At Macmillan Learning’s Tech Ed Conference this year, I connected with dozens of instructors teaching the next generation of learners about the topic on everyone’s mind -- Artificial Intelligence. AI will undoubtedly continue to change the learning experience. But I would also argue that the most meaningful parts of learning, at the core, are deeply human, and that's something we must never forget. So as teachers around the world have returned to class, I wanted to share some thoughts on our future and on what I believe will be AI’s impact on education. But first, let’s take a step back in time to November 30, 2022 -- the day that Chat GPT was unleashed as a free platform for the world to use and explore. I remember vividly the enormous influx of messages from my colleagues across the company and in classrooms. Everyone had questions about what it meant to education, what it meant for Macmillan Learning, and what its impact will be on society in general.  Not too long thereafter, we were inundated by headlines like The End of High-School English from The Atlantic and Teachers are on alert for inevitable cheating after release of ChatGPT from The Washington Post.  We began getting messages from instructors letting us know that their students were cheating using AI to write essays, to answer homework, and even during quizzes -- and they needed help.  It was at that moment of information crush that I remember looking up at the ceiling and understanding that everything had completely changed. I told our instructors at Tech Ed that in that moment, it felt a bit like I was rapidly going through the stages of grief: Denial. Sadness. Bargaining. Depression. And finally, acceptance. But that journey was critical to understanding the problem … and envisioning the solutions. AI as an Educational Tool  To best solve a problem you first need to understand it. So the first thing I did was what so many of us who work in education love doing -- learning more about the problem. I spent the next two months with various generative AI tools, with tech leaders, at AI conferences, with students and with teachers, and ultimately fortified myself on what Macmillan Learning’s role could and should be. There were enough people training the AI how to learn. Our job is to help humans learn.  Coming to that conclusion, for me, changed everything. I became optimistic. I remembered that learning should require effort. To form those new synapses, you need to be puzzled, challenged, engaged. The education community works tirelessly to both guide students along their learning path, and ensure the reward once it is taken.  I considered that this may be another opportunity to revisit some of our goals when it comes to reaching learners. To do things in a better way. To address issues of equity, equality, neurodiversity, or access in a different way. To address issues of bias in the system. To create stronger assessment tools, that can be tailored to a broader set of outcomes. Maybe we can unlock new learning experiences, reach more students, and have a real learning renaissance. Maybe the multiple choice problem wasn't the best assessment tool to begin with. Maybe there are other experiences we can develop that will assist all instructors in creating that magic moment that becomes the human connection to learning with their students.  Learning is Still Human In each of our lives, there likely has been someone or something that inspires: an influential moment in a person’s life that helped them to become the person who they were; a book they read; a speech, a lesson they learned in class; an instructor who took the time to get to know them and make them feel like they could do it. As amazing and useful as generative AI technology is, it still falls short of that person who inspired you to be better, that maybe changed your life. And that is ok. AI can do what it does well, and there is still a place for the human connection to do what it does best. As a learning company, enabling more of those moments needs to be at the forefront of the work we do. This means that we need to talk directly with, and listen to, students about how they use AI, and under what circumstances it advances their learning. As I have talked to students, I have found that they are not shy about sharing how they have used AI, talking as much about how they have used AI apps to cheat as they have used them to assist in their learning. We need to do more work here to know what exactly they’re doing and why they’re doing it.  Can we unlock learning for students in a way that is exciting and expands their curiosity? In my conversations with them, in many cases, they have told me they’re not actually sure if what they’re doing is, in fact, cheating. And when I ask them what motivated them to use AI in the first place, the answer is often “because I want to see if it will work.” There’s curiosity in there. There is learning happening there. With the rapid advance of AI tools and functionality, we’re getting into the potential of a new experiential learning experience. Students were one of the fastest adopting demographics for AI and there’s much to learn about how they use it.  Can we use metacognition in a way that helps provoke learning? If you ask ChatGPT what it learned this year, it responds “I don't have the ability to learn or experience things in the way humans do, as I am a pre-trained model with a knowledge cutoff in September 2021…” We can work with that. We can use metacognitive prompts to ask students if they’re aware of their learning, and what they learned. We can use the science of learning to help our human students be better at learning, to gain the kinds of critical thinking and awareness skills that will be crucial to helping them get better jobs in an AI-assisted future.  At Macmillan Learning, we see significant opportunity in this new world, but we also know there is a lot to continue to learn, understand, and be careful of. We’re partners in this journey. We’ve already rolled up our sleeves and are digging in creating new, exciting products and processes to support students and instructors. We are working to set new standards in inclusive practices within AI tools. And we are committed to advancing the learning science that will shape our next education renaissance.  In the coming months, you will begin to hear from our company leaders about our strategy, our projects, and our ideas. We’re working on some cool things. We’re eager to learn from you along the way. I hope you will stay close to us through our collective journey so we can inform each other’s progress. Our job is to help humans learn, to inspire what’s possible for every learner, to envision a world where every learner succeeds. And AI is changing the game in how we all support that journey. ... View more

With her Eras tour, Taylor Swift has been dominating the news this hot, cruel summer, including the $55 million in bonuses she gave to every member of the team that worked on the tour. But her impact on the people and the places involved with the concert experience extends way beyond that. From the resale prices, to the impact on local economies, to the role of Ticketmaster, we can learn a lot about economics from the pop icon and her tour. Economists research topics like labor, trade, global markets, healthcare, inequalities, education, etc., but the core of economics - one that Swift's Eras Tour has helped to teach us is How should economies allocate scarce resources?  Macmillan Learning author Paul Krugman (Economics from Krugman/Wells 6e) indicates that we can learn a lot from analyzing the headlines around something like the Eras Tour. Knowing that Swift's Eras Tour provides such strong teachable moments in economics, he created assignments for instructors to use this fall. The assignments are available beginning this August as an added benefit to all instructors using Macmillan Learning’s Achieve, but the team also wanted to make a few of them available for broader use. So … Don't let them slip by, like a moment in time. Is Taylor Swift Underpaid? This assignment asks students to think about economic growth as well as demand. Economic growth, the 11th principle in the first chapter of Economics from Krugman/Wells 6e, considers how the increases in an economy’s potential lead to economic growth over time. Concerts are big business. In fact, according to Bloomberg, Taylor Swift is bringing in ticket sales of more than $13 million a night for each concert, which may make the Eras tour the highest-grossing tour in music history (now that’s an American Dynasty). So how on earth could we even consider that she is underpaid? Let’s think about the question like an economist. Here are some things to consider: Modern superstar musicians don’t make the majority of their money from streaming or music sales. Rather, it comes from concerts. Unfortunately for Swift, but fortunately for us, we have the ability to listen to her songs just about any time (though there can also be a monthly subscription associated with that). While attending concerts offers a special experience, modern technology (Spotify, Apple Music, SirusXM) provides opportunities to hear Swift’s latest songs and even recordings of her live performances. Taylor Swift increased the number of shows on the Eras Tour, more than doubling the original number of shows to 131 shows. Following that announcement, ticket prices continued to soar (people seriously need to calm down!). Ticket prices on secondary markets have, in some instances, increased to more than 10 times their face value. Secondary markets exist because face values don’t reflect actual demand and supply. In the case of Taylor Swift, concerts sell out and prices continue to increase. That means demand continues to exceed expectations -- and when demand exceeds supply, prices will increase. So … should Taylor Swift have been paid more? What do you think? Start out your fall term by thinking about economic growth and demand. If you’d like to use this assignment in class, you can use the prompt above or log into Achieve for Krugman Wells 6th edition; there you’ll find a slide deck in the Resources Tab titled First Day of Class Icebreaker: Taylor Swift for even more details on the assignment.  Also, check out the assignment about the cost of attending a Taylor Swift concert & the concept of opportunity cost. ... View more

