Now that you've decided to use Achieve, you need to determine how to set up your Achieve course to align with your course goals. Some topics that you need to think about, for instance, might be: Does your school offer a First Day or Inclusive Access program that you should participate in? Are you required to use your LMS? If so, should you offer Achieve through your LMS (be that Canvas, Blackboard, D2L/Brightspace or Moodle)?  If you are teaching more than one section of the same course, or managing a course with multiple sections and instructors, should you use the Section Manager feature where you create a course and have all sections use a copy or branch of that course?  Once you get into the content of Achieve, do you want to use a pre-built course or start from scratch with our resources to design your own course? Which resources make the most sense to use and assign?  How do you want to set up your assignments and grading policies? Will you give students multiple attempts or a grace period to get work done? How much is the work in Achieve going to count toward the overall course grade?  I wish I could tell you that deciding to use Achieve was the LAST step in the process, but really, you're only just getting started. A series of articles will follow on some of these topics to help you figure out what course design makes the most sense for you, your course goals, and your students. Stay tuned!    ... View more

When we were doing research to develop Achieve, both students and instructors told us that they needed more than just discipline content; they needed tools to help students be great students, regardless of the course content. A student’s ability to adapt problem-solving behaviors to different academic tasks and feedback is critical for successful learning. This ability, also referred to as self-regulated learning, has been defined as a set of interrelated skills and motivations that control learning [1, 2]. In order to better support students’ self-regulated learning, we’ve created the Goal-setting and Reflection Surveys in Achieve.    If the surveys are in your course, you will find them under the Resources tab. Instructors report that they are easy to assign and easy for students to complete and, most shockingly, students LIKE the surveys!    When asked how they felt about the Goal-setting and Reflection Surveys, students said….   “It shows that there is a lot more room for improvement not just in psych, but also other classes.” “The questions in the survey helped me to reflect on what I did to better myself and encouraged me to improve further.” “The surveys helped me to reevaluate my goals and ensure I was on the right track for this class to get the grade I desire.” “The surveys helped me better look at how I studied and participated in class. It gave me better study habit ideas.”   Not only do students like the surveys, but our data suggests that using Goal-setting and Reflection Surveys impacts student course performance.   Students that complete their surveys experience higher final course grades Students completing up to 2 surveys perform 2 - 3% better on their course grade than their peers not completing surveys.  Students completing 3 - 5 surveys perform up to 5.5% better on their course grade than their peers not completing surveys.   Students that complete their surveys also perform better on internal Achieve assignments like practice quizzes and homework (Ranking 8% - 12% higher in their classes than their peers not completing surveys)       AND….  Students completing their surveys also complete up to 36% more of their assigned Achieve activities.      But it’s not just about the students. What do instructors say they learn from the surveys and the reports?   “It helped me understand how each student is doing and where we need more work.”    “The report was valuable to me as it revealed students' level of interest in the course, what they seek from the course and how they will apply the outcomes of the course to their lives. I truly used all parts of the information included in the report.”    “It's interesting and helpful to see the number of students who report being off track. It's also helpful to see what obstacles they report facing to staying on track and the strategies they intend on using moving forward.”   “It provided good insight about where many of the students can use some additional instruction and resources to boost learning.”   How many of the surveys are instructors assigning? For courses that assign only 1 survey, only 38% of students complete the survey. Courses that assign 2 - 3 surveys experience more than twice the number of students completing the surveys (77 - 82%). Courses that assign 4 or more surveys experience a significant drop in student survey completion rates (47% or less)   What does this mean for us? There is a sweet spot of using/assigning the Goal-setting & Reflection Surveys.  We recommend instructors assign 2 - 3 surveys per semester for maximum student engagement.   If you want to learn more about the surveys, check out our introduction to surveys article.  [1] Zimmerman, B. J., & Schunk, D. H. (Eds.). (2001). Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: Theoretical Perspectives. Routledge.    [2] Broadbent, J., & Poon, W. L. (2015). Self-regulated learning strategies & academic achievement in online higher education learning environments: A systematic review. The Internet and Higher Education, 27, 1-13. ... View more

