From retouching images to digital deep fakes, things aren't always what they seem online. This October, Macmillan Learning hosted a webinar with Bettina Fabos and Christopher Martin, co-authors of Media & Culture, 13th Edition, to share what students need to help them think critically about and better understand manipulated videos and images. Students are becoming more aware of manipulated images, in general. Images that promote impossible beauty standards and funny #Photoshopfails have brought awareness of image manipulation to the mainstream. Often, the fails help to teach students how to spot some of the more egregious manipulated images. In addition to knowing about these images, students are also using photo manipulation tools themselves, like Facetune, Canva, Instagram, Snapseed and TouchRetouch to erase imperfections. Deep fakes are becoming more and more mainstream. It’s not just images we should be concerned about. Synthetic video (also known as a “deep fake”) is a progression of artificial intelligence, and it’s becoming more and more realistic and popular every day. Some experts even argue that deep fake-related AI developments are as important as the internet itself. Easily available apps like Deep Nostalgia make the ability to create a deep fake easily accessible to anyone with a smartphone. There are also lip synching deep fakes, which place lip movements over real video and pair it with “synthetically” generated audio. One example of this is the fake Tom Cruise TikTok that recently went viral. According to Fabos, most tech companies have been involved with AI since 2014. “We’re delegating power and creativity to machines,” she noted. Deep fakes have come a long way in a few years. It used to be painstaking and costly to manipulate videos. For example, Carrie Fisher, known in the Star Wars movies as Princess Leia, was able to appear in The Rise of Skywalker even after her untimely death, but the technology that made that happen cost the studio a great deal of money. Now you don’t need complex graphic models of faces to make this kind of manipulation happen, because AI is doing all of that work. If you create or use manipulated images, it’s possible to lose your job: An LA Times photojournalist was fired for combining two photos into one that changed its meaning. In that case, the photographer admitted that it was a "complete breakdown in judgment," but the offense doesn’t have to be that egregious for there to be consequences: an AP photographer was fired for photoshopping his own shadow out of an image.  There are some “harmless” uses for AI and video manipulation.. Some of these include breaking language barriers with better translations, news delivery, turning back the clock so that aging actors look young again, and the ability to have “conversations” with deceased loved ones. It can also help students with vision disabilities to learn better by using compelling audio, and it can be used to help create automated transcriptions. If you’re thinking that there should be some laws, you’re not alone. Deep fake usage carries all kinds of risks. Some of the more common ones include: being used for extortion or coercion against women, political manipulation and deception, and the threat of society perceiving a real video as being fake. According to Martin, laws are needed for commercial uses of synthetic video, disinformation campaigns, and nonconsensual deep fakes. What this all means is that media literacy is critical. The prominence of image and media manipulation will only increase over time as AI becomes simultaneously more sophisticated and more readily available. Students need to understand the current state and where things are headed, because these issues will impact them. “The relationship between media and truth has always been tenuous.” Fabos said. “In light of these deep fakes, and these deep fake developments, we will need media literacy and the core work of fact checking.”  To learn more about what students need to know about media literacy, check out this free on-demand webinar from the co-authors of Media & Culture, 13th Edition by clicking here to access it. ... View more

This is a story about engagement, motivation, and curiosity. About creating environments in which students can not only learn, but belong. It is not my story. It is formed by the stories we hear from students every day, stories often telling us the same thing in their own way. Over the last two years, those stories commonly recount the individual experiences of having been disengaged from learning throughout the pandemic. The stories are from individuals, but collectively they begin to sound like a thunder that has been building for some time on the horizon and is now over your home.  My home is Macmillan Learning where I have spent the last twenty years working, thinking, and engaging with ideas that support student learning and effective teaching practices. At no time have we felt a greater responsibility to the students and educators that we serve than we do today.  This responsibility, and the weight that we bear with it, is a coalescence of factors -- many of them exacerbated by pandemic learning in the last two years. Pre-pandemic, the trends towards hybrid learning were well-substantiated and the shift of educational solutions companies towards effective practices in digital pedagogy has been proceeding at a steady pace. Educators have long been partnering with groups like Macmillan Learning to provide a fuller digital experience for their students; we are now over a decade into the common usage of learning platforms inside and outside the classroom that provide learning opportunities in the form of interactives, video activities and simulations, and animations coupled with formative assessment practices.  Today, we are exploring learning opportunities in ways that were uncommon when I first began my career:  the close partnerships with instructors as we co-design products for their classrooms; the presence of more and more former educators on our full-time staff; and increasing possibilities unlocked when students inform their own learning journey. More so, we are pressed to take steps beyond our content to deliver upon a promise for a better learning experience and a better educational environment within our programs. And that’s where I come back to the stories of students -- and stories about engagement, motivation, and curiosity -- and the ways that we can improve upon an imperfect situation. Importantly, at Macmillan Learning, we’re focusing on the student in ways that reach beyond the content they learn. We are delving deeper into the motivation and sense of belonging (or lack thereof) that is inherently linked to their success.  Research from peer-reviewed journals has demonstrated that students who feel an increased sense of belonging on their campus and within their classes tend to persist through their courses and ultimately to graduation at a higher rate. We are using that research as the basis to create new opportunities for students to build their sense of belonging when interacting with and utilizing our programs. To ensure we are successful in this effort, our learning science team partners with institutions that serve students who traditionally have a lower sense of belonging so their experiences inform the programs we create to support them. .  