Ready to take a leap into the future of education with Artificial Intelligence (AI)? We're here at Macmillan Learning not just as textbook providers, but also as your enthusiastic supporters in this exciting journey. We're firm believers in the power of AI to boost student engagement and outcomes. Whether you're a pro at using Achieve and iClicker or just curious about AI, we're with you every step of the way. To make things smoother, we've put together a super handy guide full of practical tips on integrating AI into your teaching styles. It's ready for download and it's here to help you unlock new levels of learning potential for your students with AI. Let's do this together! Download Guide Here ... View more

It goes by many names — cooperative learning, collaborative learning, peer learning, and sometimes just “group work.” These terms are often used synonymously to describe educational approaches that require students to interact with one another to explore, master, or apply course material and concepts. No matter what you call it, students working together toward an academic goal can be an incredibly effective way to learn.  In this article, we’ll cover… what collaborative learning is and how it might differ from peer learning. the benefits of collaborative learning for students. examples of great collaborative learning activities and tools to facilitate peer learning. a few tips for using collaborative learning in any course.  What is collaborative learning? In the 1992 collection, Collaborative Learning: A Sourcebook for Higher Education, Barbara Leigh Smith’s and Jean MacGregor’s article define collaborative learning as “an umbrella term for a variety of educational approaches involving joint intellectual effort by students, or students and teachers together. Usually, students are working in groups of two or more, mutually searching for understanding, solutions, or meanings, or creating a product. Collaborative learning activities vary widely, but most center on students’ exploration or application of the course material, not simply the teacher’s presentation or explication of it.” Is there a difference between peer learning and collaborative learning? Terms like peer learning, collaborative learning, and group work are often used interchangeably but some scholars of teaching and learning believe it's important to distinguish between peer learning and collaborative learning.  They argue that collaborative learning takes place when students work together to solve problems, discuss ideas, and create products as equals whereas peer learning requires that students with different knowledge or ability be paired together so that one can lead while the other learns. Some believe that both collaborative and peer learning describe instances where students teach and learn from one another. Others believe peer learning encompasses many types of collaborative learning activities such as peer instruction or peer work. Regardless of the terminology and distinction you find most compelling, it’s important to understand the benefits of peer learning and collaborative learning and how to effectively use these tools with your students. How does collaborative learning support students? Collaborative learning is considerably well-researched. A recent study found that among students at 17 institutions, collaborative learning had a positive influence on students' academic motivation.  In part, peer learning is so effective because it is a form of active learning. Learning is understood by many to be an active, constructive process. In their article, Barbara Leigh Smith and Jean MacGregor described what makes collaborative learning active.  “To learn information, ideas, or skills, students have to work actively with them in purposeful ways. They need to attach this new material to, or integrate it with, what they already know—or use it to reorganize what they thought they know. In collaborative learning situations, students are not simply taking in new information or ideas. They are creating something new with the information and ideas. These acts of intellectual processing—of constructing meaning or creating something new—are crucial to learning.” - Barbara Leigh Smith and Jean MacGregor 4 Types of Collaborative Learning Activities  Think-Pair-Share Think-Pair-Share or TPS is perhaps the most well-known and used collaborative learning activity. They can easily be done on the fly, with very little planning required of instructors. First instructors can ask students a question and give them time to think about it on their own (THINK). Next, students partner up to discuss the question and their thoughts (PAIR). Finally, the groups share what they discussed with the rest of the class (SHARE). Case Studies Case studies can be used in any discipline, though they’ve been used by instructors in the professions (business, law, medicine, education, etc) for many decades. While activities involving cases may not inherently be collaborative, discussing cases with an entire class or asking students to work through cases in small groups, makes this an engaging opportunity for peer learning. Teaching with case studies allows students to apply what they’ve learned to identify solutions to a problem, solve a mystery, or generate new ideas.  Peer Review Peer review is common in writing courses but is great for any course where papers  have to be written, problems have to be worked, or processes have to be demonstrated. Students may initially feel uncomfortable giving feedback because they may not want to say anything negative about another students’ work. It is important to set clear expectations and guidelines with peer review activities. Peer Instruction Peer instruction is a student-centered type of instruction that allows students to learn by explaining core concepts to each other under the guidance of their instructor. There are several types of peer instruction activities. Jigsaw for example can be used to assign a single section of a reading assignment to one student or a small group of students and have them present or “teach” that section to the rest of the class. With the student engagement system iClicker, instructors can create peer instruction activities on the fly by pairing students who’ve picked different answers to a question together to explain their reasoning.  Tips for Facilitating Collaborative Learning When implementing any new type of activity or method in the classroom, it’s helpful to keep a few things in mind. Explain the activity clearly. How you introduce the activity matters, especially when it comes to peer learning. Students might get nervous about the idea of working with peers they don’t know well. Give students clear guidelines and let them know what your expectations are.  Give them time. Give students the right amount of time. It’s equally important not to give them too much or too little time. If students are rushed, perhaps only one will have the opportunity to present, discuss, or provide feedback. On the other hand, if given too much time, students might get distracted and let the task at hand slide.  Know what happens next. What do you want students to do after they’ve completed the collaborative learning activity? Think through what goal(s) the activity is working towards and how it will support their understanding of the course material or development of skills.  Resources Collaborative Learning: A Sourcebook for Higher Education  Cornell University, Center for Teaching Innovation University of Michigan, LSA Learning & Teaching Technology Consultants ... View more

Prospective students face the difficult task of deciding whether or not a college degree is worth the cost. To deliver the best possible value to students, institutions are looking for ways to improve student outcomes. A perspective shift from instructor-focused content to a student-centered approach can be the starting point to ultimately improving outcomes. For instructors, this shift can prove difficult to navigate, as it requires moving away from curriculum delivery as the sole or primary focus and moving towards a focus on the expectations and desired results of the students. This highlights an important difference — one between learning objectives and student outcomes — and is central to creating more enduring, impactful learning. By focusing on student outcomes in addition to learning objectives, institutions and educators can involve students in the learning process, resulting in increased motivation and higher achievement. Learning Objectives vs.Student Outcomes: Why the Distinction Matters While learning objectives and student outcomes may seem similar and even synonymous, the key difference lies in the target audience of each statement. Learning objectives describe the actions the instructor aims to take, whereas student outcomes describe the results of the student experience. In other words, student outcomes refer to the knowledge or skills that a student gains as a result of an applied learning objective. Student