Having the right toolkit and resources allows students to focus on what’s most important: learning. Macmillan Learning’s digital learning platform, Achieve, offers tools for students of different abilities and learning styles, including visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Achieve helps keep students organized by including reading material, assignments, lessons, and quizzes all in one place. Professors can also communicate with students directly in the Achieve platform, making it easier for students to receive updates on deadlines and feedback on assignments. Like Achieve, iClicker is a tool that helps instructors understand where their students may be struggling. iClicker polling activities are a highly effective, yet easy-to-implement way of making courses more engaging, interactive, and beneficial to students. Disclaimer: This is an actress, but is based on real feedback from our annual student user survey! ... View more

Thanks to feedback from instructors, new features for Spring 2023 make Achieve even easier to use and offer familiar experiences for those who are moving from LaunchPad.   Available now! Reusing content across courses You can reuse the content you create and upload to Achieve (think custom assessments and writing assignments) across your courses, without having to copy the entire Achieve course.   Coming soon! Adjusting due dates from term to term When copying an Achieve course, new options will allow you to adjust due dates automatically based on the first assignment due date you set, use the same exact due dates as the course you're copying, or not copy any due dates.     Coming soon! Bulk due date extensions A new option will be added to the My Course page allowing you to create multiple due date extensions at one time for a single student or a group of students.  ... View more

Every instructor has heard that dreaded question from students: “When am I ever going to use this in my real life?” As an instructor, it may seem clear that if the material wasn’t relevant, it wouldn’t be taught. But oftentimes, simply telling students that what they’re learning is relevant isn’t enough. Many students have a difficult time making connections between their coursework and the outside world on their own, and they need instructors to provide context. These students often get labeled as disinterested, but they’re just missing that deeper connection to the material. What really is relevance in education? Relevance in education means relating the material to another concept or topic in a way that is meaningful and engaging. If students aren’t making connections between the material and their own lives and experiences, they’re going to have trouble remembering and engaging with the material. This can lead to disinterested students and poor learning outcomes. Creating an active learning environment for students has proven to be one of the most effective teaching methods and yields better results in the classroom. A great way to actively engage students in the learning process is to ask them to think critically about the communities they are a part of. Some ways to encourage students to think about their communities include using real-world case studies, getting students to interact with the environment outside the classroom, getting to know the students and using culturally responsive teaching, and providing students with intended learning outcomes. Methods to help make the material relevant to students: 1. Use real-world case studies and examples By using real-world case studies, instructors provide a necessary link between the classroom and the world beyond it. Case studies allow students to process concepts in action and create a deeper understanding of the material. 2. Get students to interact with the environment outside the classroom The author of Adding Relevance to a Biology Lab Experience With Plastic Waste and Social Media Justin Shaffer has some fresh new ideas on how to get students to interact with their outside environment. After first establishing a connection between course content and the outside world, Shaffer recommends having students talk about the content and its connection and share it with tools they’re used to using. Since so many students actively use social media, Shaffer has students “take pictures, record videos, and interview themselves and each other” about the content and the connection to the outside world, and share the final outcome to the social media site of their choosing. This helps students document and share what they’re learning, and how it’s relevant. 3. Get to know your students and use culturally responsive teaching Instructors can’t provide relevant examples to their students if they don’t know their students. Getting to know students and their interests can help instructors provide context and examples that stick with the students. Culturally responsive teaching allows students to draw on their own lived experiences to make connections with the material. Once familiar with the students, culturally responsive teaching becomes that much easier. 4. Provide prospective students with the intended outcomes of the class Providing prospective students with the intended outcomes of the class will help students pick the right courses for their interests and learn about transferable skills. The course name often doesn’t provide students with information about what the day-to-day is like and what knowledge they will be leaving the classroom with. A course that might not seem relevant to a student’s life might provide the transferable skills they need for a future career they’re interested in pursuing. Providing upfront and reiterating throughout the term the objectives of the class is extremely beneficial to students and can set them up to appreciate the relevance of the course from the beginning. 5. Frame the course around a question students care about The author of Becoming a Learner: Realizing the Opportunity of Education Matthew Sanders does this with his own courses and recommends other educators try it. Try to frame the course around a question that students really care about and want to know the answer to. By framing the course this way, each lesson goes toward answering the question. This provides relevance to students as they see how the material relates to the question to be answered. Relevance is an important part of teaching, and can have lasting effects on students. Most importantly, providing students with relevance for their course material allows them to make connections that help the information stick. Learning doesn’t happen independent from the real world and experience; these connections help all of us retain information and contribute to our communities. Relevance also helps students to prepare for their careers by being able to relate their course to the outside world, and recognize transferable skills. With a deeper understanding of their course materials, students will be able to discuss the importance of what they’re learning with family and friends. ... View more