Sustainability is an issue I have always been very passionate about. Over the years, I’ve witnessed firsthand the effects of global warming on my coastal hometown. Seeing things change more by the year has spurred me to look deeper into how I’m personally contributing to climate change, and what steps I can take to combat it.   This most recent Earth Day, I learned some interesting facts about Macmillan Learning’s commitment to sustainability. Macmillan Learning CEO Susan Winslow noted that “our global team has taken an active role in making the education and publishing industries more sustainable” since 2009. I wanted to dig a little deeper into the details of this, and as it turns out there was a lot more to it than even I knew.  I’m not the only one concerned about the impact of climate change; it’s something that’s important to many people including Instructors and students. They care deeply about supporting companies that are dedicated to sustainability and helping the environment. Here are four things I learned about Macmillan Learning’s role in supporting the environment.  1. Macmillan Learning is Carbon Neutral Macmillan Learning and its supply chain has been carbon neutral since 2013! Climate neutrality is the “idea of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by balancing those emissions so they are equal (or less than) the emissions that get removed through the planet’s natural absorption” Source. Climate neutrality is an important step everyone can take in fighting climate change.  2. Emissions have Decreased by 60% Globally Carbon emissions occur when a carbon compound, like carbon dioxide, is released into the atmosphere by human activities like burning fossil fuels. These carbon emissions, also known as greenhouse gas emissions, are a main contributing factor to climate change. Reducing carbon emissions globally is necessary to combat climate change.  Macmillan Learning has been taking steps to reduce our carbon footprint and as a result, its carbon dioxide emissions in the US have dropped 60% from 2010 to 2021. The reduction includes Scope 1 emissions, which are derived from heat in our facilities and fuel in our sales representatives’ cars; Scope 2 emissions, which are derived from the electricity we purchase from utilities to power our building; and major Scope 3 items, which are emissions are derived from our manufacturing and transportation of our books, business travel, employee commuting, and waste management. 3. Paper production When buying textbooks, you may not think twice about the type of paper it was made with, but Macmillan Learning does. Macmillan Learning has drastically reduced emissions by vetting the supply chain, and purchasing paper at lower carbon-intensive mills. And they have also supported the efficient use of recycled fiber for hardcover books, although hardcovers are used less and less frequently. 4. The Shift Toward Digital Learning Materials & eBooks E-textbooks, or eBooks, provide a completely digital experience for students that can be accessed anywhere on any device. In recent research conducted by Student Monitor, students named “environmental benefits” as one reason that they prefer digital course materials to their print counterparts. Macmillan Learning offers ALL of our textbooks in a digital format! eBooks provide a variety of benefits compared to traditional textbooks, and many students prefer the features offered by digital textbooks. eBooks use no paper, are generally more affordable, are easily portable, and have features such as searching and highlighting. They’re also more accessible as they allow font size and brightness to be adjusted to fit each reader’s needs. Macmillan Learning’s eBooks have been recognized as Global Certified Accessible by Benetech, meaning that the digital learning options offered “ensure that all students have the same access to information”. ... View more

With her Eras tour, Taylor Swift has been dominating the news this summer, including the $55 million in bonuses she gave to every member of the team that worked on the tour. But her impact on the people and the places involved with the concert experience extends way beyond that. From the resale prices, to the impact on local economies, to the role of Ticketmaster, we can learn a lot about economics from the pop icon and her tour. Economists research topics like labor, trade, global markets, healthcare, inequalities, education, etc, but the core of economics - one that Swift's Eras Tour has helped to teach us is how should economies allocate scarce resources?  Understanding economic principles doesn’t have to be thinking about “widgets”; rather, we can look at decisions in our everyday lives. In fact, Macmillan Learning author Paul Krugman (Economics from Krugman/Wells 6e) indicates that we can learn a lot from analyzing the headlines around an important piece of pop culture -- like the Eras Tour. Knowing that Swift's tour provides such strong teachable moments in economics, Krugman created assignments for instructors to use this fall. The assignments are available beginning this August as an added benefit to all instructors using Macmillan Learning’s Achieve, but the team also wanted to make a few of them available for broader use. So … Are You Ready For It? The cost of attending a Taylor Swift concert & the concept of opportunity cost This assignment asks students to think about the true cost of attending a concert. Was it just the price you paid for a ticket? Let’s consider … In Chapter 1 of Economics from Krugman/Wells 6e, the concept of opportunity cost is introduced, which discusses both monetary and non-monetary costs.  In this example, students are asked to consider what they gave up, relative to their next best alternative. This means the cost of buying tickets plus what they could have been doing during the time spent waiting in the virtual queue, including lost sleep, missed homework assignments, and missed school or work.  What about the money spent buying the tickets? The concert outfit? The concert t-shirt? How about parking? And dinner before the concert with your Swiftie besties? Students may have given up the chance to sell them on the secondary market and just watched Netflix instead. Thinking about the costs of attending the concert -- what would students have if they made the decision to stay home instead. It should be no Trouble working that out. All of these decisions are part of the costs of getting Taylor Swift tickets. So … here’s your Question …” -- was it worth it? Start out your fall term by thinking about opportunity cost and the true cost of attending a Taylor Swift concert. Stay tuned next week for another Swiftie-nomics assignment! Instructors can learn more about Economics from Krugman/Wells 6e and Macmillan Learning’s digital learning platform Achieve. The 7th edition of Krugman/Wells will be available later this fall. To learn more about it, find your rep!) ... View more

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Economics is the 15th most popular major in the U.S. But, students don’t have to major in Economics to take an economics course and reap the benefits. They don’t even need to be an expert at math.  From learning about whether to rent or buy a house to understanding why the prices of gas vary so much in any given year, students can learn practical and useful skills by taking economics courses -- and perhaps choose it as a minor or secondary area of study. One might even say that economics can be like a superpower that helps students to make decisions throughout their lives.  We have pulled together seven reasons why students should consider taking an economics class -- even if they don’t plan on majoring in it. Is Taylor Swift Underpaid? Understanding the Game of Supply and Demand: Economics can help students to better grasp the art of balancing supply and demand, a concept that demonstrates how the prices of things are determined in a market. By analyzing market trends and consumer behavior they may be able to better predict when the price of their, say, favorite sneakers or purse will drop, or why their concert ticket prices are high. Great examples of real-life applications that demonstrate how economic concepts like supply and demand play out in the real world can be found in an article about the economics of a Taylor Swift concert by Paul Krugman or Economics and Essentials of Economics by Paul Krugman and Robin Wells.  Every Decision is an Economic Decision. Mastering Opportunity Costs to Make Wise Choices: Most students have been faced with the decision of whether they should study for that test or do something a bit more fun, like watch a movie or go to a party. Whether or not they know it, that decision is an economic one -- the principle of opportunity costs. Taking an economics class will help them to better understand that there’s a cost to what they give up when they choose one option over another. Principles of Economics authors Betsey Stevenson & Justin Wolfers present a framework in their title that argues that every decision is an economic decision and demonstrate throughout how economic principles can be used by students to make better decisions in their own lives. Who isn’t Looking to Save Money? Becoming a Savvy Consumer: Is that sale the best deal a student can get for a new laptop, or should they wait to buy one? Economics can help turn students into savvy and strategic shoppers. In an economics class, students learn about pricing strategies, how to manage their resources more effectively, and even be able to spot some misleading advertising and marketing tricks. Is Pizza Alone Enough? Exploring the Power of Incentives: Another challenge students face -- especially early on in college -- is having to move frequently. They may try to entice friends with offers of pizza, a night out on the town, or even promises to help them when they move. But are those incentives enough to help? Maybe some garlic bread and refreshments may make their friends more inclined to help. Economics reveals how incentives work and how people respond to rewards and punishments. Specifically, how both are used to encourage people to take certain actions or make certain choices. Modern Principles of Economics by Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok demonstrates the importance of incentives and covers the topic in great detail with an entire chapter dedicated to it. Why is it Impossible to Choose? Embracing Decision-Making and Critical Thinking: Not every student starts college confident about what major they want to choose. They can use skills gained in an economics class to help them decide by considering what they value the most and what they’re willing to give up in order to get it. For example, if a student is passionate about studying the world around them and is not sure whether they’re more interested in biology or astronomy, they can learn how to weigh which are of study they may like more and would give them a more fulfilling career against what it would cost for them to achieve the desired outcome -- whether it be a high salary, the ability to work in the field, or something else entirely. Economics classes can help sharpen decision-making abilities by teaching students how to think critically, evaluate costs and benefits, and assess risks.  Can you Measure GDP by How Happy a Country is? Gaining a Global Perspective: Did you know that the government of Bhutan doesn't measure their well-being through gross domestic product, but through a Gross National Happiness Index. Whether talking about dollars, euros or shekels, students can discover how countries interact as it relates to their economies. They’ll learn about international trade, exchange rates, the impact of international agreements and treaties. Understanding the global economy can help students discover more about our interconnected world (and possibly a fun global job as well). There’s a Macmillan Learning title that looks at economics specifically from this perspective: Economics: Principles for a Changing World by Eric Chiang. How do Sports Play into Economics? Understanding that Economics is Everywhere. Even in sports. Students can learn about one of their favorite pastimes and how economics impacts so much of it -- from ticket prices, to how much athletes get paid, to why some teams are more profitable than others. One of Macmillan Learning’s titles, Sports Economics by David Berri, even has a section dedicated to “Why People Hate the Yankees.” No matter students' reasons for studying economics -- and whether it be for a class or a lifetime -- they can reap the benefits for years to come. Economics is a vast field that allows students to explore human behavior, societal issues, and the workings of our intricate economic systems.  Learn more about Macmillan Learning’s catalog of Economics textbooks and the experts that write them here.   ... View more