outcomes can also be described as learning outcomes, as a result of learning objectives. Learning Objectives center the instructor Student Outcomes center the student Learning Objectives are what the instructor intends to teach Student Outcomes are how the learner will demonstrate achievement Learning Objective Example: We will discuss the varying character tropes across Shakespeare’s most popular comedies. Student Outcome Example: By the end of unit 2 of An Introduction to Shakespeare, students will be able to analyze and compare common character tropes across popular comedies. Stating the goals of a course, unit, or lesson as a student outcome involves the student in the process and clearly states the expectations, which can be helpful to set the student up for success from the very start. Tying Learning Objectives to Student Outcomes Establishing learning objectives is the first step to drafting concise, measurable, and impactful student outcomes. In writing a learning objective, you establish the actions you will take as the instructor to deliver student outcomes. However, because learning objectives tend to emphasize instructor actions and can alienate the student, considering how you can alter your objective to best center the student is a key step whenmoving from objective to outcome. Student outcomes should be: Specific: students should understand what they are expected to demonstrate or produce as a result of the learning process. Attainable: the outcome is a reasonable expectation for students, given their level of knowledge and preparation Realistic: the objective can be achieved within the established timeframe Active and Observable: students will know whether or not they have achieved the objective Measureable: students have a way of measuring their success Given the above parameters, it’s clear that language and wording of student outcomes are paramount. To create a more lasting and actionable level of learning, instructors can use language that encourages students to strive toward a place of synthesis, evaluation, and creation, in addition to knowledge and comprehension. The verbs that instructors use in their learning outcomes can inspire this kind of thinking. When writing student outcomes, consider language derived from Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives: Knowledge– to know, remember, and recite facts and concepts Comprehension– to understand and explain Application– to apply learned knowledge or skills to a novel situation Analysis– breaking information or concepts into its parts Synthesis– to integrate ideas, create something new, or propose a plan of action Evaluation– to judge the value of information or ideas Creation– combining parts to make a new whole Incorporating language from the higher ends of Bloom’s Taxonomy – synthesize, evaluate, and create – will set higher expectations for student outcomes and enable students to visualize the products of their learning. Improving Student Outcomes for More Valuable Learning Experiences By considering the factors impacting a student’s ability to achieve a learning outcome, instructors can intentionally incorporate strategies to address these factors and, in turn, bolster student achievement. Many great instructors have the ability to blend teaching strategies and their pedagogical approach to reach diverse learning styles. For example, instructors who provide opportunities for self-paced learning will find that many students thrive with extra time for processing and applying their learning. All students learn, process information, and complete assignments at varying paces; allowing students to learn on a flexible timeline relieves them of the pressure they might feel when up against a strict deadline. As you allow students this flexible time, however, it is also important to guide them as they learn to self-monitor and manage their time. The quality of learning time is just as impactful as the duration; some students may require more guidance than others as they learn to navigate a self-paced learning schedule. In addition to allowing for a flexible learning schedule, instructors might also consider modeling and encouraging a growth mindset in their students. A growth mindset is defined by an individual’s belief that they can improve upon something that is difficult for them; in contrast, someone with a fixed mindset believes that they are defined by their current abilities and unable to grow, change, or improve upon themselves. A student with a growth mindset might think, “Math is hard for me. If I dedicate extra time to studying, attend office hours, and take some practice tests, I can improve my grade from last semester.” A student with a fixed mindset might think, “Math is hard for me. I’m not very good at it, and my brain is better at literature and languages. I’ll just get through this requirement and then I won’t have to do another math course.” Chances are you’ve encountered students with a fixed mindset. They may have even had additional barriers to accessing education. Social stereotypes can also impact a student’s mindset. Even girls with a strong growth mindset in education may find that their mindsets become more fixed when studying STEM disciplines. Women are less represented in STEM careers than men. Because such stereotypes are often introduced early, they become more difficult to combat as students grow older. One of the most impactful ways to instill a growth mindset in a student with a stubbornly fixed mindset is to have them experience success as a result of their own hard work and dedication. Students often find this success through inquiry-based learning; or, a process in which students take the lead in their learning and explore topics through high-level questioning and investigation. For inquiry-based learning to be successful, however, students need to have first established a strong basis of knowledge from instruction-based learning. Therefore, a strategic blend of both instruction- and inquiry-based learning is the most likely to encourage a growth mindset in students. *It is important to note that leading an inquiry-based classroom is inherently more difficult to navigate than an instructional-based one; interested educators might consider undergoing training or professional development to help incorporate inquiry into their classrooms. Measuring Learning Outcomes You’ll probably want to measure the success of your learning outcomes. One way to do this is by trying to identify any changes in students' performance on assessments — both formative and summative. Formative assessments can be used throughout a course for ongoing measurement of student understanding, areas of confusion, and readiness to move on. Formative assessments can come in the form of quizzes, surveys, class discussions, debates, written responses to prompts, or in-class polling with tools like iClicker. You can track student progress across formative assessments, both as feedback for their own instruction and as useful insights for summative assessments; to do so, consider using analytics provided by courseware platforms like Achieve. The cumulative summative assessment should be aligned with the stated learning outcomes of the course or unit. In this way, students will not be surprised by the summative assessment, as they will have already aligned their expectations based on the learning outcomes. It is a mark of truly student-centered instruction when students feel confident, capable, and prepared for the summative assessment, as a result of well-established and communicated learning outcomes. ... View more

  Students today have more tools and opportunities to violate their institutions’ academic integrity codes than ever before. According to research conducted by the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) in 2020, “more than 60 percent of university students freely admitted to cheating in some form.”  Whether cheating on an exam, paying someone to complete an assignment for them, working together on an assignment designed for independent completion, or using the internet to plagiarize entire papers, academic dishonesty can take on countless forms.  Educators and administrations will never eliminate academic dishonesty. There will always be those students who are more motivated to take the easy way out than they are to learn the material. And, there will always be students who arrive on the first day of class unaware of the difference between paraphrasing and plagiarism. While you may not be able to prevent every instance of cheating or plagiarism, it’s important to uphold the standards set by your school and to teach students about academic honesty by making it an intrinsic part of your course design.  