In January 2016, Extempore ran a pilot with 100 High School students at Western Christian High School in Iowa.

The pilot took place during finals on three Spanish sections. Each final exam consisted of 10 graded questions with all Extempore Parameters enabled: time to review the prompt and time to respond were limited, but re-recording was allowed. A rubric with 5 factors was applied. Students used their own devices (i.e., not school-provided tablets).

At the conclusion of the pilot, a survey was run on all student participants. Approx. 30% responded.

These are the highlights:

• 89.2% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I familiarized myself with the app easily”.
• 82.1% agreed or strongly agreed that “Extempore will help their speaking fluency”.
• 75% agreed or strongly agreed that Exempore was “valuable for their learning”.
• 71.4% felt that recording with Extempore was "less stressful than speaking in front of the whole class".

The main area of improvement identified was the ability to access grades and instructor feedback on the app, with slightly under 40% of students reporting some difficulties in finding their grades.

The Extempore team is analyzing this feedback and will incorporate it into the app and accompanying training materials.

When interviewed, the piloting instructor Ashley Mastbergen said “It is great to be able to hear the students’ individual voice. In a larger class, I don't always get to hear each person, and a written test only tests the reading/writing, so it is good to hear their verbal comprehension”.

Extempore and its parent company, Deeloh Technologies, would like to express our gratitude to Western Christian and Ms. Mastbergen in particular for their help in making Extempore better. Input like this is invaluable as we march towards a full launch of the app later this month.

The Extempore Team