As we continue the launch of our new learning platform, Achieve, it will be students' engagement with skill-building tools, support for self-regulated learning, and the development of their sense of belonging that pairs so importantly with their ability to see themselves in the content of their course.  And we are exploring the degree in which  these two factors are linked: whether a sense of belonging can create an environment that draws upon a student’s inherent sense of curiosity but perhaps only to a limited effect if they cannot see their experience in the content of the course. Or as our authors and editorial teams continue to create diverse content and pedagogical structures that are inclusive and culturally responsive, we are investigating whether the learning experience will become more equitable as each student develops a sense of belonging that will propel them to succeed.  The stories that motivate us each day are the stories we hear from students, and each of them provides us with another opportunity to take forward our mission to be a leading contributor to student success through student engagement. And we will never tire of the things we learn from working directly with students and educators, not as long as those stories are being told, being shared, and remain the source of inspiration for all of us at Macmillan Learning. ... View more

Three quarters of Dr. Edna Ross’ students started the semester vaccinated. How does she know this? iClicker. Over the years, instructors have come up with new and interesting ways to use iClicker in their classes. Far from being just Dr. Edna Ross a polling app, iClicker can be used for attendance, asynchronous polls, and low-stakes quizzing -- or for questions you want to surface in your course, like learning whether or not students were vaccinated and why. And it all can be done anonymously. At the start of the Fall semester, the Psychology Professor used iClickers as an 'icebreaker' on the first day of class, asking, among others questions, for students to anonymously self- identify as fully vaccinated, planning to get vaccinated/has at least one dose, or not vaccinated against COVID-19. The 75% vaccination rate in her classes was an accurate reflection of what was taking place on college campuses nationally, with the majority of college students and staff being vaccinated against the virus. The anonymous poll offered insights into her students' thinking and demonstrated an important lesson for the psychology students about consequences.  Students’ reasons for getting the vaccination included reducing their risk of severe COVID-19 and passing the virus as well as wanting to go about their day-to-day activities with less risk. Further, many didn’t want to quarantine for two weeks if they had been exposed to someone they later found out was infected -- something that was required on campus. Students reasons for not getting the vaccination varied from distrust of the government due to the Tuskegee Syphilis study run by the US Public Health Department (read more about that here), mistrust of “Big Pharma”, that the vaccination was too rushed, or the belief that too many FDA approved drugs were recalled because of negative side effects. For these students, the cons had outweighed the pros of being vaccinated. Ultimately, the anonymous iClicker poll about vaccinations wound up encouraging more students to get vaccinated. There were two reasons for this. First, they were able to see that being vaccinated was normalized and something that the majority of students had agreed to. Second, because there were consequences of their choice that impacted their learning experience. “Quarantine meant they missed work in all their classes. My syllabus outlines the allowances I make for missed assignments for all students, but I do not give quarantined students any special considerations,” Dr. Ross noted. While unvaccinated students had to quarantine for two weeks if exposed to anyone with COVID whether or not they had symptoms, fully vaccinated students did not have to quarantine if they weren't experiencing symptoms. Contact tracing forced almost all of the unvaccinated students out of class for quarantine at one time or another. While vaccinated students rarely had to quarantine, some unvaccinated students had to quarantine for two consecutive periods of time.  This meant students missed class work in all their courses for a month!  A daunting situation for any student. This is only one of the many interesting ways that iClicker is being used during the pandemic to support student engagement and success. One instructor is also using it for contact tracing in her large enrollment class; to learn more about that, click here. To learn more about the benefits of iClicker, click here. ... View more

As I begin to see colleagues face-to-face in our offices as they slowly return to normal, I am reminded of a pre-pandemic session with an author who claimed the fidelity of learning and communicating face-to-face was billions of times higher than online. Oh, how that assertion has been both felt, and tested, in the last 18 months as educators scrambled to deal with the abrupt digitalization to connect with learners, and we quickly worked to support their efforts.  The last 18 months has been a period of new stresses, new social change, and profoundly more time to ourselves. With all that time, it is clear that people have not only been reevaluating where they work, but also “why” they work. Throughout my career I have had several different answers to the question of “why” I would enjoy working with one employer and team versus another. What I learned ultimately was -- the mission matters.  Early in my career I worked in finance, but was quickly drawn into a reengineering effort that involved software technology meant to streamline and transform a number of internal processes. I was suddenly excited by how much more effective and efficient we were, and saw firsthand how software could radically change things. With my new passion for technology, my “why” shifted to helping others solve problems with technology and my passion evolved into supporting learning. Over time, I really gained a passion for the outcomes of improving teaching and learning, the “why” was less about me and positions or money and more about doing some good. When I joined Macmillan Learning I was struck by both a sense of fun, and a gentle but deep seriousness about our roles in improving the lives of others, not only in our content and products, but also in how we connect with society and care for each other internally. The company’s mission was exactly what I was passionate about, and it shows in everything we do and how we work. At Macmillan Learning, we methodically learn. There’s a humility we take on every day with our focus of “test and learn”, looking at data from the market, from impact research, from customer feedback..  We sometimes fail, but we hopefully always adapt. We’re transparent about it, we’re brave -- who else publishes product research while in Beta for the scrutiny of customers as well as competitors? Our leaders consciously and intentionally nurture a culture of trust and respect - really we demand it of ourselves and each other. Our leadership team demonstrably shows greater trust in each other than I have seen before. To me, all of that lines up against working toward our mission. Together. Doing better is an encompassing “why” for me now, but I believe “doing better” is only part of the mission at Macmillan Learning. Doing better means supporting our technology team members to be strong owners and customer experience advocates, supporting our customers directly, and partnering with our product and learning science teams to support the development, testing, and validation of hypotheses we have on improving teaching and learning.  So for those of you who may be job seekers that are looking for your next opportunity during this time of great change, I encourage you to think about your own “why”. There are many reasons people work in tech, but for me, finding work in tech that supports a learning mission has been infinitely rewarding. So think about why you work, the impact you want to have on your own lives as well as the lives of others, and how you can do better. It made all the difference for me in my career. And if our mission and values align with your why’s, consider working at a mission-driven company like ours. Come ready to continue to learn!   ... View more