What is academic integrity and why does it matter? Chances are your institution has detailed its definition of academic integrity or academic honesty in an honor code, academic integrity code, or code of academic conduct. These contracts that students enter into with the university are an important source of information for students and a helpful tool for educators. Most definitions of academic integrity encompass a set of values and approaches toward a scholarship that may include honesty, trust, responsibility, respect, and openness. Academic integrity isn’t just about negative, dishonest behaviors like cheating and unauthorized collaboration. Positive, honest behavior like demonstrating personal achievements, recognizing and crediting others’ work, and receiving feedback with humility, are equally important to a strong sense of academic integrity.  When accepted and acted on as standards, these behaviors not only foster trust in an individual’s academic work, it supports the trustworthiness and credibility of scholarly work at large. In a time when misinformation is rising rapidly and trust in science and institutions of higher education seem to be declining equally as quickly, it’s important to remind your students of what is meant by academic integrity and why it's so important. This information is relevant to their lives in the classroom and beyond.  Student motivation should be a part of the academic integrity conversation. Students don’t cheat solely because they have the opportunity to do so. They also do it because they are motivated to. Understanding student motivation is an important step in building academic integrity in your course design. Without first knowing why students might engage in dishonest behavior in your course, how can you hope to address it? The Center for Teaching Excellence at Boston College has assembled a collection of teaching strategies, including a few on academic integrity, that is incredibly helpful and well organized. In the “Cultivating Academic Integrity” resource they outline the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as follows.  “Intrinsic motivation is active in a student who is personally interested in exploring the material at hand because of their curiosity and desire. Students who are intrinsically motivated assign value to doing the task itself, not to a particular outcome.” “Extrinsic motivation is active in students who are willing to invest in a task to the extent that it will help them achieve ‘extrinsic rewards,’ like public praise or money. In the classroom, any number of extrinsic rewards may be operating: good grades, feeling accomplished in relation to peers, admission to graduate or professional school, etc.” The ultimate goal is to help students develop the intrinsic motivation to learn the course material and successfully complete the course. Not all students start a course with this type of motivation, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be built. Some students might not be passionate about the subject matter, and sometimes students who are may still be inclined to cheat. Here are a few factors that might motivate students to act dishonestly. High-pressure academic environment Stress from large courseloads and overlapping assignments Stress from external environments like work, home, or community Disinterest in course material and/or a failure to see the relevance of the material to their lives Lack of confidence in one’s own ability to successfully do the work If you’ve been teaching for a while, you’ve probably encountered one of these motivating factors. If you’re new to teaching, chances are you’ll encounter one soon enough.  6 Steps to Building Academic Integrity into Your Course Design 1. Reflect on your students, their challenges, and how your course relates to their broader educational goals.  This goes hand in hand with knowing students’ motivation to cheat. As you work to make academic integrity an inherent part of your course, try thinking through what this course means to your students and what their goals and challenges may be. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself.  Check your knowledge of your students. How many students in your course have a strong high school background? How many students in your course are first-generation college students? Do your students understand the purpose of office hours? What is happening in my community and the world that may lead to increased stress and pressure for my students? Question your course. Is this course a prerequisite to more advanced courses? Are you teaching the “weed-out class” that students fear most in your department? Or, are you teaching the class that students tend to mischaracterize as a “blow-off class?” Are you teaching a first-year composition course where students may not understand paraphrasing and plagiarism?  2. Set clear expectations around academic integrity and set them early. Talk to your students about academic integrity. Define it for them and give them an opportunity to ask you questions. If you don’t have an answer to one of their questions about academic honesty, remember that you can always direct them to your institution’s honor system or academic integrity office. Whether required by your school or not, you should include the school’s policy on academic integrity in your syllabus. Setting these expectations can be done at the start of the term and followed up on throughout the semester. If you’re not sure how to continue the conversation with students throughout the semester, try including information about ethics in your field to help them realize the connection between academic integrity and their careers. Writing your own academic integrity statement In addition to what is set forth by your school, you may also want to create an academic integrity statement. Elements to consider including in your statement might be: Appropriate collaboration and a definition of what constitutes independent work Requirements for paraphrasing, quotation, and citation Rules and regulations related to your class and classwork When and how these guidelines for academic integrity will be applied 3. Help build intrinsic motivation by showing students the value and relevance of what they’re learning.  Students who don’t start the semester off with an intrinsic enthusiasm for the course content might need a little nudge to see how exciting, valuable, and relevant your course is. Here are a few ways things you can do to build intrinsic motivation in your course. Allow students to co-create parts of the course or syllabus with you. Get creative with positive reinforcement instead of negative reinforcement by helping students think of their grade as building up from 0, rather than chipping away from 100.  Share your passion for the subject with your students. Spend time showing students how the information will benefit their future academic and professional success. Use examples in your course that feel relevant to your students’ lives when possible. Get students excited by teaching with case studies.  By building intrinsic motivation, you can work through several common factors that motivate students to engage in dishonest behavior.  4. Give students frequent, low-stakes assessments or try scaffolding assignments. If your course is only made up of five assignments, each worth 20 percent of the final grade, doing well on each assignment becomes an enormous source of pressure for students. If they do poorly on the first assignment or exam, they may feel their only options are to either work that much harder on the second, or cheat to ensure a good grade. You can help reduce this pressure by adding more frequent, low-stakes assessments to your course or varying the value of your assessments and assignments.  If you prefer not to add assignments to your course, you could instead try scaffolding assignments by breaking down your larger assignments into smaller, sequential steps. This allows you to grade students each step of the way, across the entire process rather than just on their final product. 5. Help your students prepare for exams. Whether you write your own exams or use pre-built assessments, you know what’s going to be on the test. Shouldn’t your students know too? Help your students prepare for the exam by reminding them what they should study.  If you have time and/or the support of teaching assistants, you can also hold review sessions leading up to the major exams in your courses like the midterm or the final. You may even be able to replace office hours one week with an open review. These review sessions can give students the reassurance they need to walk into the exam feeling prepared and confident.  6. Practice the academic integrity you preach. It’s important to display the same academic integrity as you ask of your students. It’s a no-brainer, but it’s important to keep in mind. So, even if you’re in a hurry to finish your slides for tomorrow’s class, don’t forget to cite your image sources. You’d expect your students to do so, and leading by example helps students know what behaviors to embody. The challenge of academic integrity in online learning environments Remote learning environments can create unique challenges to academic integrity. It’s easy for them to turn their video off or completely tune out. It’s also easier for students to feel detached in an online classroom, and when they’re not invested in your teaching or the course material, they may be more inclined to look for shortcuts. Some ways to combat these additional challenges brought on by online learning include: Investing more time in letting the students get to know you Holding virtual office hours more frequently  Set a time limit for tests and quizzes, akin to how much class time they’d have in person Start with trust by making tests open book when possible  Regardless of modality, it's important to show students the value of what they’re learning, to build a connection with them, to set a strong example, and to reflect on their motivations. Fostering academic integrity requires a multi-pronged approach, but with the right tools, and a plan to shape your entire course with it in mind, you can reduce the urge your students have to cheat, giving them a more meaningful experience in your course, no matter the content. How do you build academic integrity into your course design? ... View more

