Student engagement remains a hot topic during the ongoing pandemic. How are instructors, who normally offer their classes in-person, managing to keep students engaged in their fully or partially virtual classrooms? For William Curington, instructor of English at Rio Hondo College, it's important to make sure his students feel they are part of a community - even if it’s an online, digital community.  William Curington, Instructor of English at Rio Hondo College Successful online teaching makes use of the best digital learning platforms, and in his classroom, William has used Macmillan Learning’s Achieve platform with his teaching of A Writer’s Reference. The Achieve platform includes an interactive e-Book as well as extensive learning materials with pre-class, in-class and post-class activities. Macmillan Learning asked William Curington about his experience switching to this new digital platform.  People are hesitant to embrace change, but what would you say are the benefits of moving to Achieve vs your experience with LaunchPad?  I think change is difficult for anyone. While I enjoyed using LaunchPad, I have found Achieve to be more “customizable” for my individual class needs. The pandemic kind of forced instructors everywhere to become more tech savvy and I was able to use some of that transitional time to find new and creative ways to use the platform.  How do Achieve and LaunchPad differ?  I feel like Achieve gives more options to me as an instructor when customizing it for the needs of my own course. LaunchPad certainly worked, but it felt more pre-packaged. With Achieve, I have more control of how I’m utilizing it and what features I’m using to connect with my class. Most recently, I have worked with integrating Achieve into our LMS, Canvas, which I’ve found very effective.  We know that student engagement–especially now–is a large issue and so important to student success. How do products like Achieve fit into that? As a community college instructor, I have students of various levels in all my classes, and one of the things I’ve found very helpful are the adaptive quizzes (LearningCurves) Achieve offers. It is nice to know that students can work at their own pace and the adaptive quizzes will identify areas students need work on so they can adjust accordingly. This kind of individualized, self-paced, non-threatening practice of concepts is exactly what many college students need.  How have students responded to Achieve overall?  Students have responded well to Achieve and have taken the time to tell me it has really helped them develop their writing skills. Class time is limited, and I think Achieve is extremely helpful because it allows an instructor to make sure that students are getting reinforcement and feedback on concepts outside of traditional class meetings. I can dedicate more class time to things like discussion and peer review and still know that my students are receiving the self-paced support they need for concepts that are foundational for their writing skills.    This interview is part of a series focusing on how digital learning is being used in college classrooms and, in particular, what the transition to Achieve has been like. About Achieve: Macmillan Learning built it’s new digital learning platform Achieve to help students of all abilities and backgrounds succeed. It offers the content, tools and insights about student success to do just that. Achieve was designed with active learning in mind, and can be used in traditional, online, hybrid, blended, or a fully “flipped” classroom, with options for both synchronous and asynchronous learning to support engagement. It was co-designed with more than 7,000 students and over 100 leading educators and learning scientists both at our company and on our independent review boards. Learn more about Achieve. ... View more

Student attrition is an unfortunate reality for many universities. For students, that can mean accumulating debt, but without the added income that a degree can bring to their lifetime earnings. For colleges, it can harm their ability to support students who need support the most -- including first generation students. This is a significant concern for many colleges, as more than one million students drop out of college every year.   So what’s a college to do to help support students' ability to persist and ultimately retain the students so that they complete their degree? Rochester University, an open enrollment liberal arts institution, asked that very question. To answer it, they created new programs to support student success initiatives and better retain their students.  For the last decade, first-time student retention at Rochester University has remained in the low to mid-60s.The university has set a goal of increasing retention by 7%. To increase the impact of the university’s student success efforts, Rochester implemented tools from Pharos Resources and iClicker Insights by Macmillan Learning to better understand the challenges students faced and how to support their needs. Although Rochester University is still in the early stages of integrating their use of Pharos and iClicker Insights, they have already experienced positive results. Fall 2021 to Spring 2022, persistence/retention for first year college students was 81.88%, a 3.3% increase over the prior year. To learn more about what the university discovered, and how they implemented the insights, download the free white paper. ... View more

