O’Reilly news

Safari learning platform adds unique self assessments

May 9, 2017

Boston, MA—Safari, O'Reilly's learning platform, announces the addition of self assessments to its most popular Learning Paths. Exclusive to Safari, self assessments offer learners a new tool that makes testing part of the learning experience with customized feedback. Announced today at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON), self assessments are currently incorporated into Safari's expert-curated Learning Paths, which include open source topics such as "Become Fluent in Python," "Git," "Linux Sysadmin Basics," as well as Learning Paths in big data, software architecture, web development, and machine learning, with more to come.

Self assessments take the guesswork out of learning, with a feedback mechanism that helps learners learn. Users take short, multiple-choice quizzes as they work through a Learning Path, that act as checkpoints along the way. This new tool adds more structure and support, accelerating how quickly users learn and enhancing their learning experience.

"Self assessment is a natural next step in O'Reilly's commitment to meet our customers' needs by providing effective and truly personalized learning. Now the people who use our Learning Paths will have a clear sense of what they do and don't understand, and get help during their learning process, rather than a report card at the end of it," said Paco Nathan, Director of the Learning Group at O'Reilly.

Self assessments in Safari are focused on helping users learn, rather than grading them based on right or wrong answers. Unlike simple memory tests found in many online courses, Safari's powerful new tool lets learners see how they're doing while they're still learning, as it explains both correct and incorrect answers with information that cements the concepts behind the questions. Learning becomes easier with Safari's unique approach, as users retain more information and feel more confident about their knowledge.

For more information on O'Reilly's approach to self assessments, see Paco Nathan's post, "Why self assessments improve learning."

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