Did you know that Achieve includes Learning Curve, unpenalized and multi-take assessment grading settings, Diagnostics, and iClicker Study Tools that can help students better prepare for their midterms? Just in time to relieve some exam stress, learn how you can assign any of these resources in your own courses.   LearningCurve LearningCurve is an adaptive self-study program for students that quickly adapts to what students know and helps them practice what they don’t yet understand. Students complete the adaptive quizzes by answering questions until they reach the target score. Along the way, students receive clear feedback based on their correct and incorrect answers--offering an easy way for students to review and assess their understanding of key concepts. As students answer questions correctly, the questions get harder. If they get stuck, students can choose to read the e-book, see a hint (which reduces the point value of the question), or they can give up and move to the next question.  You can view LearningCurve results by class, topic, or by individual student. Learn more about LearningCurve.   Multi-Take Assessments Unpenalized (practice) and multi-take grading policies are included in Achieve’s built-in assessment grading settings.  The unpenalized setting allows students unlimited attempts to complete each question with no penalty for wrong answers. They can use resources like the e-book (if available) to help them answer questions, and they can see the solution for each question after they complete it or give up. The multi-take setting allows students to take the assessment up to five times. Students will see the solutions for the questions after each take, and the gradebook will record each student’s highest score. Learn more about assessment grading settings.   Diagnostics Diagnostics are available in Achieve courses for English and General Chemistry. Students start by taking a practice test, which identifies topics for additional growth. Students then receive personalized study plans that provide instructional resources that target their identified growth areas.  Grades for study plan assignments are based on how much of the study plan a student completes by the assigned due date or the end of the term. You can view Diagnostics results by class, topic, or by individual student.  Learn more about Diagnostics.   iClicker Study Tools Included with most Achieve courses, iClicker creates study resources for your students as you engage them with in-class activities. Study Tools are automatically available in the iClicker student mobile or web app; all you have to do is use iClicker’s setting to share polling images with your classes.   Students can bookmark polling questions you’ve already asked in class to create interactive flashcards and practice tests. Although you won’t be able to view or grade Study Tools results, this level of privacy for students helps them feel comfortable quizzing themselves as many times as they wish.  Learn more about how students use iClicker’s Study Tools. ... View more

It really is a tale as old as time – a room full of students staring blankly at an instructor who has just posed a question to them. Some students are even nodding off in the back of the classroom. It’s not necessarily a story of disinterested students but it might be one of disengaged students.  If you’ve ever struggled to keep your students engaged, you’re not alone. Engaging students has always been a pain point for educators. Whether you’re trying to engage college students during lectures or get high school students to participate in small group activities (or anything in between), you’ve likely come up against some hurdles. An engaged student is one who is curious about, interested in, and attentive to what they’re learning. Engaged students feel a positive emotional connection to their learning experience. Without engagement, students might end up detached or focused entirely on memorization. Does that sound familiar? Sometimes engagement comes easily. A student might be so deeply interested in a subject that they’re on the edge of their seats during every class. It's more often the case that educators have to help foster a positive connection between students' lives and what they’re learning.  Supporting student engagement is possible if you know what barriers stand in the way and what strategies and activities to incorporate to drive engagement. As an educator, you can take the driver’s seat with a few simple considerations and steps. What stands in the way of student engagement? There are countless barriers to student engagement but a few stand out as exceedingly common. Often, students who want to engage in classes actively lack the confidence to speak up. Many students struggle to see how concepts and topics related to their own lives. Some students even feel so disconnected from their instructors and peers that they don’t realize an opportunity to engage with them. Beyond those common barriers to student engagement, one of these factors could be why you’ve noticed low engagement among your students: Life outside of the classroom is distracting your students. Like all of us, students have lives outside of their (school)work. The stress they experience isn’t always about making good grades and getting to class on time. Home life, finances, extracurricular activities, friends, and social and political events can create stress that makes it difficult to focus in class. Your lectures cater to one learning style, and it’s not theirs. Whether you’ve been teaching for decades or are just getting started this term, it’s easy to fall into a rhythm. You have so much content to cover in such a short amount of time and routine can help. It’s important, however, to keep different learning styles in mind when mapping out your course design. Students don't know how to ask for help. For a lot of college students, office hours can be an intimidating, if not totally foreign concept. When students don’t know that they can connect with their instructors they can begin to feel isolated. They may even distance themselves from the course slowly over time without realizing it. Mistakes aren’t encouraged. Nothing zaps confidence more than the fear of being wrong. If in-classroom engagement feels too high stakes for students, they may be so fearful of providing the wrong answer or working through a problem incorrectly that they miss out on the opportunity to engage.  Students don’t know where they stand in a course. A lack of clarity into their progress in the course can impact their engagement. Maybe you have an incredibly shy student who answered a question in class one time. For that student, that one act of engagement might have felt monumental but to you, it may seem that they're not engaged enough.  Expectations aren’t clear. If students don’t know that they’re expected to actively participate in class, they may seem disengaged even when they aren’t. Every student has had a different experience throughout their academic careers and may not intuitively know what to do in the classroom.  Instructor barriers to engaging students Low student engagement is a compounding problem for educators. Every barrier to engagement that students face creates a challenge that instructors need to solve. At the same time, educators face their own challenges to improving student engagement, namely time constraints with such hefty workloads and analysis paralysis brought on by the sheer number of resources, advice, and tools available.  With a good action plan and well-designed, research-backed tools, small changes to a course can greatly improve engagement. Yes, there are 101 things you can do to improve student engagement, but you don’t have to do them all and you don’t have to do them alone.  