Do you remember coming home from school with a backpack full of books and a couple hours’ worth of homework as a child? If not, you must be pretty lucky to not have had any homework. If so, this scenario may sound pretty familiar. You ask an adult–perhaps one of your parents, an older sibling, or another caretaker–for help with your homework, and they start using a completely different method to solve the problem than the method your teacher taught you earlier that day. “This is how I learned it,” they may tell you, and you wonder why your teacher hadn’t taught you how to solve the problem this way.  Maybe you’re a little lost at first, but you follow them along and see that they solve the problem with ease. Now you’re curious. You try to complete the same problem using the method you recently learned in class, and you see that you get the same answer using both methods. Why hadn’t your teacher taught you the method that you learned at home?  You ask your teacher the next day before class and find out that the method you learned at home requires extra knowledge about this mathematical concept, which many of your classmates haven’t yet learned. Nevertheless, there are a group of students who do understand this other method, so your teacher starts grouping you together to work on these types of problems.  This is an example of differentiated learning in which the teacher adapts what they are teaching–or the way they are teaching–to meet the needs and readiness of their students.    What is Differentiation?  Differentiation is a valuable pedagogical tool for educators to create more equitable learning experiences for every student. At its core, differentiation is a framework for effective teaching that involves providing a diverse classroom of learners with a variety of methods to understand new information, regardless of differences in ability.  In order to implement effective differentiated instruction in the classroom, educators should first do their research on an important subject–their students. By recognizing and understanding each student’s unique background, experience, and subject matter expertise, educators can better meet every student where they are and help them on their own learning journey.  While this can be an overwhelming step for educators who have large, diverse groups of students with different needs, levels of readiness, and learning styles, getting to know students better throughout the term will help instructors tailor their teaching throughout the semester, even with limited resources. Macmillan Learning’s digital learning platform, Achieve, can help simplify this step with its Goal Setting and Reflection Surveys that give students the opportunity to state and reflect on their goals and needs, and to share this information easily with instructors.    Components of Differentiated Learning Once educators have a better understanding of the students in their classroom, they can then turn their attention to the content, process, and product involved in their differentiated instruction.  Content = curriculum or what students learn Process = how students learn it Product = what students produce that shows what they’ve learned   Content At the content level of differentiated learning, educators may have the option to adapt what they are teaching to meet the needs and readiness of their students. As part of the research phase–when getting to know students–instructors might consider including a course readiness assessment or diagnostic test to gain a better understanding of what their students already know. This way they can begin tailoring the content of their lessons or providing additional reading assignments for students who might need to brush up on a few concepts.  Educators may find that they have a very diverse group of students when it comes to readiness and prior knowledge of the course’s subject matter. Some students may be completely unfamiliar with concepts and others may exhibit partial or complete mastery of certain topics.  The goal of differentiated learning is not to raise or lower standards for different groups of students but to provide learning opportunities that are appropriate and effective  for each student, providing methods for understanding a concept and absorbing new information.    Process The process level of differentiated learning further emphasizes students’ unique backgrounds, traits, and experiences while focusing on different learning styles. Instruction at many universities has often followed a one-size-fits-all approach, mostly through the delivery of lectures. It was very instructor-centric rather than student-centric.  Differentiation gives instructors that chance to focus on the individual, to ensure that each learner can achieve their fullest potential. Students’ culture, socioeconomic status, language, gender, motivation, ability, disability, previous educational experiences, interests, and many other factors have shaped them to create totally unique learners.  Taking into account different learning styles, educators can help students by working with them to develop tailored study plans or by varying content delivery methods through things like reading assignments, lecture, active learning, peer learning, and so on.   Product The product level of differentiation is understood as what each student produces at the end of a lesson or course to demonstrate mastery of content. This can take the form of tests, evaluations, projects, reports, or other assessments.  Instructors should think about what they expect students to show and accomplish on each assignment and at the end of the course. They should ask themselves how they might change their grading scale and expectations, acknowledging that each student starts from a different place and that progress is the main goal. Might you choose to grade on a curve or award students points for showing their work? With differentiated learning, students should have the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned in various ways; again, it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach.    Tips for Scaling Differentiation in Large Courses Implement one small change. Educators can start small. In a recent webinar about academic integrity, Cindy Albert from the University of Wisconsin-Eau-Claire advocated that faculty start by making one small change when seeking to level up their teaching. This can also apply to differentiation.  Use learning platforms (ed tech) that deliver personalized learning experiences. Learning Curve in Macmillan Learning’s digital learning platform Achieve offers students a more personalized learning approach.  Aggregate the data using tools like Achieve and iClicker. Achieve offers Goal Setting and Reflection Surveys, and iClicker can be used to take pulse checks with exit surveys, allowing instructors to quickly see in aggregate what some common needs are across students, and to drill down to the exact student-level needs.  Have you implemented differentiated learning in your classroom? Let us know in the comments below. ... View more

It’s become more and more common to hear about academic integrity challenges among college educators. Whether it be a perceived increase in students’ academic dishonesty or instructors seeking out new ways to curtail any cheating, the pandemic and increase in remote learning has brought a heightened awareness to an issue that has concerned the industry for decades. With readily available digital tools -- like cell phones, group chats, and multiple tabs or screens -- it’s also brought increased suspicion within college classrooms. While the challenges are new, the problem of academic dishonesty is not. International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) founder Dr. Donald McCabe found that more than 60 percent of students admit to cheating in some way while in college -- both in his initial research in the 1990s and in subsequent studies. There are, however, resources and tools available to teachers and institutions to encourage academic integrity and help dissuade students from cheating or being dishonest.  But what exactly is academic integrity? The ICAI defines it as a commitment to six fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage. Academic dishonesty, on the other hand, happens when there’s cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, or falsification, and it happens for a variety of reasons. While some students are worried about grades, others succumb to peer pressure and yet others just take advantage of an opportunity that is presented to them. There’s no one silver bullet to fixing the problem.  There is one other important category -- the students that may not even be aware that what they’re doing is dishonest; this has less to do with cheating and more to do with offering students the support they need in order to succeed. In a recent conversation blog about the state of academic integrity, Dr. Camilla Roberts, Kansas State University Director of the Honor and Integrity System, and Cindy Albert, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Associate Director Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning spoke directly about the support students need. Teachers, colleges, students, and we at Macmillan Learning all want the same thing -- which is to see students succeed. Academic dishonesty can be a major barrier to accomplishing that goal, with consequences extending well beyond getting caught. For example, students construct an understanding of a topic, in large part, based on prior knowledge of it. When academic dishonesty is involved early on, students may not acquire the knowledge necessary to connect the dots with future lessons or more advanced courses. Free & Low-Cost Tools and Resources for Academic Integrity Some tools for detecting dishonesty have been around for quite some time -- like software that allows professors to identify whether or not students’ writing has been plagiarized -- others are quite new. But supporting academic integrity should be more than just finding an EdTech tool to catch cheating and punishing the cheaters. In fact, uncovering academic dishonesty is just one of several ways to consider the topic. The other, which may be even more effective, is to proactively support academic integrity. With a goal of offering tools that educators can use to teach students about academic integrity and help create a learning environment that supports it, Macmillan Learning has compiled a list of free and low-cost resources and tools that support the journey: Create support services. Writing labs or tutoring services encourage both academic integrity and student success by supporting persistence and helping to eliminate one of the causes of cheating -- students' low confidence in their understanding of the materials. With academic assistance, students are more likely to persist and succeed in college, according to recent research from the Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental Education Associations. Events and activities that promote education and transparent dialogue around academic integrity. It’s not just  instructors who can play a part -- colleges, non-profit organizations, and leading educational technology and publishing companies have a role to play as well. The International Center for Academic Integrity promotes and supports academic integrity & integrity of the academy, and often hosts events and activities on their social media, including Twitter.  Other examples include UC San Diego’s series of events and activities in support of academic integrity, including a mentorship program, integrity awareness week, and contests. Macmillan Learning is also hosting three free webinars in October about the topic, which you can register for here. Get to know your students. When instructors build a strong connection with their students, those students can be less inclined to engage in dishonest behavior because they’re more likely to ask for help when they need it most. A degree of trust and mutual respect is required for this, and it can be built with a little extra effort. Make it a point to get to know your students. Learn their names, encourage them repeatedly to attend office hours, and remind them that you are a resource for them. Investigate misconduct. Unfortunately, proactive measures to support academic integrity don’t always work. There’s no way to eliminate every instance of cheating or prevent every form of plagiarism. It is important to report suspected violations to your institution for investigation. Students may engage in dishonest behavior at higher rates when violations go unreported because they have not experienced any consequences.  Low-stakes quizzing. Many students engage in dishonest behavior because they feel immense pressure to do well in a course or on a single assignment. Nearly every student wants to succeed but when so much of their grade depends on only a handful of assessments, they might turn to dishonesty in an attempt to ensure that success. Frequent, low-stakes assessments can be a great way to check students’ knowledge and progress to identify areas where additional review is needed and to provide them with more opportunities to make the grade. Another tool to consider is authentic assessment, which asks students to apply what they have learned to a new situation; many assignments within Achieve can be adapted to include elements of authentic assessment. Further, the student engagement system iClicker supports frequent, low-stakes assessment and student engagement through active learning. Model behavior. Students look to their instructors for guidance, not just information. One way that you can encourage academic integrity in your students is to model it for them. Source and cite your course materials the way that you expect your students to on their assignments. Answer students’ questions with the same honesty and integrity that you expect them to answer yours. Show students how to cite their sources by teaching them to use documentation advice in their handbooks/textbooks and taking time to have specific lessons on citation practices in your discipline. And when you set an expectation with students, follow through as consistently as possible. We’re often surprised by how much our students don’t know about academic integrity. They may not understand the boundaries of plagiarism. By modeling integrity, you can help students learn how to be good, honest scholars.  Plagiarism review: This type of tool is available in modern courseware, including Achieve for English courses. It works two ways -- students can check their drafts for potential plagiarism and instructors can use it to check work after it’s been turned in. For example, if a writing instructor chooses to enable Achieve’s Source Check feature, students can check their drafts for possible issues with their use of sources and receive instruction that helps them evaluate and fix any problems. Services like Grammarly and Turnitin are also used by colleges and universities to check the integrity of students’ work. Review your institution’s honor code and set your own class policies. Every institution has a code of academic integrity, an honor code, or a code of conduct that clearly outlines the college or university’s expectations of students, potential violations of the code, and consequences for violating the code. Whether you choose to include it in your syllabus or dedicate time on the first day of class to reviewing it, or both, it’s important to remind students that they have agreed to the honor code. You can take additional measures by setting your own class policies for academic integrity and making your students aware of them. Students may have a great deal of motivation to engage in dishonest academic behavior, and possibly countless opportunities to do so. Techniques and tools that center transparency and academic honesty can help deter some of the most common forms of dishonesty. Have you used any of these techniques in your courses? ... View more

Andrea Lunsford, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor, Emerita, Stanford University“Everything’s an argument,” says Andrea Lunsford, co-author of the eponymous book. If you disagree, she’ll ask you to provide her with an example. “What’s something that you don’t believe is an argument?” she’ll ask. Then she’ll argue that whatever example you provided is, indeed, an argument. She wins every time. She’s never yet been stumped.  “But, it’s not about winning,” she’ll tell you next. There are so many purposes for arguing, and winning is way down at the bottom of the list. Andrea will encourage you to think about the consequences of our arguments–what do we learn from arguments? “We also argue to explore,” she’ll say, “but mostly to understand things. Even meditation and prayer are forms of argument with oneself–to better understand oneself.” This month’s Macmillan Learning Author Spotlight series features the co-author of Everything’s An Argument, Andrea Lunsford, who recently led a workshop titled “Teaching (Ethical) Argument Today” with our Bedford New Scholars. I met virtually with Andrea earlier this summer to learn more about her career as an educator and author, and to hear how retirement is treating her.   July 26, 2022 – It’s a beautiful midsummer Tuesday–depending on where you live. Even Americans’ favorite topic of smalltalk–the weather–is an argument. While large swaths of the country endure relentless heat, it’s pleasantly cool on the Northern California coast. Andrea spends this crisp morning harvesting vegetables from an organic community garden. Today she harvests broccolini, squash, and the first potatoes of the season. The members of the community call the garden “Posh Squash.”  Andrea works in the garden every Tuesday. Her shift begins at 8:30 in the morning and ends thirty minutes past noon. Though today she must cut that short. Her interview with me begins at one o’clock sharp, and she needs to rush home to freshen up.  She’s punctual, joining the call right on time. We spend the first few minutes discussing the pronunciation of our Germanic last names. We’re both fascinated with language. I learn that her niece-in-law speaks six languages, which provokes a short discussion about code-switching. I’ve the feeling we could spend hours talking about our mutual interests, but our time today is limited.  We begin discussing Andrea’s own education journey. Did she always know she wanted to be a teacher? When I ask her this, she tells me she was always an avid reader and writer as a young girl. “I used to make my brother and two sisters take lessons from me,” she says, “and when we went to the five-cent movies, I would make them walk in a line behind me,” she adds with a smile.  Growing up in a very segregated and restrictive society, Andrea learned early the liberatory potential of literacy. Born in Oklahoma, her family moved to Eastern Tennessee after her father was rejected from World War II because of his flat feet and poor eyesight. After he secured a job with an aircraft corporation and became an accountant, the family moved to St. Augustine, Florida.  “I couldn’t imagine going anywhere other than my state school,” Andrea says. So, she enrolled at the University of Florida, where she completed both her bachelors and masters degrees in English. While she was interested in pursuing her Ph.D., her advisor, whom she describes as an old, white man, told her that she should go home, get married, and have children. “At the time, I wasn’t offended,” Andrea says.  Andrea did go home after that, but she didn’t become a stay-at-home mother and housewife. Instead, she started teaching. “I taught every grade from seventh through twelfth,” she tells me. “Juniors and seniors were some of my favorite ages to teach,” she says, “though I liked teaching juniors a bit more because they aren’t yet jaded and don’t have senioritis,” she jokes. Andrea also believes that anyone who teaches middle school is a superhero. “Teaching seventh graders always felt like a battle; either they were going to kill me or me them,” she adds.  While continuing to teach high school English, Andrea also began teaching night classes at a community college. “It was then that I started to think more about my advisor telling me that I couldn’t get a Ph.D.,” she says, “and I started to become angry about it.” She started looking at schools, and decided to apply to The Ohio State University in order to study under Edward Patrick Joseph Corbett, author of Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student. It was Corbett’s book that really sparked Andrea’s interest in the study of rhetoric. After spending a short time on the waitlist, Andrea was admitted and arrived in Ohio in 1972. “This was during the height of significant political and social unrest,” she says. “There were many protests and conflicts, and the Kent State Killings were only two years prior.” It was this time of Andrea’s life that instilled an ongoing interest and enthusiasm for feminist scholarship and writing about women’s issues. “I’ve always wanted to teach young people how to speak and write with power–to have agency and take control of their own lives through discourse,” she says.  Andrea retired a few years ago, but she continues to speak to many students during virtual classes, conferences, webinars, and workshops. “What I miss most about teaching is the students,” she says. When I ask her about her experience with the Bedford New Scholars, she tells me she most loved hearing about their own work. “These students are working on exceptionally interesting projects and implementing really innovative teaching strategies.”  Students often have just as much to teach their teachers as the teachers have to teach them. Andrea shares with me a recent instance when a student really made her think. “I gave a talk at UC Irvine about writing style, and this young man asked me how he could make his sentences sing,” she says. “That was one of the best questions I have ever been asked. It’s certainly possible to make a sentence sing; we all know one when we see it.”  Andrea enjoys the stylistic part of writing, and she credits many women and especially women of color for creating more freedom in academic discourse. She quotes Maya Angelou, who said “I love a sentence,” and she tells me about Gloria Anzaldúa. “Gloria told me that early in her career she was strongly discouraged from genre mixing, which is something she became quite known for,” Andrea says. “She had an old, white male professor at the University of Texas who did then encourage her to write as she wished, and that gives me hope for the world.”  Writing Everything’s An Argument was one of the highlights of Andrea’s career. She tells me that her co-author, John J. Ruszkiewicz, had students that were complaining about their argument book, and so they decided to write their own. Their book is designed to help students understand and analyze the arguments around them as well as create their own. Sounds like a good skill to me since, as Andrea has now taught me, everything’s an argument. Andrea tells me the most fun she had was developing the Hume Center for Speaking and Writing at Stanford University. There wasn’t an existing writing center when she first arrived at Stanford in 2000, and she didn’t want to institute a new curriculum without one. “We could make it however we wanted to,” she says enthusiastically. “But, we wanted it to first and foremost be a place for the celebration of writing.”  In the beginning, the center sponsored higher-level writing seminars that brought in a far larger audience than expected. “We learned quickly that we needed more room because so many people showed up,” she says. “Eventually, we started hosting writer’s nights, the Stanford Spoken Word Collective, tea parties for multilingual students, parents’ night during parents’ weekend, where parents and students could read together, music nights… everything you could think of!” Photos from "Posh Squash" Community Garden Andrea tells me how much she misses spending time at the center. She always used to conduct office hours there, and she tutored thousands of students during her time at Stanford. Nevertheless, retirement has certainly allowed her to pursue other hobbies and interests, including tending to the community garden.  Andrea stays plenty busy. She tells me she goes to the gym three times a week. “Though I’m not a regular gym rat,” she says. “I’m a gym swan because I don’t sweat,” she jokes. Her nephew will come for a visit later this afternoon. If the good weather holds, which it surely will, they may enjoy a walk along the beach.   Andrea Lunsford, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor of English emerita and former Director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University, joined the Stanford faculty in 2000. Prior to this appointment, she was Distinguished Professor of English at The Ohio State University (1986-2000) and, before that, Associate Professor and Director of Writing at the University of British Columbia (1977-86) and Associate Professor of English at Hillsborough Community College. A frequent member of the faculty of the Bread Loaf School of English, Andrea earned her B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Florida and completed her Ph.D. in English at The Ohio State University (1977). She holds honorary degrees from Middlebury College and The University of Ôrebro. Andrea's scholarly interests include the contributions of women and people of color to rhetorical history, theory, and practice; collaboration and collaborative writing, comics/graphic narratives; translanguaging and style, and technologies of writing. She has written or coauthored many books, including Essays on Classical Rhetoric and Modern Discourse; Singular Texts/Plural Authors: Perspectives on Collaborative Writing; and Reclaiming Rhetorica: Women in the History of Rhetoric, as well as numerous chapters and articles. For Bedford/St. Martin’s, she is the author of The St. Martin's Handbook, The Everyday Writer, and EasyWriter; the co-author (with John Ruszkiewicz) of Everything’s an Argument and (with John Ruszkiewicz and Keith Walters) of Everything’s an Argument with Readings; and the co-author (with Lisa Ede) of Writing Together: Collaboration in Theory and Practice. She is also a regular contributor to the Bits teaching blog on Bedford/St. Martin’s English Community site. ... View more

The first few weeks of classes are cruising, and your students aren’t yet snoozing. Either they haven’t yet lost that new-school-year excitement, or your active learning strategies are keeping them engaged–perhaps a mix of both!  Active learning requires that students learn by doing; they aren’t only passive observers of class lectures. Instead, instructors create an environment in which students are able to practice their understanding of course material and develop skills by actively participating.  Active learning not only improves student engagement; it also increases student performance. According to a 2014 meta-analysis of 225 previous studies, the implementation of active learning techniques correlated with students earning nearly half a letter grade higher on test scores in science, engineering, and mathematics.  Active learning works, which is why many instructors are already using these five active learning strategies in their classrooms: Asking students to work through problems in class. This can include solving math problems, working through economics concepts such as supply and demand, or responding to an essay prompt.   Assigning group work. Each member of the group can also be assigned a specific task to ensure that all students are actively engaged.  Assigning presentations. When students are asked to present, they’re required to reflect on their knowledge and communicate their understanding. Presentations allow students to practice many skills including task or group member delegation, research, and speaking skills, among others.  Participating in LMS discussion boards. Students are able to share their thoughts about class material and interact with others virtually.  Asking students to facilitate small group discussions. Not all students feel comfortable sharing their ideas in large classes but are more inclined to in small groups.  Exhausted this repertoire of active learning strategies and looking for new techniques to try? No problem! Here are five less commonly used active learning strategies to keep your students engaged through the end of the semester:  Using Case Studies. Case studies provide students with real-world examples of the concepts they’re learning in the classroom and help them contextualize course content. Case studies also provide an easy way to foster collaboration between students by incorporating the common active learning strategies listed above. In-Class Polling. Similar to asking students to work through problems or answer quiz questions, in-class polling gives every student a low stakes way to get involved. In-class polling promotes critical thinking and reflection by asking students questions that are more experiential.  Peer Instruction. Ever heard an instructor say that they finally learned the material by heart because they were tasked with teaching it? The same applies to your students. Having to communicate what you’ve learned with others reinforces your own grasp of the material.  Gamification. It’s time to turn classtime into gametime! Keeping learners engaged can be a challenge, and one solution is to teach through games. You can have your students participate individually or in teams, and you can provide incentives such as points earned for correct answers.  Pre-Class Activities. Unlike regular homework assignments turned in before class and not discussed until graded and handed back to students, pre-class activities require that students come prepared to class with something that will be used during that current class period.  Macmillan Learning’s digital learning platform, Achieve, and iClicker make it easy to implement many of these active learning strategies. Achieve is a comprehensive course management system that’s accessible to students before, during, and after class, and iClicker was designed specifically for student engagement, lending itself to teaching techniques such as interactive games and easy polling.  Have you tried some of these active learning strategies in your classroom or have others not included above? We’d like to hear from you! Let us know about your experiences with active learning strategies in the comments below. ... View more

Dr. Eric Chiang is no stranger to being online and in front of a camera. The Economics: Principles for a Changing World 6e author and instructor was a pioneer in online learning, bringing tech to teachers and students - an environment he was very familiar with well before virtual learning took over during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, his stint on the nationally televised show Holey Moley was when I first met him. Just as I was curious about his time on the show in 2019, I’m curious about what got him to that point. At Macmillan Learning, we recognize that the success of our textbooks and courseware is in large part due to our outstanding authors. With this Author Spotlight series, we offer students and instructors a unique opportunity to better get to know these extraordinary authors, whose remarkable careers and interests often extend far beyond higher education.  There’s so much genuine interest and passion about the world’s economies within Dr. Chiang that helps make Principles for a Changing World the compelling text that it is. Within it, learners can hear his distinct voice speaking to them as they are introduced to economic concepts and the many unique examples from both within the United States and around the world. Economics can be practical Economics doesn’t have to be some pie-in-the-sky, impractical set of concepts. And Dr. Chiang doesn’t teach it that way because he didn’t learn it that way. His journey into economics began when he was just a boy, with everyday lessons from his father, a chemist by trade, who had immigrated from Taiwan in the 1960s. While his father had always been interested in economics, he felt compelled to go with the trend of the time within the Taiwanese culture of coming to the United States and studying either engineering or the sciences. Despite that, his father never lost his interest in economics, and he began to teach Dr. Chiang the principles of it with practical life lessons -- how to be frugal with money, how to save money and how to invest money. “He got me excited because he spoke about it in ways that made sense. Oh, we eat at Wendy's a lot, do you want to own a piece of Wendy's?” Dr. Chiang did want to invest and he saved his birthday money and allowances for some time so that he could invest $100. “He taught me about how companies make profits, how companies work -- and the fact that I owned just a few shares of Wendy's … it felt really exciting.” And it’s that same practical thinking that he uses to teach his students at Florida Atlantic University and the College of Southern Nevada. His interest was further piqued when, in high school, he had the opportunity to take classes at Indiana University South Bend. “Everything I’d learned as a child just sort of formalized into these economic models.” And while he considered pursuing careers in his other interests during his undergraduate years of college, like geography or hotel management, he was always drawn back to economics. “Economics provided a foundation that allowed me to study many other subjects,” he explained with a smile. It was ultimately Game Theory, the study of how and why people make strategic decisions, that took him from the role of student to teacher. As a graduate student at the University of Florida (Go Gators) he was expected to teach an undergraduate class; he saw that Game Theory was an option in the catalog and decided to go for it. It was his first teaching experience, so he over-prepared his lectures, memorizing and scripting them. As it turns out, that wasn’t necessary. “As soon as I stepped into the classroom it became so natural, I absolutely fell in love with it. From that point on, I knew I was going to be a teacher because spending time with my students in the classroom was the highlight of my week.” And while he loved teaching Game Theory, the topic proved to be a specialty and niche subject. So niche that he was having to come up with his own course materials for his students because there wasn’t much out there for him to use. “I wasn't satisfied with the existing textbooks at the time, so I was always using my own content.” And while he went on to customize chapters in other economics textbooks, something was still missing in those textbooks and, well, most others. “One part missing in most books that I wanted was the story behind the concept. For example, most principles textbooks jump right into supply and demand, they jump right into elasticity, and they didn't really start the chapter with ‘Why is this important, and how is this relevant to everyone's life?’, and that was the part that I kept sort of filling in right when I customized the book.” And soon enough, he got the chance to write one on his own terms. At first he began as an accuracy checker and reviewer of an economics textbook written by Jerry Stone, but quickly became more and more involved as a contributor. The two authors had a lot in common, with both Stone and Chiang teaching at public universities catering mostly to non-traditional students, who often took classes at night because they were working during the day or had families. Both believed in teaching practical, usable versions of economics -- Chiang understood just how valuable the students' time was and wanted to help them invest it in their future. To do that, Stone and thereafter Chiang tailored the textbook to the needs of those students with the philosophy of being practical and connecting economics to the real world. “You have to be a little more thorough in your explanations, and you have to provide those additional explanations and examples and connect what we're learning to the real world.” That philosophy may be the reason why the largest population of students using the book are those from community colleges. A global perspective When Chiang began authoring the Principles for a Changing World textbook in 2014, he brought in a wealth of modern examples and global perspectives to create even stronger connections with the students. He also placed a greater emphasis on data literacy, all while still staying true to the original philosophy of being practical and connecting economics with the real world. In writing, he made sure that the text attempted to make connections with every student by offering examples from across various regions of the US and even the world. “Take, for example, sports. We’re not just talking about baseball and football in the examples. We’re also talking about cricket, soccer and field hockey. That makes it more relatable.” Chiang is passionate about international travel and culture, which is evident throughout the textbook. Every chapter of the book has an “around the world” feature, offering a different way to think about economics. “If you look at most other textbooks, if they're talking about something in another country, it is because they're comparing their country with our country. It’s their growth rate vs. ours. For me it's more from an individual perspective -- if you were standing in that country, how would someone in that country solve a problem?” Take, for example, Disneyland in Tokyo. It’s quite different from the Disney World or Disneyland that students in the U.S. are used to. Culturally, in Japan, they are not as interested in thrill rides, like roller coasters, but they love photo taking. “Line management in dealing with scarcity and surplus is different in Japan. The park is so crowded but everyone's having a great time because there's so many characters walking around, and you can always take a picture with them and it's a very fulfilling experience …It's just interesting to see how different countries address different demands, and different cultural differences of what people value and that goes into their decision making. It all goes to show there’s not just one way to solve an economic problem.” Growing up, Chiang never traveled far from his Indiana hometown. So as an adult he makes up for it by trying to visit a new country every year. He wants to bring new examples, ideas and stories to his students, which is how he came up with the idea