Over my course of being a TA, I've learned a number of things about college coursework. One of the biggest areas of debate at the moment is online class pedagogy and for good reason. Online classes or discussions tend to viewed by many people the same as a trip to the dentist: you either love them, or they're the bane of your existence. The logic behind this is pretty simple. As a student, you've either had a good experience or you've had a bad one. To be honest, teaching an online class or discussion can be the same way.     Online coursework provides a number of advantages to today's college student, but the work goes both ways. The instructor must make sure to provide a well-rounded online discussion that facilitates learning and fosters involvement with the class material. Sure, the students need to do the work and post their findings, but the instructor's role in an online class discussion is equally as important. By facilitating the discussion around specific lessons, the instructor has the power to be able to serve as a model for how they want the class to engage in the activity.     In David Baker's article, "Improving Pedagogy for Online Discussions," Baker gives practical, detailed tips for instructors in how to set up these discussions and the parameters they need to follow. He is also very blunt about the role of the instructor in these discussions when he observes, "Organizing instructor-facilitated online discussions is fundamental and demanding...teachers are expected to serve as a planner, role model, coach, facilitator, and communicator" (26) To state the obvious, these are big shoes to fill. Instructors can get bogged down in the amount of work to teach and can forget the details concerning their online discussions. It is no longer fine for the students to just talk--there must be a reason behind it, a learning objective to follow. Teachers need to be participatory as well.     Baker goes on to explain that small groups in an online setting can reduce "social loafing," which "refers to the tendency to minimize one's group involvement" (27). This idea helps solve the problem of student's who use online discussions as a way to avoid the weight of the assignment. Smaller groups and assignments promote more participation. It is up to the instructor, however, to assure that these assignments and discussions are well-organized and well-prepared.     Online discussions can flourish or flounder, but the responsibility lies not only with the student but with the instructor. From syllabus design to facilitating specific learning-centered discussions, instructors must be role models and should design the course around what benefits the student.  For more information on online pedagogy, see David Baker's article, "Improving Pedagogy for Online Discussions." http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.una.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=a4113313-3146-4b81-91c9-798dcfb246fb%40sess…  ... View more

Beyond the Formula: Encouraging College Freshmen to Think Outside the Box               As college instructors, we’ve all seen it. The look of dread on student’s faces when we approach the research paper, the argumentative essay, or the exploratory paper. For the most part, this can’t be helped. As college freshmen, their job is to learn the foundational skills that will not only help them succeed in their college career, but hopefully into their professional one as well. However, most students enter college having learned certain “rules of thumb” that helped them survive the writing process in high school. What do I mean by “rules of thumb?” Certain tried and true tactics such as the five-paragraph essay, the thesis-at-the-beginning-rule, or revising the paper the night before the due date. Students used these methods successfully in high school and assume it works for college as well.             As a TA, I have a unique perspective into the freshman composition class, and let me tell you, I’ve seen a lot of students who are blindsided by the fact that these “rules of thumb” must evolve in college. Since I am closer to their age than their professors, I have had students confide in me their fears about these new types of writing that college expects of them. In “Rediscovering the Kernels of Truth in the Urban Legends of the Freshman Composition Classroom” Thomas Lovoy examines some of these “rules of thumb” and what we as college instructors must do to encourage our students to adventure beyond the formulaic writing steps that these students have come to know and trust.             Admittedly, some of the blame is on ourselves. Lovoy writes, “As we teach the same key concepts, year after year, it can be too easy to allow our lessons to fall into a lethargic routine of tips, almost like advertising slogans” (Lavoy 11). Freshmen composition teachers can fall prey to rehashing the same material from high school without thinking of new ways to engage the students in the writing process. So what kinds of help can we give? We can encourage students to write beyond the standard five paragraphs, and instead, we can show them how to adventure into writing without putting a set limit on the ways to get their information across in an interesting, relevant way. We can also give them ways in which they can revise their paper by being more invested in the process. These ideas are just a few of the ways that we, as composition teachers, need to revitalize our teaching methods and truly engage with what the student needs to learn. That is our job, after all.             What do we have to lose? We might just teach them something.   For more information on encouraging students and specific tips on writing, see Thomas Lovoy’s article “Rediscovering the Kernels of Truth in the Urban Legends of the Freshman Composition Classroom.” http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.una.edu/stable/27559167  ... View more