Loneliness is on the rise and has been since the early 2000s. With ongoing concerns about students’ mental health during the pandemic, it’s more important than ever to address the root of the problem: the lack of interpersonal communication.  Why are students more lonely and unhappy than ever? Research from psychologist and Macmillan Learning author David Myers found that while some factors like religion, volunteering and fitness have a slight impact on happiness, the thing that makes the most impact is having satisfying relationships. Not just romantic relationships, but also connections with friends, family, co-workers, and fellow students. The way to develop these meaningful, and sustaining relationships is interpersonal communication.   It’s challenging to address lack of interpersonal communication when students are more dependent than ever on technology in many aspects of their lives -- from their regular access to social media to their remote classes while they were confined during the pandemic. The screen that has allowed them to connect with people is simultaneously isolating them as well as becoming a scale for self esteem (which is a concept worthy of an entire blog.) But there are steps instructors can take to help students to establish and enhance interpersonal communication in and beyond the classroom. According to Steven McCornack, Professor at University of Alabama at Birmingham, “Sustaining relationships is a mental health imperative and interpersonal comms is a way to address it.” Last week’s webinar about interpersonal relationships in a post-COVID world with professors and authors Steven McCornack and Kelly Morrison, Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham hosted by Macmillan Learning introduced some steps that instructors can take both in and out of the classroom to help develop these skills in students. While some tips are specific to Communication classes, others can be used in just about any class. Here are eight tips: Don’t start the semester with a “syllabus day.” Steven and Kelly start out class with a question:  “What is the most important thing that drives your life’s happiness.” This helps develop community within the class and gets the students to start talking. And, for their class in particular, it’s helpful to lead into the content as to why their course on interpersonal communication is important. Use name tags in class for in-person classes. While many students can identify the faces of the other students in their class, not as many are familiar with their names. Having name tags is like opening a door to say hello, and continues throughout the semester to create community. Have music on before class. Having music creates an environment that encourages conversations. Steven consults his son on a playlist so that he has the most current music on, whereas Kelly prefers more upbeat music. No matter the kind, music is a great conversation starter. Gently push students not to use devices. While the screen enables students to connect with each other in the digital space, it is also very isolating -- and not just because students are looking down at their devices instead of engaging with their surroundings hindering conversations. Research correlates social media consumption and social isolation; it’s possible to plot someone's feelings of isolation by monitoring the amount of time per day they spend on social media, in large part because they’re doing social comparisons and feeling worse about themselves. Use the “introduce yourself to a stranger” assignment. This assignment asks students to introduce themselves to a specified number of people they hadn’t met before either every day or every week. The assignment aspect of it gives students a valid excuse for approaching someone they didn’t know and starting a conversation, helping to remove some of the shyness and intimidation some students may feel. This has led to many students finding common interests or even making new friends, helping them to feel less lonely. Advise students about Self-Discrepancy Theory. The theory purports that self esteem, in large part, derives from how we compare ourselves to two standards -- who we believe we should be and what we believe the ideal is. Students’ own self concept will benefit when they are mindful of their inputs, and understand that social media should not function as a scale for self esteem because many things being posted are fictional and non-attainable. Empower students to know that they alone have the power to change the comparisons, as they reside in their own thoughts. Help get conversations started. Students can engage with each other in discussion boards or in breakout rooms, giving them the ability to connect with and learn from each other. Instructors can use ice-breaker questions like “what would the title of your life’s story be, and why” to allow students to better get to know each other. Use video. In addition to being more efficient than sending emails back and forth for hours on end, video conferencing with students helps to build connections with instructors and each other. Instructors can meet with students individually or in small groups. In asynchronous classes, video introductions can be used to allow students to get to know each other and discover common interests.  As an Interpersonal Communication instructor, Kelly opens her classes by underscoring the importance of having sustaining relationships, and the steps outlined above are some ways to nurture their development, but that’s just one of many options. These eight ideas are some of many designed to help support the development of interpersonal communication -- leading to happier and more successful students. The close relationships that students develop, more than money or fame, are what keep people them throughout their lives. “The way that students can get there is through interpersonal communication,” she noted. To watch the full webinar and access the slide deck, click here. To learn more about Steve and Kelly’s new edition of Reflect and Relate: An Introduction to Interpersonal ... View more