Writing a textbook is challenging. There are different requirements than writing a popular trade book; the text must undergo strict fact checking; and the inclusion of multimedia, assessments, and digital learning materials can make it a long and arduous project. That doesn’t include the time and effort it takes to build rapport with co-authors and the editorial team.  For Dr. Allison Sidle Fuligni, Professor of Child and Family Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, and Dr. Andrew Fuligni, Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Psychology at University of California, Los Angeles, some of those challenges were mitigated and others heightened. “We’ve of course collaborated before,” said Allison with a nod toward her spouse, “on things like raising our children together.” However, their professional work has remained mostly separate.  When approached by Macmillan Learning and asked to author Scientific American: Lifespan Development, Allison and Andrew learned quickly how to navigate living with a co-author and authoring with a spouse. “I think we figured it out early,” said Andrew. In this month’s special edition of our Author Spotlight series, we sat down with co-authors–and spouses–Allison and Andrew.  Dr. Allison Sidle Fuligni, Professor of Child and Family Studies at California State University Dr. Andrew Fuligni, Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Psychology at University of California, Los Angeles While Allison and Andrew are both experts in the field of developmental psychology, their areas of expertise vary and their educational and career journeys are distinct.  Allison was, from a young age, interested in child development; though she didn’t always know if graduate school and a career in developmental psychology was for her. “Growing up,” she said, “I thought I wanted to become a teacher, getting a degree in education and a teaching certificate.” While studying at Brown University, she discovered a degree program that she didn’t know existed, and it set her on a different path.  “It was an interdisciplinary major,” Allison said, “that combined psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, computer science, philosophy, and anthropology. It taught me to think about and understand things through many different lenses.” It was through this Cognitive Science degree that Allison was exposed to and able to conduct her own research. “I focused on children’s cognitive development for my honors thesis,” she said. “Working with children during my undergraduate research is what inspired me to apply to graduate school,” she added, “which is where Andrew and I met.”  Andrew remembers becoming interested in developmental psychology in high school and feeling certain that he would major in Human Development while studying at Cornell. “I was already interested in the subject,” he said, “and then I was fortunate enough to enroll in the honors section of an adolescent psychology course during my second semester. It was treated like a graduate seminar, and from then on I was hooked.” Andrew had no doubts about his educational and career path when he started graduate school at the University of Michigan, where he and his future spouse enrolled in the same PhD program.  Although in the same program, Allison and Andrew’s graduate school experiences were quite different. “I wasn’t always sure that graduate school is what I wanted to do,” said Allison, “which makes it much more difficult.” Allison often shares with her students the challenges she faced. “I actually quit graduate school twice before obtaining my Phd,” she said. “My mentor told me that all I had left to finish was my dissertation, and I’m glad I persisted.”  Part of what made graduate school a challenge for Allison was figuring out what she wanted to do with her degree. “One of my professors encouraged me to go the route of developmental psychology, a very research-based PhD,” she said. “And I did enjoy the problem solving and measurement aspect of research, but I also longed for more of a service-oriented career.” At one point, Allison considered getting her M.D. and becoming a doctor. Nevertheless, she completed her PhD in developmental psychology and spent the first half of her career as a research scientist. “Now the majority of my job is full-time teaching,” she said, “and that feels like my service: training students who will someday become Head Start teachers and running after school programs.”  Andrew teaches less than his spouse, though he still finds it just as rewarding as the research and writing aspects of his job. “Most of my teaching is of graduate students,” he said, “which is intricately involved in the writing process itself. Though I find it important to include undergraduates in the research process as well.” Andrew’s favorite part about teaching is when he can show his students the science that tells them that something they thought was true isn’t true. “With child development,” he said, “people think they know it well because they experienced it firsthand… but the science behind it often surprises them.” There is a feature in each chapter of their textbook, Scientific American: Lifespan Development, called “Can you believe it?” that demonstrates what Andrew described as his favorite part of teaching. “In this feature,” he said, “we offer a deep dive about preconceived ideas that students may have, and then we discuss the science behind it.” Allison agreed. “I love bringing new information to students. They become so interested and it opens up new perspectives,” she said.  Even with their wealth of teaching and research experience, writing a textbook posed a new challenge for both Allison and Andrew. “It took much longer than I had anticipated,” said Andrew. “And we were cautious because there are many textbooks out there and it’s difficult to break into the market.” Allison added: “It’s a big decision to change textbooks. Not one that instructors take lightly.”  The exciting challenge of their textbook was to create something novel. “We wanted it to be graphically interesting, include multimedia, be accurate and up-to-date, and based in science,” said Andrew. “It also needed to be accessible to students,” he added. Allison and Andrew greatly credited their other co-author, Jessica Bayne, for bringing the project to life. “We envisioned the content,” said Andrew, “and Jessica–who has a long history as an editor and producer–had the vision of the entire textbook and package and how it should come together.”  Between the three co-authors, there was a natural division of workload. “My area of expertise is early childhood,” said Allison, “including infancy, early, and middle childhood. Andrew’s is adolescence and the transition to adulthood.” Content-wise, it made sense for Allison to write the first half and Andrew to write the second half. “Jessica then provided the continuity across all of the chapters,” said Allison. “She was very focused on helping us create fresh, engaging, and accessible material.”  Scientific American: Lifespan Development provides students with a rich portrait of different stages of the lifespan, including different experiences, strengths and weaknesses, challenges, settings, and family forms. “Development is about how we raise our children,” said Andrew, “about how we change and adapt to the world we grow up in.” Each chapter in the book features the story of a different person or family, and developmental concepts are introduced to students through the context of these people’s experiences–and then explained through science.  “It’s difficult to choose a favorite story or chapter,” said Allison. “Though one is of a toddler named Telele. She is an Alaskan native, and her parents are from different tribal groups in Alaska, raising her to speak multiple tribal languages in addition to English.” Allison is passionate about second language acquisition in childhood, having conducted research on Spanish-speaking children early in her career.  Diversity is a central theme throughout the book. In addition to Telele’s story, the book includes a same-sex couple living in New Jersey with adopted daughters; a set of sisters on either side of the puberty transition; and the story of an individual with dementia. “The book captures the essence of stages of life really well,” said Andrew. “Through the stories, students really gain a better understanding of what toddlerhood is like, and adolescence, and being a parent, and taking care of one’s own parents.” The co-authors described the book and the stories within as those of “typical people with many typical life experiences.”  Dr. Andrew Fuligni & Dr. Allison Sidle FuligniWhile Allison and Andrew are experts in their field and have literally written the textbook on Lifespan Development, they still experienced some of those typical experiences when raising their children. “I think it’s been an interesting experience,” said Andrew. “Certainly, my profession has provided me with the scientific knowledge of what goes on during each life phase, but there was still a lot of gut checking and patience required.” Allison described it as being difficult to “turn off” the analytical part of her brain. “It’s how I’ve been trained and it’s how I face the world,” she said.  In addition to raising their two children and writing Scientific American: Lifespan Development together, Allison and Andrew enjoy hiking the Southern California mountains. “My mom took me backpacking as a child, which instilled a love of nature and wilderness in me,” said Allison. “And now we have this goal of completing the Backbone Trail in the Santa Monica Mountains, a 67-mile long hiking trail.” The two also enjoy sharing book and movie recommendations with each other, and playing board games as a family when their children are home. ... View more

Did you know that it’s not only writers and editors who influence how textbooks are developed? Each year, Macmillan Learning invites a group of outstanding graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) to participate in the Bedford New Scholars program. During this weeklong event, scholars attend numerous focus groups and workshops centered around advancing pedagogy in composition courses.    Who are the Bedford New Scholars?  Bedford New Scholars are GTAs studying and teaching English who are passionate about innovating student learning. Graduate programs in Composition & Rhetoric across the country nominate candidates, and then the Macmillan Learning Composition team selects the year’s cohort, which is usually around ten GTAs. Over a week in June, the cohort participates in a number of professional development activities, including presentations from leading experts in the field. Then, they have the opportunity to share “Assignments That Work,” their successful teaching assignments via blog posts on the English Community Site. The scholars have a range of interests, including ESL studies, digital literacy, accessibility, rhetorical genre studies, transnational and indigenous literacies, and LGBT representation.  The Bedford New Scholars program has grown exponentially, with over 110 participating scholars since its launch in 2008. Previous scholars continue to carry on the program’s legacy of innovation and service to the field long after their time in the program. From surprising twists in their careers to new teaching opportunities, let’s take a look at where some of the Bedford New Scholars are now.  Where Are They Now? Gina Atkins  Gina Atkins participated in the Bedford New Scholars program in 2021. She was nominated by her professor and mentor Dr. Fedukovich from North Carolina State University, who she credits for fostering her love of composition and rhetoric. Gina is currently in the third year of her PhD program at the University of Wisconsin Madison and serves as the Assistant Director for the Writing Across the Curriculum program. She cherished the community amongst the Bedford New Scholars and gained valuable insights from her peers. She enjoyed fellow Bedford New Scholar Leah Washburn’s Assignments That Work: Dungeons and Dragons in the Composition Classroom in particular. This assignment introduced essay prompts through the context of Dungeons and Dragons and asked students to engage in the writing process.  Gina believes that learning about Macmillan Learning’s DEI initiative and practices helped her to evaluate how she could align these goals in her classroom and research. The insights she has gained from the Bedford New Scholars program has trailed into her career as she is currently working on an article that examines “the theoretical and, more importantly, the pedagogical importance of examining multiracial rhetorical practices and how it can help us redefine what racial literacy looks like in the writing classroom.” Check out Gina’s Assignment That Works: Teaching Stages of Revision and Peer Editing (The Ariana Grande Assignment) here.   