of his Around the world in 80 hours series which is “a fun way to show the class how economics is all around the world.” I asked him about his favorite spots and he mentioned Japan and Singapore. Although he tends to stay a very short time in each country, his reasoning is that there’s around 200 countries in the world, so he’d like to have a glimpse of as many countries as possible -- his face lights up just thinking about it. His most striking economic lesson was when he traveled to Bhutan, a small agricultural Kingdom in the Himalayas. According to Chiang, while it’s not modern (he did not see a single traffic light in the entire country), it’s one of the safest, healthiest and happiest places in the world. “You know they don't have much, but they live very, very well so to me that's a striking economic example.” “The government doesn't measure their well-being through gross domestic product, which is how every other country measures the size of their country.” Rather, Bhutan has a Gross National Happiness Index comprising of nine domains that include psychological well-being, health, education and good governance, among others. “I think Bhutan offers an example of the opposite of what we think of as societal norms - you don't have to have money or lots of possessions, but you have to have community. And that’s a different way of thinking about the health of a country and its economic well-being.” And that’s what makes Bhutan Bhutan. And what makes each student their own person as well, which is why it’s so important that diversity is not only recognized, but championed. “Everyone faces different circumstances and manages resources differently, and that's what economics is about. How you manage your money and your time is different from how I do it. A lot of it's based on our circumstances and values, and how we grew up, and that's based on cultural diversity,” Chiang said. Students growing up in a small town have vastly different experiences than students growing up in an agricultural community, which differs vastly from those in a large city. And that’s just taking into account population size, let alone ethnicity, background, gender or income, among other factors. And that’s true for the world around us, for our classrooms and also for our textbooks. “In the past century there have been so many prominent economists and Nobel Prize winners that are women and people of color, and we highlight the biographies of many of these important contributors to economics,” Chiang noted. He cited Cecilia Rouse and Phyllis Wallace as examples. He further explained, “People always talk about prominent macroeconomist Milton Friedman, but actually he worked most of his life with Anna Schwartz, who was equally deserving of the Nobel Prize.” Dr. Chiang just finished writing the sixth edition Economics: Principles for a Changing World and notes that it will offer the practical and relevant content that’s been counted on for many years as well as fantastic new features like interactive graphing. But this new edition will offer even more information about diverse economists like Rouse and Wallace and how their contributions have affected our everyday lives -- including the economic decisions we make today. It will also include more stories, just like the Gross National Happiness Index from Bhutan that help students understand different ways of thinking about economics. Until then, you can find Dr. Chiang at FAU, UCS, or somewhere at cruising altitude. ... View more

“One of my passions is to help students succeed,” said Dr. Kevin Revell, author of Introductory Chemistry. “It’s part of what drives me.” During his sixteen-year tenure as a chemistry professor at Murray State University, Kevin has helped many students succeed, and this isn’t limited to his own students. As the author of a popular, introductory level textbook, his passion to help students stretches much further than his own classroom.  Writing a textbook is challenging, as educators work to channel their experience and knowledge into a tool to teach others. Macmillan Learning’s authors are accomplished experts in their fields; often distinguished academics at some of the most reputable colleges, universities, and institutions around the globe; and they also have remarkable careers outside the classroom. They use all of these experiences as practical examples when teaching or writing their books.  Macmillan Learning’s new Author Spotlight series gives students an opportunity to learn more about the educators authoring their textbooks. What have their careers looked like? Did they always know that they wanted to work in higher education? When did they turn from teaching to writing? This month’s spotlight is Kevin Revell, an author whose successes and struggles as a student and teacher have informed the way he teaches and writes today.    Dr. Kevin Revell, Murray State UniversityKevin became interested in chemistry at an early age. He told me he remembers sitting in a tree at eight-years-old trying to figure out what plastic was made of. “It’s not made of wood. It’s not metal. So, what is it?” Kevin said. His developing interest in science continued to grow, and he described everything as “clicking” during his high school chemistry class.  “Most students didn’t like the class,” Kevin said, “but I was fascinated by the material and couldn’t stop asking questions.” Less than two years later, Kevin started his undergraduate career at the University of New Orleans as a chemistry major. Despite his strong interest and enthusiasm for the sciences, he struggled during his first year,  describing this as a formative part of his education that greatly influenced the way he teaches today. It’s an age-old piece of advice that students should visit professors during their office hours. Nevertheless, many students are often hesitant to take them up on their offer. I shared with Kevin that my younger sister recently completed her first year of college as a declared biochemistry major and that she struggled during the spring semester in her Chemistry II course. “Tell her to come to Murray State,” Kevin joked.  Kevin wants his students to take advantage of his and other professors’ willingness to offer one-on-one help. “I know I may look sort of big and scary,” he said with his military-style haircut and two folded U.S. military flags in his office, “but I really want my students to know that they are welcome. I want to see them succeed.”  Kevin told me about a frequent visitor to his office hours. “This young woman took both Chemistry I and Chemistry II with me last year, and she really struggled,” he said. “We spent hours working through problems together on the whiteboard, and she got better and better.” Kevin impressed the importance of working through problems on the whiteboard. “I can better understand students’ thought-processes and see where they get hung up,” he said. “We go through a bunch of whiteboard markers.”  The student Kevin described didn’t take organic chemistry with him, yet she still continued to visit him during office hours for help. “She’s on her way to vet school now,” Kevin said. “It’s gratifying to see students not necessarily know where to begin with a problem and then emerging at the end of a semester or academic year with a really developed cognitive skill set. They know how to tackle big problems and persevere until they make it through.” Kevin described many of his students as being far ahead of where he was at their age. “At nineteen I had no idea what I was doing. These students are going to accomplish things that I never could,” he said. When asked what career Kevin saw himself pursuing as a student, he told me his goal was to obtain his PhD. “I wanted to do high-level research and be a big shot in the field of chemistry,” he said. But, after entering graduate school, he became frustrated with his research and felt he needed to step away for a while to reassess. “I moved to Florida and taught at a high school for one and a half years. That’s where I learned how much I love teaching,” Kevin said.  Kevin and his wife had two small children at the time, and he realized that going back to school was going to be the best option to support his growing family. “So, I returned to school and finished my master’s degree,” he said. “Afterwards, I worked for a couple of years in the pharmaceutical industry. I learned so much chemistry during that time. It’s just such a different world from academia. It’s no longer theoretical, and the stakes are really high.”  Fortunately, Kevin also found a way to continue doing what he loved most during this transitional time – teaching. While working for Eli Lilly, Kevin taught one night a week at Ivy Tech Community College in Indianapolis. “I’d get off work an hour before class, make a quick stop at White Castle for dinner, and then rush over to the community college with a handful of markers and a vague plan!” Kevin said. “I really came to appreciate what a community college does, and the challenges and opportunities that professors have,” he said.  Like many others, 9/11 made Kevin reflect about where he wanted to be and what he wanted to do with his life. “It was always going to be teaching,” Kevin said. An opportunity popped up in Florida, so Kevin and his family made the move back to the Sunshine State. “This little college was just beginning to launch into the physical sciences and build the program from the ground up,” he said. Kevin has fond memories of this time. “Everything was new and there wasn’t much of a budget, so the other teachers and I had to be a little experimental.” Kevin described all the “goofy” stuff they were doing – from dropping bowling balls to measure the acceleration of gravity to using old record players from the school’s library to measure rotation. “We even built our own primitive fume hoods to conduct microscale organic experiments,” Kevin laughed.  