What’s New? We have a few new features that just released that will be, we hope, inordinately helpful for your 2022 classes.  You can learn more in our Community.    The instructor can pick the day of the week that the assignment view begins for all of their students in that class.   Achieve will remember the last My Course view any user was on and show that view when you return to My Course.   Instructors will be able to delete their unwanted custom assessment grade settings policies.   Instructors will have new options to control solution visibility.   Password protected assessments are now available.     Learning Objectives will now be visible to instructors when building or editing their assessments, as well as when reviewing students' responses. (Not in Essentials or Read & Practice courses)     Goal Setting and Reflection Responses will now be automated and available in the Reports / Insights tab.   A simple calendar view is available now with enhancements expected throughout the spring.      What came out earlier this fall?  Multi-take Assessments (as a new option as a Grade Settings Policy) allow students to take an assessment up to five times and keep the highest score.  Group Exceptions allow you to create a group of students to use for exceptions (like time extensions) repeatedly.  Course Start and End Time and Institution Name are part of the Course Details and give you the power over exactly when your course starts and ends, and what students see about your course.        ... View more

We have officially released "multi-take" as a grading setting in Achieve. Check it out!  (And yes, the team has already updated the KB with info on multi-take, if you're interested.)  Multi-Take Quiz Grading Setting Details on Multi-Take Quizzes                ... View more

I use Achieve in two of my classes at North Shore Community College: an ALP (Accelerated Learning Program) course and a 6-credit integrated reading and writing course.  When I was first new to the product, I went with the pre-built course and it made my life much easier!  I had to tweak it slightly to fit my courses, but I felt like it was much less stressful than starting from scratch. In subsequent semesters, I’ve experimented with building out the course on my own, but my course tends to mimic the pre-built one! I choose to use the diagnostic tests with both courses, as well as the low-stakes short writing assignments. And in Composition/Seminar (our ALP), I use the writing projects connected to The Hub textbook. One of the most important things I learned with Achieve is that I don’t have to use every tool and option. I got very excited—and stressed out—at first when I saw what is available to instructors and I wanted to use it all! I quickly realized that I should have scaled it back for the first semester because I simply could not keep up with it all. Within writing projects, having three drafts for every essay meant I was constantly reading and grading. Instead, I cut back on the drafts and issued only one or two draft goals so that I wasn’t reading an entire essay each time. I also spread the diagnostic tests out over five weeks, so students don’t just feel like Achieve is one big test!  I also give my students the entire semester to compete any study plans associated with those diagnostics. I use a labor-based grading system in both classes so the Achieve assignments are graded according to whether they are complete, incomplete, late or missing. The gradebook in Achieve helps a lot with that—I can quickly see which students are completing things and which are not…and then I can take a deeper dive into their individual assignments.  Achieve assignments comprise about 50% of the work in my Integrated Reading and Writing course, whereas in my Composition/Seminar (our version of ALP), I use Achieve and The Hub to make up 100% of the assignments. I do a soft integration with my LMS Blackboard.  Since I use labor-based grading, I don’t weight my grades.  I don’t do a full integration with a linked gradebook because of this.   ... View more

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What we have learned with Achieve: it is less about how many assignments, and more about the engagement with the assignments as planned.   Over four semesters (F19-S20-F20-S21), we worked with 4419 students engaging with more than half a million unique assignments from 149 courses across 6 subjects. We collected a lot of data from those studies (that we are digging into further with more studies in subsequent semesters), and here’s what we have found so far: What did we see helping student performance for students using Achieve? Students using more of their courses’ assignments and having higher grades on those assignments, had higher exam scores. Students with higher grades on their assignments (gradebook average) could expect to be 9 points higher on exams. Students that use less than the typical student, by course, can expect to perform 4% to 8% lower on their exams, while students that use more than the typical, perform 1.5% higher on their exams.     What did not help student performance? Neither the overall number of assignments for each course nor the percent of these assignments that were graded had an impact. The  overall number of assignments engaged by the student nor the raw number of graded assignments had an impact. Simply adding additional assignments does not appear to help course performance. In short, it is less about how many assignments, and more about the engagement with the assignments as planned.   Recommendations for customers: Allow and encourage students to engage and persist more, maybe even collaborate. Some assignments should be graded and tracked (e.g., check for understanding, formative and benchmark assessment). You do not necessarily need to assign more or increase the load on students. ... View more

