video demonstrates how to use that method.But students who get lost along the way can click on more-basic concepts, such as a video explaining what a binomial is. Typically, every video links to dozens of others, allowing students to customize their own lessons.

The program was tested last year at Chaminade College Preparatory School in St. Louis, where 100 freshmen used it for three weeks before a physics exam.

Sudesh Shah, a freshman-physics teacher, said that the program used her papers and test questions and made tutorials to fit. “They really helped,” she said. Students who used the program before the exam “had a great improvement in their grades. I was quite impressed.”

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the February 24, 2010 edition of Education Week as Need Help With Math? Watch the Virtual Nerd

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Student Achievement Quiz Quiz Yourself: How Much Do You Know About Improving Student Outcomes?
Answer 7 questions about improving student learning outcomes.
Student Achievement Spotlight Spotlight on Student Engagement & Hands-On Learning
This Spotlight will help you learn about reducing student ambivalence towards math, proven strategies for reengaging students, and more.


Student Achievement What the Research Says Next NAEP to Take Deeper Look at Poverty's Connection to Students' Achievement
Researchers say the new measure could yield a more accurate reading of how family income affects students' test scores.
5 min read
Glitch stylized photo of a white woman with a hood over her head.
iStock/Getty
Student Achievement Opinion Traditional Grading May Not Be as Straightforward as It Seems
It can demotivate students, reflect inaccurate learning, and be biased against slower learners, argues an equitable grading advocate.
9 min read
Image shows a multi-tailed arrow hitting the bullseye of a target.
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty