Metacognitive skills help to make students more active participants in their own learning.  Whether offering “debriefs” after exams, activities such as “think-pair-share”, or using goal setting and reflection surveys, there are a variety of instructional methods being used to teach metacognition to aid students’ learning. Teaching these soft skills is becoming more and more common as instructors are noticing their students gain deeper understanding of their materials and doing better in class.  Students’ ability to self-monitor and reflect on their learning can have a lasting impact on their lives both in and out of the classroom. Literature reviews on metacognition have provided insight about its many benefits and the mechanisms that make it such a successful tool within education. At Macmillan Learning, we have partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to learn even more about the impact it has on student success - in particular about the benefits of using digital tools to deliver metacognitive support.  We plan to share our findings with the broader educational community. To learn more about metacognition, and the potential impact that courseware may have, I spoke to Macmillan Learning Research Scientist Kelly Boden and Research Specialist Sarah Gray. They shared interesting insights on its role in college classrooms, why it’s such a powerful tool, how features within our digital learning system Achieve can be used to harness its potential, and what instructors can do to have an oversized impact on students ability to develop their metacognitive skills. Is the use of metacognition becoming more common in classrooms?  Boden: Metacognition literature has grown exponentially in the past decade, and evidence for the powerful impact that instructional methods that support it is mounting. However, it’s unclear how much of that research is making its way into classrooms. Instructors participating in some of our  research studies who are using Achieve seem aware of what metacognition is, and also a majority report supporting metacognition in some way within their classrooms. This is a positive sign that metacognition is becoming more common in college classrooms.  What is something about metacognition that you'd like instructors to know? Gray: Metacognitive skills, such as self-monitoring skills, help make students more active participants in their learning. When paired with effective feedback, strong self-monitoring skills can help students foster deep learning. It allows students to compare their actual performance to the learning goal, and determine on their own what action they need to take to close this gap in knowledge.  Boden: Metacognition is something we all do - we’re not taught explicitly to think about our thinking. Although it’s something we all do, we’re not always very good at it! Previous research has found that students are frequently inaccurate in their judgments of their own learning, often being overconfident in their accuracy on a task or topic. Luckily, there are research-backed methods to help support students’ metacognitive skills that can be incorporated into any classroom, virtual or in-person, that can have significant impacts.  When instructors think about metacognition, do you think courseware comes to mind?  Boden: Instructors that we’ve surveyed or interviewed usually don’t mention courseware when discussing metacognition. Most are aware of the concept of metacognition, and report using various techniques/methods to support it in their classrooms. Few, if any, mentioned courseware in those descriptions. I don’t think this necessarily means that instructors think that courseware can’t support or incorporate metacognition. Rather, they first think of the underlying instructional methods before attaching it to a particular courseware.  Instructors who have reported incorporating metacognition into their instruction with Achieve have described using it in a variety of ways. For example, one instructor has students complete short polls at the end of each class asking students to rate their familiarity with the content they covered, as well as their confidence in that content. Another instructor gives students “debriefs” after exams asking students to reflect on how the exam went, what they wish they knew going into an assignment, and how they could improve. Yet another instructor described a variety of activities including self-assessments, peer reviews, and group discussions. Others described activities such as “think-pair-share” and critical thinking discussions, all aimed at increasing students’ metacognition.  Within Achieve, instructors definitely identify the Goal-Setting and Reflection Surveys (GRS) as a useful tool for having students reflect on their own learning and strategy use in order to support their metacognition. Instructors have also reported using iClicker as a way for students to self-assess and complete confidence checks of their current understanding of a concept or topic. Also, the adaptive quizzing tool LearningCurve has been identified as a useful tool to support students’ metacognition by helping them to identify what they do and don’t know. This adaptive quizzing style helps students both identify and practice gaps in their understanding.   Gray: Several instructors have indicated to us that they really value having resources such as the GRS in the courseware; they note that this gives students an opportunity to reframe the way they think about their course as something they really have agency in deciding how they experience. Others have also indicated that having reporting on their student’s GRS results makes it easier for instructors to be aware of issues their students are facing, and better support them as a result. What one thing within Achieve can an instructor can do that could have an oversized impact? Gray: There’s a lot of research out there on what kinds of metacognitive interventions are most impactful for students. Research suggests that the interventions that have the biggest impact on students involve instructors delivering direct instruction on metacognitive strategies, providing opportunities for students to practice these skills, and giving feedback on their work.  Boden: Our own research has found that having students complete at least two of the Goal-Setting and Reflection surveys (intro and one checkpoint survey) can significantly increase their course grade by at least 8 percentile points. Our research has also found that completing at least one survey significantly increased students’ reported self-efficacy, engagement, and their sense of belonging. Given these findings, I would highly recommend the Goal-Setting and Reflection surveys! What kind of new features within courseware could help support metacognition? Gray: One set of resources we are piloting in some select disciplines this spring are critical thinking resources - which include not just explicit instruction on critical thinking skills, but also opportunities for students to reflect on how they use critical thinking skills in their assignments as well as their everyday lives. This is direct instruction plus opportunities for practice in action!  Boden: We are developing new ways to directly support students. This includes a website with additional resources about the strategies included in the Goal-Setting and Reflection surveys, which is offered to be directly emailed to students after they complete a survey. The website includes information on the research behind the strategies, practical ways of incorporating the strategies, as well as helpful additional resources (exam checklist, post-exam reflection, & SMART goals template). We’re also thinking of new ways to share and display survey responses with students that will further support their metacognition and learning.    ... View more

Research has found that students who use their metacognitive skills have higher rates of success -- not only do they earn better grades, but they also gain a better ability to transfer knowledge and achieve higher graduation rates. It’s something that we’ve long been interested in at Macmillan Learning, and are excited to learn even more about -- especially as it relates to under-represented student populations. To that end, we partnered with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to research and test equity-centered enhancements for digital courseware, such as our learning platform, Achieve, in the introductory courses of psychology and sociology. We believe that if we increase Black, Latino/a/x and Indigenous students’ sense of belonging and metacognitive skills in key gateway courses, then we can increase the likelihood of students successfully completing these courses along with other courses to come. But why is that? To explain better, it’s important to have a better understanding of what metacognition is and how it can impact student success. About Metacognition As was mentioned in the first part of this blog series , Metacognition is thinking about ways to improve your own thinking and learning processes. It’s valuable within an education setting because it helps students analyze new problems, identify which resources and strategies are useful to solve those problems, and also to assess and adjust their learning strategies as necessary. In other words, the metacognition required within self-regulated learning helps students to plan, monitor and evaluate their learning. Picture this scenario: A student is taking a low-stakes exam in their psychology class. They begin by reviewing all of the end-of-chapter questions to identify which questions they can answer straight away, and which they need to think more on and save for later. Throughout this process, they’re monitoring how many questions they have left and how much time they have before they need to turn their work in. Once they finish, they then reflect on questions they may have gotten wrong and some concepts they could have understood better. They decide to set aside time to look back on the chapter and join the class’ study group. Within this example, the student would have used all three metacognitive skills: planning, monitoring and evaluating. Planning : When students are setting goals for tasks, identifying the task’s critical features, and planning strategies to solve the task Monitoring : When students are tracking where they are in their learning and monitoring progress towards their goals Evaluating: When students are reviewing whether they met their goals and reviewing the strategies they used to accomplish them Using these skills will help make them a better student by enabling them to gain a deeper understanding of the class’ content and develop more productive ways to study. How Metacognition impacts student success At its heart, metacognition is a student’s ability to adapt problem-solving behaviors to different academic tasks. Primarily, it impacts the skills and motivations that control how a student learns, and it's critical for successful subject mastery and achievement. It’s also something that’s commonly referred to as self-regulated learning. By better understanding how they best learn, students will not only retain more, but they will also instill a greater understanding of how that knowledge can be applied to other situations. Some students may need extra time for writing assignments, or know that they need to put their phone away to avoid distractions when studying. It’s having this kind knowledge about how they learn that helps them to create an environment that enables them to succeed. It can also help them to make better use of their own time, allowing them to make even more progress. Picture this scenario: A student approaches their instructor after class to understand why they didn’t do as well as they thought they would on an exam. They read the material and highlighted the points they thought were most important. The instructor asks a question about how to apply the knowledge to a different scenario, and the student is unable to. While the student became familiar with the topic, they didn’t understand it deeply or learn how to apply what they learned. With strengthened metacognition skills, the student would be better able to reflect on their own learning and develop the kind of higher-order thinking that’s required to succeed in class and throughout their college experience. With time, it will be second-nature to the student as they continue to think about improving their learning. How Instructors Can Support Metacognition One of the most important things an instructor can do is to create connections between how students can apply what they learn to their goals -- both within their class and the real world. Psychology and sociology are often required within a student’s general education and are critical to learning about human nature, but not necessarily tied to their major. While students may not have prior knowledge of or interest in the course material itself, the instructor’s role and metacognitive activities become even more critical to the students overall success. Another way is for instructors to ask prompting questions. Research has shown that asking these questions can lead to students’ increased learning and performance. An example of this is requiring explanations of students’ thought process or asking them to defend a position within their homework assignment. This type of task would help the student to think about their thinking and would prompt the kind self-explanation required to demonstrate understanding of the concept. A different set of interventions aimed at increasing metacognition are self-reflection exercises. These goal setting and reflection surveys can serve several purposes including offering insight into students, establishing a baseline students can measure future progress against. This can be done via surveys or exam wrappers, and would include likert scale and open-ended questions to help students reflect on their study plans and goals. Instructors can also ask students to go through their graded exam to reflect on the answer they got wrong and think about how they could improve on future exams. Our own research has demonstrated that courses which assigned two or more surveys saw a minimum 15% increase in assignment completion, which resulted in at least an 8% point increase in student grades in the course compared to those that assigned only one or no surveys. And finally, instructors can help students to build self efficacy by normalizing adversity. Tools such as Learning Curve’s adaptive quizzing with targeted feedback can help students succeed. The adaptive algorithm selects questions for each student based on their own performance, challenging them with more difficult questions as their performance improves. It’s completely normal to struggle in class, and tools like this can help students to identify gaps in their understanding, get targeted feedback and hints, and allow them to solve the problem again correctly. Both the goal setting and reflection surveys as well as Learning Curve’s adaptive quizzing are available within Achieve , Macmillan Learning’s digital learning system. We’ll explore the connection between courseware and metacognition in the next in the series. In the meantime, l earn more about Macmillan Learning’s partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. ... View more

As classes start to fill up in the virtual and in-person classrooms this fall, many questions remain about how the semester will be impacted by the pandemic. When the pandemic began, plans for instruction and assignments needed to be changed quickly; many instructors weighed the costs and benefits of the right workload for students during the time of change and crisis. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much data available to influence their decisions about what the right workload looked like. At Macmillan Learning, we’ve been conducting research over the past year to better learn about how students are interacting with their course materials, and what benefits doing so may bring. We sought to discover more details about how class assignments within our learning platform, Achieve, have been used, both synchronously and asynchronously, and the impact that completing them had on student success.  We questioned everything. We wondered whether or not the quantity of assignments, the type of assignments, and engagement with assignments impacted grades. And after analyzing results from more than 11,000 students using Achieve in 225 beta courses from fall of 2019 to spring of 2021 to better understand the impact of assignments, we have some answers about how assignments in Achieve impact exam scores.  Our big picture takeaway -- student success, as it relates to their exam scores, is less about the number of assignments that instructors give out, and more about engagement with the assignments. The number of assignments given to students had no impact on their exam scores. Rather, the amount students engaged with the assignments that  were given was the factor that made an impact. This data is consistent across all disciplines we studied, including chemistry, math, psychology, economics, biology, and English.  students are projected to score 9% higher on their exams when they have better grades --almost a full letter grade Students with higher scores on Achieve assignments tend to perform better on their course exams.  Further, students who completed fewer assignments on Achieve than was typical for their course, also performed lower on their exams. Students engaging with 50%-75% of the Achieve assignments could expect to score 4% points lower on their exams. Students engaging with less than 50% of the typical course load in Achieve could expect to score 8% lower on their exams, again almost a whole letter grade.  These two effects work in conjunction with each other. This means students performed better when they did the work they were assigned, and better still when they did well on that work.  In sum, we have very good evidence of an overall relationship between Achieve usage, better assignment grades and higher exam scores. We also learned that more isn’t necessarily better and also that all assignments are not created equal. We plan to share more information about which assignments work best once we’re done with our analysis. Stay tuned for more about that as well as our next blog post -- recommendations on what instructors can do to support student success, as it relates to the assignments they give.   ... View more

Another academic year has ended -- one that was marked by changes to teaching and learning. Instructors relied more and more on edtech for their virtual classrooms, learned new best practices about student engagement and were more cognizant than ever about the numerous factors that together facilitate student success. Instructors like Solina Lindahl used digital learning systems to accompany their instruction.  Solina Lindahl is always on the cutting edge with trying new technology in her classroom, and was among the first instructors to check out Macmillan Learning’s new platform, Achieve. 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 Solina Lindahl, Senior Lecturer for Economics at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, about digital learning and her switch to Achieve for Essentials for OpenStax Principles of Economics.  Why did you first decide to use online tools in your class? Honestly, my large class sizes and lack of TA support mean that online products have made sense; students get way more real-time feedback than they would otherwise. People are hesitant to embrace change, but what would you say are the benefits of moving to Achieve vs your experience in Sapling? The up-front costs of switching ANY of our class materials is no joke- I get it, especially if you teach large sections like I do. When things go wrong in a new platform it can be overwhelming plus we’ve all been through an exhausting year. But I notice that the user interface in Achieve is so clean, and I have had such good experiences with the tech support that I feel like it’s easier to switch to Achieve than most products. And let’s keep in mind the benefits: great graphing questions, algorithmic problems, well-produced and inclusive video tutorials with forced reasoning questions that students need to answer. Pair those with adaptive quizzes and you have a platform that supports many types of learners and class formats. Also, Achieve’s user interface is cleaner and contains more resources and instructor customization options. One benefit to digital learning is the insights you get about student performance. What kind of feedback do you get and how do you use it? I appreciate the dashboard view of topics where students are missing the most questions, and the question discrimination helps me create better exams. When I have time, I like to look at the student responses to the ‘Bridge’ reasoning questions grouped by the wrong answer to see where the misunderstandings are coming from. What advice would you offer on using technology in the classroom? One piece of advice: Frame (and remind often) WHY you're using technology, especially if you're using it intensively.  Also, make sure to be clear about your policies for late work, tech failures etc. up front. Make sure to walk them through the site in class; I think they know less about tech than we assume. How have students responded to Achieve? They tell me they really appreciate the adaptive quizzes because it helps keep them on top of the material and gives them a sense of how well they are understanding it. 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 its 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

We’re now more than midway through the Spring semester, and many instructors are still teaching remotely. Many of them are using digital learning systems to accompany their instruction, enabling students to complete assignments, track their grades, connect with instructors and peers, take quizzes or other use other self-assessment tools, and stay engaged. The launch of Macmillan Learning’s new digital learning platform Achieve , couldn’t have come at a better time to support these learners.  Over the past few semesters, many instructors have already made the switch from Sapling, one of the more popular systems for STEM instructors and students. 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 Karen Butland , an Adjunct Professor of Chemistry at Grossmont College , about digital learning and her switch to Achieve for Foundations of College Chemistry . What have been some challenges with online learning since classes went virtual?  How have you addressed them? One of the challenges since classes went virtual is trying to assess student learning with exams and quizzes. Some instructors choose to address that problem with proctoring services, or with having students sign an honor code. I did not like either of those options.  With fabulous features in Achieve, I was able to “pool” questions so that the computer picks different questions for each student within a certain category. For numerical questions that are the same, Achieve has algorithms that give every student a different number. Achieve has a feature allowing timed tests which has great flexibility. My students have a two-day window to complete an exam or quiz whenever it is convenient for them, but once they open the quiz, the timer counts 45 minutes for them to complete it. People are hesitant to embrace change, but what would you say are the benefits of moving to Achieve vs your experience in Sapling? I am VERY hesitant to embrace change, but I have found Achieve to be well worth the effort. I had already made the shift to using Sapling in HTML5, so migrating to Achieve wasn’t that much different. How do Achieve and Sapling differ? Achieve has many more features than Sapling. I have yet to discover all of them, but there was one thing I was delighted to find. When a disability student needed extra time on an exam or quiz, this was quite difficult to do in Sapling. In Achieve, it is so easy--just select the student and type in how much time they get, and Achieve does the rest. One benefit to digital learning is the insights you get about student performance. What kind of feedback do you get and how do you use it? I love being able to see exactly which questions each student missed. It is extremely helpful to have a student on Zoom and share my screen while we look directly at their homework and compare their answers to the correct answer. I can also easily “reset” a question to give a student the opportunity to try again with a different number, once they feel like they understand the solution. I love the flexibility of being able to edit their score as I see fit. 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 its 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

Choosing the right digital learning system is an important consideration for instructors as they plan out their courses -- especially when many classes are taking place remotely. More than just a place to read an e-textbook or complete homework, these systems are interactive tools used by students to complete assignments, track grades, connect with instructors, take quizzes or other self-assessment tools, and more.  Susan Hendrickson, Teaching Professor in Chemistry at the University of Colorado With the launch of Macmillan Learning’s new digital learning platform Achieve, instructors have been making the switch from Sapling, one of the more popular systems for STEM instructors and students. We spoke to Susan Hendrickson , Teaching Professor in Chemistry at the University of Colorado, about her experiences teaching students in her virtual classroom. We also asked her about her experience transitioning from Sapling to Macmillan Learning’s new digital learning system Achieve last fall for her Gen Chem 2 class and this spring for her Gen Chem 1 class. What have been some challenges with online learning since classes went virtual?  How have you addressed them? Making meaningful connections- between instructors and students, as well as between students- has been very challenging. I think students are more engaged, responsive and motivated when they connect with their instructor and classmates. I try to share a little bit about myself or something funny from the news at the start of class to lighten the mood. This works with some students but not with others. Another challenge is keeping students organized and able to complete their assignments on-time. They seem to be struggling with their calendars more than usual. Every day and every class must feel the same from their bedroom so they just seem to lose track of what  day it is.  I have had to step up my own calendaring and To-Do list skills too! I feel like I’ve done more coaching about making schedules and sticking to them since going virtual. Why did you first decide to use online tools in your class? Class size!  Although I would love to SEE their work and be able to give them personalized feedback.  With sections of 100 – 400 and whole courses with enrollments of 600 – 1,000, that’s just not possible.  Online homework allows them to practice, get immediate feedback and work according to their own schedules.  Otherwise we couldn’t require homework. People are hesitant to embrace change, but what would you say are the benefits of moving to Achieve vs your experience in Sapling? There are a few things that I love about Achieve. I love that the grades are synced between Achieve and Canvas. This has saved me about an hour every Tuesday and Saturday morning alone. I also love that they can use a link in Canvas to access the Achieve resources – assignments as well as reading.  This might have been possible in Sapling but we didn’t have it set up. Honestly Achieve isn’t that much different than Sapling – same assignments, same questions (mostly).  It wasn’t that much of a change content-wise so the transition has been easy. How have students responded to Achieve? I switched with a group of students last spring (Gen Chem 1) in Sapling to this fall (Gen Chem 2) in Achieve and they transitioned with no issues.  I don’t think they saw  it as a dramatic change since the assignments themselves looked the same.  I know they like how easy it is to access the assignments and readings with two clicks from Canvas. 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 its 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

Choosing the right digital learning system is an important consideration for instructors as they plan out their courses -- especially when many classes are taking place remotely. More than just a place to read an e-textbook or complete homework, these systems are interactive tools used by students to complete assignments, track grades, connect with instructors, take quizzes or other self-assessment tools, and more. Each system has different strengths and offers different pedagogical approaches.  With the launch of Macmillan Learning’s new digital learning platform Achieve , instructors have been making the switch from Sapling, one of the more popular systems for STEM instructors and students. 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. Tony Hascall , a Chemistry Professor at Northern Arizona University, about digital learning and his switch to Achieve for Interactive General Chemistry . People are hesitant to embrace change, but what would you say are the benefits of moving to Achieve vs your experience in Sapling? The main benefit is that Achieve is better integrated with the textbook and gives you the ability to assign readings from the textbook as well as links to videos, simulations etc. The library of questions is exactly the same, including LearningCurve (adaptive quizzing), but Achieve allows readings etc. to be assigned for credit. Achieve also has a more modern, less cluttered appearance and makes it clear for students to see what assignments have upcoming due dates. You mentioned that you give students pre-class, in-class and post-class work -- how does technology like LMS, Achieve and iClicker fit into that? I have found that students don’t tend to do assignments unless they count for some points in the class. Achieve allows readings from the textbook to be assigned for credit. I also post asynchronous video lectures on YouTube, which can also be assigned on Achieve, as well as links to other resources such as PhEt simulations. These can be assigned pre-class to allow students to come to class prepared for active learning activities. And of course homework can be assigned as post-class work.  The LMS has mainly been useful during removed learning for posting materials that would have been handed out on paper in class. I have also used it for exams One benefit to digital learning is the insights you get about student performance. What kind of feedback do you get and how do you use it? I mainly use this to identify students who are struggling or not doing work early in the semester to try to change their habits before it is too late. Why did you first decide to use online tools in your class? Since my classes have been quite large, I did not want to assign paper homework each week due to the large amount of time needed to grade. But it is important that students practice the material outside of class. Online tools allow students to be given assignments that are graded automatically and provide students with instant feedback and hints. Also I believe that students tend not to read traditional paper textbooks anymore, so having an electronic textbook that is integrated with the online system, as is the case with Achieve is very effective. What have been some challenges with online learning since classes went virtual?  How have you addressed them? I would say the two major challenges have been trying to do active learning in a remote format, and giving exams. I have tried putting students in Zoom breakout rooms, but with large classes, it is really not the same as having students working together in the classroom and being able to walk around the room and look at students’ work and help them As for exams, I have tried as much as possible to write “Google-proof” questions to try to ensure that students are being tested on what they have learned, not just what they can look up. 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