TL;DR: Setting up a student profile helps SparkAI understand your child's unique interests and learning levels. This ensures every lesson and project is perfectly tailored to their needs.
The student profile is the heart of your experience in LearnSpark. It builds a bridge between what you know about your child and the lessons SparkAI creates for them.
By keeping this profile updated, you make sure that every lesson, project, and adventure matches your student's passions and current skills. It helps SparkAI track their growth over time.
Adding a New Student
Creating a profile is the first step to personalizing your homeschool journey. It tells the platform where your child should begin.
Go to the Students Page: From your dashboard, click Students in the side menu.
Create the Profile: Click the + Add New Student button. You can also select Add Demo Student to see how a completed profile looks with sample information.
Fill in the Basics: Enter the student's name and date of birth. This helps SparkAI estimate their general level.
Choose a Learning Style: Select how your child learns best, such as Visual, Auditory, or Kinesthetic. SparkAI uses this to change how it explains new ideas.
Set the Curriculum: Choose the Curriculum Type (like US Common Core, UK National, Montessori, or Custom) that matches your goals. This allows the platform to perform a Gap Analysis against standard requirements.
Customizing the Learning Experience
You can dive deeper into the profile to make sure the challenge level is exactly right. This is where you tell SparkAI what makes your child unique.
Academic Age & Operating Levels: You can set an overall Academic Age, or get specific with Operating Levels for each subject. If your child is great at Math but needs more time with Reading, you can adjust these separately.
Interests: Add things your child is passionate about, like "space travel" or "baking." SparkAI will use these topics to make lessons more engaging and relatable.
Mastery Skills: As your student learns, their profile will list the specific skills they have mastered. This updates automatically as you complete lessons and provide feedback.
💡 Good to know: SparkAI uses the Interests section to include favorite topics even in difficult subjects. The more interests you add, the more creative your lessons will be!
Tracking Progress
When you click on a student's card, you'll see their full progress dashboard. This is where you can monitor their growth and prepare for reporting:
Standards Progress: View progress bars that compare your student's Operating Level (where they are now) to their Expected Level (where they are headed) for each subject.
Learning Journeys: See a visual map of milestones your student has reached across different subjects.
Evidence Samples: You can upload documents, photos, or work samples directly to the profile to keep a digital portfolio of their achievements.
How Profiles Update
Your student's profile is not static. It evolves as they learn. When you finish a lesson and fill out the Feedback Form, SparkAI updates the child's Mastery Profile in the background.
If you report that a student struggled with a specific concept, SparkAI will remember this. It might suggest a review lesson or break the next goal into smaller steps to help them succeed.
⚠️ Heads up: Using SparkAI to update mastery profiles, analyze curriculum gaps, and generate progress reports uses your account credits.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Academic Age and Operating Level?
Academic Age is a general setting for the student's overall level. Operating Level is subject-specific. For example, a student might have a general level of age 7, but an Operating Level of Grade 3 in Math.
Can I change the curriculum for a student later?
Yes! You can edit the Curriculum Type on the student profile at any time. When you change it, SparkAI will re-analyze their progress against the new standards.
How do I update a student's skills?
Skills update automatically when you provide feedback on a lesson. You can also manually adjust Operating Levels in the profile if you feel the student has moved ahead faster than expected.
Do student profile updates use SparkAI credits?
Yes. SparkAI uses credits to perform background tasks like Skills Decomposition and Gap Analysis to keep the profile accurate.
Where do I manage permissions for my students?
Student access for collaborators is managed on the Account Access page. You can choose which specific students a collaborator is allowed to see or manage.