We know that about 79% of all LaunchPad submissions are LearningCurve. We also know that LearningCurve has a 90% satisfaction rating with students. And I just got this tremendous quotation from a professor today:   "In the 10+ years that I've been teaching, I've never experienced students come to lecture so prepared and knowledgeable before; this is due to the Learning Curve assignments".  You can learn more on our LearningCurve catalog page, or check out LearningCurve in your LaunchPad (or SaplingPlus) course.  ... View more

We know that for people new to LaunchPad, they just want to learn the key functionality to get started--not all the pieces that the product offers. To that end, we just added a series of Interactive Guides to LaunchPad to get you up and running when you first log in. For instance, when you first go in to create a course, you will see the guide for how to create a course. You can follow this step-by-step walkthrough to actually create a course. At the end of the tutorial, you will have a fully functional course to explore. All in all, we added seven interactive guides to LaunchPad, including ones on Course Creation, Dashboard Navigation, Course Activation, Instructor Resources, Gradebook Tour, Instructor Console, and Zero Out Past Due Assignments. You can open them up by clicking on “Guides” on the right, or close them out with the x. We are testing these guides out this semester to see if you find them useful. Please let us know what you think by responding to this post (or by using the guides themselves)--and let us know if you have other topics that you think would benefit from a guide. ... View more

As of today, the LaunchPads for Gunn’s Speech Craft, O’Hair’s A Speaker’s Guidebook 7e, and O’Hair’s Real Communication 4e have a new video assessment program. We know that the best way for students to improve their public speaking skills is to give a speech and then watch themselves giving the speech with accompanying feedback--and this new assessment program makes that process so much easier!   So why did we do this and what do you and your students gain with this change?   The new assessment option will allow you to do the following:     Instructors and students can record directly into the assignment. Instructors can add comments and fill out rubrics in the assignment during live speeches and load directly into students’ assignments, all simultaneously. When students finish giving a speech, instructors are done recording and assessing. And since the video and feedback is all in one place for students to reference for learning and improvement, the feedback loop is complete. The program is simple to use with superior commenting, recording, and rubric assessment features. Features include: Powerful feedback Multiple comment delivery options for rich feedback. Comments are side-by-side with the video. Instructors and students can submit text comments or post audio, video, documents, or images as feedback. Visual markers that map the plusses and minuses of the speech. Easy-to-set-up markers make it possible for instructors and students to call out key issues or positive points of the video. You can track every “um,” every speech citation, every use of eye contact, and students will see these markers mapped visually against their speech video. Descriptive rubrics and publisher-provided rubrics that provide crystal-clear assessment. The rubrics in the new program provides more than just a number score for each criteria; they will now include written information on what each score means, i.e. what a 1 means, what a 2 means, etc. Instructors can create and edit their own rubrics, or they can use or edit ours. Real-time feedback Instructors can record each student’s speech directly into the assignment and assess it live while the student is giving the speech. Students can see their video powerfully, paired with instructor feedback immediately. When the speech is done, the instructor is done with their assessment. Because the grading work of the class is done at the end of the class hour, instructors get their lives back. Mobile device-friendly: Through iOS/Android apps that will go live later in the spring, video can be recorded on a mobile device and loaded directly into an assignment. This is a huge improvement over LaunchPad. Live streaming: Instructors who teach online public speaking classes bemoan the fact that students miss out on the live experience of giving a speech. With our new video assessment program, online speech classes can live-stream their speech video while the instructor and class assesses it in the moment. We will be adding this to new LaunchPads as they release, going forward. If you have any questions about this exciting new part of LaunchPad, let us know! (And check out all the instructor directions here, to get started today!) ... View more