As Macmillan Learning began planning our return-to-office and travel protocols, we realized that many employees were seeking factual, unbiased, and non-politicized information about COVID-19 and the vaccines.  As an education and information company, we believe we have a role to play in helping to reduce misinformation.  That’s why we work in partnership with outstanding educators and researchers in their field who can provide clarity on the science behind the pandemic. Macmillan Learning President Susan Winslow united a team to create a new information site for the company’s employees and others to help explain and educate. You can reach the site here.  The fully accessible resource site communicates the facts as we know them today, and includes curated content including research, reviewed articles, responses to frequently asked questions in text, art, and video. We recognize that the news is changing rapidly so we are committed to updating content as needed with new and expanded information.  We are grateful to the team of Macmillan Learning employees and our first group of authors - Principles of Life author Dr. David Hillis, Kuby Immunology authors Drs. Jennifer Punt and Sharon Stranford - for their willingness to contribute to our mission to inform and educate. To learn more about COVID-19, visit the site https://covid19.macmillanlearning.com/.  ... View more

A New Way to Use iClicker: Contact Tracing in Large Enrollment Classes Over the years, instructors have come up with new and clever ways to use iClicker in their classes. Far from being just a polling app, iClicker can be used for attendance, asynchronous polls, and low-stakes quizzing -- and now for contact tracing. How one professor used iClicker for student contact tracing When her university asked instructors to keep attendance to protect the students and college community, Professor Christy Bagwill, an Instructor and Coordinator for Organic Chemistry and Principles of Chemistry Laboratory Courses at Saint Louis University, came up with the idea to use iClicker. In her large-enrollment class, she came up with a creative solution that allows students flexibility to sit where they wanted, but offers a reliable way to identify and alert students if they’ve been exposed. Essentially, Professor Bagwill decided to use iClicker’s polling functionality - specifically the short answer option - to have students respond with their table location as the first question in class every day, that way she captured their attendance and seating location in one easy step. She shares more about this new method and how it came about in the first of our series discussing how iClicker is helping to solve problems caused by the pandemic. The university asked you to keep attendance and map where students were sitting for COVID contact tracing purposes. What made you think of using iClicker? And how did you set this up? I have been using iClicker in my large enrollment lecture class for several years.  I usually use the platform to give in-class quizzes or just a check to see where the class is on a topic.  I will give some multiple choice or true/false questions, but other times I will ask the students to enter a short numerical/alphabetical response. Honestly I haven’t used iClicker in the past to take attendance, I just give unannounced quizzes and that keeps student attendance high, but I knew that the attendance option was a popular usage for other instructors.  I think it was my familiarity with iClicker that helped cultivate the idea.   When the university made the announcement, the first thing that came to mind was attendance paired with a short answer question asking students to identify their seat location. I was just unsure how to retrieve individual answers to short questions so I contacted my Macmillan Learning team to see what options were available.   As we were planning how to take attendance and record seating charts, many options were floated by faculty members. Most included assigned seats, so seating charts would only have to be made one time in the semester. This freed the instructor to just take attendance, which can easily be done using a Google form. However, it was apparent to me that having students in a large enrollment lecture course complete a Google form for each class period would be a daunting task -- also, I teach freshmen and I knew that their group of friends would fluctuate throughout the semester. I wanted to be able to mirror what was happening outside the learning environment, inside the classroom. I wanted to give them the freedom inside the class to choose who they sat with at their tables, who was in their groups during active learning sessions. So to that end, I decided to use iClicker to just run a short answer question, asking students for their seating location. It allowed me to capture attendance and seat location, as well as give students the flexibility to sit where & with whom they wanted. Ultimately, I had decided to use iClicker in the classroom so the addition of one short answer question just made sense. Have you had any COVID scares where you needed to reference your contact tracing data (attendance/seat maps)? If so, how did it go?  So far in my class we have not had any scares that I needed to provide the data but if needed it is there.  We are a highly-vaccinated campus and masks are required in buildings/classrooms. What advice would you give to others looking to do contact tracing with iClicker?  Our biggest struggle in a large enrollment lecture class was labeling seating locations. In my particular room, we labeled each table round with an element symbol so all students had to do was enter a one or two letter response. Other advice I would give would be to remember to download your attendance/short answer data and have it easily accessible, as the turn around for contact tracing is around 12 hours. Also, I would recommend having enough access points for our wifi, so students don’t have a problem connecting to the app to enter answers. How have your students responded to this level of safety/monitoring? Our students have responded very well to this level of safety/monitoring using the mobile app. Most seem to appreciate the flexibility to sit where they want to for the class. How else has COVID changed teaching and learning in your classroom? We originally had to remove most of the active learning modules in the curriculum, but we have returned that now. I teach using partial-flipped pedagogy, so it hasn’t changed significantly now that we are back in-person. I record pre-lecture videos that they watch, I lecture a little bit in class, and we work on problems together. I have always recorded my in-class lectures so students could review the information again at their own pace.   Our campus requires vaccines for faculty, staff, and students which has allowed us to return to a mostly normal classroom.  We are still required to wear masks at this time just for extra precautions.   This has been a very fatiguing one and a half years, with new rules, modified curriculums, modified schedules, and the need to learn new platforms -- I see a significant amount of what I would call pandemic fatigue.   You’ve been using iClicker for some time now-- how has the way you used it changed over the years? I have used iClicker for many years. In the past I always used the iClicker remotes for different types of quizzes: knowledge check on a topic, one quiz question at a time/move at specified pace, or print a paper quiz and they answer at their own pace. This is the first time I have had students use the iClicker student app in addition to remotes.  What advice would you give to instructors using iClicker for the first time this semester? Practice with the software and the remotes. It is not hard but the first time students use it and the first time you administer a quiz, it can be a bit intimidating. I have been known to take a remote base and a student remote and practice.  The better prepared I am, the better off the students are. With large enrollment lecture classes, if using the iClicker student app, make sure you have enough access points for your wifi connection. If they cannot connect to wifi, they are unable to answer the questions. ... View more

