Master the Math

Business Case

There are a number of challenges facing educators and students today and with the increasing access to devices that support mobile learning rapidly, increasing these tools can be used to assist in the education process. 44 percent of K-12 students reported have access to a smartphone. The fastest growing segment for new smartphone purchases are for 13-17 year olds. 62 percent of students stated that they prefer mobile devices over laptops for learning.

Solution

Virginia middle school students have a new tool to help them prepare for the Standards of Learning (SOL) exams. Created by Virginia Interactive (VI) for the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) and launched in September 2011, Master the Math is a mobile educational game that focuses on the mathematics curriculum from grades three through eight. Master the Math can be used on Apple iPods, iPhones and iPads and is available for free from the iTunes App Store.

This mobile application allows VDOE to provide a new resource for teachers to use as they explore the potential of smart phones and other wireless technologies to expand learning beyond the classroom and school day.

In 2012, the Center for Digital Education recognized VDOE’s Master the Math Mobile Application as the first place winner in the 2012 Digital Education Achievement Awards (DEAA) and Best of the Web Awards (BOW) Digital Application/Project category. DEAA recognizes outstanding contributions at the application, intranet, and infrastructure level, all to the benefit and quality of online education for students, teachers and the community.

Tools

• iOS4 Apple SDK platform
• Universal application written within the XCode environment using Objective C
• SOL exam data was originally in a PDF format and was pulled into different XML files to easily conform to the structure of an iOS application.

Results

• Master the Math made Apple's 'Education-Staff Favorites' two weeks running: Oct 28-Nov 6 and Nov 8-Nov 17, 2011. During this time, daily downloads went from 100 per day to 500+ per day
• To date, Master the Math has been downloaded more than 37,026 (apple) times and has been averaging over 1,000 downloads per day during peak SOL testing times
• Currently receiving a rating of five stars out of five in the iTunes App Store
• Recent comments include: 
  • “Dear App Store:  This app is addicting!  Thanks a lot!”
  • “Yay!  I just love it!”