Macmillan Learning offers a wealth of peer-to-peer resources, from whitepapers and case studies to 1:1 connection and communities with instructors with common teaching goals. Notably, the Macmillan Peer Consultant program has connected numerous current Achieve users with instructors considering using Achieve in their own classes.  Specifically for Math & Stats, the Macmillan team also features a number of team members with direct teaching experience in the courses that we serve, and those folks help answer questions and share best practices based on their expertise and experience with Macmillan products and titles.  Welcome Will Hall to the Macmillan Math & Stats team as Teaching & Learning Strategist!  Will Hall holds a Ph.D. in mathematics education from North Carolina State University and previously taught high school mathematics in the Raleigh/Durham area. A first-generation college graduate and Upward Bound alum, he earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Maine. Most recently, he was an assistant professor at Washington State University, researching calculus education and teacher identity while developing corequisite programming and peer learning assistant initiatives. Passionate about making mathematics accessible and meaningful, he explores its role in equity and justice. Now based in Vancouver, WA, he enjoys cooking, reading, music, and playing arcade games with his kids. Will works directly with instructors to explore how Macmillan's products and Achieve can help them fulfill their teaching goals and help improve the learning experience for students.  Want to get in touch? Reach out to Will directly at will.hall@macmillan.com or contact your rep to set up a meeting.  ... View more

Daren Starnes and Josh Tabor are no strangers to the world of publishing, but following the success of their high school titles in statistics, they endeavored to bring their distinct voices and goal of elevating all students to introductory statistics at colleges and universities. They joined forces with Ann Cannon, professor at Cornell College and author of STAT2, to write Introductory Statistics: A Student-Centered Approach, the first modern introductory/general statistics title to offer a true blend of computation and conceptual understanding, appropriate for instructors and learners from a variety of math backgrounds, that emphasizes the importance of statistical thinking in the real world, as messy as it can sometimes be.     “In addition to the intriguing contexts included in the examples and exercises, we structured the book to make it clear what students need to know and be able to do. We hope that using Introductory Statistics: A Student-Centered Approach enhances your statistics course and builds a foundation of statistical literacy that will connect students to the world around them. ” – Ann Cannon, Daren Starnes, & Josh Tabor   Download the preface or learn more about their title here: Introductory Statistics: A Student-Centered Approach    Or learn more about their high school titles here: The Practice of Statistics  ... View more

Competing at the Olympic level means every second and centimeter count.   That’s why athletic gear is so important!  Looking for athletics examples and exercises in your statistics course that are a little outside of the box? Check out a sample of some of our favorite content, all about the shoes, fuel, and equipment that Olympic athletes rely on to compete at the highest level.   What other athletic gear do you think could lend a good data set to statistical analysis?  Achieve allows instructors to write their own questions, or edit pre-built questions, to incorporate any examples, skills, or exercises that work best for their class.   Want to see more? Browse more features of Achieve for Statistics, or sign up for a demo here!     ... View more

“Dive” into Achieve for Statistics exercises from our favorite Olympic water sports. Are you and your statistics students watching this year’s Summer Olympics? It's a great opportunity to bring examples into your classroom from swimming and diving using our Achieve homework questions with embedded data sets. We include data sets and technology how-to videos for Excel, JMP, Minitab, R, RCmdr, SPSS, TI calculators, and more!   From Kokoska's Introductory Statistics 3e, now with Achieve!   Check out more great features of Achieve for Statistics here, or sign up for a demo! ... View more

  Water color painting of an Olympic torch The fastest, the highest, and the furthest. Track & Field is full of exciting events, which, beyond showcasing incredible athletic feats, also produce some great data sets for statistical analysis. What's your favorite track & field event? Check out our range of track & field questions in Achieve for Statistics to see how you can "track" the data in your own class, alongside this year's Summer Olympics.   See more examples below or sign up for a demo to explore more features of Achieve for Statistics!   ... View more