Students taking economics courses are expected to learn about traditional finance and intermediaries that impact the economy, like supply and demand, trade, stock markets and hedge funds. These are critical topics that help them to understand individual markets, the impact of government policies and the overall economy. But what, if anything, should students learn about decentralized finance, like cryptocurrency? Why is or isn’t it important to learn about these peer-to-peer transactions and their impact on the economy? We asked the popular economist and co- Alex Tabarrokauthor of  Modern Principles of Economics and Marginal Revolution Alex Tabarrok about decentralized finance ahead of his webinar next month on the topic. What is decentralized finance? Traditional finance involves many financial intermediaries like stock markets, hedge funds and banks. Banks, for example, stand in between savers and borrowers and, as we explain in Modern Principles, they perform useful services like evaluating borrowers and creating easy means of payments like credit cards and checks. Naturally, financial intermediaries also take a cut of the proceeds, about 8% of GDP! Decentralized finance replaces some of these intermediaries with code, smart contracts, that allows buyers and sellers, borrowers and lenders and others to interact more directly and we hope at lower cost and with greater innovation. Loosely speaking, decentralized finance is to finance what Facebook and Twitter are to newspapers and magazines; namely, replacing a centralized authority with a more decentralized peer-to-peer interaction, for better or worse! How do cryptocurrencies fit into decentralized finance? Right now, "DEFI" is mostly used to borrow, lend and trade cryptocurrencies. And frankly it's very risky, hard to do, and pretty weird.  What we are seeing, however, is a very rapid evolution in the DEFI sector and this may turn out to be a fantastic example of Clayton Christiansen's disruptive innovation; namely, an innovation with a smaller company at the bottom of the market that traditional players ignore and discount until it moves up market and disrupts established competitors before they even know what is happening. Frankly, every stock exchange in the world ought to be very fearful of DEXs, i.e. decentralized exchanges. You’re covering cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance in an online chapter in the next Edition of Modern Principles of Economics. Why did you choose to include it? Students ask us about crypto all the time! I don't expect there's a lot of time to teach this material, but a teacher should always know a little bit more than their students! So we thought teachers might be interested in this material to help them answer questions and they can always include some of this material when talking about money or financial intermediaries. Right now BitCoin remains the most accepted and widely known form of crypto. Do you think that is the case going forward, and what other coins do you think may become more prevalent and accepted? Bitcoin has proven to be a good store of value, somewhat equivalent to gold as a store of value. It's not a good medium of exchange, however, and I don't think it ever will be. There are lots of other coins, including stable coins that are very useful in transacting online and a lot of coins tied to various products and projects. Most of these coins will fail and people will lose money. Still, the new tools that are being developed today at a rapid pace suggest the future of finance is going to be quite different than the past. To learn more about decentralized markets and how to teach students about it, sign up for the free professional development webinar hosted by Tabarrok on Feb. 23 here.   Alex Tabarrok is Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Tabarrok is co-author with Tyler Cowen of the popular economics blog, Marginal Revolution. His recent research looks at bounty hunters, judicial incentives and elections, crime control, patent reform, methods to increase the supply of human organs for transplant, and the regulation of pharmaceuticals. His popular articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other magazines and newspapers. ... View more

In anticipation of Valentine’s Day, many students all around the world will be celebrating love with their romantic partners by sending cards, giving gifts, and sharing candlelit meals. While doing this, they will be demonstrating their interpersonal communication skills which help them to competently communicate, interact, and work with individuals and groups or, in this case, a romantic partner. According to Dr. Kelly Morrison, Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and co-author of Reflect and Relate, “love is defined and created by how we interpersonally communicate.” Much of what’s learned about interpersonal communication is derived from social and mass media, family and peers, personal experiences, and cultural norms and practices. That includes the communication that’s used throughout romantic relationships. But that’s not where the learning needs to end. From combating stereotypes about love as depicted in the movies, to understanding the various stages of falling in love, students can learn a lot about the intersection of romantic relationships and interpersonal communication in a college classroom. From Hallmark and Disney movies to popular love advice books, misinformation about relationships is pervasive. For example, students often learn from these media that passionate love should be the ultimate relationship goal. In interpersonal communication courses, students learn that there is more than one way to demonstrate love, with passionate love being just one of them. “Our job as educators is to give our students trustworthy knowledge and help them apply it to their close relationship challenges,” said Dr. Steven McCornack, Professor at University of Alabama at Birmingham and co-author of Reflect and Relate. There’s also an opportunity for students to learn what love is -- and what it isn’t. According to Professor McCornack, it’s not uncommon to conflate physical intimacy with love, but the two do not always correlate. “Across the globe and throughout history, people have been physically involved with those with whom they’re not intimate; and intimate with those with whom they’re not physically involved.” Professor Morrison explains that love is “created and sustained, moment by moment, day in and day out, through our communication, what we share, and how we support one another.” Further, men aren't from Mars, women aren't from Venus, and there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all way to approach love. The different love attitudes expressed in a relationship lend themselves to vastly different communication styles. “If you possess a more practical, as opposed to a more romantic attitude about love, you likely will also see variations in what and how people communicate about love,” said Professor Morrison. In addition to tackling misconceptions about romantic relationships, interpersonal communication classes also discuss topics critical to building and maintaining successful relationships: from how to approach conflict to the importance of emotions. This kind of knowledge helps students to make more informed choices regarding how they communicate and respond to another person's communication. “We control our own romantic relationship destinies through the choices we make regarding how we communicate. Our choices determine our communication; and our communication creates our romantic relationship outcomes,” said Professor McCornack. Learn more about the intersection of romantic love and interpersonal communication from a webinar when the two Macmillan Learning authors and interpersonal communication professors spoke about “love attitudes and relationship maintenance.” The webinar is free for instructors and will provide a complimentary assignment for instructors to use on Valentine’s Day or when otherwise discussing romantic relationships. Access it for free here. ... View more

While the pandemic forced many instructors to adapt their teaching style for a fully or partially virtual classroom, the use of digital learning platforms will remain a key component of both remote and in-person learning moving forward. Dr. Darcie Rives-East used Achieve during the pandemic when her teaching moved completely online, and she’ll continue to use the platform for her in-person teaching.  The Achieve platform includes an interactive e-Book as well as extensive learning materials with pre-class, in-class and post-class activities. Dr. Darcie Rives-East, a Professor of English and First-Year Seminar Director at Augustana University, shared with us how she got the most out of this new platform during her time teaching remotely and which features she’ll continue using once she resumes in-person teaching. She’s used The Writer’s Reference with the Achieve platform.  What have been some challenges with teaching–especially with online learning–since the pandemic started? How have you addressed them? A major challenge for me as a composition instructor was having students peer edit classmates’ papers online. I used Achieve’s peer editing function to arrange peer editing partners, as well as the function’s ability to guide students through the questions I wanted them to focus on while they were giving advice to their partners. I found the peer editing function to be a great way to have students interact and work with one another despite not being physically present in the classroom.  People are hesitant to embrace change, but what would you say are the benefits of moving to Achieve vs your experience with LaunchPad? Achieve has so many more capabilities than LaunchPad (such as peer editing and instructor editing of papers, paper assignment templates, etc.), as well as more exercises than LaunchPad. I also thought it was easier to integrate Achieve with an LMS (such as Canvas), and, as a writing program director, I was able to set up and monitor accounts for program instructors.  Why did you first decide to use online tools in your class? During the pandemic, prior to vaccines, I had to be completely online due to prior health considerations. Therefore, I wanted to use all tools available to me in order to replicate and even improve how I teach composition in the physical classroom. Achieve provided me with the resources I needed to teach writing online without sacrificing quality. When I return to the physical classroom, I plan to still use the resources of Achieve to allow a “flipped classroom,” where students can learn and practice certain grammar lessons online, as well as participate in the writing sequence, so that we have more time to discuss writing in the classroom.    This interview is part of a series focusing on how digital learning is being used in college classrooms and, in particular, what the transition to Achieve has been like. About Achieve: Macmillan Learning built it’s new digital learning platform Achieve to help students of all abilities and backgrounds succeed. It offers the content, tools and insights about student success to do just that. Achieve was designed with active learning in mind, and can be used in traditional, online, hybrid, blended, or a fully “flipped” classroom, with options for both synchronous and asynchronous learning to support engagement. It was co-designed with more than 7,000 students and over 100 leading educators and learning scientists both at our company and on our independent review boards. Learn more about Achieve. ... View more

I grew up Black in New Jersey’s capital city, Trenton. In the early 80s, I can remember walking through downtown Trenton on a Saturday afternoon with my father and feeling that something was wrong. I remember seeing homeless men and women stopped in front of abandoned office buildings and boarded up storefronts.  I asked my father what happened to the businesses, not fully understanding why so many people walked the streets in despair. I was confused. Everything I learned about my hometown didn’t match what I was witnessing: the monuments to the battles that made Trenton the turning point of the revolutionary war, the stories we learned in school about turn of the century wealth that made Trenton prosperous, and the community pride that was said to exist in every neighborhood in town. How could a city steeped in such a rich history, with such wealth and pride, lose so much of its light and its soul?   We stopped in the middle of our walk and sat on a bench and talked. I remember my father explaining to me that Trenton, like so many other cities big and small, erupted into violence in the days and weeks following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. That Saturday, at six years old, while sitting on a bench in a desolate downtown street with my father, I learned for the first time that there were two Americas.  My father was careful to note that everything I learned in school about the rich heritage of our city was true, but that it was only one side of the story. There had always been an “other” America throughout our country’s young history, communities of people who had yet to articulate their respected place in our society.   