OCTOBER 14 | 1:00 PM ET In the classroom, teachers not only confer students with knowledge of their academic course material, but they can also be part of students’ progress toward adulthood. “Adulting” skills are not often taught in the college classroom, yet many of us professors expect students to know how to do these tasks while in our course: study, work independently, send appropriate communication, meet deadlines and more. Soft skills tend to be wielded by successful students and lacking in ones who struggle. Luckily these skills can be taught and nurtured. Professors can use tools such as Achieve’s Self Reflection Surveys to help students develop these soft skills. This webinar will discuss how to incorporate and evaluate student self-reflection surveys to bridge the knowledge gap, improve student learning outcomes, as well as enhance students’ “adulting" skills.   Access the recording today! Watch Recording *NOTE: You must follow this link to register. Responding above as "going" will not register you for this event. ... View more

OCTOBER 13 | 1:00 PM ET Taken from the title of his latest book, Normal Sucks is a deeply personal and professional roadmap for teaching and learning for students who don’t fit the definition of academically normal students. Jonathan’s talk will be accompanied by a 5 minute demonstration of Achieve’s reporting and insights which are designed to help you monitor the performance of your entire class in real time.     Access the recording today! Watch Recording *NOTE: You must follow this link to register. Responding above as "going" will not register you for this event. ... View more

iClicker Engagement Sweepstakes Grant Giveaway for Teachers Enter to win a $500 technology grant for your department or classroom! The past year has made one thing crystal clear: engagement is vital to student success. Learning Science research shows that creating connections inside and outside of the classroom with iClicker not only helps every student - regardless of preparedness - thrive in class, but actually boosts end-of-course grades too!  So, every month this fall, we’ll be drawing for a chance for an instructor to win a $500 educational technology grant for their department! How to Enter & Qualify for the Grant: To enter, all instructors need to do is use iClicker at least 3 times in a calendar month with at least 5 students — then submit a screenshot of your iClicker course history.  Ready to go?  Learn more about how to enter, rules, & deadlines here: https://go.macmillanlearning.com/engage-to-achieve-sweepstakes (This contest is open to anyone using iClicker, whether that's integrated with LaunchPad or Achieve, or by itself. We'd love to have you!)  What would you do with a $500 technology grant for your classroom?  ... View more

This fall, we are hosting a variety of webinars designed to Engage Your Students to Achieve More. Topics include: Go here to register today! (And if you can't attend, registering will give you access to any post-event recordings or documentation.) We hope to see you this fall!  ... View more

Gradebook categories can be reordered Instructors can create a group of students and give that group assignment exceptions, or create group-specific assignments  Content added to the course will appear at the top of the course content view  Instructor can set time for course start and end date  On writing assignments that have MLA/APA features, instructors can now view all the components in one view and leave feedback on all features (English Only) ... View more

As classes begin, just a reminder that we have a host of fabulous training options for all of our digital products:  https://www.macmillanlearning.com/college/us/contact-us/training-and-demos    And you may say, "Nah, I'm fine. I don't need training. I'll learn on my own." You probably can, but we have data from our users that says that customer satisfaction increases when a training happens--because you aren't frustrated in trying to figure out what to do. So give it a shot and sign up for a training today!  ... View more

Hopefully you have seen all the announcements, but Sapling and SaplingPlus will not be available for Fall 2021 higher ed classes; we are upgrading to Achieve instead!  You can get live training on Achieve or you can watch a recorded training.  Once you know a little about Achieve, you can use this help article to get you the information you need to set up your course.  We look forward to helping you Achieve More this fall!  ... View more

Recently we had one of our major releases and there is some more new functionality in Achieve that you should know about.  Students with 1 term access will be able to switch their course enrollment  Student-specific assignments will no longer be visible to those students who aren't assigned the assignment  Coordinators will be able to change Assessment grading settings at any time, from within NGA or the single assign widget, in their Section Manager Instructors can edit or create their own multiple choice, multiple select, numeric entry, free response, and math equation questions for use in their Achieve courses. See the help article here.    Instructors can “favorite” assessment items that they really like so they are easy to find for later assessments or for use in other courses. See the help article here.    Instructors will be able to grade writing assignments using the rubric score, with optional weighting for rubric criteria (only in English courses using Writing Tools). See the help article here.          ... View more