Institutional and Course Context Delaware State University, a public four-year college, serves over 4,000 undergraduate students. The study conducted in this context involved an instructor who taught 108 students in a hybrid combination of face-to-face and virtual instruction. With over fifteen years of teaching experience and a comfort level with digital tools, the instructor implemented Achieve throughout the Fall 2021 semester. Course and Digital Learning Goals The instructor's primary motivation for using Achieve was to keep students engaged and teach them skills that would be applicable in various contexts. Emphasizing the importance of efficiency and providing additional resources for students, the instructor sought to explore new ways of teaching mathematics. Study Design and Results The study aimed to investigate the relationship between the use of Achieve and student outcomes while gathering information on instructor and student perceptions of the tool. The results demonstrated several positive aspects of Achieve for Calculus: Engagement: Both the instructor and the students reported increased engagement in the course with the use of Achieve. Students found the pre-lecture activities and homework assignments within Achieve to be engaging, helping them prepare for class discussions. Active Learning: Achieve encouraged active learning, as reported by the instructor and the students. They felt that Achieve supported their learning and helped them stay on track during class discussions, fostering active participation and deeper insights into the course content. Usability: Achieve was deemed easy to use by both the instructor and the students. The comfort level with Achieve in virtual classroom environments contributed to a seamless teaching and learning experience. The majority of students expressed confidence in using Achieve and would recommend it to others. Comprehension: The tools within Achieve proved effective in supporting student comprehension of the course material. Students reported that Achieve helped them gain a better mastery of the content, fill gaps in their knowledge, and foster deeper insights. Academic Achievement: The study revealed a significant relationship between students' completion of activities within Achieve and their final grades in the course. Higher activity completion correlated with better overall performance. This relationship remained significant even when controlling for students' GPA. Insights for Optimization The instructor and students provided valuable feedback on optimizing the use of Achieve. They highlighted the importance of addressing any issues with slow updating between Achieve and the integrated Learning Management System (LMS). Exploring the available options within iClicker and completing LearningCurves before presenting material in class were also suggested as potential areas for improvement. The findings from this study demonstrate the positive impact of Achieve for Calculus on student academic performance in an average-sized PreCalculus classroom at a four-year university. The tool's ability to enhance engagement, facilitate active learning, promote comprehension, and contribute to better grades highlights its potential in supporting mathematics education. By incorporating such digital tools effectively, educators can create enriching learning experiences and empower students to succeed in their academic journey. Download the white paper   *Note: These results are part of a larger Achieve study across multiple institutions. To access the full report and results, please visit http://www.macmillanlearning.com/catalog/page/learningscience. ... View more

Achieve is built in partnership with instructors, students, and our Learning Science team through iterative improvement and ongoing studies supported by real student data. Macmillan’s Learning Science team collected results from instructor and student surveys, live focus groups, bi-weekly instructor logs, student platform data, and course data to analyze the relationship between homework activity and students’ final grades in precalculus and calculus courses.  Homework completion in Achieve was significantly related to student achievement across all participating precalculus and calculus students (n=1,197). There was a statistically significant relationship between how many homework activities students finished within Achieve (as a percentage of how many were assigned in their course) and their final grade in the course. This relationship (r = 0.23) remained significant even while controlling for students reported GPA, p < .01. The graph shows the relationship between homework activity completion and final grade. Ultimately, students found Achieve engaging and encouraging of active learning. 91% of students reported being engaged in the course that semester while 97% reported that Achieve helped support their learning.  86% reported engaging in active learning in their course. A majority of students found the pre-lecture activities and the homework within Achieve engaging and helpful to their in-class learning.  Instructors from a wide range of institutions were surveyed in their precalculus and calculus courses. Here’s what they had to say about Achieve:  “I think it really makes it easy for us to assign a lot of practice and have that practice give feedback to the students.” “I love the flexibility of the system. I can very easily update questions, change scenarios slightly, add hints to questions, and create my own.” “On one of the problems I assigned with a video, only 20% of students answered the problem correctly [on first try], but by the end, all but two had correctly completed the problem.” For more details on this study, take a look at the white paper below! This series will continue with an in-depth look at the precalculus and calculus classes at some of the schools that participated in this study. Download the white paper ... View more

The Winter Olympics are almost over, but there's still time to engage your stats students with some new online learning tools and resources. Check out some of our winter sports examples and problems, and see how Achieve is changing the game.  Kokoska's Introductory Statistics: A Problem-Solving Approach, 10e helps students develop the fundamental lifelong skill of solving problems and interpreting solutions in real-world terms. Take a look at this Sports and Leisure example: Tour Achieve for Kokoska 10e to see the tools and resources designed for use before, during and after class. Students apply their knowledge with the following snowboarding problem from The Basic Practice of Statistics, 9e.  Take a tour of Achieve for BPS 9e to see the digital resources that support in-class learning as well as independent studying. Request access to Achieve or contact your rep to see more! ... View more