Organization can be a major component of student success. At Macmillan Learning, we include everything that students need in one place, so they can prioritize their time and focus on course content. With Achieve, students have access to reading materials, assignments, lessons, and quizzes. If a student has questions or needs to check in with an instructor, Achieve also serves as a communication tool, alerting instructors to their students' weak spots and challenges. When paired with in-class use of iClicker, instructors gather even more knowledge of their students’ understanding of course material, and they can continue to tailor their teaching to meet the needs of their students. Check out what students think in the video below. Disclaimer: This is an actress, but is based on real feedback from our annual student user survey! ... View more

Culturally Responsive Teaching: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How You Can Do It: Apr. 10 @ 12 PM ET Presented by Debi Rutledge Culturally responsive teaching uses students' own customs, characteristics, experiences, and perspectives as tools for better classroom instruction. This allows more students of all backgrounds to see themselves and their communities as belonging in academic spaces. Join Debi Rutledge for a discussion of why this is so crucial and how you can start applying culturally responsive teaching methods to your course today! REGISTER NOW! ... View more

Peer-to-peer connections are at the core of classroom collaboration, student engagement, and student outcomes. At Macmillan Learning, we embed peer connection opportunities right into Achieve so that students have plenty of peer connection moments throughout their course. With Achieve’s Peer Review feature, students can generate and receive feedback on assignments in real time while staying on track with easily accessible rubrics and goals. Paired with iClicker’s polling system, every student is given a voice, whether they are working remotely or in class with their fellow students. These study tools, packed with resources, maximize collaboration and facilitate learning, no matter where your students are. Watch the video below to learn more! ... View more

Why This Class Matters: From Discovering to Doing: Mar. 20 @ 12 PM ET Presented by Mike Shapiro & Marissa Dahari For many students, school is not an objective in and of itself. Rather, it is a step on the road to their futures. By emphasizing how the class supports those future goals, instructors help students see why their course matters. Students can move from first discovering a new skill or concept to applying it in real-world situations. Join a panel of faculty advocates to discuss how teaching with applications motivates students and helps them keep their eyes on the prize. REGISTER NOW! ... View more

Ask an Author! Building a Bridge between Classroom and Career: Mar. 6 @ 12 PM ET Presented by Kevin Revell, Stacey Cochran, and Paul Gore As instructors, your goal is not just to help students see the beauty of your discipline, but to help prepare them for their lives in the wider world. Students benefit when they see how the skills and content they are learning in the classroom might be applied in their jobs and in their lives. Join our interdisciplinary panel of Macmillan authors to learn practical tips for showcasing the connections between the classroom and students' future careers. REGISTER NOW! ... View more