Nancy Sommers was inspired. “We were small zoom squares, remote, distant, across 4 continents …” and so begins her Tiny Teaching Story. This Fall, Tiny Teaching Stories launches on the Bedford Bits blog. Inspired by the Tiny Love Stories featured in the New York Times, Nancy approached the Macmillan Learning (Bedford/St. Martin’s) team with an idea -- what if teachers and instructors from around the country had a place to share their stories of the moments that made an impact in their lives? The company partnered with the Harvard’s Graduate School of Education teacher and Hacker Composition handbooks lead author to create a forum to do just that. In the new series, Nancy encourages all  teachers and instructors to “share a detail about a memorable student, a particular classroom experience, the challenges about teaching in the pandemic, or even a surprising conversation with a student.” Stories should be no more than 100 words, and can be published anonymously or with attribution. We only ask that participants change identifying names and details of students to protect their privacy. “We all have teaching stories to tell -- stories that remind us about the joys of teaching and pleasures of writing,” Nancy said. The series launches with Nancy’s own Tiny Teaching Story, which you can read here. To learn more about how to submit your story, click here.  ... View more

The HBCU Symposium on Rhetoric and Composition is happening now! This year’s theme is Transdisciplinarity @ HBCUs: Rewriting Black Futures Beyond the Margin. Just ahead of her keynote address: Still Standing: Student Voices, Curation, and HBCU Legacies, we had a conversation with keynote speaker Regina N. Bradley, Ph.D., Author of Chronicling Stankonia: the Rise of the Hip-Hop South and Assistant Professor at Kennesaw State University.  Who or what inspired you to become a writer? I've been reading and writing my entire life. I knew I might really be into this writing thing after documenting the 1994 Flood in my hometown of Albany, GA. I was 10 and wanted to make sure all the water I saw, people I talked to, and the devastation overall was never forgotten. I had to write to get out my sadness. I typed all my thoughts and observations out on my grandparents' old gray typewriter. I wrote/typed out nearly 30 pages.  What advice would you give to Black and Brown higher education students that are interested in studying English, Rhetoric, Composition, or Writing? English Studies is more than just dead, white, (usually) male writers and thinkers. It is okay to think outside-the-box and wander outside of the traditional canon. Stand on your own truth: ask yourself what brought you to the field in the first place and where do you want to see the field go? For me, I wanted to see more about the Black South from a southern Black person's perspective. That's my truth and it grounds my scholarship and research. Your book "Chronicling Stankonia: the Rise of the Hip-Hop South" is about more than OutKast -- it's about artistry and speaking one's truth. What can students at HBCUs learn from OutKast and speaking truth? Sometimes, your truth will be misinterpreted, dismissed, or completely overlooked because you do not follow a particular path. That's okay. Be like OutKast and do it anyway. Be unapologetic in celebrating who you are -- the institutions and people that have made way for you to be dope. Don't apologize for being dope.  Do.you. Student voices have always played an important role in building HBCU legacies. What should instructors do to help elevate their voices? The biggest challenge for me as an instructor is to get students to recognize that their voice is worth being heard, that they have something to share. My best advice for instructors is to be encouragement and stay encouraged: be in students' corners by pointing out what is great about their writing and what can be improved. Stay encouraged by continuously showing up for students even when they can't or won't show up for themselves. I've learned students don't appreciate you fully until after the class is over. You are making an impact. Have faith in that truth. To learn more about or register for the symposium, click here. Select sessions will be available on the Macmillan Community following the event.  ... View more

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

Macmillan Learning is proud to sponsor the fourth HBCU Symposium on Rhetoric and Composition. This year’s theme is Transdisciplinarity @ HBCUs: Rewriting Black Futures Beyond the Margin. To celebrate the fourth Summit, we had a conversation with keynote speaker Anna Malaika Tubbs, author of The Three Mothers, a biography about the mothers of three of the most influential men in America -- Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin. In the second part of this two part interview we discuss the Black female perspective, conversations about race taking place in college courses, and transdisciplinarity. The Black female perspective is not always surfaced in English and Writing classes, are there any works you would recommend for students seeking to understand this often underrepresented and mischaracterized perspective? There are so so many that deserve attention. I would say though there are classics that are classics for a reason for those of us who are Black Feminist scholars.  All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave by Akasha (Gloria T.) Hull. It speaks to why having representation of Black women in the academy, and especially in Women’s Studies, is so crucial. That’s a great starting point. How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective is another one.  My third recommendation is Sister Citizen by Melissa Harris Perry. She talks about how misrepresentations of Black women have led to issues in our country today. What advice would you give to Black and Brown higher education students that are interested in studying English, Rhetoric, Composition, or Writing? The first would be that we need you, so please stay on the path.  It goes back to what I was saying earlier about the need for more representation and that starts with storytellers. That’s not to say that if you’re not a person of color you can’t tell stories about a person of color; however we do need more stories that are produced by us, because it’s a different perspective. There are going to be stories that haven’t been told before you simply because you are the storyteller, and the more people study this, the better we will all be. Also, if you decide to go down that path, you should realize that there will be those who may question your approach to this. Quite often you’ll have to stand up for yourself and the way in which you decide to produce the information.  Specifically for me in my PhD program, I said that while I get that I’m doing a PhD in Sociology and we traditionally quote Marx and Durkheim, that is not what I’m going to do.  I want to do something that will be good for the world, beyond the ivory tower, and that can transform the department to help us to see that there is a lot of material that is not traditionally covered and not yet given the spotlight it deserves.  You have to go into it with a sense of self and a confidence in the fact that what you’re bringing to this world of literature and composition is really needed. People will try to ask you to adjust to what it is already; and I think what we actually need are more people to change it. Much of your work and research focuses on the erasure of Black women in the American story. How do you think that the prominence of the Black Lives Matter movement, the development of 1619 Project, and the emergence of Critical Race Theory in more schools are changing the conversations? They’re playing crucial roles and in many ways are continuing the work of those who came before us.  The reason Black mothers have been so revolutionary, when we look back on history and how many of our leaders have been black mothers in ways that have pushed and changed, is because they can’t accept the circumstances as they are right now. And so we, as Black mothers, are always focused on what’s possible and what needs to change. That translates into the actions and the demands of our nations, our communities, our school systems and our politicians because we can see what’s still needed for all of us to be treated with dignity and respect.  So the BLM movement, the 1619 project, the continued development of Critical Race Theory is about telling people’s stories. All the stories that have been largely untold since the arrival of slaves in the US--these are all iterations of how we are pushing the country forward and saying realistically and accurately, “Here are the issues and how can we address the issues to find healing.” It’s a crucial and integral part of the Black experience in America. But not only for Black people. It’s American history and it’s important for everyone to understand that it’s not only for us that we do this, it's for all of us to be able to live in the country we all deserve to live in. The theme for this year’s HBCU symposium is Transdisciplinarity @ HBCUs: Rewriting Black Futures beyond the Margin. What would you suggest needs to be done in higher education to evolve the paradigm of teaching and learning to make this a reality? That’s a big question. I believe the change is one that’s systemic in nature. We need to change the way that people are thinking versus changing the way a subject is taught. The first thing that comes to mind is the transition of thinking when voices of color are highlighted, or opportunities are given, that it’s some kind of charity that the institution is doing versus understanding how much the institution is benefitting. There needs to be a mind shift around why we want to make sure that we’re inclusive, and why we want to move beyond always seeing people of color as being on the margin. Why it’s beneficial to everyone to center our knowledge, perspective, and experiences.  When that shift happens and there’s an appreciation for the kind of expertise that comes with various perspectives being included and the respect and support for these perspectives--that's when there will be revolutionary change. It’s not just doing what we’re supposed to do; it’s how the institution is going to lead the world as an example by making sure it's representative of that growth. We should also be making sure that students don’t feel like they have to choose between disciplines. Take gender studies, for example. It’s usually found in only one department as opposed to the many where the social and societal constructs of gender have made an impact. It’s rare to have programs to support that. If you haven’t yet, be sure to read the first part of our interview, where we discuss Anna’s inspirations, the lessons we take from the three mothers, and teaching and learning. To learn more about the HBCU Summit sponsored by Macmillan Learning, click here. ... View more

Macmillan Learning is proud to sponsor the fourth HBCU Symposium on Rhetoric and Composition. This year’s theme is Transdisciplinarity @ HBCUs: Rewriting Black Futures Beyond the Margin. To celebrate the fourth Summit, we had a conversation with keynote speaker Anna Malaika Tubbs, author of The Three Mothers, a biography about the mothers of three of the most influential men in America -- Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin. Anna Malaika Tubbs, author of The Three Mothers In the first part of the two part interview we discuss Anna’s inspirations, the lessons we take from the three mothers (Berdis Baldwin, Alberta King, and Louise Little), and lessons about teaching and learning. Who or what inspired you to become a writer? So many different things, but most important were my loved ones who are my support system and believing that I could contribute to the larger cause. I knew early on that I liked telling stories. After I graduated from undergrad I started my first blog and realized that people enjoyed what I had to say. I was nervous to get my words out there, even for close friends and family. But it was their belief in my work -- letting me know what I said was important, or helping them through something, that led me to say, “Maybe I am pretty good at this; I should keep doing it and it can be my contribution to something larger .” For me it’s important to take a complicated theory that I’ve learned and reformat it for different audiences - the younger, the older, and the ones who may find the materials to be uncomfortable at first but want an entry point into the conversation. Your book discusses the three mothers - Berdis Baldwin, Alberta King, and Louise Little - and how they impacted three of America’s heroes. What other lesser known figures should we seek to learn more about? The answer to that is endless. We really need to seek representation where it is lacking. Something I discovered while I was on tour was that as a black female biographer, I was doing something unusual because there are so few of us. Most biographies are written by men. Even if you look at Wikipedia and who the contributors are, it's mostly white men. It’s interesting how that fact is shaping what we believe is important and who the figures in history are.  For those of us that don’t feel represented, there’s an endless list of names and stories. I mentioned in the book that as I was writing about these three Black women, Black mothers, I was also telling my own story. I want more of us to be seen and represented by telling our stories.  But telling stories is about more than recognition and receiving due credit--the stories also decide where resources are given, and what policies we support. Representation is quite often the first step in that visibility to making changes, because when people are not seen--when they’re deemed invisible and when we’re saying it's okay to delete them from history--we are also saying it’s okay to erase the current contributions that they’re making to this world.  So yes, there’s so many… The Hidden Figures story was one that you’ve mentioned inspired you to write The Three Mothers, I can’t imagine how many similar stories are out there we don’t know about ... That reminds me of the time that I spent five years as a teacher and college counselor in Stockton, California. A big part of that was helping students write their personal statement for college and few believed they had a story to tell. But the truth is everyone has an important story to tell, and all of our stories are important. We need to hear more of them, they need to be represented.   