It is disheartening to know how many students don't realize that their LaunchPad includes the ebook--and we wanted to help fix that. So with the newer LaunchPads, we added an Orientation Quiz to help students better understand how to use LaunchPad. There is a short video to watch and a series of quiz questions so students know how to find assignments, reach out to tech support, locate their ebook, see their grades, and more. You can assign this to your class at the start of the semester to make your life, and your students' lives, easier.  If your LaunchPad starts with a Welcome unit, open that up for the Getting Started Quiz that you can quickly and easily assign.  Let us know what you think about this--and if you have any suggestions for improving this, we'd like to know that as well. And if your LaunchPad doesn't include this quiz to start, you can easily add it using these directions. Have fun!  ... View more

Inclusive Access is an option that ensures when students register for your course, they are charged for the course materials at a discounted rate. They save money and have access to course materials on the first day of class!  How does this work? Macmillan Learning works with you and your bookstore to find the best price and product for your students.  The format of the product is often dictated by your school but any Macmillan product is available for adoption including LaunchPad, Writer's Help, and our ebooks. Contact your rep to learn how to offer Macmillan content via Inclusive Access or check out our website for more info. ... View more

So the end of the semester is around the corner...and then the next round of classes will start up shortly.  What should you do to make it all go smoothly? Prepare now!  Check out information on reviewing, changing or exporting grades for fall, as well as creating and activating new courses for spring. And don’t forget to sign up for training to make sure you have all the information you need to make the next semester even better!  Let us know if you have any questions—and have a great rest of the term! ... View more

After we had the new design release this summer, we had a number of customers ask us if we could add an option to hide the 'Upcoming Assignments and Events' box. Voila! That functionality is now available, and it works the same way as hiding does throughout the rest of the site. Get more directions in the Support Community. In addition, I wanted to remind you that we are happy to get started on building your courses for the Winter or Spring 2018 term now. (We'd rather start early, than get a panicked email from you on January 6!) So, if you would like us to start building your Sapling Learning course for you, can you do one of three things:    1. Fill out this form.    2. Let your rep know.    3. Let your Client Success Specialist know. We look forward to hearing back from you.  ... View more

We’re delighted to launch our Learning Science and Insights website and share with you our approach. We hope there’s something of interest here to all educators. Improving learner success is a complex process with many influencing factors. The responsibility couldn’t be greater, and the benefits more profound. So, for our contribution, at Macmillan Learning we wanted to lay bare how we go about developing the most empathetic, effective, and impactful digital learning solutions. We hope you’ll take a few minutes to read through the quick overview and be intrigued to dig deeper into a section of special interest to you - how we use design thinking to co-design with students, instructors, and institutions; how we leverage the best learning science and insights from data mining; how we iteratively design, test, and refine a solution and the surprises and insights into students we get along the way; and how we partner with colleges to execute rigorous studies to explore variations in how students, instructors, and institutions use a product and the outcomes they achieve. We’re also delighted to share with you the generous and passionate experts who guide and challenge every step of our approach. We are continuously learning and improving, and aim to provide rigor and transparency in what we do. We will be sharing regular findings In The News section of the website which we hope will be of interest and that you’ll check in regularly. ... View more