The pandemic turned education on its head for more than two years. That isn’t new news but many instructors and students are still trying to navigate changes to classrooms, campuses, and attitudes after the disruption.  Peer learning in particular was something that was made harder during the pandemic. Group activities, peer tutoring, and the organic conversations that happen before and after class were suddenly lost. Even with students back on campus and great innovation in fully online classes, many instructors say that students are noticeably less interested in engaging with their peers.  Yet peer learning is a proven active learning technique that can strengthen student understanding and help them develop valuable communication and collaboration skills. Peer learning, sometimes called collaborative learning, is an umbrella term for activities and approaches that require students to work jointly in groups of two or more to teach, learn, and review information. It can be an effective approach for educators regardless of the subject matter they teach.  In this article, seven educators teaching psychology, biology, history, chemistry, and English share their experiences with peer learning in the classroom as well as what they’ve found works best.    “I can see the dissonance when students have different explanations, and I can see a shared acknowledgment when the correct answer is explained.”  Robert Feissner, Biology Educator at SUNY Geneseo  During the pandemic, I made some observations about how restrictions guided students away from peer learning opportunities. Students went from working together in person to suddenly working alone in their bedrooms at home. Upon return to campus, many seemed to have lost the risk-taking drive to initiate collaborative work, discussions, or peer-led opportunities. Almost like exercising in the New Year, peer learning is something that is desired, but is hard to start. It takes time to see success and requires dedication to push through the hard spots (for both students and faculty). The pandemic was an extended period of solitary learning that short-circuited our attempts to foster peer learning.  So many of the metacognitive strategies that help students understand their own learning require peer input. It is so easy to convince oneself that we know and understand a concept, but without discussing our reasoning or sharing a product of some sort with another, how can we be sure we are right?  What about those upper-level Bloom's Taxonomy skills like evaluating and synthesizing?  Students build their conceptual understanding by identifying and explaining when things go wrong.  I provide opportunities for students to work in small groups, often in pairs for very short periods of time in my freshman lecture courses. These are typically large (more than 100 students). So group work can be difficult to manage. Think-Pair-Share in combination with iClicker works great. Students explain their thinking to each other, come to a consensus, and respond anonymously. I can see the dissonance when students have different explanations, and I can see a shared acknowledgment when the correct answer is explained.  I am the campus coordinator for Supplemental Instruction, so I encourage all students to attend voluntary sessions led by upper-level students that focus on active learning and peer collaboration. Like the exercise analogy above, the more students are able to maintain a routine, the easier peer learning gets and the greater the gains.    “These connections often help students to persist and succeed throughout their academic, personal, and professional journey.” Gina O’Neal-Moffitt, Psychology Educator at Florida State University and Tallahassee Community College I foster peer learning in my courses by having students review the draft submissions of other students' research papers. The 18-page paper is due at the end of the semester, but students have submission points at 3, 5, 10, and 15 pages.  As papers are submitted at each checkpoint, a different student is assigned to review each submission. This means that each student gets comments and suggestions from at least four other students. While this is something that can be accomplished even in remote classroom settings, it really helps to build community in our in-person classroom.  Students often set aside time outside of class to go over each other's notes. The collegiality is infectious — students then use those relationships to set up times to study for exams and work on other projects, and occasionally, that relationship persists into other classes and outside of the academic setting. These connections often help students to persist and succeed throughout their academic, personal, and professional journey.    “Sometimes a student can provide their peer with an explanation that makes more sense to the student who is struggling than I can.” Christin Monroe, Chemistry Educator at Landmark College All of the college chemistry students I work with are neurodiverse and I find peer learning to be very important for this population of students. Sometimes a student can provide their peer with an explanation that makes more sense to the student who is struggling than I can. I also find it empowering for students to work together because I have students who can take on leadership roles in the classroom. Using the flipped classroom model and having students work through problems together during class is a great way to help students identify topics they may need additional support on.  I find Achieve very useful for peer learning because students can focus on the questions they need the most help with and know right away the content they have already mastered.  Students can then work together on the problems they are struggling with.    “Content aside, I'm always pleased with how quickly the students begin to form a community.” Suzanne McCormack, History Educator at Community College of Rhode Island At a community college with no dormitories, students are often very isolated. By working in small groups from the start of the semester — using ungraded, Think-Pair-Share activities — I give them the opportunity to get to know their classmates.  I require students to introduce themselves and then have one person introduce each group member to the class — this works well in my 28-person intro classes. Content aside, I'm always pleased with how quickly the students begin to form a community. They notice people from their other classes who they haven't spoken to and make connections that help them to be more successful over the course of the semester. It gives them someone to share notes with, study with, etc.   “Peer learning breaks the static of 50 minutes of lecture and makes the students responsible for learning and understanding the material.” Jennifer Ripley Stueckle, Biology Educator at West Virginia University   I teach large 250-seat lecture courses. We do group work almost daily but it is counted as participation instead of graded for accuracy. I use this time for students to form connections with their peers in what is a large class at a large University. It also gives them an opportunity to interact with me as I walk around and visit the different groups.   Peer learning breaks the static of 50 minutes of lecture and makes the students responsible for learning and understanding the material. The sense of community goes a long way for the entire learning and classroom experience.    “Regardless of their career path, students need to know how to express their ideas to others and how to critique, redirect, and collaborate with colleagues.” Jennifer Duncan, English Educator at Georgia State University Perimeter College As a writing instructor, I see teaching students to interact with their peers as an essential college-to-career transition skill. Regardless of their career path, students need to know how to express their ideas to others and how to critique, redirect, and collaborate with colleagues. Writing only for an instructor is an artificial activity and it makes sense that students find it frustrating. The question then becomes how do we teach them this skill? First, we have to provide them space and time not just to create their own ideas and work but to think about the things their classmates have written and how to best respond to them. Sitting in a circle and providing instant responses to the work of a classmate can be daunting and usually isn’t productive. Instead, let students take their peers’ work with them (physically or electronically) and make reviewing and offering feedback an out-of-class activity. This gives them time to process the best way to respond. Second, teach them how to ask the right questions of their peers. What about asking students to end a research essay with a question of their own? Encourage them to ask their classmates about what they’ve written, to raise another point of view, or to identify an effective strategy they’ve used.  Finally, encourage them to think of their work as public writing (unless, of course, it’s a journal). What can they do with their work after this class? Where could they send it to affect change? If we ask them to think this way from the assignment’s start, they can view their classmates as colleagues rather than just other bodies in the room.    “Students trust, respect, and value the experience of their fellow students who are dealing with similar pressures, academic challenges, and course loads." Marissa Dahari, Biology Educator at the University of Guelph I have coordinated a class of over 1000 students a semester for a few years and I cannot stress the importance of peer learning enough. Students trust, respect, and value the experience of their fellow students who are dealing with similar pressures, academic challenges, and course loads.  When peer learning is encouraged in smaller class settings, such as seminars or tutorials, students have the opportunity to teach each other and promote understanding of important concepts. Students can also learn from each other and gain meaningful insights not enforced in the classroom. ... 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

