Navigator for Instructors

To what extent can we customize the rubrics and the parameters of the assessments? Eg-can we capture the process of students reading a text as a criterion to pass, selecting a particular image from a set, etc…

Gooru Navigator supports 9 different question types

Multiple Choice
Multiple Answer
Drag & Drop Order
Highlight Text
True or False
Fill in the blank
Multiple Select – Image
Multiple Select – Text
Free Response Question (FRQ)

The questions can include math expressions and equations in the question and answer text. Images can be included in questions and also in the answer options depending on the question type.

Gooru Navigator also supports automatic evaluation of machine gradable questions and provides the ability for content authors to define rubrics based on the evaluation criteria for free response questions and offline tasks such as projects, that cannot be system graded.

What will be/can be the best possible way to track a student’s journey if they switch tenants?

Every learner within the system has a Universal Learner Id that follows the learner life-long across the different stages of learning from K12, Higher Ed, Professional learning irrespective of the tenant they may be in each stage. So, when a learner moves from one organization to another within Gooru Navigator, the learner identity including proficiency in various facets, their portfolio, preferences and all the different attributes of the learner is available and accessible in the new organization.

What does tagging mean? Does it imply the category, framework, standards, etc that we select while creating a collection, assessment, and course?

Tagging means linking content/course to the framework, the respective competency/standards to collections and assessments.

In a course, I can create standalone assessments as well as assessments within collections. So when I set up my tenancy, can I decide, what needs to go into the proficiency test, or does Gooru Navigator pick it up?

As a part of the course building, especially when you want to build a Navigator course, it is advisable to build a course with collections to teach/learn and assessments to test- for each competency or lesson.

But each assessment when built independently can still be added to a course or used elsewhere. So when an assessment is built within a course, but can also be used independently in any other course.

Ideally, when your tenancy is created, we will transfer all your content created to the tenancy so that it’s available to all your users in the tenancy.

How do we select Standards and frameworks for Indian curriculum?

Currently, the India K-12 Frameworks are being placed under the category K12IND.

While Creating a course, select K12IND category and the respective framework from Standards, Framework, and Course. These are Indian K12 frameworks.

In the Navigator Course

A domain becomes a unit, A competency becomes a lesson.
Each lesson or competency will require a collection of learning resources to teach it and an assessment of 5-6 questions to test the understanding.
While building the collection or assessment, they would need to be tagged to the standard/ competency appropriately.

While creating a Collection or Assessment, each piece needs to be tagged to the framework, which will surface the standards/competencies in it and the tagging can happen.

What are the general implementation Steps?

Roster Your Students, Teachers, and Administrators – Currently, we offer onboarding users using single sign-on with IMS Global OneRoster, ClassLink, Gmail, and WS Federation. Google Classroom and Clever Integrations are also coming soon.
Locate Your Learner – We provide flexibility in your learners’ starting locations. Districts can use existing NWEA or other standardized test scores, create a quick diagnostic, allow for teacher input, or use an approximation based on grade level to provide the starting location for their users.
Create or Access District Data Lake (Optional and at additional Costs) – Gooru can integrate with an already established district or school data lake or create one for you. This allows the raw data from a variety of 3rd party tools and apps to be gathered and analyzed in one tool, Mission Control. School districts can opt into this feature at no additional cost.
Training Sessions – We recommend at least two training sessions per year to our districts. Our first training session will give teachers and administrators an overview and understanding of Navigator tools and how to use them. The second training happens two weeks later to address questions, concerns, and explore how to get the most out of Navigator. Please note that due to the current pandemic, all training sessions are remote and conducted over video chat.
Customize Navigator Learning Maps – Math Navigator has a built-in scope and sequence that allows for Navigated Learning, but districts can choose to align our framework to their curriculum needs and standards. Districts can provide Gooru with their custom scope and sequence or choose from a publicly available option.

What is the technology stack of Learning Navigator?

NLC embraces open-source technologies in realizing the Navigator and at a broad-level following are the guiding design principles used:
- Microservices architecture for better scale
- RESTful API with JSON responses to access core features
- Consistent API design for ease of development
- Open-source technologies at all layers of solution
- Queuing over message bus for communication across microservices
- Localization support
- Scalable with minimum footprint
- Deploy not tied to custom infrastructure
Consequently, the choice of technology reflects the same:
- Ubuntu Linux OS is the choice of development and deploy environment
- Java-based microservices implementation
- Postgres database as a primary datastore
- ElasticSearch extensions for search engine
- Postgres based datastore for analytics data
- Kafka as a message bus for data relay across microservices
- AWS hosting environment, leverage at infra-level and not custom services
- Github for source code management
- Atlassian Bamboo for CI/CD
- Atlassian Jira for product backlog, releases, and bug tracking

How often will the openly licensed educational resources be reviewed and refreshed?

One of the many benefits of OER is the ability to update and refresh instructional materials. Instructional teams and classroom teachers that implement new instructional materials convene regularly to review and assess the current resources, add new ones, and remove outdated or ineffective resources. Districts aggregate feedback from classroom teachers throughout the year. All of the information is used to evaluate and refresh resources.

What should application developers (who will extend Navigator and make contributions to core solution — more of engineering team extension) should be prepared for?

Partners should have a good understanding of microservices architecture
Partners should have a good understanding of RESTful API design
Partners should have a good understanding of Java-based implementations
Partners should have a good understanding of front-end implementations based on EmberJS

What should Technology Partners (who will use Navigator in closed environment while extending workflows) should be prepared for?

Partners need to have an understanding of SSO models and should be using an identity provisioning system that can be configured at Navigator for SSO flows.
Partners should be able to share their roster data in OneRoster standards format, or via ClassLink Roster API.
Partners should be able to understand competency-based learning models, bring in the frameworks of interest, and be able to map the frameworks to other similar frameworks.
Partners should be able to identify, create, and curate content relevant to the competency model of interest; and be able to setup content working together with other NLC Partners.
Partners should be able to use shared API that requires an understanding of RESTful services and sync/async mechanisms to extend any workflows in their products to bring Navigator into play.
Partners should be able to push data (either as xAPI or Navigator specific data-in format) via shared API.
Partners should be able to sync data (either LTI outcomes or xAPI or Navigator specific data-out format) to their system via a shared API model.
Partners should be able to design deploy architecture based on guidance from other NLC Partners and should have expertise on AWS services, hosting & infra-manage.