Windows Software IOLab_win32_1.64.1457.zip  Extract the IOLab... folder from the ZIP file. Enter the folder and double-click on the IOLab.exe application (look here for more details). Requires Windows 7 or higher. If you run into problems because Norton Anti-Virus is quarantining your IOLab application, please look here. Previous Windows versions   Mac Software IOLab_macosx_1.64.1457.zip  Extract the IOLab... folder from the ZIP file. Double-click on the IOLab.app application (look here for more details). Requires OSX 10.9 or higher. Previous Mac versions Python Development (for experts) Latest PyOLab Release This is a Python library that enables primitive stand-alone communication with IOLab. It is NOT designed to replace the highly capable application you can download for Windows and Mac at the above links, but rather to enable interested people to play with the guts of the IOLab system at a programming level. To get involved with further development of this fun python resource, check out the PyOLab GitHub repository. When you have questions or comments please send me an email at mats.selen@gmail.com. Selected Release Notes 1.64.1457 (Sept/13/2017): The lesson player now saves PDF files for each completed step of a lesson. More info here. 1.64.1452 (July/7/2017): Another minor bugfix to lesson player. 1.64.1450 (July/1/2017): Bugfix to smoothing in player mode. 1.63.1447 (June/20/2017): Fix to output config code to make the setting of D6 and DAC more robust. 1.62.1443 (May/16/2017): Data smoothing now done during acquisition. The features and changes for each versions are documented in the ChangeLog. Device Firmware & Expert Documentation To find out more about IOLab firmware click here. To access expert documentation click here. Please email me if you have any questions:  helpme@iolab.science ... View more

Getting with your IOLab is easy - the following videos will take you through the steps See also the iOLab YouTube Channel Step 1. If your device is not brand new you can skip this step. If you just bought your device, this will help you figure out whats in the box and what to do with the red felt pads in the accessory kit. (video). Note: New devices come with a little plastic battery saver protruding through the battery door on the back of the device - you should remove and discard this. Step 2. If you are using a Windows based computer then you need to do a small driver installation before plugging in the dongle and running the IOLab application (video). Alternatively you can click on the Driver (Windows) link located at the top right of this web page. If you are using a Mac you can skip this and go straight to Step 3b. Step 3a. This will show you how to get and run the Windows application (video). Step 3b. This will show you how to get and run the Mac application (video). Step 4. This will show you how to run and calibrate your IOLab system. The calibration values are stored on your computer, so this procedure needs to be done on each computer that you use the device with (video). Step 5. This will show you how to analyze at your data and how to recall data from previous acquisitions (video). Step 6. Some classes may use this feature and other may not - check with your instructor. This will show you how to share your data using the IOLab cloud repository (powered by Azure). The first time you access this the system will ask you to create an account (video). You can access data shared to the cloud repository using any web browser by going to iolabrepository.azurewebsites.net. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgql1ePbwyCP-selmAUJng/playlists?view=1&flow=list&view_as=subscriber&sort=da Please email me if you have any questions: helpme@iolab.science ... View more

As of today, 70 LaunchPad titles have the link to the new ebook under the Help Menu. We wanted to give students the opportunity to access the mobile-optimized and accessible ebook, as well as give offline access. (You can look to see if your book has this functionality.)  So how does this work in LaunchPad? Go to HELP in the upper right of your course. You will see the option for “Download Offline eBook.” Click on that. (If you don't see that option, then your book doesn't have this functionality, unfortunately.)    You will then to go to a new log in page. Enter in your email address to create an account. That will then opened the book on your bookshelf: Then, if you want to do the app, you need to download the “Macmillan Learning eBook” app and use those same credentials that you just created, to log in and see the book on your device. If you go to another LaunchPad course that has the offline ebook, simply enter in your existing username and password, and you will then see that additional book appear on your bookshelf. (You will not need to create another account.) For more information, directions, and visuals, check out the article in the support community.  ... View more

Subject & Strategy: A Writer's Reader features clusters of readings on a particular issue or theme. These clusters appear in the argumentation chapter, providing a case book for students to understand different viewpoints, synthesize sources and ideas, and enter the conversation with their own arguments. Which of the following clusters or themes would be most engaging and useful? Which do you like best? Cultural Appropriation  Race and Privilege The Upside of Failure  The Changing Nature of Work Click HERE to view potential reading selections for each argument cluster and to vote on your favorite option. ... View more