Although Kevin was thriving as a teacher, he wanted to complete his PhD. “The experience with my master’s degree left a bad taste in my mouth, and I was very reluctant to go back,” Kevin said. It was a mentor, the provost at the college where he was teaching, who made all the difference. “It’s really valuable to have someone in your life who will tell you the things you don’t want to hear,” he said. “He told me the hard truth – that if I wanted to succeed in academia, going back for the PhD was essential.”  It turned out that the PhD experience was much better than his time as a master’s student. “I ended up working with Professor Ed Turos at the University of South Florida. “He was terrific to work with. He understood that I was an adult, balancing the responsibilities of being a teacher and dad, and that I needed to figure out how to make it all fit,” he said. “He helped me make it fit.” Kevin finished his PhD in 2006 and has been teaching at Murray State University ever since.  While there are many chemistry professors, only a few are writing introductory textbooks for thousands of college students. So, how did Kevin become a textbook author? When I asked him, he told me it was sort of a funny process. “I ended up working with Sapling Learning, doing virtual product demos with colleagues around the country. I was able to build a lot of great relationships and learn about the teaching challenges that my colleagues were facing,” Kevin said. It was through this experience that Kevin met the publisher, Roberts & Company (which eventually merged with Macmillan Learning), and started the Introductory Chemistry project.  “It’s amazing how it all came together,” Kevin said. “Our department chair assigned me the non-majors chemistry course. It was a night class, and I was originally pretty grouchy about it because it was during my son’s basketball season, and I hated missing games. But I fell in love with the class, and have been closely involved with the non-majors course ever since.” Originally, the non-majors class used a textbook that had some gaps in it, so Kevin ended up writing an entire chapter himself to fill those holes. When he was approached by a publisher interested in producing a digital-first textbook, Kevin was already prepared with a writing sample.  After signing his project, Kevin noted, “I had this great team with the energy and know-how to make my vision of helping students succeed a reality,” he said. “I wanted to create digital tools that emulate the ways I work through problems with my students in the classroom and office. I feel we achieved that.”  Another thing that was important for Kevin to consider with his textbook was practicality. “I’ve had the benefit of working in the pharmaceutical industry, so I’ve seen how industrial chemistry really works,” he said. “I want students to have the context they’ll need to succeed in their jobs.” Introductory Chemistry exposes students to a wide variety of different potential career paths for students of chemistry. “I’ve provided chapter introductions that tie in stories from different disciplines – forensic, conservation, archeological, geological, manufacturing – all sorts of different things. There are so many opportunities out there that students aren’t even aware of.”    Kevin Revell teaches introductory, general, and organic chemistry at Murray State University, and also serves as the assistant dean for the MSU Jones College of Science, Engineering, and Technology. A passionate educator, his teaching experience includes high school, community college, small private, state comprehensive, and state flagship institutions. His work encompasses curriculum, technology-enhanced pedagogy, assessment, and active-learning design. He has hosted multiple science education workshops, and is the senior editor for flippedchemistry.com, an online community for college-level instructors implementing active-learning pedagogies. A synthetic chemist by training, his research involves the synthesis and evaluation of functional organic materials. With his wife, Jennifer, Kevin has three children – James, Julianne and Joshua – and two grandchildren. ... View more

Mia Bay, Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of American History, University of PennsylvaniaThere’s little doubt that Americans rely heavily on travel for both work and pleasure. But there’s more to getting from here to there than meets the eye. The recent Black Lives Matter protests highlighted the ways in which racial profiling and discriminatory policing still exist today on America’s roads and highways. This is not new, however, as the transportation inequities that began as far back as the 19th and 20th centuries continue to persist for many Black drivers.  Macmillan Learning employees recently welcomed Freedom on My Mind author and Professor of American History at the University of Pennsylvania Mia Bay to discuss this intertwined history of transportation, segregation, and resistance, which is the topic of her new book, Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance. To help us better understand the ways in which Black passengers and drivers still haven’t fully escaped from the repercussions of Jim Crow laws, Professor Bay encouraged us to travel back in time to look at the broader history of transportation in America, including a closer look at traveling by train, bus, plane, and automobile.    The Railroad “One of the reasons that transportation became so important in the Black civil rights struggle is that the 19th and indeed the 20th century were the golden age of the American railroad,” Professor Bay reminded us. Almost everyone who traveled long distances in the United States did so by train. While this included many African American passengers, train transportation was not very accommodating to these travelers.  “People also often forget that Plessy vs. Ferguson, the landmark Supreme Court case that established the doctrine ‘separate but equal’ in 1896, was about accommodation in railroad cars,” said Professor Bay. Blacks were relegated to second-class cars known as ‘Jim Crow cars.’ “The Supreme Court’s decision made it very difficult to fight a system,” said Professor Bay, “in which separate was supposed to mean equal, but separate is never equal, as we all know from education.”  African American travelers rode in train cars that were visibly inferior to those of their white counterparts. Not only were Jim Crow cars often the smoking or baggage cars, they were often the oldest cars of the train. “They would typically be made of wood,” said Professor Bay, “whereas the other cars of the train were metal. This led to the development of a phenomenon known as the ‘Jim Crow train crash,’ in which virtually all casualties were those riding in the Jim Crow cars.” It was not  until the 1950s that wooden cars were taken out of rotation.    Buses, Planes, Automobiles Early municipal bus lines were known as jitneys, large cars similar to streetcars, that were both white and Black-owned. African Americans needed to develop their own jitney lines because the white-owned jitneys didn’t always pick up Black people. “Even after jitneys were relegated out of existence and replaced by more buses, they continued to not pick up Black passengers,” said Professor Bay. “Though there were reasons for this beyond discrimination. There weren’t necessarily services for Blacks along the road – places where they could go to the bathroom, where they could eat, or where they could spend the night.”  The advent of the automobile gave African Americans more autonomy, but it did not solve many of these problems. “We often think of cars as being private spaces,” said Professor Bay, “and so Blacks sought to escape Jim Crow laws by owning and driving their own cars.” However, according to Professor Bay, cars are highly regulated. “To drive a car and be able to travel anywhere, you need to be able to use service stations, rest stops and hotels. Further, you’re also subject to police scrutiny.”  While service stations weren’t common in the early days of the automobile, when they finally did become more common they weren’t welcoming to Black drivers. “Gas stations were developed largely to appeal to women drivers, and so they were intensely middle-class, white, domestic spaces,” said Professor Bay. Many service stations refused to sell gas to Black drivers, which Professor Bay said she found puzzling during her research for Traveling Black.  Whether traveling by bus or by car, African Americans needed to strategize their routes. “There came about these publications such as The Green Book, which were basically travel guides for African Americans, informing them where they would be able to stop,” said Professor Bay. “A culture developed in which Blacks were sharing a lot of information with each other and planning their trips very carefully, which is sort of a striking contrast to the emerging notion of the ‘open road,’ which other Americans were thinking about.”  Once planes came along, African Americans were hopeful that they would be an escape from Jim Crow laws. Nevertheless, airports were segregated with  separate waiting rooms and bathrooms, and airport restaurants often didn’t serve Black travelers. “Blacks were usually the first to be bumped from a flight if a white passenger needed their seat. This even happened to Ella Fitzergerald when she was supposed to give a concert in Hawaii,” said Professor Bay.  “While the Freedom Riders in the early 1960s eventually brought an end to segregation in airports, on railways, and buses, they did not completely change our society,” said Professor Bay. While fewer people are traveling by bus or train today, Blacks continue to encounter all forms of discrimination on the ‘open road.’ “They pay higher prices for both insurance and cars, which makes them less likely to own vehicles,” said Professor Bay. “And, something we perhaps don’t think about as often is mobility during disasters. Blacks are disproportionately less able to escape from natural disasters.” As an example, Professor Bay drew our attention to Hurricane Katrina.  To learn more about the intertwined history of transportation and segregation, check out Professor Bay’s book, Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance.    Mia Bay (Ph.D., Yale University) is the Roy F. and Jeanette P. Nichols Professor of American History at the University of Pennsylvania. Her publications include To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells; The White Image in the Black Mind: African-American Ideas about White People, 1830–1925; Freedom on My Mind, Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance, and the edited volume Ida B. Wells, The Light of Truth: The Writings of an Anti-Lynching Crusader. She is a recipient of the Alphonse Fletcher Sr. Fellowship and the National Humanities Center Fellowship. An Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer, Bay is a member of the executive board of the Society of American Historians and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of African American History and the African American Intellectual History Society’s Black Perspectives Blog. Currently, she is at work on a book examining the social history of segregated transportation and a study of African American views on Thomas Jefferson.  ... View more

As our working life has evolved over the past two years, I have been thinking about the experiences and jobs I have had throughout my publishing career.   Although I did not necessarily love every job, nor was I the best fit for every one, what I know to be true is that each step built on the last one and each one helped me grow as a person and as a professional. A common thread for me as I built my career has been the ever present role of my mentors. Mentoring is widely considered a critical component to career success, and today, women are focusing much more on networking and mentorship. This often provides help for us as we navigate our lives as working women, and we are better for it.    Throughout much of its early history, the publishing industry had a reputation for being a “gentleman’s profession;” one in which women like the first female newspaper publisher Elizabeth Timothy could only be found behind the scenes. At the turn of the century, women who wanted to work in publishing found themselves in secretarial roles because the editorial roles they coveted were dominated by men. As the 20th Century progressed, the industry started to see editorial positions and other roles open up to women. In fact, a 2019 study on the US publishing industry revealed that 74% of employees are women.  At Macmillan Learning, women are a majority of our employees. Much of the reason for the change can be attributed to support and mentorship of women. Elizabeth Timothy relied on her partnership with Benjamin Franklin to publish the South Carolina Gazette, and many women who had ambitions to work in publishing relied on their connections within the industry to get their first roles. Mentors can be invaluable to helping support and nurture women for a career in publishing, no matter where they are in their career journey. Early in my career I never thought I was ready for the next position. In fact, I remember having to be talked into applying for some new roles. Thankfully, my managers and mentors believed in me. My doubts made me one of the 75% of women who manage their imposter syndrome, second guessing whether I was ready for a new role, and to take the next step in my career. And like 72% of these talented women, I relied on a mentor to help me manage and move past those feelings. And as it turns out, they were right. We all have a part to play in helping women grow and nurture their careers both inside and outside the publishing industry. While informal mentorships are a critical part of growth, they’re just one piece of the mentoring puzzle. More and more, companies are recognizing the significance of having a diverse workplace, and an important part of that is gender equality.  But I didn't just rely on mentors early in my career -- they have helped me progress throughout my career. My mentors have been male and female. But unlike what one would think a typical mentorship looks like, many of these were informal relationships that formed organically. I worked on nurturing those connections by asking questions and seeking advice. As my responsibilities grew, I also grew my network of people I could rely on for advice, for empathy and sometimes some tough talk. Today, I’m paying it forward by being a mentor to other women inside and outside Macmillan Learning. I am part of a Women’s Leadership Network, and I sit on the Board of Directors of the not- for- profit organization Reach Out and Read of Greater NY.   I’m proud that I’m part of the company’s mentorship program, and the Executive Sponsor of Proud@ML, one of the company’s Employee Resource Groups.  This Women’s History Month, I wanted to take a moment to recognize those who have mentored me and countless other women to develop their publishing career. For me, being a mentor has brought such joy and pride helping those early in their careers grow and stretch themselves when they are not sure they can.   For those who might be reticent, I encourage you to think about those that inspire you, or spark your curiosity and start having those organic conversations that can oftentimes grow into lifelong mentorships.   ... View more

When instructors and students are used to in-person learning, the switch to online, remote learning can be a difficult one. It’s not unusual to feel rather disconnected, and it can be a challenge to form meaningful instructor/student and peer relationships. Macmillan Learning’s new digital platform Achieve can help facilitate this sense of community that many might feel is lacking in the virtual classroom.  The Achieve platform includes an interactive e-Book as well as extensive learning materials with pre-class, in-class and post-class activities. In addition to these materials, Professor of Psychology Dr. Michael Poulakis finds the Goal-setting and Reflection surveys to be the biggest advantage of Achieve. Through the use of this key function, Dr. Poulakis feels he can better understand the needs of his students and track their progress throughout his courses. Macmillan Learning asked Dr. Poulakis what other features of the new digital learning platform he found helpful.    What have been some challenges with teaching–especially with online learning–since the pandemic started? How have you addressed them? I think one of the main challenges is knowing how I should reach out to and communicate with my students to make sure that they understand the material. I teach psychology at the University of Indianapolis, so teaching online I need to ask myself: Do they understand the material? And, do they feel safe and comfortable enough to reach out to me if they don’t? Can they raise their hand virtually, so to speak, and say “Dr. P. I need your help with this”? Lastly, can I provide them with the tech experience that they need to be successful students? For me, Achieve has achieved that. Achieve has done that for my students.  How do Achieve and LaunchPad differ? Achieve is LaunchPad on steroids. I think that Achieve is what Windows 10 is to Windows 7. One of the advantages is the ability to do online surveys. This way I can gather some confidence about my students regarding how they feel about the class and their performance. How are they doing? How are they performing? These are the questions I ask myself, and with Achieve, I get data. I get to see what challenges my students face, including individual data from each student based on their responses, and that gives me more information about each student.  Another thing I like about Achieve is the plurality of assignments for each chapter. That is one of the major advantages, and the reason I believe that is because I can use current events, and I can also make sure that I capture different learning styles. That has been very helpful to me.  One part of Achieve that instructors and students have really responded to are the Goal-setting and Reflection Surveys. Are you using those? If so, how has that student information changed your class–for you and your students? I’ve used Goal-setting and Reflection surveys since I started using Achieve. One of the main advantages is that I get additional information about each one of my students. I’m a qualitative researcher, so the ability for me to know what is going on for each student–and I taught a class of 45 students this past semester, dealing with COVID, dealing with financial issues, dealing with relationships, dealing with medical issues, working full time (many of them work full time). The surveys gave me information about how I can best reach them, especially during off-hours when I’m not teaching class to ask them “What can I do for you?” or “How can I help you?” and I think that helped me realize that each one of them had their own particular set of challenges. I think it also reinforced that they can reach out to me, and it gave me a good idea of how they’re doing in class. They respond well to that because you can assign the different surveys throughout the semester, and that gives you data–baseline to an output–about how they’ve done, how they have progressed, and also how successful they feel about reaching their goals.  Why did you first decide to use online tools in your class?  All of my students used digital in high school, and that’s a shift that I have seen. Because of COVID, they’re already predisposed to that model. So for me, in terms of teaching, I knew that I needed to have a robust technology platform like Achieve to reach them. There were no technology issues, and that is such a blessing. I did not have to play tech support; I did not have to refer them to the tech side. The worst problem that happened was for me to teach them how to disable pop-ups and ad-blockers–for Achieve to work–and that was the worst scenario the whole semester.    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. Interested in hearing more from Dr. Poulakis? Register today for the webinar "Connecting with Students to Improve Learning" where he'll share more about his experience using Goal-Setting and Reflection Surveys in Achieve. 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 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

