Research has shown that often students cheat because they are feeling intense pressure to get ahead. For some, it’s fear of failure. For some, it’s weak time management skills.  For others, it’s stress and anxiety.  Dr. Amanda Norbutus, a Chemistry professor at Valencia College, describes how connecting with students can help build a supportive classroom environment, which can minimize pressure to cheat. She has found that student success in her classes can be hindered, not by a lack of content knowledge but rather by a lack of skills needed to succeed in the classroom. By empathizing with students and encouraging a growth mindset, she helps her students develop valuable learning skills, along with their chemistry content.  Norbutus shares 4 key strategies that professors can use to help students overcome this soft skills knowledge gap  over the course of the semester. Office Hours and Problem-Solving Sessions It is important to make office hours count. Many students come to office hours unprepared. Instead, request that students attempt a problem before bringing it to office hours to be addressed. In order to help students learn important problem-solving skills, have them practice solving problems ranging from medium to complex to bridge between introductory examples in text and those used to test mastery in homework and exams. Study Modules and In-Class Study Tips Research has shown that stronger neuropathways get built when students take handwritten or typed notes. These neuropathways not only become easier to access but also longer lasting, allowing students to be more successful. Advise and encourage students to write in shorthand or abbreviations instead of writing everything out word for word. Have them practice these skills so that they can work to improve on this style of note taking. Student Goal-Setting and Reflection Surveys The student surveys in Achieve can help students learn new study habits and modify the ones that did not work for them through careful evaluation throughout the semester. Students are then able to reflect on their journey to help them optimize their study habits during the semester as opposed to latent regret or change after the semester. Academic Affirmations Students should be asked to manually write down academic affirmations and why they believed they would help them stay focused and on track during the semester. Academic affirmations can help students stay their path as they face deadlines, outside time conflicts and stressors, and semester fatigue. It also can stimulate a growth mindset, which aids students as they take on the class. To learn more, watch Dr. Norbutus’ presentation on Academic Life Skills here. ... 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

Student engagement isn't just a buzz phrase or hot topic of the moment. It's something that we — as educators, students, and life-long learners — all have a great deal of experience with both as practitioners of new engagement ideas from the front of the classroom and as beneficiaries of well-executed strategies as learners ourselves (and maybe some not so well-executed ones!). But why does student engagement really matter? What influence does it have on the connection between students and course content? Our senior leadership team and product designers don't just consider student engagement as we create products, we're passionate about the way we engage students. Listen to Macmillan Learning CEO Susan Winslow and Executive Director of Product, Ryan Moore, share their first-hand experiences with meaningful student engagement and the ways in which those experiences have impacted the work we do at Macmillan Learning.            Hear from Susan Winslow, CEO, talk about what student engagement has meant to her and why creating engaging experiences is so important to the work we do at Macmillan Learning. Listen to Ryan Moore, Executive Director of Product, talk about his experience creating an engaging course for students and how he brings that knowledge to his work every day at Macmillan Learning. ... View more

 Teaching in Stereo: Strategies for Class Participation Nov. 1 @ 1PM ET A year of teaching on Zoom showed faculty that having students participate using their voices isn’t the only meaningful kind of participation. How can we take a more inclusive, accessible approach to class participation in our classrooms, whether they’re virtual or in person? In this workshop, we’ll consider principles and practices to turn our classes into learning communities where students can learn from and with each other. WATCH RECORDING ... View more

How WE Achieve: Using Goal Setting and Reflection Surveys to Create Closer Connections with Students Nov. 7 @ 12PM ET In this webinar, Dr. Mollie Anderson will share how she uses the Goal Setting and Reflection Surveys in Achieve. These surveys not only boost student metacognitive and study skills, they also provide instructors deep insight into student demographics and needs--in their own words. Mollie describes how she uses this data to empathize with her students, tailor her teaching to suit the unique makeup of each class, and even intervene with individual students when they need her help the most. You'll come away from this webinar with ideas for how you can use Goal Setting and Reflection surveys in your own class to create closer connections with students than ever. WATCH RECORDING ... 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