Madhura Nadarajah  Madhura Nadarajah is an English PhD candidate exploring research in Cultural Rhetorics, Postcolonial Theory, and Tamil Cultural Production at the University of Oregon (UO). She also serves as the Assistant Director of the Composition program at UO, where she organizes undergraduate and graduate courses and provides campus-wide support for instructors. She was a Bedford New Scholar in 2022 and was nominated for the program by Nick Recktenwald, the former director of the Composition program at UO.  Madhura is grateful for the Bedford New Scholars program, citing that participating propelled her career by renewing her understanding of how to support writing students in the classroom. She also valued the sense of community and came to appreciate the diversity among the scholars, highlighting that she “learned so much about everyone’s important yet different approaches to writing studies.” Madhura’s Assignment That Works: Social Literacy Narrative prompted students to write a letter reflecting and exploring their experiences with social literacy.     Michael S. Garcia  Michael Garcia was a Bedford New Scholar in 2020. He was nominated by Kimberly Harrison, the director of the Composition program at Florida International University, Miami. His Assignment That Works: Discourse Community Profile asked students to examine how language is used to express a community’s identity. Michael expressed that the most valuable part of being a Bedford New Scholar was learning about academic publishing. He explained, “Learning about the publication process gave me the insight I needed to decide that I wanted to transition from teaching full-time to working in educational publishing.” Michael landed a job at Macmillan Learning a year later, where he works as an Assistant Editor in content development for the Humanities division. Michael credits the Bedford New Scholars program for changing the trajectory of his career and life in a positive way. These days, Michael spends a lot of time organizing data and key information and managing the English Community Site, which houses the Bedford New Scholar community and the Bedford Bits blog. Michael has come full circle, from being a Bedford New Scholar to managing the content of the Bedford New Scholars program! By fostering an environment centered around a passion for student learning, the Bedford New Scholars program has shaped and continues to shape the lives of its previous participants. And with that being said, the torch is now being passed to the Bedford New Scholars of 2023. This June, Macmillan Learning will welcome ten new scholars to its 2023 cohort. Sherry Mooney, the coordinator for this year’s program, has loved getting to know this new group of inspiring GTAs, saying, “We are excited to have this great cohort of scholars helping us to expand our culture of innovation, broaden our understanding of the current state of the composition classroom, and inspire us and each other to meet the challenges in the field today.” Excited to see what our 2023 Bedford New Scholars will share? Head on over to the Bedford New Scholars page on the English Community Site and read a blog or two!  ... View more

At Macmillan Learning we envision a world in which every learner succeeds. We recognize that to do just that, it’s critical that students recognize themselves in our course materials. Each and every team within the company has an important role to play in achieving that goal.  When thinking about the teams that create educational titles, we may first consider those who write the materials. It’s easy to recognize the strong impact they have on what information is shared in a textbook. But there’s more to it than just that. There are teams that have the important task of selling or marketing the materials, which helps make the materials available to the students that need them.   But there’s one team that’s also critical to making diverse and inclusive course materials -- and that’s the team that manages our rights and permissions. This team enables Macmillan Learning to use audio, video, photo/images, and text assets in each of our titles. This is no small task when each title can have hundreds, if not thousands, of media assets.  Working in collaboration with Editorial teams, the Permissions team helps decide which images and media to include, ensuring that they add value to the learning experience while also representing and reflecting the many different students and instructors who may use the materials. The team also checks the content throughout the production process to ensure that there’s no misrepresentation. This is true both when there’s a new title we plan to publish as well as when we’re updating an already existing title for a new edition. For many years, educational materials did not reflect the diverse population that used them which is why this team has been redoubling their efforts to ensure this very important work is addressed. Creating representative and diverse textbooks Students have a remarkably diverse range of motivations, goals, and lives in and out of the classroom. They also have an increasingly diverse representation in college campuses, with more students than ever reflecting many different ethnicities, backgrounds and even countries. In fact, in 2020, more than 40% of students attending college were BIPOC ( 21% Hispanic, 14% Black, 7% Asian). We believe that offering materials that include representation for students of all abilities, backgrounds, and demographics helps support students’ sense of belonging both in and out of class. According to Cecilia Varas, Senior Executive Permissions Editor, “Representation matters when teaching students from all over the world. It is important that our student audience sees itself in our content to feel more connected and engaged to the material. Something as simple as a photo, text blurb, or cartoon can impact how one feels.”  To that end, the Rights & Permissions team finds content from a variety of sources. They seek out partnerships with organizations that specialize in diverse materials as well as collections from existing partners that have committed to offering inclusive content. “It’s fun to research new DEI artists and photographers. Sometimes we have the opportunity to work with incredible photographers, illustrators and artists,” said Robin Fadool, Executive Permissions Editor. She cites her work with artist Cynthia Fisher on For All Practical Purposes and photographer Lois Greenfield to get a licensed photo of Parsons Dance for the cover of Schacter Psychology 6th edition.  What the rights and permissions Team does When the team gets "rights and permissions” to use copyrighted material, that means that they’re obtaining the authorization and consent from the copyright holder to use their work in a specific manner. It’s a process that’s not always linear, as sometimes the owner of the copyright is deceased, or the copyright for materials has changed hands. The diverse content varies greatly from historical -- like speeches from Martin Luther King Jr. -- to more contemporary works, like a photo of a painting of Michelle Obama for use on a textbook cover. Another important, but challenging, part of the work is ensuring the copyrighted works are being used as intended, and that involves a detailed accounting of them. “So much of our work is tracking. Tracking assets and the rights associated with them. We try to keep it simple by requesting broad rights and working with preferred vendors but when we license for video or text, the tracking of restrictions needs to be accurate. Data entry standards are very important in our group,” said Christine Buese, Executive Permissions Manager.  Sheena Goldstein, Executive Permissions Editor, concurs: “It can be a grueling, tedious process to track down rights for a photo from a hard-to-reach source, like an academic who is out in the field conducting research or from a small library in a tiny town somewhere. However, it is always rewarding to see the final photo on the page and know that this unique image will help students learn and absorb the material. Some of us are visual learners. Images convey so much meaning in every book.” And, surprisingly, the opposite is also true -- the team also receives permission requests to use our material in other publications. According to Alexis Gargin, Permissions Editor, these can range from journal articles and textbooks to more unique usages such as a TV classroom prop, a whaling museum, and a Swiss hiking trail. If you look closely, you may find Myers/Psychology in Patriot's Day or Henretta/America's History for the AP Course 2020 in The Republic of Sarah, for example. In addition to being researchers and trackers, the team is also skilled in negotiations. While there are often standardized licensing agreements with the company’s preferred vendors, particularly for common types of content like stock photos, that’s not always the case. It's common for negotiations to cover what the assets will be used for, the period of time in which they will be used, as well as payment terms and any limitations.  Diversity and inclusion in action Because the educational publishing industry serves and informs students and instructors from a variety of backgrounds, its goal is to offer diverse materials that are backed by research and pedagogical insight. But in order to use diverse materials, those materials first need to exist. Oftentimes, this means going back to the drawing board (literally and figuratively speaking) to create representative content. This is done with both the company’s preferred vendors alongside new ones. And it can be done in big and little ways -- from re-imagining the entire cover of a textbook to changing captions that accompany new images. Their strategies are informed by a set of guidelines created by the company’s editorial teams.   Some of the many guidelines include recommendations like: Include photos and content that showcase a diverse array of humans and human activity; present people in non-stereotypical roles; Consider a full range of diversity categories: race, ethnicity, nationality, gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, age, religion, political affiliation, ability, socioeconomic status, veteran status, family status, and environment; Be aware of your own preferences and biases. One example of how the team put the concepts from the guidelines in action was by partnering with a preferred vendor, Cartoonstock, to improve the process of revising cartoons and, in turn, make content more inclusive. Goldstein cites working on Jonathan Gruber’s Finance and Public Policy 7th edition on cartoon captions and imagery revisions as an important step for her and the entire team, as it was the first title that she and the Economics editorial team had done revisions on a significant amount of cartoons.  Previously only 23.5% of the cartoons had women represented in its cartoon program for the previous six editions of the book. Now, there are 43% female‐presenting characters and 31% people of color. There are also now two people representing the LGBTQ+ community and one person with a physical disability, where previously those communities were not represented visually in the text. In addition to improving representation, the partnership also taught the team several best practices for future projects on how to best adapt cartoons for DEI. While some progress is quantitative, like Finance and Public Policy, some progress is done behind the scenes and is more qualitative. Gargin noted, “One of my favorite projects to work on was Developing Lives 2.0 because of all of the diverse photo research. This digital project showed how families are all different and unique and yet we all face the same challenges from selecting which schools to send our children to or even just deciding between a cat or a dog as a pet. The editorial team requested photos that represented how multiple countries and cultures celebrated life milestones from Korean Doljanchi to Apache Sunrise Ceremony.” Varas cited her recent work with the history title Freedom On My Mind as a highlight. The textbook offers narratives of African American and US History with documents that support the inspiring quest for freedom, the American dream and the countless contributions of African Americans to our collective history. She obtained permission from the Smithsonian/National Portrait Gallery to use an image of Michelle Obama by painter Amy Sherald.  “As editors and researchers, we’re always curious. We always want to make sure that the content is fresh and relevant. The team really cares about our products and what they see when they turn the pages of our books, and are always looking for new material” said Hilary Newman, the team’s leader and Senior Director of Rights and Permissions. “There’s nothing static about being in permissions.” ... View more

It is with a heavy heart that I share the sad news that a dear friend to many of us at Macmillan Learning and the founder of Worth Publishers has passed away. Robert (Bob) Worth was 92 and was surrounded by his family and his wife, Blaikie.  A visionary leader, Bob founded Worth Publishers in 1966 with a unique philosophy: to create textbooks in only a few select subjects while ensuring they were of the highest quality available. The initial books were painstakingly researched, developed, and tested and the resulting titles had a profound impact in biology (Helena Curtis), psychology (David Myers and Kathleen Berger), sociology (Ian Robertson), and economics (Greg Mankiw and Paul Krugman). That unflinching focus on quality and on authorship still drives our company today. His contributions to our company and our industry, as well as his impact on the entire education community, cannot be overstated. Bob had an uncanny eye for talent and how to shape an author’s vision and teaching talent into course-defining products. He signed and nurtured relationships with many of educational publishers’ best-selling writers and industry thought leaders. In fact, Bob’s “commitment to excellence” is among the key reasons Dave Myers has noted that he joined Worth Publishers versus a competitor. Bob was one of the educational community greats. I have long been moved by his passion, empathy and deep commitment to advancing students’ learning that goes beyond words. As a young person entering this industry, he was an inspiration to me. He saw that things could be better and he set out to make a difference. His strong relationships with his authors, his friends, fueled his ability to change the face of education. That’s the heritage he leaves us. It’s an honor that we take forward and it is a legacy we are committed to protect.  On behalf of the entire company, I extend our deepest condolences to Bob’s wife, Blaikie, and his family and loved ones. While we mourn his loss, we also celebrate his life and we will continue to honor his memory by carrying on the work he began.  Sincerely, Susan Winslow ... View more

We’ve made it through another academic year. Whether you’re slowing down for a quiet summer or gearing up for summer courses, June is the perfect time to reflect on learnings from the year and imagine what the future holds for teaching and learning. We’ll be doing just that at Tech Ed 2023, an annual summit for college instructors hosted by Macmillan Learning in Austin, Texas. Each year, Tech Ed brings together educators from across the United States who teach at institutions large and small, urban and rural, and with diverse student populations. Instructors share their best practices for using technology to enhance teaching and learning. And, they engage in conversations with the Macmillan Learning team about the future of education.  Tech Ed 2023 is right around the corner and we can’t wait to meet you there. Here are our top five things that we’re looking forward to this year.  1. Hearing from Innovative Educators Educators and administrators using technology like Achieve and iClicker will share their stories and best practices. They’ll talk about engaging students in active learning, improving student outcomes, personalizing the learning experience and so much more. We’ll get to learn firsthand about the strategies and pedagogical approaches that are transforming classrooms across the country and how edtech makes it possible.  2. Joining the AI in Education Conversation Artificial intelligence is arguably revolutionizing the way we live, work, interact, and learn. Tech Ed 2023 will feature multiple sessions on AI in education. These sessions will allow instructors to explore AI’s potential to reshape how students learn, how they’re assessed, and how they collaborate.  3. Shaping the Future of Educational Technology One of the highlights of this year’s event is the unique opportunity to shape the future of educational technology during sessions with Macmillan Learning’s product, research, and marketing teams. Macmillan Learning has a rich history of co-creating technologies with instructors and students. At Tech Ed 2023 attending instructors can use their voices to inform the development of innovative teaching and learning platforms. 4. Eating Tacos  Okay, it’s not just about the tacos. Austin, Texas has phenomenal food that anyone can enjoy. We’re excited to sit down for a meal with educators for informal conversations about what they’ve been up to, the things on their minds, and how they plan to spend the summer.  5. Connecting with Educators Tech Ed 2023 isn’t just about the tech; it’s about the people we meet and the relationships we build. In the past few years, so much has been online. Connecting with others who are passionate about creating meaningful learning experiences for students is hands down our favorite part of the event. Tech Ed 2023 is an invite-only, two-day event held in the Macmillan Learning Austin, Texas office. A few spots are still available for the event on June 8th & 9th. If you are interested in attending but have not received an invitation, please contact Leslie Allen-Essex by sending an email to leslie.allen[at]macmillan[dot]com  Get a glimpse of the Tech Ed experience by watching the video below.  ... View more

College is an important time of transition for many students. They’re learning new things, meeting new people, and exploring new surroundings. But managing the many changes taking place isn’t always easy. That’s because with the many changes and opportunities also come challenges for students, and with that can come the feeling like they may not belong in their class, or even in college at all. There are a range of reasons why students may not feel like they belong, and it varies widely from student to student. Some may be the first in their families to attend college. Some students may struggle with mental health issues. Some may simply find it difficult to make friends. And yet others still may have challenges with their financial situations. For these students, feeling like they do not belong, or are an “imposter” can hinder their academic success as well as their mental health, and overall well-being. Some students from traditionally underrepresented minority groups may also feel a sense of marginalization or stigmatization on campus.  Research has demonstrated that students who feel like they belong are more likely to be engaged in their studies, perform better academically, and are more likely to stay in college and graduate. For example, a recent study found that students who report a higher sense of belonging at the end of the first year do better than their counterparts, persist more in their second and third years and have lower levels of mental health issues. “Regardless of the reason, when students feel like they don't belong, the consequences can be detrimental,” said Macmillan Learning Research Specialist Sarah Gray. “It can impact the students’ future career opportunities and earning potential alongside society as a whole by creating higher levels of social inequality and race-based disparities in academic achievement.” At Macmillan Learning our mission is to inspire what’s possible for every learner. That’s why we’ve been so interested in learning more about how having a sense of belonging impacts student performance, and whether courseware can have an impact. Most recently, we have been conducting research in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) to learn more about digital tools that could foster a sense of belonging and the impact that may have on student success for underserved student populations. What is Having a Sense of Belonging Sense of belonging in the college settings refers to how students understand their role and their social fit in a college environment. It goes beyond just physical presence on campus. Rather, it's a feeling that students have that they are part of a larger community, where they are valued, understood, and supported. It’s also about having social and cultural capital–understanding the social norms, shared values, and expected behaviors of college. Their sense of belonging can be enhanced through both social and academic interactions in their classrooms and institutions.  According to Gray, an unfortunate reality is that underrepresented minority groups can report a weaker sense of belonging than their White peers on their campuses.  “Having a sense of belonging is not necessarily a binary issue, where students either feel like they belong or they don’t. Rather, it's a complex and dynamic feeling that can be influenced by a variety of factors, including social identity, campus climate, individual experiences and cultural norms,” said Gray. She added that having a sense of belonging can be further complicated for underrepresented minority students by assumptions that they are coming into college with a deficit of the knowledge and skill needed to succeed, as well as the pressure to fit into the campus environment at the expense of their home culture. There are three types of belonging that Macmillan Learning has been particularly interested in learning more about: students’ individual sense of belonging, their sense of belonging in a particular class, and their sense of belonging within college.  Individual belonging reflects a student's overall sense of belonging within the college environment. It encompasses their feelings of social and academic fit and can be influenced by factors such as campus culture, social identity, personal experiences, and individual personality traits. Students who feel individual belonging may feel like they are valued for their unique perspectives, and that they are free to express themselves and explore their interests without fear of judgment or discrimination. Belonging in class reflects a student's sense of connection and engagement within a specific course or academic program. It's having a sense of ownership over their learning and success in that course or program, and understanding how their classwork is helping them achieve their academic goals. A student who feels a strong sense of belonging in a particular class might feel comfortable speaking up in class discussions, collaborating with their peers on group projects or feel close with their instructor.  Students may or may not feel like they belong at college at all, and it has to do with their sense of connection and belonging that expands beyond just their individual academic programs or their courses.This belonging encompasses their feelings of social and academic fit, as well as their sense of connection to the broader campus community and institutional values. Whether or not they feel like a welcome part of a larger community that shares similar values and goals. Studying Sense of Belonging Macmillan Learning’s Sense of Belonging and Metacognition study seeks to understand the impact of using digital tools like out-of-class peer learning, low-stakes quizzing, and routine sentiment check-ins embedded within a digital courseware platform, like Achieve, to improve students’ sense of belonging and metacognition skills. The study will also examine whether improved sense of belonging and metacognition skills are related to other student outcomes such as course retention, content knowledge and exam scores.  The study is part of the company’s ongoing research about how digital learning platforms and courseware can help to close equity gaps in course completion for historically and presently underserved students, and students experiencing poverty. Initial research began in Spring 2023, and further research will take place in Fall 2023.  “We believe that having a sense of belonging can have an impact, and are testing related digital courseware solutions that administrators, instructors and students said would be helpful. This will help us to see what works best in practice, what students will actually use, and how they will use it,” said Guido Gatti, Sr. Quantitative Research Analyst. In the second part of this series, we’ll offer practical examples of tools and activities that instructors can use to help foster students’ sense of belonging both in and out of the classroom. ... View more

Whether you’re planning to run a marathon or achieve a specific career, setting goals is a good first step towards planning for the future. Goal-setting offers direction and a sense of purpose in our lives, so it should come as no surprise that setting goals can actually help students do better in their classes. At Macmillan Learning, our Learning Science & Insights team was curious about the impact that setting and then reflecting on goals could have in student success. They have been researching its impact over the past five semesters. Spoiler alert: there is a correlation! But before we get to the data, here’s some important background about why goal-setting and reflection is something we wanted to learn more about, and how we went about that learning. The Backstory of Goal-setting & Reflection Surveys When Macmillan Learning was developing its digital learning platform, Achieve, a critical area of focus for us was self-regulated learning. We recognized that students’ ability to plan, monitor, and evaluate their own learning processes (a process called metacognition) touches on so many elements that are important to learning and retaining information, and built in several tools to help support it. Notably, we focused on students’ ability to reflect on what they’d like to accomplish and created an aptly named feature called Goal-setting and Reflection Survey (GRS).  The GRS within Achieve engages with each of the three phases of metacognition: planning (where students set goals and plan how to accomplish them), monitoring (where students check in on and track their progress), and evaluating (where students decide whether or not their strategies have been successful, and decide to seek help). Ideally, five different surveys will be deployed throughout the semester to allow students to set goals for themselves and reflect on their progress throughout the semester. Flexibility was built in the GRS though, so that instructors could assign and students could make use of them as needed. The GRS will typically begin with the introductory survey -- arguably the most critical since it helps to establish the initial guidance for students and helps instructors get to know the students in their class. Checkpoint surveys that ask questions such as “how often did you give yourself enough time to complete assignments” are used to give students the opportunity to re-evaluate their learning strategies, while also giving instructors the opportunity to better understand where the class is struggling. While these were also designed with flexibility, and can be used as needed, they’re most successfully used following exams and major assignments. According to Macmillan Learning Implementation Scientist Kelly Boden, this is because the questions are created for them to reflect on strategies and performance, these are most "fresh" in their mind after exams and projects. “Students commonly struggle with the self-awareness required to think about their own thinking that self-regulated learning requires. Being intentional about what they’d like to gain from a learning experience and how they’ll accomplish those goals can help students develop their metacognitive skills and succeed both in and out of class,” Boden said. Results of Goal Setting & Reflection Research To learn more about the impact of Goal-setting & Reflection Surveys, Macmillan Learning funded a series of research studies from fall 2019 through fall 2021. The studies represented 115 institutions, with 136 unique instructors, teaching 292 courses across eight different subject areas to 7,225 students. Various institution and course sizes as well as course formats were represented, including face-to-face, virtual synchronous and virtual asynchronous. The diverse student sample included 47% non-White or Asian, 22% who were first in their families to go to college, 65% who were eligible for financial aid, and 31% who had a high school GPA lower than 3.5. Overall, benefits to GRS include better academic performance, motivation, self-efficacy and engagement.  Students who completed two or more Goal-setting and Reflection Surveys performed significantly better in their courses than students who only completed one survey or didn’t complete any surveys. Assigning more than two surveys, including the introductory survey and at least one checkpoint survey, increased grades by an average of 3.4 - 8.4% compared to students who did not complete the surveys, depending on how many surveys were assigned.   Students self-reported higher self-efficacy and emotional engagement. Students who completed at least one checkpoint survey had significantly higher self-reported self-efficacy and academic engagement, particularly emotional engagement. Completing a checkpoint survey moved students closer to reporting being “very confident” in their ability to complete their coursework than those who didn’t, who were closer to “pretty confident”. Students who completed a checkpoint survey moved closer to “often” reporting being emotionally engaged in their course than those who didn’t, who were closer to "sometimes" being emotionally engaged.  Students participating in the research believed the GRS was a valuable tool. In fact, 75% of the students agreed or strongly agreed that the surveys helped them improve as a student during the course. Eighty percent agreed or strongly agreed that the surveys helped them to think about their goals and learning habits in and out of the classroom. “We all have experience with setting goals and then following up on those goals in our personal lives. We also see consistently in the educational literature that metacognitive practices impact learning. It’s been rewarding to see the literature come to life as we learn more about the impacts on learning outcomes from the GRS in practice,” said Guido Gatti, Sr. Quantitative Research Analyst. Gatti added that with just 15 minutes a month to reflect on study skills, study strategies and goals, the students can learn skills to help support their success. Given these findings, here are some best practices for instructors to incorporate the Goal-setting and Reflection Surveys into their instruction: Assign the Introductory Survey in the first few weeks of a semester Create at least one Checkpoint Survey (assigned right after an exam or project could be more impactful).  View insights and reports of student survey responses to get insights beyond just grades to help identify areas where students may be struggling.  Macmillan Learning takes our research seriously. Each study undertaken by our Learning Science & Insights Team is Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved. This particular research was reviewed by the Human resources Research Organization, an accredited third-party IRB with no affiliation to Macmillan Learning.  If you’d like more information about the study, click here to read the white paper or check out this previously recorded webinar featuring Mollie Anderson on the value of GRS. ... View more

“When I was a student,” said Dr. Loretta Jones, “during all four years of my undergraduate studies, there was only one female professor–and she was an adjunct professor.” Much has changed since Dr. Jones was a student, and she has played a significant role in that. Dr. Jones was one of the first female authors of a chemistry textbook, and is co-author of the newest edition of Chemical Principles: The Quest for Insight.  Macmillan Learning recognizes that the success of our textbooks and courseware is in large part due to our outstanding authors, many of whom are pioneers and trailblazers in their fields. Our authors have remarkable careers that extend beyond higher education. They are excellent and innovative teachers, and they are impeccable writers and storytellers.  For this year’s Women’s History Month, Macmillan Learning is excited to feature Dr. Jones as part of its Author Spotlight series.    Dr. Loretta Jones, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, University of Northern ColoradoDr. Jones was always interested in science. As a young girl, she was highly curious; she wanted to know how flowers grow and why birds could fly. In middle school, she read a book about atoms and was introduced to the periodic table. “I remember being completely stunned by the incredible harmony underlying everything,” she recalled.  Her early love for the natural sciences convinced Dr. Jones that she wanted to become a physicist. “At the time, when I thought of pursuing a career in chemistry,” she said, “I thought all I would be doing was washing test tubes.” Dr. Jones’’s high school chemistry teacher completely changed her perspective. “My teacher hadn’t taught in a while and tried some new things in the classroom, so we performed some crazy experiments,” she said. “I found it all really interesting–and entertaining!”  At the time, Dr. Jones considered majoring in biology to explore further the natural world. However, because she wanted to be able to support herself and because her love for chemistry had grown, she decided to major in it when she enrolled at Loyola University.  After graduating from Loyola University, Dr. Jones continued her studies at the University of Chicago. It hadn’t crossed her mind to consider teaching as a career until she read the original writings of Italian physician Maria Montessori. “They were so inspiring,” Dr. Jones said. “Montessori wrote about designing an environment in which a child learns best, and I thought to myself ‘We should be doing something similar when teaching chemistry!’” Dr. Jones was also motivated to teach because of conversations she had with many people in her life who said to her things like “Why would you want to study chemistry? I failed chemistry; it’s so hard!” Dr. Jones wanted to prove that learning chemistry–albeit challenging–could be fun and rewarding. Before completing her graduate studies, Dr. Jones gained work experience at Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy science and engineering research center. “It was an interesting place to work,” Dr. Jones recalled. “We were doing a lot of work with coolants in breeder reactors, a type of nuclear reactor that uses large amounts of neutron energy. Dr. Jones then transitioned to work for her husband’s company as secretary and treasurer before returning to school to finish her graduate degree and carve out her own career path.  “My advisor at the University of Chicago told me about a program called Doctorate of Arts in Chemistry at the University of Illinois, a new program designed for people with specific interest in teaching chemistry,” Dr. Jones said. It was the early days of computing when Dr. Jones completed her graduate studies at the University of Illinois and it was difficult to program animations. “The university had computers that performed vector graphics to make interesting animations, something not available even in Hollywood, so Hollywood had to come to the university,” she said. “I was in the room when they were working on animations for the original Star Wars movies–scenes for getting into the Death Star and animations for its flight path.”  Her exposure to early computing encouraged Dr. Jones to think further about how to improve the teaching of chemistry. “Lectures are boring,” she said. “I loved anything that brought pictures of atoms and molecules to the minds of students. They could solve all of the equations, but they didn’t really understand what that meant in terms of atoms and molecules, and that’s where all the excitement takes place.”  After completing her Ph.D. and D.A. at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Dr. Jones had a great opportunity to teach using multimedia at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. There she met Stan Smith, an organic chemist who was really pushing the envelope of what could be done with a computer in his classroom teaching. “I was amazed by his lessons and by his grasp of how his students thought,” Dr. Jones said. She and Dr. Smith started working together to incorporate interactive, multimedia video in their teaching. “This was the early days,” Dr. Jones said. “We needed to have a computer with the lesson on it and a TV set hooked to a videotape player. The computer would ask students a question–something along the lines of which two chemicals they wanted to mix together–and then they would see a video of that reaction occurring.”  With quickly advancing technology, Dr. Jones and her colleagues were then able to lessen the number of devices needed for their multimedia teaching. “IBM visited our campus with their newly developed InfoWindow, which could play the video on the same screen as the computer,” Dr. Jones said. “We received a few of their computers, which also had touchscreens, so students could more easily choose the chemicals they wanted to mix.” IBM also asked Dr. Jones to become a consulting scholar, full-time for one year and part-time for another five years. She was part of a class of twelve that eventually grew to 22, who visited campuses to talk to faculty members about using technology in their teaching.  While serving as a consulting scholar for IBM, Dr. Jones presented her multimedia lessons at conferences, including EduCom where she had a brief encounter with Steve Jobs. “Jobs had recently left Apple and started his company, NeXT Computer,” Dr. Jones said, “which was a classy looking product, but only displayed in black and white.” IBM asked Dr. Jones if they could invite Jobs over to see her presentation of using multimedia in her chemistry lessons. They brought him over, and Dr. Jones went through her lesson, demonstrating how students could use the computer interactively. At the end of her lesson demonstration, she expected Jobs to ask a question about the video or the lesson. “Instead,” she recalled, “he just stood there silently the whole time and at the very end said only: ‘Tell me about this touch screen.’”  The touchscreen computer may have been the biggest takeaway for Steve Jobs, but it’s Dr. Jones’s innovative lessons that had the greatest impact on her students. “Teaching was always such a priority for me,” she said. “So much so that my main research area was the teaching of chemistry.” When a position opened up at the University of Northern Colorado, Dr. Jones applied and moved to Colorado once she got the job. It was the perfect opportunity for someone with that area of interest.  Specializing in teaching and pedagogy also uniquely positioned Dr. Jones as an ideal candidate to author a chemistry textbook. She was first approached by an editor from W. H. Freeman in 1995 with the request to edit a few chapters from the second edition of Chemistry: Molecules, Matter, and Change. “It felt like they were holding auditions,” Dr. Jones joked. “I thought to myself: ‘There’s no way I could possibly have time in my life for a textbook project.’” Nevertheless, the editor was persistent in her requests. She invited Dr. Jones to dinner and left her with the three chapters, which Dr. Jones remembers leaving lying untouched on her dining room table for nearly one month.  “The editor gave me a call and told me that she needed something from me soon,” Dr. Jones said. “I realized that if I didn’t send her anything, I might never have the opportunity–and I could still say ‘no’.” Dr. Jones sent in edits for half of one chapter and will never forget her editor’s excitement. Dr. Jones was invited to New York, where she had her first working meeting with Peter Atkins, her future co-author and long-term colleague.  More than 25 years later, Peter and Dr. Jones are still working together on another title, the eighth edition of Chemical Principles: The Quest for Insight. Together with co-author Leroy Laverman, they’ve now grown their author team to five, bringing on both James Patterson and Kelley Young, who will be featured in a future Author Spotlight. “Kelley and James introduced some interesting new applications,” Dr. Jones said. “We’ve also completely revised how we deal with some of the bonding topics in this new edition.” Like the seventh edition, the eighth edition also has an improved structure, which features focuses and topics rather than chapters.  Dr. Jones is now retired from teaching, but the textbook project continues to keep her busy. When she’s not writing, she loves to read and to hike. She moved to Michigan after she retired to be closer to her daughter. “There are so many great places to hike in Michigan,” Dr. Jones said, “and there are lakes everywhere.”  Loretta L. Jones is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of Northern Colorado. She taught general chemistry there for 16 years and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for 13 years. She earned a BS in honors chemistry from Loyola University, an MS in organic chemistry from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry as well as a D.A. in chemical education from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her physical chemistry research used electron paramagnetic resonance to investigate motion in liquids. Her chemical education research focuses on helping students to understand the molecular basis of chemistry through visualization. In 2001, she chaired the Gordon Research Conference on Visualization in Science and Education. In 2006 she chaired the Chemical Education Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS). She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the coauthor of award-winning multimedia courseware. In 2012 she received the ACS Award for Achievement in Research in the Teaching and Learning of Chemistry. ... View more

Picture a university college campus. Are you imagining majestic buildings standing tall, perhaps of Gothic architecture? How about the intricate stone carvings and pointed arches exuding academic excellence and tradition? What about the steep steps that take you inside that building? Those stairs are a key architectural feature and they are everywhere on college campuses. They’re also, both literally and symbolically, a barrier for many college students. We spoke with Macmillan Learning Author Dr. Jay Dolmage to discuss this and more as part of our ongoing Author Spotlight series. We recognize that the success of our content and courseware is in large part due to our outstanding authors, many of whom have years of experience in research and higher education. The series explores each author’s educational background, teaching interests, and the life experiences that impact their writing and teaching. A co-author of How to Write Anything 5e with John Ruszkiewicz, Dr. Dolmage is Professor of English at University of Waterloo.  He has a passion for both writing and teaching (and in particular, teaching writing to first-year students.) And there’s a special reason he’s so passionate -- he wants to change the way we think about education. Dr. Dolmage argues that education is not always inclusive, and therefore for far too many people, not receiving the best education is an unfortunate reality.   Early Influences “Can I teach more?…” “Can I teach writing more?…” Those were the questions Dr. Dolmage asked himself as he made decisions about his career path. And the answer each time was “Yes.” He taught his first writing course about 20 years ago to incoming freshmen -- something that quickly became his favorite thing to do. He’s passionate about continuing to teach writing to new students year after year because of the oversized impact he believes it has.  It made an impact on him. Dr. Dolmage went from a small town to a large university -- an experience that he said helps him relate to his students. “I like that I can connect with students in their first year, and that I'm a professor who knows their names, and can help them learn one another's names.” He believes that the skills he teaches his students in first-year writing will not only provide them with the confidence to succeed, but will act as the critical building blocks that they’ll use for the remainder of their college experience.  His small town upbringing isn’t the only aspect of his youth to have had an impact on him. When Dr. Dolmage thinks of the things that prepared him for becoming a top teacher and prolific author, being a camp counselor is one of the surprising things that comes to mind. He also credits his parents, who were both “teachers.” While his dad was a high school physical education teacher, his mom was a social worker by trade. “You might not think of a social worker as being a teacher, but in fact, I really think she is, and continues to be, a powerful teacher.” Teaching wasn’t his first dream. Writing was. “I really wanted to be a writer, and I loved writing. I loved the challenge of it; the feeling of creativity..” It was that very experience and struggle that made him want to pursue writing, a desire that followed him throughout his undergraduate degree into his master's degree where he was thrown into teaching writing. “I was excited about it, but I didn't know what it was going to look like.” He ultimately discovered that teaching was a fantastic way to support his goal of being a writer.  Education is Worth Fighting For “You don't realize the cost of exclusion in education unless you've lived through it.” Dr. Dolmage knows all about that cost, because he’s seen the impact firsthand as the sibling of a brother with disabilities. It’s just one of the many reasons why he’s so passionate about supporting inclusivity in education. As an individual with disabilities, Dr. Dolmage’s older brother, Matthew, was not allowed to go to the same school as him and his sister. In a practice known as "segregation," children with disabilities were sent to schools with “specialized education.”  He and his family fought to have his brother attend the same school all the way up to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Ontario, in Canada. When that didn’t go as they hoped, they switched neighborhoods and schools. After that move, Dr. Dolmage and his brother started going to school together and everything changed. The world opened up to his brother, who was finally included in the same activities and classes as him, and was welcomed into the neighborhood. It was then that Dr. Dolmage realized the power of inclusion and the impact it could have on someone's life. It emphasized for him that education is not something he would ever take for granted and it inspired him to help others in the same way. “There always was an understanding that education was something worth fighting for. And that has been the thing that motivates my research and scholarship, and also my teaching. It's one of those things where you don't realize the cost unless you've lived through that kind of exclusion.” He added that it’s an unfortunate reality for lots of people, which is why he continues fighting for more inclusive education. In his career, he has worked to buck the ableist attitudes, policies, and practices that he feels are currently built into higher education. Or as he refers to them -- the “steep steps.” The Steep Steps Remember those steep steps? Now imagine, if just for a day, you decided you weren't going to go up any stairs, but you'd only use elevators. You'd only use doors that had push-button entrances, or other accessible features on your campus. The steep steps make it nearly impossible for some students to access various areas of the buildings. Even when there is an accessible entrance, it may be located in a less convenient or less prominent location. That doesn’t even include considerations of the uneven terrain, bumpy sidewalks, narrow doors and steep ramps, which also make the campus difficult to navigate. More than just an inconvenience, having to locate accessible features of a campus could add about an hour each day -- time that could be used in class, or to study, work, or spend time with family and friends. The steep steps are a powerful metaphor for the barriers that some students face. “They are physical features on campus that we keep reproducing. We associate them with upward mobility and say things like ‘pull yourself up by the bootstraps’ and ‘step up.’” The steep steps determine who has access to privilege and knowledge, he added. “If we see it physically, then we can understand that it happens in other ways. It happens across the curriculum. It happens in the ways that we teach. There are so many barriers just built in because it's the way that we've always done things.” He added, “The messages that are conveyed to disabled students that their access is at the back door and at the end of the syllabus are also forms of ableism.” Dr. Dolmage believes those steep steps represent a key reason why colleges lose so many disabled students. “The graduation rates are much, much lower. The amount of time it takes students to get a degree is much, much higher. The retention rates are really poor.” The cost of the steep steps is that colleges are losing a lot of students.  