Helping my students--especially those of color and low income students--see that their stories matter and that people do care what they have to say is important. Them not believing in their own stories is symptomatic of something much larger. We need to help them understand that they have a story to tell--and it’s less about being a historical figure and more about our humanity and the journey that we are all on. We have to become more comfortable defining who we are without allowing other people to do that for us and telling our stories is an important way to do that. What are some good lessons or best practices about teaching and learning (or writing and research) can we gain from The Three Mothers? The Three Mothers Though [these women] didn’t describe themselves as teachers or activists, they were. There are so many tangible strategies you can walk away with from The Three Mothers for teaching.  First and foremost they were mothers--not only to their kids but to their community members. Each gave clear examples on how you teach lessons--specifically around freedom, finding joy, and about defining yourself. Alberta King was a trained teacher so she is a good one to start with. She was more than an educator in the public school system--she was also an instrumentalist. She believed that she, through the privilege of education, could advance something else forward that was beyond herself. That it didn’t make her better to be educated, but instead it gave her more of a responsibility to help others.  The lesson is that if you have training, or have been given opportunities that others haven’t and doors have been open to you, don’t think of that as an individual journey; think about how that relates to what you can do for other people. With Louise Little, we can see really clearly that she knew that the more she learned and the more she self-educated beyond what she learned in the formal education system, the more she could make a difference--especially for the Black freedom movement. She never takes for granted any information that she’s picking up and never believes something just because someone in authority told her to believe it. She’s very aware that information can be strategic and that you need to question where you’re getting your information from and who the storyteller is.  She teaches her children through newspapers from around the world, and she asks them when they come home from school what they learned that day. She’ll offer the context of what they learned as it relates to where they were in history, and provide information that can counteract some of the harmful lessons that they learned. There’s a specific example in the book where she says that part of our education is our self education and the research that we have to do. Media literacy is important, which is something that many of us now understand. Berdis Baldwin saw education as a path forward and opportunity for her children to realize their dreams and to see the world beyond what they grew up with; which is a world where they were living in Harlem and were poor, and were dealing with racism and police brutality, and living with their father’s mental health issue that caused him to be extremely abusive. She said that education is the way you can open doors for yourself and take control over your life.  Her lesson was less about the technical parts of education, and more about dreaming about the ways in which you can create your own world. Like knowing how to write, and knowing how to create stories, and knowing how to use those stories. Specifically for her, she wrote letters to the people that she loved and used language to transform what they were going through and their own personal struggles. Malcolm X notably said: “The mother is the first teacher of the child. The message she gives that child, that child gives to the world.” What do you think the role of the mother should be in a child’s education? So often mothers are not given the credit they deserve. They’re the first to interact with their children, but the scope of what they teach their children goes beyond that. It’s very intentional what mothers are doing day-by-day, and they’re making decisions that are very strategic and thoughtful.  We often reduce the title of motherhood to “oh, well they’re doing what mothers do,” but if we analyze the steps--especially of these three mothers--these are techniques and strategies and things they’re trying out and adjusting. All of that is crucial in terms of their relationship with their children, especially when they come home from school or advocate for kids to be in programs and get involved.  Unfortunately we often see--especially with children of color and from low income backgrounds--that the mom has to advocate for them in a system that may forget about them or carry bias against them and keep them from opportunities. We need to highlight more of what mothers are already doing versus what they should be doing. We need more attention to mothers, especially those from communities that have been marginalized, for their children to receive the opportunities they deserve. Stay tuned for the second part of the interview, where we discuss the Black female perspective, conversations about race taking place in college courses and Transdisciplinarity. To learn more about the HBCU Summit sponsored by Macmillan Learning click here. ... 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

Student engagement is a term being used more and more often -- but what does it mean, and how can instructors use it to support student success? To find out, we checked in with Michael B. Shapiro, a Clinical Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Georgia State University about how he gets his classes involved with the course materials, mo Professor Mike Shapirotivated to learn and even more curious about criminal justice. Shapiro has been teaching for nearly 20 years and was the recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award for the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies in 2015 at GSU. Here are seven reasons why he likes to use a student response system like iClicker to better support student success.  Use technology. “Our job is not just educators, we also need to be edutainers” Shapiro explained. One way to keep students both informed and engaged is with the technology that students are using both in and out of class on a daily basis. While educators try to encourage focus on the class lecture and activities, “it’s naïve to assume students will disconnect from the technology they use every day, so why not take advantage of that connectivity in class.” They’re using a digital device for non-class purposes more than 20% of the time whether we like it or not, he noted. One of the tools Shapiro uses for his edutainment is iClicker.  