WATCH RECORDING    Digital Tools in the Post-Covid Age: Using "Read and Practice" to Foster Mental and Emotional Health Among College Students Oct. 13 @ 11AM ET In this webinar, Dr. Vaughn Scribner explains how Read and Practice helped him to empathize with students and help them with their mental well-being during Covid, and how he plans on integrating these findings in the post-Covid landscape. REGISTER NOW! ... View more

At Macmillan Learning, we strive to create products that foster connections between professors and their students. Learning happens at the human-to-human level, and our tools foster those connections and relationships. In this video, hear from Susan Winslow, CEO at Macmillan Learning, the director of Product, Jason Walker, and the executive director of Product, Ryan Moore, on the importance of creating connections. Watch the Video ... View more

Reconsidering the Value of Education Dec. 12 @ 12PM ET College enrollments have declined steadily in recent years with hundreds of thousands of prospective students choosing not to pursue a degree. Students have to weigh the cost of college against the value they’ll take away from it. We all have a role to play in helping students realize the greatest possible value from their investment in their education. Join the Macmillan Learning team and a panel of experts for a conversation about what an education offers students, the decisions they have to weigh, and how we can work to provide value to every student. What You’ll Take Away: An overview of the state of college enrollments An understanding of the role that instructors can play in making courses feel worthwhile for students Ideas for making courses feel more relevant for students WATCH RECORDING ... View more

Addressing and Preventing Bias in Educational Technology Nov. 17 @ 1PM  Join the Macmillan Learning team and a panel of experts for a discussion about how to avoid bias in educational technology. What you’ll take away: Examples and impact of bias in educational technology; Tips for identifying equitably developed content and technology; Teaching tips for using technology to improve equity outcomes in your courses. WATCH RECORDING ... View more

Emphasizing Academic Integrity in Every Classroom Oct. 19 @ 12PM ET New tools have created countless ways for students to cheat – and growing academic and socio-economic pressures have created more reasons for them to do so. some they might not even realize are dishonest. Join the Macmillan Learning team and a panel of experts for a conversation about mitigating cheating by fostering strong academic integrity in students. What you'll take away: An overview of the state of academic integrity today; An understanding of the value of focus on promoting integrity over monitoring and punishing cheating; and Knowledge of strategies that can be used to emphasize the importance of academic integrity with students. WATCH RECORDING ... View more

Promoting Critical Thinking Through Active Learning    Sept. 29 @ 2PM ET Research has consistently shown that active learning strategies require students to use and even develop higher-order thinking skills. Bringing active learning into the classroom can have many benefits, including the ability to help students build and reinforce critical thinking skills. Join the Macmillan Learning team and a panel of active learning experts for a conversation about using active learning strategies to help students analyze information and creatively solve problems.  What You’ll Take Away:  An understanding of how active learning differs from passive learning; an overview of the cognitive skills that active learning can help students develop and practice; ideas for active learning strategies that you can use in your courses that can help support the development of long-term critical thinking skills. WATCH RECORDING ... View more

How to use iClicker and Tech Tools to Build Connection with Students and Keep your Sanity Sept. 12 @ 12PM ET Let’s be real: it’s a stressful time to teach. It’s also a stressful time to learn. Connection is more important than ever. Learn how to re-invigorate your class with a few simple tech tools and practices. WATCH SESSION NOW! ... View more

It's almost time to bring your students back to campus! Achieve makes it easy to create a welcoming, interactive classroom. This webinar 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. We’ll also discuss ways you can use these resources in your classroom, whether it’s a traditional brick-and-mortar classroom or a hybrid approach. WATCH NOW! ... View more

It's almost time to bring your students back to campus! iClicker makes it easy to create a welcoming, interactive classroom. This webinar is for iClicker users, old and new, who want to know what's new with iClicker and get a tour of features like Focus Mode and Anonymous questions. We’ll also discuss ways you can use iClicker in your classroom, whether it’s a traditional brick-and-mortar classroom or a hybrid approach. WATCH NOW! ... View more