Glossary

What the words in a Pedagrade report mean

The same short definitions you get from the “?” buttons in the app, all in one place.

Reading a report

Score band: Where your 0 to 100 score falls: Early draft (0 to 49), Needs work (50 to 74), Nearly there (75 to 89), or Ready (90 to 100).
Must fix: The most serious problems. They are likely to stop learners meeting an objective, so handle them before anything else.
Worth a look: Real weaknesses that make the course less effective or less clear. Work on them after the Must fix items.
Consider: Optional improvements and judgment calls. Worth a look, and fine to skip when you have a reason.
Alignment: Objectives, content, practice, and assessments all aim at the same skill at the same level, so learners are tested on what they were taught.
Taught: The course presents what the objective requires: an explanation, examples, or a demonstration.
Practiced: Learners try the skill themselves, ideally with feedback, before they are graded on it.
Assessed: A quiz question or graded task checks whether learners can do what the objective states.
Taught, Practiced, Assessed: Each objective should be taught, then practiced, then assessed. A missing step is a gap; a step below the objective's level is marked too.
Bloom's level: How demanding a task is on Bloom's revised taxonomy: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, or Create.
Not tied to an objective: Content or a question that supports none of your stated objectives. Tie it to one, or cut it.

Lesson checks

Aligned: This piece supports its objectives at the intended level, with no major gaps.
Drifting: This piece mostly fits your objectives, but part of it asks for less than the objective or skips a step. Small edits usually fix it.
Off target: This piece teaches or tests something your objectives don't ask for, or at a very different level.
Needs fixes: This piece lines up with your objectives, but some of its quiz questions have problems, such as a wrong answer key.
Quiz check: A check of each quiz question: is the answer key right, are the wrong options plausible, and does anything give the answer away?

Your standard

Your standard: Your team's own checklist or rubric; Pedagrade checks the course against every line, in your words, quoting the course for each answer.
Met: The course meets this line, and the quote under it is the course text that shows it.
Not met: The course falls short of this line; the answer quotes the problem or says what it looked for and didn't find.
Can't tell: The course text doesn't settle this line, so Pedagrade says so instead of guessing and names what would decide it.

Trust and testing

Tested: A check with published accuracy tests (pedagrade.com/accuracy.html). Only tested checks count toward the score.
In testing: A check still being tested and improved. Its findings are suggestions to weigh with your own judgment, and it doesn't count toward the score.
Beta: A newer check that isn't tested yet. Its findings are shown but not scored.
Verify link: Anyone with this link can confirm the report came from Pedagrade and hasn't been changed. It never shows your course.
Since your last review: When you review the same course again, Pedagrade compares the two runs. Reviews vary a little, so some changes may be rewording.

Frameworks

Merrill's First Principles: M. David Merrill's model: learning improves when instruction centers on real problems and moves through activation, demonstration, application, and integration.
Gagné's Nine Events: Robert Gagné's sequence of instruction, from gaining attention and stating objectives through practice, feedback, assessment, and transfer to the job.
Mayer's multimedia principles: Richard Mayer's research-based guidelines for combining words and visuals, such as cutting extra material and putting labels next to the graphic.
Plain language: Text learners understand on first read: short sentences, active voice, acronyms spelled out. Measured by fixed rules from the Federal Plain Language Guidelines.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL): Design that gives every learner more than one way in: more than one way to take in the ideas, to show what they learned, and to stay with it. Based on the UDL Guidelines 3.0 by CAST; Pedagrade is not affiliated with CAST.
Keller's ARCS model: John Keller's model of learner motivation: catch Attention, show Relevance, build Confidence, and leave learners with Satisfaction (Keller, 1987; 2010).
Retrieval practice and spacing: Learners remember more when they pull answers from memory than when they reread, and more again when that practice is spread out over time, with feedback (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006; Dunlosky et al., 2013; Make It Stick, 2014).
Kirkpatrick evaluation readiness: Whether a course is built so it can be evaluated at the four levels of the Kirkpatrick Model (Kirkpatrick, 1959; Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick, 2016): learners' Reaction, their Learning, their Behavior on the job, and the Results it supports. Kirkpatrick is a registered trademark of Kirkpatrick Partners; Pedagrade is not affiliated with them, and this check is not a certification.
Reading grade level: The US school grade a reader needs to follow the text easily (Flesch-Kincaid). Longer sentences and longer words raise it.

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