Breaking through student engagement barriers You don’t have to wait until halfway through the semester – when students are nodding off in class or skipping altogether – to start thinking about engagement. An effective student engagement strategy starts on day one of class and doesn’t stop when students leave the classroom. Here are five ideas to help you break through the barriers throughout the term: Break the ice with your students. Allot some time for students to get to know you and their classmates on the first day.  Provide an informal meeting place. Encourage your students to share questions, comments, and ideas with one another through a discussion board in your LMS or via a class social media page. This doesn’t have to be for a grade. Clearly and repeatedly share information about how students can communicate with you. This includes sharing your office hours schedule and setting realistic expectations on your response time to emails. Don’t ignore what’s happening outside of the classroom. Many of the stressors that distract students during class can become teachable moments. If you find that your students seem concerned by current events, consider how you can incorporate them into lectures, assignments, and group discussions. Make it okay to make mistakes. Whether it’s fostering supportive class discussions wherein students feel comfortable being wrong or providing more low-stakes assessments, give students opportunities to make mistakes without fear. Active learning is arguably the foundation of student engagement. We define active learning and outline an extensive list of strategies that you can use before, during, and after class in our Educators' Guide to Evidence-Based Strategies for Elevating Student Engagement. As a quick overview, active learning is when students learn by doing because their instructor involved them in the lesson directly. This is opposed to passive learning where students learn by receiving information that is presented to them by an instructor.  At some point or another, everyone has to learn by doing. You can read every book in the world about knitting but until you actually pick up the needles and yarn, you won’t be able to apply that knowledge. Bringing active learning strategies into your classroom gives students the opportunity to acquire knowledge and apply it in the same space. In this article, we’ll recommend a few sample activities all of which are based on active learning principles. 3 sample activities for better student engagement Metacognition Metacognition-focused activities allow students to reflect on and realize how they learn best. Knowing whether they’re strong visual, auditory, read/write, or kinesthetic (VARK) learners can be a helpful tool for engaging students and helping them build personalized study plans.  You can turn any small group activity into a metacognitive one with a few simple steps. Ask students to think about whether they are visual, auditory, read/write, or kinesthetic learners (or have them take the VARK Questionaire if you have time). Then, instead of allowing students to choose their own groups, group students by their preferred learning styles and have them complete the activity. Ask them to reflect at the end of the activity on what it was like to work with other learners like them. Then, divide students into groups with mixed learning styles to complete another activity. Ask them to reflect on what they gained from working with students who learn differently. Read the Metacognition for Digital Learning whitepaper for more information and ideas.  Gamify Your Classroom Experience  Everyone loves a good game and there’s no reason you can’t bring the benefits of games into your courses. Here's how you can play Who Wants to Be a Millionaire with your students, no matter the subject you teach. Using a free website like superteachertools.us/millionaire and an in-class engagement tool like iClicker, you create a modified version of this popular game Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Keep everyone involved by having one contestant submit their final answer on the SuperTeacherTools site, while the rest of the class weighs in via iClicker. For each question, the contestant can review the results of the iClicker classroom poll and answer using that information or venture a guess on their own.  For more ways to engage your students by turning class time into game time, check out this resource, Playing to Learn: Hosting Online Games with iClicker. Case studies Case studies can be the basis of great active learning activities. They can easily foster collaboration among students and help contextualize course content.  One activity you can try with your students using a case study is to investigate a mystery. Who doesn’t love a good mystery story? While your students probably won’t walk away with definitive answers to questions that leading experts in your field haven’t solved, this exercise can engage your students by getting them to think outside the box. Here’s an example borrowed from a biology educator: Did Joseph Merrick have Proteus syndrome? Joseph Merrick also called the Elephant Man, died in 1890. He was known and exhibited as a “freak” for his deformities. Joseph was a patient at London Hospital. Many now believe that he had a rare condition known as Proteus syndrome. This is an example of a case study that can be used to teach the scientific method or cell signaling. Provide students with a description of Joseph Merrick and his life. Walk them through how to determine whether or not he had Proteus syndrome. Finally, provide guidance to help keep them on track. You can watch the recording of a webinar we hosted that is full of tips for incorporating case studies into STEM courses. 6 steps to creating your own engaging activities Active learning activities aren’t just an opportunity to play a game or get your students talking, they should always tie back to the course material and help students better understand topics and concepts. Once you know which aspects of the course content you want to create an engaging activity for, try these steps to get started.  Reflect on how you became interested in a new topic or issue. How was the information presented to you? How did you engage with it? Can you try something similar with your students? Co-create the course with your students. Poll your students to find out how they’d like to learn and what kind of activities they’d be likely to participate in. Try and try again. Once you’ve tested the activity, you’ll have a strong sense of what worked well for you and what you’d like to do differently moving forward. Always let your students know when you’re trying something new so they know to be patient and attentive. Create a routine. Once you’ve got a handle on the activities you’ll incorporate in your course, make it a part of your routine. It’ll help students know to focus and be prepared for any break in the lecture for an activity.  Keep them accountable. Using a system like iClicker that allows you to track responses will help you know who is participating and who isn’t. Remember to follow through and follow up. Give yourself and your students time to discuss activities. Highlight correct answers and explain why other responses were incorrect.  Student engagement is a bit like a puzzle. Addressing the specific barriers you and your students face is one piece of the puzzle. Having the best resources and tools that allow all of your students to participate equally is another piece. With the right puzzle pieces, you can pull together an engaging course for your students.  If you’re interested in learning more about student engagement solutions at Macmillan, click here to schedule a demo.   ... View more

Now that you've figured out the content you want in your course, you need to assign that content in a way that makes sense for you and your course goals.  First, you need to figure out when you want those assignments to be due, and I would recommend a consistent pattern so students aren't caught unaware. Many instructors use the due date and time of 11:59pm on Sunday, but certainly others make sure the readings and adaptive quizzes are done just before each class (so maybe 9:45am for a M/W/F class that starts at 10am) but have homework done the day after class (so maybe 11:59pm on T/R) and quizzes every other week on Sunday night. You need to do what makes sense for you and your teaching style--but again, I would advocate for consistency, wherever possible, that you can outline in your syllabus.  You also need to determine the settings for each assignment. Maybe for a quiz, you let students only take it 1 time, but for a homework, you let a student have 3 attempts. Maybe you drop the lowest 1 grade in the category quiz but the lowest 3 grades for anything in the category of homework, if you assign more homeworks. Maybe the adaptive quizzing is worth 25% of the students' overall grade in Achieve, 25% for homework, and 50% is for summative quizzes or tests. And, of course, you need to determine how much the work in Achieve counts toward the overall course grade. All of this info, of course, should appear in the syllabus as well.  (For more information on the assignment settings and gradebook settings, check out the links to the knowledge base.)  Good luck as you work through the details of creating all your assignments in Achieve!    ... View more