Dr. Dolmage believes that the writing classroom can be a powerful place to change that dynamic. There, he said, we get to see a diverse group of students early in their college experience; bringing us full circle to explain why teaching first-year students in the fall semester is his favorite thing to do. “Since writing is a required class, there’s a good cross-section of the students who are coming into the university. We get to deliver our courses differently. That’s the reason why I like teaching in the first term.”  It’s a dynamic that wasn’t present during Dr. Dolmage’s schooling.  The Version of History We Choose When Dr. Dolmage was in grad school, he noticed the absence of disability and persons with disabilities in the courses he took. That didn’t track with his own experiences. “I was learning all of these things as part of my grad program, these kinds of histories and theories of rhetoric, and disability was nowhere to be seen.” This was a version of history that he didn’t believe or trust. He likens it to professors he had who had seen a version of the history of rhetoric that only included white men and knew there was more to the story. Just like those who saw the injustice set out to tell the fuller story, so did he -- but with a disability angle. “We've chosen a version of history here where we've cut out all of the rich evidence of the power of disabled people and rhetoricians, and we could have told it differently. And so we did.” This experience has ultimately helped Dr. Dolmage’s role as a teacher and as a writer. He wanted to ensure that all students, regardless of ability, have the chance to learn, develop, and thrive in an inclusive environment. He wanted to challenge the version of history that excluded people with disabilities and to show the power of disabled people and rhetoricians.  His first book, Disability Rhetoric, was the first of many titles about academic ableism that Dr. Dolmage would write. In the following years, he continued writing with titles that included: Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education (Michigan University Press), Disabled Upon Arrival: Eugenics, Immigration, and the Construction of Race and Disability (Ohio State University Press), How to Write Anything (Bedford/St. Martin’s) and Disability and the Teaching of Writing (Bedford/St. Martin’s). Even with the focus on inclusivity, Dr. Dolmage recognizes that not all students want to be in class. To counter that, he seeks out creative and inventive ways to support students who have different levels of preparedness with the goal of using the 16 weeks an instructor has with them to change their mind, and help them feel connected to each other and their instructor. He focuses on classroom collaboration, helping students build confidence, and safely try new things and get out of their comfort zone. He noted that writing books is a test of flexibility and inclusion. How to Write Anything, he said, can sound disingenuous, “as if we could teach people how to write anything.” But it’s not about teaching every single form of writing that a student will ever need. Rather, it’s teaching a student that no matter what gets thrown at them, they can figure it out because they have learned the basics and built in flexibility and confidence. Building those skills are what he thinks about every time he sets down to write. He knows that students from all walks of life, taking a variety of different programs, will be using his text. “How can I support those students .... whoever walks in the room? Any kind of student, no matter where they're from, what they want to do, what zip code they live in, what background they're from, whether or not they're working a full time job in addition to being a student. Because those are the realities, aren't they?” ... View more

Last year, Macmillan Learning and instructors from 13 colleges that primarily serve Black, Latin, and Indigenous students set out to learn more about the impact of evidence-based teaching practices. These are practices that are shown to be effective and help to meaningfully improve student outcomes; many also support student motivation and engagement as well as increase accountability and perseverance. As part of that journey to learn more, Macmillan Learning partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and instructors from institutions with an all too often marginalized student population. While there’s no shortage of research that demonstrates evidence-based teaching practices support students’ deeper learning of concepts and better development of problem-solving skills, there's still a lot more to learn, particularly to learn how to best use educational technology and courseware to support the most impactful implementation of evidence-based teaching practices..  “The research that we’re undertaking will help us better understand which practices are the most effective, how instructors are actually using them with the support of digital courseware, and the impact of those actions on the outcomes of marginalized students,” said Marcy Baughman, Executive Director of Learning Science & Insights. “There’s always room for new ideas and opportunities to do more, and we plan to use what we learn to develop even better solutions.” Baughman added, “We know that student success depends on what happens both in and out of the classroom, and we believe evidence-based teaching practices can make a difference. These practices can help students be better prepared for class, provide more opportunities to interact with course materials and to work on class assignments, and get better feedback from their instructors to prepare themselves for assessments. All of these activities contribute to student success. If courseware can help create opportunities to create an equal playing field for all students and improve student outcomes, we want to learn how.” About the Research Instructors from two- and four-year colleges were part of a study to learn whether (and how) a courseware platform such as Achieve can help to close equity gaps in course completion for historically and presently underserved students. The research, which was conducted by Macmillan Learning in partnership with instructors from 13 colleges, aimed to learn more about the impact of four evidence-based teaching practices through observation, a range of student surveys, weekly check-ins, implementation logs, use of specific tools within digital courseware, and an analysis of student course performance. The four practices include:  Outcome-driven instruction: The study measured the impact of tools within Achieve -- such as goal-setting and reflection surveys, learning objectives, and insights and reports -- on student success. Formative assessment with feedback: The study measured how use of formative assessments like mid-stakes testing, homework with adaptive quizzing (offering hints and targeted feedback) and interactive and low-stakes homework where students are given feedback, video hints, and opportunities to troubleshoot impacts student success. Active learning: The study measured how using iClicker (for attendance, polling, and/or in-class participation), Instructor Activity Guides, and other tactics impact student success. Metacognition: The study reviewed how activities that enhance metacognition and reinforce critical thinking skills -- like assignments that prompt explanations, opportunities to set and reflect on goals, and self assessment/confidence ratings with iClicker -- impact student success. “These best practices teach students soft skills like goal-setting, time management, and metacognition. We plan to quantify the impact of each of the four practices and learn more about the role Achieve and other courseware like it can play,” Baughman said. Introduction to Psychology and Sociology courses were selected for research because they are considered “gateway courses” -- foundational, credit-bearing, lower-division courses that act as gatekeepers to degree completion. Research for Introduction to Psychology will be done using Macmillan Learning’s digital learning platform Achieve featuring the best-selling Achieve for Psychology in Everyday Life, 6e, written by David G. Myers and Nathan C. DeWall. Research for the Introduction to Sociology courses will be done using Achieve for OpenStax Sociology, 3e.  Achieve was developed using learning science and in partnership with students and instructors. One of the key goals of the platform is to support students of all levels of readiness and to engage them in and out of class to improve their outcomes. Forthcoming opportunities to participate  Instructors teaching Psychology or Sociology at colleges that primarily serve Black, Latino and Indigenous students are encouraged to apply to participate in forthcoming studies. Research in the 2023 Spring semester will focus on students' sense of belonging and metacognition. The research seeks to understand the impact of using resources embedded within a digital courseware platform to improve students’ sense of belonging and metacognition skills alongside their relation to other outcomes of student success, like course retention, content knowledge and exam scores. Participation in either of these studies provides educators and their students an opportunity to contribute to the emerging research literature on the use of digital courseware to improve equity for traditionally underserved populations. Each instructor will receive a summary of research findings from their classes as well as the opportunity to be acknowledged for their contribution to the research.  Participating in the research also benefits students. In addition to receiving several gift cards, students that participate will have free access to their online courseware. Analysis of the research, which took place during the Fall 2022 semester and had more than 1,000 students opt-in, is currently underway by the company’s Learning Science & Insights team. Once completed, Macmillan Learning will make its findings publicly available and create an implementation guide with examples of evidence-based practices that can be used by any organization developing digital learning systems or other educational technology.  This spring, Macmillan is researching students’ sense of belonging and metacognition. This study, also done in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, seeks to understand the impact of using resources embedded within a digital courseware platform to improve students’ sense of belonging and metacognition skills. The study will also examine whether improved sense of belonging and metacognition skills are related to other student outcomes such as course retention, content knowledge and exam scores. Instructors interested in participating in upcoming semesters for the evidence-based teaching practice or sense of belonging research can get additional details and learn how to apply here.   ... View more