Evidence forms the basis for everything MultiLit does. The MRU conducts trials prior to the release of every program, with these data being included in the program’s manual.
This rigorous approach to program development provides assurance to educators that the programs have been tested in real classroom environments. The MRU also monitors the performance of students attending MultiLit Literacy Centres, providing clinical oversight and supervision.
Read below to find out more about our program trials and clinical supervision of MultiLit Literacy Centres.
Trials
The MRU, working closely with the Product Development team, conducts trials in schools to obtain data on students’ progress as they receive the program under investigation. These results, alongside feedback provided by teachers implementing the trial program, are used to infer information about the program’s efficacy and to guide development decisions.
All research trials are conducted under a university ethics framework, allowing trial outcomes to be published and peer-reviewed in academic journals.
Read below to find out more on:
How trials work
The MRU conducts trials in schools across Australia who meet the criteria needed for a particular program or assessment to be evaluated effectively.
During the trial:
- School staff are trained to deliver a MultiLit program or assessment that is under development
- School staff deliver the program/assessment
- School staff provide feedback on the program to MultiLit
- Student progress in key skills is tracked to evaluate the efficacy of the program throughout the trial
- Support is provided by MultiLit to school staff throughout all stages of the process
Trial schools benefit from being able to access training and instructional materials that help improve student outcomes, as well the assessment results relating to their students for reporting purposes.
The five stages of trials and research
There are five types of trials that MultiLit conducts, depending on the program being developed.
- STAGE ONE: Small Scale Prototyping – These trials are limited in scale to gather preliminary information about a particular program to inform first stage of product development.
- STAGE TWO: Field Trials – These occur in the early stages of product development. Data are gathered through informal feedback as well as qualitative measures and are used to refine the product.
- STAGE THREE: Informal Program Trials – These trials are conducted to gather preliminary quantitative data to inform program development and to investigate suitable assessment measures for future research trials. Results from these are included in the product manual and on the website.
- STAGE FOUR: Formal Research Trials – These trials’ protocols are approved by a human research ethics committee and are preregistered. Ideally, these trials involve a control or comparison group and are generally conducted with a program after it has been published. The results from these trials may be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
- STAGE FIVE: Independent Research Trials – These trials are conducted by researchers outside MultiLit to demonstrate effectiveness in real world settings and on a larger scale.
Registering for a program trial
The MRU welcomes registrations of interest from schools. Please contact us with your details, and we will be in touch to learn more about your school for consideration for future trials.
Program trial summaries
Recent trial summaries or trials undertaken by the MRU include:
- MiniLit Sage (2021)
- LanguageLift (2021)
- SpellEx (2023)
These programs were tested in classrooms via informal program trials.
Clinical supervision of the MultiLit Literacy Centres
The MRU continually collects data on the effectiveness of MultiLit Literacy Centres programs and assessment tools, to ensure they deliver results. Articles on these studies can be found in MultiLit Moments:
- 164 students over a 5-year period, in Years 3-6 – March 2020 edition.
- 28 students over a 2-year period, studying online only, in Years 2-8 – April 2023 edition.
- 23 students over a 2-term period, average age 9 years 4 months studying both online and in-centre – July 2016 edition.