Now that you've figured out your Achieve course delivery method, you need to determine how you want to manager you sections. A Section Manager with sections is the easiest way to manage the content of multiple sections from one place-- the Section Manager. It’s also the easiest way to manage course sections of the same course taught by multiple different TAs/instructors. However, Section Managers do have certain limitations. In Achieve, you can create course sections under a Section Manager. All of the sections are copies of the Section Manager course, and depending on settings you choose, they may inherit changes from the Section Manager.  How does a Section Manager work? Section Managers do not allow the following actions. These actions would instead be taken in each course section. Enrolling students Viewing assignment scores or completion information in the assignment list, gradebook, and reports Creating due date exceptions or student-specific assignments Creating groups of students Performing LMS integration How do the sections work? The course sections under the Section Manager have two different permission sets: Restricted Access and Full Access. In general, Restricted Access is used when you want changes in the Section Manager to flow down into the sections. Restricted Access instructors have limitations on the changes they can make within the course, while Full Access instructors have complete control over the content. The differences between these section types will be covered in more and more detail throughout this article. Is a Section Manager with sections the right set up for me? A Section Manager with sections is the easiest way to manage the content of multiple sections from one place-- the Section Manager. It’s also the easiest way to manage course sections of the same course taught by multiple different TAs/instructors. However, Section Managers do have certain limitations. You will not be able to integrate your Section Manager with an LMS or enroll students in it. You will only be able to set up integration with the section courses under the Section Manager once those have been created. You will not be able to customize the name, course code, or course start/end dates for each section. This information will be inherited from the Section Manager. You will not be able to edit Diagnostic activities once sections are created. The alternative to creating a Section Manager with sections would be to create copies of a single course (not tied to a Section Manager). Functionally, this is almost exactly the same as creating Full Access sections. The only benefit of creating single course copies is that they can have unique course names and start/end dates, while Full Access sections can only inherit this information from the Section Manager. There are also drawbacks to using single course copies. A course coordinator can quickly add an instructor or TA to a Full Access section, but this is not possible for a single course copy. This would have to be done through Macmillan Learning Customer Support. Also, this setup only allows you to add content items you create to a single course, rather than all of your sections. See the table below for further comparison. Comparison of section/course types Below is a table with a brief comparison of the different section types under a Section Manager (Restricted Access and Full Access) vs. course copies that are not tied to a Section Manager. We'll cover the differences between Restricted and Full Access sections in more detail later in this article.     Restricted Access section Full Access section Course Copy (not tied to a Section Manager) Who controls how content is organized in the section course? Section Manager instructor Full Access section instructor Course Copy instructor Who controls who has instructor access to the section courses? Section Manager instructor Section Manager instructor Macmillan Customer Support Can I customize the course info such as the course name, course code, start and end dates? No, it’s inherited from the Section Manager No, it’s inherited from the Section Manager Yes Newly created Files and Links from the Section Manager are automatically added to the section course Yes Yes No, but you can add these manually Newly created Assessments and Writing assignments from the Section Manager are automatically added to the section course Yes Yes No, you can only add these to one course Receives changes to the content of Assessments from the Section Manager Yes No No Receives changes to the content of Writing Assignments from the Section Manager Yes No No Receives changes to the Target Score and Topics for LearningCurve Adaptive Quizzes and Read & Practice assignments from the Section Manager Yes No* No Receives changes to Diagnostic assignments from the Section Manager No No No Receives changes to the content of the course from the Section Manager Yes No No Section instructor can change the content in the section course or assignments No Yes Yes Section instructor can change assignment settings such as due date and points Yes Yes Yes *Full Access sections will receive changes to LearningCurve Adaptive Quizzes and Read & Practice assignments from the section manager only if the assignment has never been opened in that Full Access section. For more instructions, go here to create a Section Manager and see how to manage those sections as well. (And, as always, talk to your local representative, specialist, or sign up for a training if you want more information about how these choices apply to you and your course goals.)   ... 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

Last year we had a campaign entitled, “Surround your e-book in luxury with  Achieve.” But recently, we had someone suggest that we should start by talking about the benefits of using your e-book in Achieve--even if you aren’t going to use all the other assets that might come with your digital platform.  Why use the e-book in Achieve? Students get longer access to e-books in Achieve When your students purchase one term access to Achieve, they can download the e-book for offline use for four years!  That downloadable e-book comes with all the features of the standalone e-book purchase: highlighting, notetaking, flashcards, search, and more. (When students purchase a standalone e-book, they most frequently purchase the one with the shortest time span of access as it’s the lowest cost, so using Achieve provides the best value and gives students access to the e-book for longer than they likely would have had it if they just bought the book alone.)  e-Books have added features in Achieve The e-book in Achieve is enhanced as compared to the e-book in VitalSource. In Achieve, we offer books with embedded multimedia (such as videos to explain concepts) as well as quizzes (where you students can see the question and get immediate feedback on their answer). This additional functionality allows students to use the e-book even more to further their conceptual understanding of key concepts in the course.  You can assign reading, quizzes and more in Achieve In Achieve, you can assign the e-book for your students to read. This means you can make suggestions about pacing (Chapter 1 should be done by this date) and reinforce the importance of the e-book so students come to class prepared for discussion. You can assign each part of the reading for points, if you’d like, or no points; that approach is up to you and how you want to structure your course.  You can even tag the e-book as something you’d like completed as Pre-Class or Post-Class, again, depending on what works for you and your course.  Beyond assigning the e-book to simply read, some of the assessments in Achieve incorporate the e-book to further encourage student reading. For instance, our adaptive quizzing tool allows students to work through the formative quiz  with the e-book open--encouraging students to read to find the answer with no penalty as an introduction to the topic.  In sum, there are a few reasons why students would benefit from using the e-book in Achieve--beyond all the additional luxurious items that are available in Achieve for you and your students. Check it out today!   ... View more

