This guide is intended to help customers run lessons with the latest version of our software.

Table of Contents

Lesson Modes:

The following lesson modes are supported in the latest iteration of our robots4autism product.

• Traditional: Two iPad’s and an R25 robot are utilized.

• Web Companion: The facilitator or student uses a web browser in lieu of one of the iPad’s. See How-to Use the RoboKind Web Companion for details.

• Group lessons: The teacher/therapist will use an iPad or web companion session, and the students will participate together using a shared robot and iPad tablet, with a representative of the group or the teacher pressing the buttons on behalf of the students.

• Remote lessons: Remote lessons are possible where the student is at a remote location from the teacher or therapist; the RoboKind companion app (both iPad and web companion versions) support this process. it is expected that there would be a video conference of some fashion in progress (Zoom, Chime, WebEx, etc.) to communicate with the student during the session, and there would generally need to be an adult at the remote location to assist with the initial pairing process.

Pre-Requisites:

• Any iPad’s should be on iOS version 11.0 or later, and should have the 4.1 version of RoboKind Companion installed.

• When opening the companion app on any iPad’s, the version in the lower right hand corner should read PROD 232 or later.

• If teaching with a physical robot - The robot must be powered on, connected to the network, and be able to test the network successfully. https://robokind.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CSSD/pages/622854227

• Any robots should be on version 3.4.0 or later. https://robokind.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CSSD/pages/1651769371

• The teacher or therapist must have received an RK Central account and be able to log in to central.robokind.com and see their assigned classroom and students. Most organizations will have a point of contact for RoboKind services that coordinates classrooms, teachers, and students.

• Ensure that all devices are powered on.

  1. The student device should be on the WAIT screen. If you get prompted for a pairing code, then see the instructions at https://robokind.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CSSD/pages/2385281142.

  2. The Facilitator device should be on the session setup screen.

  3. The robot should be powered on (allow about 4 minutes for full readiness).

Starting a Lesson - Session Setup

Open

1. From the facilitator device, select the student device to connect to.

   Open

   

2. On the right hand side, select the robot or Avatar. If you select the virtual avatar option, both the facilitator and the student will see a friendly virtual version of Milo teaching each lesson.

Starting a Lesson - Select Classroom and Student:

1. To start an individual lesson, select the classroom and student who will be taking the lesson, and press Start.

2. To start a group lesson, select the classroom and students who will be taking the lesson, and press Start Group.

Starting a Lesson - Selecting a Lesson or Activity

In RoboKind Companion 4.0, we have substantially enhanced the ability to select lessons or activities best suited to students.

• Using the new Up Next section:

  • Repeat last lesson allows teachers to re-start the last run lesson as appropriate.

  • New! Extension Activities allows teachers to view extension activities for the last completed lesson, even if the lesson was completed in a previous session.

  • Recommended Lessons allows teachers to run the next lesson in the sequence where a student has not reached 3 stars of progress.

  • Student Favorited Lessons Allows teachers easy access to one or more lessons that have been marked as being a students favorite.

• New! The IEP tab/section includes:

  • For students where IEP goals have not yet been saved, a message is displayed. If you have recently added new goals in http://central.robokind.com, then use the refresh button to update the list.

  • For students with one or more IEP goals, use the IEP section to filter the lesson library to match that students assigned goals. The list can be further filtered to focus on one specific goal as desired. Lessons can be started directly from this list.

  • An All Modules section, which includes the full RoboKind Robots4Autism curriculum, regardless of IEP goal assignment.

Starting a Lesson - Lesson Information Screen:

1. Teachers can optionally log the students mood/disposition prior to the lesson. RoboKind is not presently doing an analysis of changes to a students mood before & after lessons, but this data will be available for future reporting for teachers/therapists who choose to record this.

2. The optional ability to add notes prior to the lesson. (We expect most teachers will be more likely to add a note after a lesson, but we support notes at both points).

3. An updated toggle for selecting the lesson mode before starting the lesson.

   1. Full Lesson - includes the full curriculum for the lesson, including teaching and then assessing the student.

   2. Teach - The concepts are presented, but the student is not assessed on their understanding of the content.

   3. Practice - For use when a student is simply reviewing a concept, it is possible to skip straight to Practice mode in which a student is tested/assessed on the content without the up front learning portion of the lesson.

   4. Note: A few lessons, such as introductory lesson 1, do not contain a mastery assessment, and such only the Full Lesson option will be available.

4. New! Before a lesson starts, it is now possible to access links to related extension activities.

5. New! If applicable for the selected student and lesson, we now display IEP Goals that are relevant to the lesson. Teachers are encouraged to review and keep those goals in mind during the lesson, and then comment on progress at the end of the lesson.

6. New! A list of the students previous attempts of that same lesson with date, time, score, and progress outcome (in stars). This historical information is intended to help teachers to coach and assist students in any areas where they have struggled, or to select a different lesson if appropriate.

7. If a teacher/therapist decides to choose a different lesson, they may use the left arrow button in the top left to go back to the lesson selection screen..

Running a Lesson - Introduction

The first time a lesson is started after the RoboKind Companion application has been installed, you will be prompted to Download Modules on both the facilitator and the student tablet. This process usually takes about 5 minutes on a reasonably fast Internet connection.

If you have selected “Virtual Avatar” the facilitator and student will see a virtual representation of Milo.