I learned that Dr. King was a major voice in a struggle for equality and civil rights for this “other” America. He believed that his calling was to be a voice of hope for healing the American consciousness and to help create the laws and moral practices that could unite us finally as one people. My father explained that Dr. King’s assassination, in the prime of his life and at the height of his profound push for civil rights and equality, was a deep blow to those living in the “other” America, those who were looking toward him to walk them into the promised land he would preach about.   When the news of Dr. King’s demise reached the poor communities of America’s cities, it was but a matter of time before anger and violence erupted nation-wide. America’s moral compass was taken away from us. Throughout the country, anger and frustration filled the streets of American cities in a time when protestors, looters, and mourners alike clashed with the heavy hand of law enforcement for days on end. In the years that followed the riots and demonstrations, white business owners and residents fled cities for newly minted suburbs. The “other” America that existed in the shadows of our society was now left to toil with the challenges of blight and poverty that would plague cities for decades to come.   From that Saturday sitting with my father forward, I paid special attention to Dr. King’s unfinished work. I understood that his dream of a country unified by common respect and equal treatment for all would take each of us obligating ourselves to a personal journey towards growth in our humanity. We must each resist the idea of hoarding our privilege. Instead, as Dr. King did, we should use every ounce of our power, voice, and position to empower everyone around us.  My father’s description of the burning cities reminded me of the recent upheaval we’ve experienced in our cities in response to racial injustice still rooted in our society. There’s still much work to be done to heal our society and secure the equal rights outlined for all citizens in our constitution.   A great moral obligation came over me early in my life. It started for me when I walked the desolate streets of my hometown with my father and discovered the urgency that was lost when the last fire went out from the riots that broke our cities and the “other” America that was left behind. I understand that we have an obligation to see the possibilities in all people and feel compassion towards our neighbors’ stories. We can not write the great American story without the contribution, the perspective, and the dreams of all people in our society. This is the hope and dream that Dr. King lived and died for and the great work that must continue in halls of justice, board rooms and main streets throughout our country. As we celebrate the memory and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., let’s each do our part to break down the walls that divide our country and do our part to live with compassion and care for each other.    ... View more

After a mostly in-person fall semester, many instructors are now preparing to start the spring semester differently than they had anticipated. While the pandemic has presented many challenges to teaching and learning, instructors have found that the right digital learning system can make all the difference in maintaining engagement and supporting student success in the virtual classroom. At the start of 2020, Macmillan Learning launched its new digital learning platform Achieve, and many instructors have already made the switch to it from Launchpad. The Achieve platform includes an interactive e-Book as well as expansive learning materials with pre-class, in-class, and post-class activities.We asked Dr. Michael Stroud, Professor of Psychology at Merrimack College, about digital learning and his switch to Achieve for Exploring Psychology.  What have been some challenges with teaching–especially with online learning–since the pandemic started Psychology Prof. Michael Stroud? How have you addressed them? I’d say the biggest challenge is with student morale and engagement. Students do not seem to be as motivated to learn as before. The way I’ve addressed this is by focusing more on hands-on tasks for more engaging learning in the classroom. Students do not seem to be interested in hearing lectures, but rather creating projects instead.  People are hesitant to embrace change, but what would you say are the benefits of moving to Achieve vs your experience with LaunchPad? The user interface with Achieve is much more fluid. Finding activities and materials and assigning them is much easier as well. Achieve is essentially Launchpad with all the kinks worked out; it’s a cleaned up version, which makes content delivery much more seamless.  We know that student engagement–especially now–is a large issue and so important to student success. How do products like Achieve fit into that? It keeps students on task no matter what is going on in the classroom. This is especially the case for LearningCurve since it requires students to pay attention rather than mindlessly click.  How have students responded to Achieve overall?  Students love Achieve. They enjoy reading more for a purpose and with interactive activities rather than just reading plain text.    This interview is part of a series focusing on how digital learning is being used in college classrooms and, in particular, what the transition to Achieve has been like. About Achieve: Macmillan Learning built it’s new digital learning platform Achieve to help students of all abilities and backgrounds succeed. It offers the content, tools and insights about student success to do just that. Achieve was designed with active learning in mind, and can be used in traditional, online, hybrid, blended, or a fully “flipped” classroom, with options for both synchronous and asynchronous learning to support engagement. It was co-designed with more than 7,000 students and over 100 leading educators and learning scientists both at our company and on our independent review boards. Learn more about Achieve. ... View more