How do you keep students from cheating on homework? This is an age old question that isn’t tied to using online homework. Back in the day, students would pay other people to do their pencil and paper homework. Now, they can do the same thing online--but with a wider pool of people willing to "help". So how can you as an instructor combat cheating, so that your homework scores follow the same general patterns as your test scores?  Here are a few ideas from users: A Weekly Homework Assignment Worth 0 Points Erika Martinez, an economics professor at University of South Florida, has a variety of assignments for students, including watching videos, completing the LearningCurve adaptive quizzes, and having the students complete worksheets (or do in-class activities). All of this work is for points, but very few points. Then she has a weekly homework assignment (which is essentially considered the summation of everything learned that week) that is worth 0 points. She tracks the students who complete the assignments, but they don’t get credit for the completion as part of their overall grade. (They do get flagged by Prof. Martinez if they are not doing the work as no points doesn’t mean optional!) Then she has the students complete weekly quizzes (for points) as well as 2 bigger tests and a final. In this way, students come to see the homework as practice and self-assessment, not as a reason to cheat.  Deduct Small Points Each Attempt Amanda Norbutus, a chemistry professor at Valencia College explains that while she is willing for students to have multiple attempts at a problem, she has Achieve deduct small points each attempt (5%), so a student has to actively work to solve the problem effectively.  With this method, students are more actively mentally engaged with doing the work, and develop better problem-solving skills that serve them well in high-stress situations like a quiz or exam.  She theorizes that the lack of any penalty makes it too easy for students to “throw a handful of pasta at the ceiling to see what sticks,” without needing the student to critically think of how to approach a problem and culling through their knowledge to find a working solution/approach. Get Creative with the Assignment Dr. Norbutus also suggests making sure the homework assigned has a range of easy, medium, and hard skill level questions, as exposing students only to easy and medium-level questions is a disservice to them in building their skill set for solving problems quickly and efficiently. Professors could also use more problem-solving worksheets or practice assignments either in class or as part of bonus work.  If for bonus, make sure they are tiered problems, where the problem requires the use of more than one skill or concept. Finally, have the teacher select one handwritten problem for students to solve and submit with work shown per HW assignment. This can quickly identify where students may have a disconnect between high scoring Achieve assignments and low scoring quizzes and exams. Use Homework Questions During the Lecture Kiandra Johnson, a mathematics professor at Spelman College, suggested two simple, easy, and effective ideas. Use clicker questions during the lecture as many of the clicker questions are concept-based and cannot be entered into a mathematical database. This is a way to check individual student understanding outside of the homework. Additionally, use  a few problems directly from the homework on the test, and analyze the difference between how students performed on those same problems in homework form vs. on the test.  Other Advice to Prevent Cheating A few instructors mentioned versions of this as well, “We’ve tried to emphasize the importance of the assignments with lots of explanations about why we create these assignments and how they can improve understanding (and grades!) but also try to weight those assignments low enough in the grade to de-incentivize cheating."  We hope this tips help you as you work to navigate an increasingly digital world with your students.  (A note from Macmillan here:  If you do think that you are seeing some of our problems appearing on other sites, with answers, please report these to our piracy team so we can continue to work to maintain the integrity of our content.  Thank you! ) ... View more

As more courses move online, one question we keep getting is, “How do I offer assessments in the most secure way possible?”.   We have had a number of instructors ask us about test security, and we also know that a lot of your schools already have programs for proctoring and browser lockdown. As such, we are not adding our own options for proctoring and lockdown (and be forced to charge for it accordingly), but rather we are providing more tools to make exporting our tests to load into your campus LMS easier. Directions to export a test created with Macmillan Learning Test Bank into your LMS are here.  In addition, each of the individual digital products that we offer have tools to help with test security. You can read through those options below. And we had a very useful webinar with Eric Chiang where he reviewed ideas for test security.  Lastly, we have moved most of our test banks to the Macmillan Learning Test Bank, accessible only only to a verified instructor. With this system you can: Create paper or online tests that you can export to your LMS using your web browser; Drag and drop questions to create tests; Create and edit your own questions and edit publisher-created question sets. Learn more here:  https://macmillan.force.com/macmillanlearning/s/article/Getting-Started-with-the-Macmillan-Learning-....   If you are using a Macmillan Learning digital product for your online class, here are some suggestions below to help you with assessment security.    For LaunchPad Users:   Set a Passcode - Requires a student to enter an instructor-specified Passcode to begin the quiz. Limit the Number of Attempts - For higher stakes assessment, only allow students to submit the assessment one time.  Time Limit - This ensures that all students are provided the same amount of time to complete a quiz. If the quiz is not completed within the time limit, the quiz is automatically submitted when time expires. The time limit will also limit students’ ability to look everything up or get too much assistance. Scrambling - Instructors use this setting to randomize the order of question, the order of answer choices, or both. Feedback Control - This gives instructors the control over what information is available to students after they submit a quiz, such as whether to show the correct answers. Visibility - Instructors use the Visibility setting to "hide" a quiz from students until a specific date and time. Hide Grade - Instructors can elect to hide students' quiz grade until the due date has passed. Question Pooling - can further add to the variability of the assessment so that not all students receive the same questions on the exam and instead receive a random set of questions from a set of them. Instructors can set up multiple pools within one assessment to ensure students receive the right number from each desired topic the test should cover.   You can see all of these settings explained in this article on setting up assignments: https://macmillan.force.com/macmillanlearning/s/article/LaunchPad-Tips-for-setting-up-assignments  and the article on question pooling: https://macmillan.force.com/macmillanlearning/s/article/LaunchPad-Creating-a-quiz-with-question-pools   For Sapling and Achieve Users:  For Assessments, use the Quiz / Test policy and add a time limit also. https://macmillan.force.com/macmillanlearning/s/article/Sapling-Learning-View-or-change-mobile-assignment-grading-policies Time Limit - This ensures that all students are provided the same amount of time to complete a quiz. The time limit will also limit students’ ability to look everything up or get too much assistance. https://macmillan.force.com/macmillanlearning/s/article/Sapling-Learning-Make-an-Assessment-timed Use question pools - Although many of our questions already contain variation, using Pools can further add to the variability of the assessment so that not all students receive the same questions on the exam and instead receive a random set of questions from a set of them. Instructors can set up multiple pools within one assessment to ensure students receive the right number from each desired topic the test should cover.  https://macmillan.force.com/macmillanlearning/s/article/Sapling-Learning-Create-and-edit-question-pools-in-mobile-assignments Scrambling - Randomizing the order the questions are delivered could also be a viable option so no one has the same question 3.  This can be set in the Grading Policies for an assessment. https://macmillan.force.com/macmillanlearning/s/article/Sapling-Learning-View-or-change-mobile-assignment-grading-policieshttps://macmillan.force.com/macmillanlearning/s/article/Sapling-Learning-View-or-change-mobile-assignment-grading-policies Visibility - When assigning the assessment, instructors should use the visibility settings to ensure students don’t see the exam until the instructor is ready for them to see it. By setting the student visibility to a certain date range, instructors can choose exactly when the assessment becomes visible to students and when it closes from visibility. For higher stakes tests, it is recommended that this window be as short as possible. https://macmillan.force.com/macmillanlearning/s/article/Sapling-Learning-View-or-change-mobile-assignment-grading-policies ... View more