Using Digital Tools to Encourage Human Connection: Feb. 20 @ 12 PM ET Presented by Mollie Anderson, Germán Rosas-Acosta, & Suzanne McCormack With online homework, hybrid classrooms, and virtual lessons it can be a challenge to feel connected to your students. But technology doesn't have to divide you! Join this webinar to hear how our panel of faculty advocates use digital tools to feel closer to their students than ever. REGISTER NOW! ... View more

Ask an Author! How to Build Stronger Connections between Instructors and Students On-Demand Presented by James Morris & Betsy Barefoot It can be disheartening to speak to a sea of blank faces or black Zoom screens. Meaningful connections between instructors and students are at the core of the educational experience, and for many of us, the very reason we teach! Join an interdisciplinary panel of Macmillan authors for a conversation on the importance of instructor and student connections and practical tips for helping to forge that bond. View the Recording ... View more

Fostering Peer-to-Peer Learning with Technology On-Demand Presented by Jennifer Duncan, Kiandra Johnson, and Justin Shaffer Join our interdisciplinary panel of Macmillan faculty advocates for a discussion on how they help students to connect and learn with each other, in and out of the classroom. They shared practical tips, best practices, and some of their favorite peer-to-peer moments. View the Recording ... View more

Back to Campus: iClicker  On-Demand It's almost time to bring your students back to campus! iClicker makes it easy to create a welcoming, interactive classroom. This webinar recording is for iClicker users, old and new, who want to know what's new with iClicker and get a tour of features like updated quizzing functionality and our new Groups feature. We also discussed ways you can use iClicker in your classroom, whether it’s a traditional brick-and-mortar classroom or a hybrid approach. View the Recording! ... View more

Back to Campus: Achieve  On-Demand It's almost time to bring your students back to campus! Achieve makes it easy to create a welcoming, interactive classroom. This webinar recording is for Achieve users, old and new, who want to know what's new with Achieve and get a tour of features like Goal Setting and Reflection Surveys and iClicker integration, as well as see the new improvements to the Gradebook and Reports and Insights. We also discussed ways you can use these resources in your classroom, whether it’s a traditional brick-and-mortar classroom or a hybrid approach. View the Recording! ... View more