Are you watching the Winter Olympics? Macmillan has statistics examples and problems to compliment your watching experience! With downloadable data sets and guided practice, Achieve for Statistics deepens your students’ statistical knowledge while giving you an insight into class performance. Built-in coaching tools—hints, detailed feedback, and fully worked solutions—guide students toward the correct answers. By stating, planning and solving the problem, students gain a better understanding of concepts. Check out the following exercise from Chapter 2 of The Basic Practice of Statistics, 9e.   Watch the video below to learn more about our data sets and video technology. Find your rep or request access to Achieve to see this data set and more! ... View more

Use the 2022 Winter Olympics to boost student engagement in your statistics course! The right example could spark your students’ interest in the material–something that is especially important after the last couple years. Check out the following example from The Basic Practice of Statistics, 9e to see how ‘randomness’ turned silver to bronze in 2006. The Basic Practice of Statistics, 9e uses examples and exercises from a wide variety of topic areas that use current, real data to provide students insight into how and why statistics are used to make decisions in the real world.  Achieve for The Basic Practice of Statistics, 9e connects the trusted Four-Step problem-solving approach and real world examples in the book to rich digital resources that foster further understanding and application of statistics. Watch the video below to learn more about Achieve and the resources available for statistics. To learn more, request access to Achieve or contact your rep today! ... View more

With the Olympic Games returning for the Winter, we’re looking at the stats of our favorite teams and Olympic athletes! Take advantage of this opportunity to introduce some of the harder statistics concepts and use examples that are current and relevant.  Request access to Achieve and see how the e-book engages students with real-life examples and interactives. The e-book offers highlighting, note-taking, offline access, and screenreader functionality. Data sets and Video Technology Manuals are available for commonly used statistical software, including Excel, SPSS, R, Minitab, and many others.    Take inspiration from the content and cover of Kokoska’s Introductory Statistics: A Problem-Solving Approach! Learn more about Achieve for Statistics or sign up for a demo for a one-on-one tour. ... View more

As winter break approaches and students prepare for final exams and projects, instructors are busy writing and grading those finals and discovering how well students actually understood the material. With the mix of available virtual and in-person courses, the consideration of different types of assessments becomes very complex.  Courses in STEM disciplines often cover a large amount of material that tends to encourage superficial learning instead of the more ideal deep approach to learning. Additionally, STEM courses seem to have a threatening and anxiety-provoking assessment system.  Summative assessment is the assessment of student learning; it is usually an exam, final project or report that provides a score on that student’s performance but rarely offers timely or effective feedback. But these final exams and evaluations are inherently necessary in the framework of our education system. What remains is to learn how to use summative assessment as a learning tool. Consider the ideas in the table below for your own test-taking processes. During the test Collaborative test-taking Pyramid exams Immediate feedback assessment technique Self-corrected exams Prior to return of the test Do-over After the return of the test Highlighting missed material Point-recapture Test analysis   How do you make use of summative assessments? Explore the various types of assessments and strategies for their use in Assessment in the College Classroom.   ... View more

How would your students define their relationship with math? BFFs? Casual Acquaintances? Estranged?    Whether you teach precalculus, math for liberal arts, or quantitative literacy, understanding how your intro students feel about math can set the stage to help your students develop confidence in their problem-solving abilities and an appreciation of how math affects the world around them.  Check out this exercise that Bruce Crauder, Macmillan author of Quantitiative Literacy and Preparation for Calculus, assigns to his students at Oklahoma State University.       Turn in a full-page typed essay covering the following topics: --Paragraph 1.  Introduce yourself to me What's your major? Where are you from? What are your hobbies? --Paragraph 2.  Write your math autobiography, i.e. tell me about yourself and math Do you dream in mathematical terms? Or did you part ways with math in the third grade and never look back? --Paragraph 3.  Let me know what you want to achieve in this class What will completing this class enable you to do? What do you hope to take away from this class? What can I do to help you get there?   Finding out a little bit about your students' approach the course can go a long way in helping them succeed. And who knows, maybe your students and math can be lifelong friends after all!   ... View more