RoboKind Lesson Progress:

RoboKind lessons include a variety of activities including where the robot will speak, displaying images or icons, performing expressions or animations, and presenting videos. At various points during the lessons, students will be asked to answer questions from their device, and teachers will also be prompted for information in many cases, for example in confirming if the student demonstrated the appropriate action or emotion.

Running a Lesson - In Lesson Controls & Features

• New! We have added a new CUEUING menu on the left side of the facilitator device, which can be expanded or collapsed by clicking on the book image.

  • The Distracted button can be clicked during a lesson to record if a student became distracted at that point in a lesson.

  • The Accommodation button can be clicked during a lesson to record if a student required additional assistance, for example, if the facilitator needed to re-explain an exercise or provide the student assistance in answering a question. We recommend adding more details about the accommodation(s) in the notes field at the end of the lesson.

  • The Lesson Problem button can be used to report that the lesson did not work as expected at that point in the lesson. Some issues can be transient based on network connection, however if RoboKind observes patterns in the data where multiple issues have been reported at a certain point in a lesson, we will prioritize those lessons for review and improvements.

Baseline Menu Information:

At the bottom of the screen in facilitator mode, the following information and controls are available.

• A progress bar at the bottom of the screen. The bar will be colored in as the lesson progresses.

• A pause button for pausing a lesson.

• After pause has been pressed, the pause button changes to a play button. Note that when resuming, the lesson will resume at the current lesson block.

• The current lesson block number is shown in the lower right hand corner of the screen and starts with a “B” or “C”.

Facilitator Right Sidebar Menu:

On the facilitator device, use the menu icon on the right side of the screen to access the Facilitator Controls.

• The menu icon can be clicked to expand or collapse the right side bar menu.

The right side bar menu includes:

• Calm Down Tools:

  • Various Tools that can be used if a student becomes distracted.

• Lesson Controls:

  • End Lesson - for ending a lesson early.

  • Previous Lesson Section - for moving to a previous lesson section. Button may be pressed more than once.

  • Restart Lesson - restarts lesson from the beginning.

  • Speech Speed: The default speed is about 80% of normal speech speed for students who might benefit from a slower pace. For other students, we recommend trying out the Typical or Fast speed settings, which will be saved and retained for that student in subsequent lessons.

Robot Controls:

• The robot has volume control buttons on the back, or volume controls are also available under the Utilities - Sound menu on the chest screen.

• Note that if using headphones, the sound volume is intentionally defaulted to a very low sound level.

Lesson Wrap Up

• New! We have a new, faster way of assessing a students progress and and engagement at the end of a lesson.

• Step 1: Select NEEDS WORK, IMPROVING, SKILLED, or N/A. Only use N/A in cases of practice lessons or where a lesson ended before meaningful progress can be captured. Lessons marked as N/A may not count towards certain progress metrics in future reporting.

• Step 2: The new Engagement field tracks the students overall level of engagement during a lesson as LOW, MED, or HIGH. This is intended as an informal point in time snapshot and not as an overall assessment.

• Step 3: Select the students disposition at the end of the lesson. If used consistently, trends in changes to student disposition will be available in future reporting options.

• Step 4: A facilitator can optionally log notes against a students file. We recommend including notes here that would remind the facilitator of any progress or challenges the student faced during the lesson.

  • New! Note that on newer iPad’s, it may be possible to use the microphone button in the lower right hand corner of the screen

  • The post lesson screen will show totals for the use of distracted and accomodated cueing buttons during the lesson.

  • Similar to the pre-lesson screen, the post lesson screen will display:

    • Any IEP goals practiced in the lesson

    • Related extension activities (if applicable)

    • Detailed logs of past lessons, scores, progress assessments, and notes. Note that for stats on the recently completed lesson attempt, see the information at the top of the page.

    • Upon clicking the Submit button, the students progress and notes are saved, and the facilitator is returned to the lesson selection screen to select the next lesson or activity.

  • If a teacher wishes to switch to a different student, there are 2 options:

    • Use the back button until reaching the student selection page, then change which student is selected by clearing the current student and selecting a new student.

    • Use the menu icon in the lower right hand corner of the screen, which allows the teacher to start over using the Session Setup screen and then to select a new student.

Main Menu Options

The main menu can be accessed when logged in as a facilitator/teacher, but while not actually running a lesson. To access this, choose the round circle with your initials in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

The Main menu contains several actions that can be useful:

• RoboKind Central: Opens the central.robokind.com website in the iPad web browser. This is useful if you need to add or manage teachers, classrooms, and students.

• Help Desk: A link to our support site with documentation and a “Contact Us” button at the bottom of the page.

• Change Pin: For use in more easily signing into the app in the future.

• Switch User: Provides several options, including switching a device to student mode, switching users (to select a different account to sign in with), Continue (which cancels the switch user screen), and Log Out.

• Change Devices: Returns user to the session setup screen where a new student device, different robot, or the avatar option can be selected.

• Log Out: Logs out the current user. This is highly recommended for use when a device or robot will be subsequently be used by a different teacher.

Sharing a robot with multiple teachers:

If a robot is being shared between different teachers and devices, the first teacher must log out after they finish; otherwise the next teacher may be required to reboot the robot before it will appear as available for the next lesson.

Troubleshooting information

Session setup screen not showing student device

Robot is not listed on the session setup screen

Additional Information

RoboKind Companion App Installation and Update Guide (iPads)