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

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

The way teachers instruct and students learn has changed significantly over the past few years. No factor has had a bigger impact than the pandemic, which emphasized just how important student engagement is and underscored the role that educational technology can play in supporting student success. As these changes were happening, Macmillan Learning launched its new digital learning platform, Achieve.  While some instructors were just starting to embrace new technologies, others -- like Central Florida Psychology Professor Amira Sims -- have been relying on it for many years. She was among the first to transition from the online learning platform LaunchPad to Achieve to better support active learning in her classes. We spoke to her about what teaching was like during the pandemic and about her transition to our new platform. The transition to a virtual classroom was inevitable with the pandemic. What were some of the ways that edtech supported it in your class? My college installed a camera and microphone in my office desk top so that we could teach synchronous online classes or hold office hours remotely. We also had several professional development seminars centered on using technology for education purposes. Using Achieve really helped me to feel confident that although there was no lecture, students were exposed to the information and had an opportunity to play with concepts. How long have you been using online tools in your class, and what helped you decide to embrace the new tech? I have been using online tools in my classroom since 2004. When I first started teaching (as an adjunct) I taught blended classes. Over the years I have only become more and more reliant on web-enhancement in all classes I teach. While campus life has returned to something slightly more normal, how has the pandemic changed the classroom and/or the way you teach? I no longer take roll and I waive the late penalty for all of my classes. I began making videos on a more consistent basis to help students stay on course. How do Achieve and LaunchPad differ? I use Launchpad for my Human Development course and Achieve for my General Psychology course. The main differences I notice is that students in the Development course all praise Learning Curve, whereas students seem to comment more on the activities with Achieve that help them to practice concepts and think critically. In general, Achieve seems to have more activities and a few more tools on the dashboard for the instructor. Most of my students have responded favorably to Achieve.   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

Chris Cardone, Senior Executive Program Manager, reflects on the loss of one of our esteemed authors, Albert Bandura. While he was known for his groundbreaking research in psychology, and is among the most cited in the world, he was also a colleague and a friend. I had the distinct privilege and honor of working with Albert Bandura on his moral disengagement book with Macmillan Learning/Worth. But more than that, I got to know Al as a person – a warm, kind, humble, caring, jovial human being. Here are some of my experiences so that you will know more about him, beyond the Bobo doll.  The first time I met Albert (Al) Bandura was at the Midwestern Psychological Association meeting in 2013. We met for tea before his presentation in the grand ballroom of the Palmer House. My anticipation was overwhelming, palpable, realizing I was about to meet the greatest of all living psychologists. However, Al put me immediately at ease and began talking with me about his ideas for his new book about moral disengagement. Shortly thereafter, he gave the PsiChi Distinguished Lecture to a room packed to capacity and then some -- standing room only and a line out the door.  Dr. Bandura signing a book for a student at MPA, 2013. Afterward, as the publisher of his Self-Efficacy book, Macmillan Learning/Worth hosted a book signing where students and professors lined up for his signature on copies of his books, Bobo dolls, and even translations of his works. The line stretched out the door and around the corridors, as you would imagine. But Al signed every last item with good humor and attention to each person, especially the students. Getting him out of the hotel was like chaperoning a rock star, with people chasing after him all the way to the elevator. A rock star he was! Al would always say, “The Bobo doll follows me wherever I go,” but of course his work goes beyond the Bobo doll and has stretched across many domains, and not just in psychology. His goal was always to apply his theories for human betterment.  When I interviewed him with a film crew at Stanford University for the Macmillan Learning/Worth video series in 2015 (don’t miss it in our LaunchPads!), he was delighted to share how his work has been applied in various ways. For example, he was very proud of his work with the Population Media Center and often spoke of it. The Center created programs and serial dramas showing people acting out scenarios related to family planning, social injustice toward women and girls, climate change, and other issues, all using his research to model positive outcomes in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. He was changing people’s lives for the better.  On May 19, 2016, President Obama presented Dr. Bandura with the National Medal of Science In our interview, he also spoke about his early formative years where he sought resources within very limited socioeconomic conditions. He believed it was the actual beginning of developing a sense of personal agency: He said, “In a way my psychological theory is founded on human agency, which means that people have a hand in determining the course their lives take, and in many respects my theory of self-efficacy is really a reflection of my life path.” I greatly appreciated how Al spoke about fortuity and self-efficacy and I’d like to share his words that have always resonated with me: “…in my theorizing I said there are two ways in which you can exercise some influence on the fortuitous character of life.  One, you can make chance happen by leading an active life and exposing yourself to a lot of different ideas, doing a lot of different things, and so on, so you'll be creating a lot of intersects.  And the second, you can make chance work for you by developing your interests, your competencies, and other personal characteristics so when a fortuitous event occurs, you can take advantage of it.” If you asked Dr. Bandura what he was most proud of, he always talked about what he hoped to pass on to students.  Once after we left a restaurant, a mother and her psych-major daughter chased after us to talk with him. Al delighted in this opportunity to speak with a psychology student!  Al’s final words to the student were: “Whatever you do with your psychology major, make sure you apply it to real life.”  Al Bandura and Chris Cardone after the Medal of Science award at the White House Al was extremely passionate about his latest book on moral agency and moral disengagement, which he completed at the age of 90! Truly a magnum opus, this powerful book explains how people can commit horrible acts and still live with themselves. I marvel at how he develops his theories and the mechanisms by which people selectively disengage from moral behavior. It’s a stunning, thought-provoking work that makes you examine some of the most important issues of our time, such as gun control and climate change. It transformed how I think about behaviors and collective disengagement in today’s world. Dr. Bandura knew that collective human agency and collective efficacy are needed to help save our planet and improve lives across the world. At the end of our interview at Stanford, he said: “…if we want to produce a humane society, we have to have a sense of common humanity.   If you have a sense of common humanity, then you see your well-being as connected to the welfare of others.  And therefore, you have empathy, you have compassion, and so on. So, my final message is one promoting a sense of common humanity.” As Dr. Bandura would say, may the efficacy force be with you.  Read more about his legacy at https://news.stanford.edu/2021/07/30/psychology-professor-albert-bandura-dead-95/  ... View more