Okay, so I will confess that Question Pooling is probably my favorite part of LaunchPad. (Yes, I'm a nerd and I'm okay with that.) Hopefully you know all about question pooling already and this post is a boring reminder...but just in case, here's a recap:  With Question Pooling, you can create a group of questions from which one or more (depending on the setting) is chosen at random for students (and we do this for some of our pre-built quizzes already). If you pick questions that are all related to the same topic (which is sensible to do, by the way), then students are all being quizzed on the same concept, but the actual question they see varies--making cheating harder to do (not that students cheat, but you know, hypothetically...) and giving you a more diverse question base. So you could end up with a quiz where students see 10 questions, but those 10 questions are pulling from a pool of 50 questions, so each student likely ends up with a slightly different quiz from each of their colleagues.  Check it out and let us know what you think!  ... View more

As a recent graduate, I remember all too well the shivers we would get as students when professors muttered the word “test” or “quiz”. If you wanted to hear a symphony of groans, add in the word now and a sea of furrowed brows and hand slams would fill the room. Tests get a bad rap in the academic world nowadays. With test anxiety being shed to light, academia has become aware of the negative effects it can have on students. Some students dislike testing because it makes them question their intelligence with every wrong answer. Others get stage fright, and can’t perform under the pressure, time constraint, etc. Not everyone’s IQ is defined by a mere test by any means, and some professors have shied away from administering them. For some students, an examination apocalypse would be a dream, but what if I told you that testing could actually be a good thing? It’s all about the execution. According to the Scientific American article Researchers Find That Frequent Tests Can Boost Learning  through the psychological process of retrieval practice, the repetitious nature of test taking actually aids students in retaining knowledge longer term as opposed to traditional teaching methods (Paul). Retrieval practice, formally known as “the testing effect” argues against the “reading the material and being tested on it later” method, but rather encourages students  to learn through frequent state of testing. Now while consistent testing sounds intense, many do not realize the brain empowered blessings this poses. Studies have shown that when testing a student on material even before they have had their lecture can improve knowledge retention rates even beyond the final exam. Learning Curve and iClicker are excellent examples of just that. Learning Curve allows students to answer multiple choice and short answer questions before the actual lecture, making students read the material and answer basic questions on what they read. To continue the testing repetition, using iClicker’s REEF Polling can continue the testing habit in a group setting. If more students get in the habit of answering questions based on the material, when it is time to take the official exam, they are more likely to excel and score higher. Paul, Annie Murphy. "Researchers Find That Frequent Tests Can Boost Learning." Scientific American. N.p., 08 July 2015. Web. 24 May 2017. ... View more

Cheating on homework: how can you stop it? Originally posted by Rebecca Celik, Ph.D. Today’s students have access to more online information than ever before, and with that access comes increased opportunity for cheating. Whether we use online technology in face-to-face courses or teach distance learning classes, we cannot afford not to be thinking about cheating. In fact, we must do as much as possible to prevent it. While the emphasis of this post is on cheating in the context of online homework, online sharing of homework solutions is just the tip of a very large iceberg. There are websites dedicated to making old quizzes and exams available for students taking the same courses from the same professors (e.g., Koofers.com, CourseHero.com, PostYourTest.com). It doesn't take much time to find PDF copies of entire textbook solution manuals available for illegal download. Search Craigslist in almost any city with a college or university and you'll find people offering to take entire online courses for students for a price. Many schools provide on-campus exam proctoring services for distance learning courses and make-up exams, and companies like ProctorU and Kryterion offer similar services online for a fee. However, homework typically plays a different role than exams, serving as a low-stakes formative assessment that gives students a chance to practice new skills and receive valuable feedback. Ideally, the student will learn from their mistakes and demonstrate a deeper level of understanding in the future. Likewise, students should complete homework outside of class on their own time and, usually, at their own pace. Therefore, by necessity, homework assignments are almost always unproctored. Most of us are aware that students can and do post solutions to online homework on websites such as Chegg or Cramster. This is true for any homework method, including pencil-and-paper homework. So, how does Sapling Learning help to prevent cheating? Where possible, Sapling Learning homework questions are randomized so that different students have different answers. This way, students who work together must communicate how they solved the problem rather than just the final answer. Additionally, questions may be pooled to add even more variability between students. Pooled questions assign similar yet unique problems, preventing them from sharing exact solutions. The grading policies an instructor chooses also influence how likely students are to turn to cheating. In my experience, the best way to deter cheating is to keep the homework low-stakes. That is, I make homework worth only a small percentage of the course grade, and I keep the grading policy relatively lenient (i.e., low attempt penalty and high number of attempts). That way students are less incentivized to cheat on homework, and those who do tend to fail the tests and the class. Think of the homework as a learning tool for students rather than strictly summative assessment. Sapling Learning excels in this capacity. If you’d like, you can also set the solutions to be hidden until after the due date. However, you should consider that students often benefit more from the learning opportunity worked solutions provide if it is presented immediately after attempting a problem, when they still have a clear memory of their approach. Another concern involves extra dummy accounts, which some students set up in hopes of obtaining correct answers to submit through their legitimate accounts. Anticipating this possibility, Sapling Learning makes it easy to remove fake student accounts. You can access and download your Sapling Learning roster. Use this process: Course Management > Participants > Export roster to open in Excel or similar software. This process allows you to compare the list of registered users in your Sapling Learning course to an official class roster from your school. Once you have identified a student to remove, click the Remove button found on the Participants page. When you are asked about refund options, keep the first option selected: the student will be given a refund, credit, or nothing as appropriate. Alternatively, your Tech TA can assist with the roster comparison and account removal process: send your Tech TA your final class roster after the add/drop period ends, and he or she can check it against your Sapling Learning roster and remove any accounts that do not belong in the Sapling Learning homework. At that point, your Tech TA can lock enrollment or set an enrollment password so that new students can’t enter without your permission. Finally, when it comes to searching for homework solutions online, Sapling Learning solutions are much more difficult to find. Our team of experienced educators create our questions including all feedback, hints, and solutions. As a result, there is no risk of students obtaining a solution manual with all of the answers in one place, because such a thing simply doesn't exist. Compare this with a publisher-based online homework system, where the majority of questions are end-of-chapter questions with solutions widely available. In addition, solutions cannot be printed, making it cumbersome for students to share answers to problems. The ultimate benefit of Sapling Learning’s approach to online homework is that students typically find it more efficient to learn the course material than to cheat on problems. Students are met with a mastery-learning approach, targeted feedback, and detailed solutions. That, in turn, makes Sapling Learning uniquely suited to prepare students for your proctored exams. Have you tried other methods to combat cheating? Let us know in the comments below! ... View more