An In-Depth Introduction

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What does Academist do?

Academist is a Chrome Extension, which simply means it is downloadable in Chrome and is meant to enhance some aspect of using the internet. Academist has one job, which is to list relevant Khan Academy resources below each assignment on a student’s School Loop page. Academist does its best to find relevant study resources based on keywords in the assignment title. It also knows the contents of many textbooks used in CUSD, so it can search for resources using the titles of textbook units, chapters, and chapter sections. These can be specified explicitly or via page numbers in the assignment title. Academist is relatively flexible and typically works with many assignments for math and science classes, without the need for teachers to alter the way they post to School Loop.

As with Google search, not everything listed is exactly what you are looking for. Academist is not meant to tell students what they should look at to learn a topic, but rather it is simply there to suggest ways to review if a student wants to. If the suggestions don’t look relevant, no action required. The point is, with Khan Academy only a click away on a student’s School Loop page, which they no doubt visit often, they are more likely to reinforce their understanding of a topic with different learning approaches.

Finally, because of Academist’s primary shortcoming (not always finding relevant resources), I think of this project as an experiment. You may give it a try (i.e. tell your students/peers about it), but if it doesn’t work out, then no harm done. Nevertheless, I would love for Academist to be able to help more students.

The Search Process

Download

Academist is easily downloaded by searching Google for the Chrome Web Store, then searching the store for Academist. It is also under “For carlsbadusd.net” in the Chrome Web Store. Even easier is just using this link.

Examples

Live Example

Due: Arrhenius/Activation Energy Packet

AP Chemistry

Due: 5/31/17

Watch Using the Arrhenius equation on Khan AcademyWatch Arrhenius equation on Khan Academy Watch Forms of the Arrhenius equation on Khan Academy Study Arrhenius equation and reaction mechanisms on Khan Academy

Screenshots

Tips on how to title assignments

Basic Tips

• Academist first looks for chapter sections, then page numbers, then chapter numbers, then units. If nothing is found, it searches by the assignment title itself.

• Only the assignment title is used, not the description.

• When searching using the assignment title, Academist is able to filter out many irrelevant words. For example, “Multiplication worksheet due” becomes “Multiplication.” However, any non-topic-related words in the assignment that are NOT common school vernacular will prevent Academist from finding relevant results.

• Nothing is case-sensitive.

• Avoid shorthand when writing the name of a topic.

• Anything in parenthesis is ignored.

Advanced Tips: Only for the truly meticulous

• Page numbers: Anything reasonable will work.
• “pg 100 ...”
• “p. 100 ...”
• “p. 100 ...”
• “pgs 100 & 200 ...”
• “p’s 100 and 200”
• “pg 100, pg 200”
• “pg’s 100-105”
• “pg. 100 through 105”
• This will NOT work correctly: “pgs 100, 200”
• Commas might mean that problem numbers are about to be listed (“pg 100, 1-20”), so Academist ignores them to avoid getting confused. In this case, page 100 is identified, but not page 200.
• Units and chapters
• Works the same as page numbers
• Ex: “Read chapters 1&2”
• Ex: “Read chs 1&2”
• Ex: “Read modules 1&2”
• This will NOT work: "chapter one"
• Chapter sections
• Ex: “Chapter 1 section 2”
• Simply writing “1.2” will work the same as above
• “1-2” will work IF no other page or chapter numbers are specified
• This is to avoid falsely detecting cases like “pg 100 #1-2”
• “Read 1.2 - 1.4” and “Read 1.2 through 1.4” will only find 1.2 and 1.4, NOT 1.3
• “Read chapter 1 sections 2-4” will work as expected
• Topic keyword search
• Avoid shorthand
• Combining topics and page/chapter numbers is a good idea
• “Read chapter 1: multiplication” will work fine, because if there are no results for the title of chapter 1, Academist knows to filter out the words “read” and “chapter” when it does a keyword search.