Have they or haven’t they read the materials? iClicker helps to gauge just how prepared students are. Shapiro said that using iClicker to ask students questions and gauge their familiarity with important points helps him remove the guesswork and also allows for him to adjust the lecture as it’s happening to better meet that particular class’ needs. For example, understanding what students in each class already knows helps him understand when he has the flexibility that would allow him to get into more nuanced areas of criminal courts, law, procedure and ethics in the courses he teaches. Shapiro explains that in the journey of learning, “knowing where the students' "knowledge gaps" are is the difference between paving the entire road and filling in potholes.” Get students involved! Polls and real-time questions throughout class help encourage students to become more engaged in their learning -- something that’s even more challenging when the class is virtual. To hold students’ attention, Shapiro gives out points for correct answers throughout the class, but noted that he’s seen instructors use them in other ways, including offering points for participation. The polls and questions can range from multiple choice questions to heat maps and can even be short answer questions that can generate a word cloud, which can prompt a continued class discussion around the students' perceptions of what is significant in a lecture. Mitigate students’ fear of getting the “wrong” answer by allowing them to answer anonymously. All of the questions and polls in iClicker can be anonymous, helping students to feel comfortable giving honest answers and feedback -- something especially important for students who don’t feel comfortable raising their hand in class. In his criminal justice class, Shapiro asks “Yes or no, have you ever committed a crime?” in anonymous mode. The question encourages students to think about what a “crime” is and allows for a spirited discussion to follow, while allowing students to safely answer challenging questions anonymously. Use class time. Shapiro adds that iClicker helps him understand just how much students learned in class. He doesn’t just rely on their homework and written assignments to gauge how well students are understanding the various aspects of criminal justice. How does he know? He uses exit polls to get feedback about the day’s class and see if there were any points that need clarification in the next class meeting. Two of his favorite questions are “What was the most significant thing you learned today” and “What surprised you most about today’s class?” Assess often. You can do more than just create polls and questions; Shapiro uses iClicker to create on-the-fly quizzes or check in with students ahead of exams. According to Digital Promise, frequent quizzes and other assessments are one of eight instructional practices identified as contributing to more effective online teaching and learning.  Finally, student response systems make taking attendance easy. Taking attendance can be challenging -- especially in larger classes, but Shapiro said that using an iClicker makes taking attendance easy. Not only that, but automated attendance reminds students when class is about to start by pushing out notifications. Attendance can be run at the beginning of class or throughout the class. It can also be used to take attendance at non-class events, such as a presentation or conference simply by setting a geofence around the location. In sum, there’s no shortage of reasons to use a class response system -- whether it’s for attendance, for “edutainment”, or to gain a better understanding of what topics students need extra help with. To learn more about iClicker, click here. ... View more

The pandemic introduced a rapid shift to digital course solutions and in both synchronous and asynchronous classrooms. As such, educators' reliance on digital tools increased dramatically, as did their need for strong student assessments. When done correctly, assessments can provide instructors with critical information on how well students have learned the material as well as highlight where students are struggling. This is especially true in a post-COVID classroom, where instructors don’t always have the face-to-face interaction that lets them know students may be struggling. Frequent quizzes and other assessments were one of eight instructional practices identified as contributing to more effective online teaching and learning, according to Digital Promise. When college undergraduate students were asked about practices they’ve encountered during remote instruction, 64% of students reported that they had frequent quizzes and/or assessments in their online class -- more than live lectures (60%) or working in groups (25%). Those are some of the many reasons that Macmillan Learning continues to invest in building out the assessment functionality in our new digital platform, Achieve. Before we begin a new academic year with an expected mix of in-person, hybrid, and virtual learning, let’s review the ways the pandemic has impacted student assessment.  Auto-grading students’ assignments is increasing and this benefits both instructors and students. It works when instructors create multiple choice quizzes or other assessments for their classes, and Achieve scores each student's individual assignment. For instructors, it provides immediate insights into their students’ knowledge of the topic and allows them to focus on the more complex elements of teaching. Many instructors can’t imagine a life without it, noted Macmillan Learning Sr. Product Director Jennifer Ferralli. Students benefit from access to more immediate feedback on their progress in the course as well as feedback on what areas they should focus their studies.  Online assessments are being used for more than just homework. There’s been a trend to use the online assessment capabilities in Achieve for mid- and high-stakes summative assessments. That means more and more instructors are evaluating student learning at the end of a unit, course, semester, or at some other milestone by leveraging our timed assessment policy, creating question pools, and adding algorithmic questions to increase variance across students, which helps prevent cheating. This is because ... Instructors are moving away from the heavily-weighted finals. Instead, they’re relying more on more frequent mid-stakes testing over shorter intervals, or moving to other formats of assessing entirely. EdSurge talks about the trend from “final exams” to “epic finales” in this podcast. Students' reliance on feedback from assessments has increased. When Macmillan Learning surveyed our students after the semester ended, we saw the number of students comment on how much the feedback from assessments has helped them. We believe the reliance is up because the feedback from Achieve is designed to help nudge the student to the right answer, guiding them as if they were in office hours. Speaking of office hours ... Virtual assessments have encouraged more students to join online office hours. After receiving feedback from their assessments, students are logging on to talk directly with their instructors. This is possible because both students and instructors can log in and look at the student’s assessment together in real time, so there’s no barrier or having to send a copy of a handwritten assignment prior to meeting. According to Ferralli, Macmillan Learning will continue to watch how instructors are using assessments and also talking with them about their future plans. “Knowing this will help us determine how our tools must evolve to support the variety of ways instructors and students use assessments in their course.” Beginning this summer Achieve will allow instructors even more flexibility with assessments, enabling them to both edit our questions and create their own questions. This will allow instructors to add in their own feedback that aligns to their course instruction even more, or create questions that perhaps target a specific learning misconception. For more information about Achieve, click here.  ... View more