About Clusive
Clusive® is an adaptive and accessible web-based reader designed to engage students in independent reading. Based on the inclusive principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Clusive scaffolds the development of reading skills for students in grades 5 through 12. Think of Clusive as a digital backpack of technology-supported reading materials that students can take with them wherever they go.
Features
- Choice of reading materials. Students can choose to read assigned books and articles, choose their own material and build personalized libraries, and take advantage of Clusive’s growing public library.
- Flexible display options. Students can discover settings that work best for their reading needs, such as adjustable text size, line and letter spacing, font choice, and color and contrast. Students build agency by finding their just-right-fit by testing and setting their own preferences.
- Read- aloud capabilities. All of Clusive’s content can be read aloud by text-to-speech software. Students can select the reading speed and voice.
- Just-in-time prompts and learning tools. Clusive has built in highlighting, note-taking, on-demand translation, and text simplification and image equivalents for key words. In addition, Clusive offers users word knowledge and comprehension checks, an embedded glossary, language translation, and a personal word bank to support planning and meaning-making.
- Customizing features for educators. Teachers and parents can customize comprehension prompts, targeted vocabulary, and word definitions to meet the needs of their learners.
- Social-emotional reflection opportunities. Unique to Clusive are social-emotional supports that encourage students’ self-awareness of their growing literacy skills. There is adaptive content based on students’ prior actions and responses, and the flexibility to opt out of support when students feel they are ready.
- Progress-monitoring tools. In addition to a dashboard where students can view their own progress, there is also a robust dashboard for parents and teachers to see what their students have accomplished.
- A growing public library. Standards-aligned content is available on Clusive through public-domain books and Open Educational Resources (OERs). Many readings are available at multiple grade levels.
- Upload feature. Users can upload readings that are in an EPUB or docx format, and can easily convert google documents to EPUB or docx and bring them into Clusive. Bookshare users with individual accounts can import Bookshare titles into Clusive. And teachers can upload and share additional materials with students in this accessible, supportive environment.
Using Clusive
- Flexible accounts. You can create an account using your email address, or log in with your existing Google account.
- Set up accounts for your students or family. Parents and teachers can create accounts for students. If you're a Google Classroom user, you can easily import your classes from there.
- We value your privacy. We don't have any advertisers or share your information with others. Full details of what information we do collect and how we use it are in our Privacy Policy.
Free, really.
Clusive is free to use. The public library content is free to read, copy, or modify. And the software itself is free if you want to see how things are built or run your own server. We are supported by a grant from the US Department of Education. More information on the project can be found on the CAST web site: Center on Inclusive Software for Learning.