Comment by rdtsc

Not just I-Ready. This is the majority of educational software.

The stupid repetitive animations. I am sure they sold it to some administrators as being "fun", and "kids are going to love it" because, see, there is a cute penguin doing a 10 second dance. But of course you have to watch the animation after each section and you can't skip ahead.

The kid makes a single mistake, and the "smart adaptive" algorithm throws them back to the preschool school level to "let's start with numbers again", while the kid just clicked the wrong button because the UI is janky and because they are angry with stupid penguin who is getting on their nerves.

Some teachers understand what's going on refuse to use this stuff and print actual paper and pencil tests and homework sheet. But that only works until the standardized tests come, those are all on the computer usually, with the same janky UI.