This year, 10,218 college instructors and 131,921 students used Achieve. Here, we break down what biology instructors and students really think about using the platform in their classrooms.  Overall, 83% of biology instructors agree that Achieve was a valuable asset for student study and review. John Geiser, an instructor at Western Michigan University, said, “Students like it and I think they actually learned more than when they were left to their own devices to learn the material.”  And he’s right! Students do like Achieve. 93% of biology students said that Achieve was easy to use and 83% agreed that it helped them study or review for quizzes and exams. Sophia Gonzalez, a student at College of Dupage, said, “I absolutely loved the e-book and all of the graphics, visuals, and content that helped me learn biology this semester. Everything was really easy to understand and to-the-point. I would definitely recommend Achieve to my friends!” Macmillan’s iClicker response system is included with Achieve. 91% of biology instructors shared that the time they invested in iClicker was worthwhile and 88% agree iClicker increased student engagement and preparedness. Moreover, Brian Black, a Bay de Noc Community College instructor, noted that iClicker is a great tool to have with a mix of both live and remote students.  Check out the infographic below for more stats and details from our user survey on what biology instructors and students really think about Achieve. ... View more

Skills and Key Features of Biology: How Life Works, 4e Achieve for Morris, Biology: How Life Works, 4e includes multiple features which focus on building scientific skills. These can help students review skills they may have learned in previous courses and reinforce key biology concepts.    Skills Primers The Skills Primers are self-paced tutorials that guide students to learn, practice, and use skills, like data visualization and graphing, experimental design, working with numbers, reading and building phylogenies, and working with models. These short tutorials can be used throughout the course as refreshers to aid students with the core skills they need to work with data. How Do We Know? Activities How Do We Know? activities are designed to provide practice for students in the skills they need to think like a scientist. These activities are available in every chapter and accompany the How Do We Know? feature in the textbook—walking students through scientific inquiry and data analysis⁠, and ending with application questions that extend to new information. Cases A key feature of How Life Works is that it connects key concepts to one another, highlighting the bigger relevance of understanding biology. Throughout the textbook, Cases and Visual Synthesis figures provide a framework for connecting and assimilating information. The eight Cases highlight topics, such as cancer and climate change, and showcase how concepts learned in individual chapters connect to these larger, relevant areas of biology. Visual Syntheses Every Visual Synthesis figure in the textbook has an interactive counterpart in Achieve. Each interactive offers an immersive, highly visual learning environment that includes informative text, embedded animations, simulations, virtual tours, and links between interactives, helping students see how individual concepts connect to tell a single story. New to this edition: two new Visual Syntheses covering the History of Earth and Life, and Homeostasis can be found in the textbook and Achieve. How Life Works Podcasts The How Life Works Podcasts cover pertinent topics that relate directly to the material in the textbook. New to this edition: the authors of How Life Works interview a diverse selection of scientists about research topics, which directly align with each of the eight Cases found in the textbook. Each podcast includes background information about the author and a set of open-ended reflection questions that can be assigned to students.   Which features do you use? Comment below to let us know! ... View more

Using Achieve and iClicker In-Class Whether teaching in-person or online, Achieve has the resources you need to keep students actively engaged during class.   iClicker With Achieve’s seamless integration with iClicker, you can help any student participate—in the classroom or virtually. iClicker’s attendance feature gets students in class, then instructors can choose from flexible polling and quizzing options to engage, check understanding, and get feedback from students in real time. iClicker also allows students to participate using laptops, mobile devices, or iClicker remotes—whichever each student prefers. Additionally, we offer Instructor Activity Guides and book-specific iClicker question slides within Achieve to make the most out of your class time.  Instructor Activity Guides     The guides provide instructors with a structured plan to facilitate an activity that encourages student engagement in both face-to-face and remote learning courses. Each guide lays out for professors the best implementation for each activity and highlights the resources available for use in class, including presentation slides, iClicker questions, and student handouts. The guide displays the activity type, estimated prep and class time, implementation instructions, suggestions for remote implementation where applicable, and Learning Objectives for ease of use. Activity Details: Approximate class time, Implementation effort, and best use case.  Activity Summary and Implementation suggestions for both in person and remote classes. All resources and links to implement the activity.  Resources for the Activity Activities typically include accompanying presentation slides (with iClicker questions) and student worksheets. All items, as well as guidance for best practices for activity use, can be found in the instructor's guide.   Active Lecture Slides These brief, visually interesting slides are designed to hold students’ attention in class with graphics demonstrating key concepts and real-world examples. Each slide deck also contains iClicker questions that can be used during lecture.   Let us know how you’re using Achieve during class this term! ... View more

Introducing Goal Setting and Reflection Surveys in Achieve When Macmillan’s Learning Science team was 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. There are five surveys in Achieve designed to get students to set goals for themselves and reflect on their learning throughout the semester. For each survey you assign, you will receive insights on the strategies students are using, how they think the semester is going, and how you can target interventions and support based on your class.    Our Learning Science team's data suggests not only do students like the surveys, but that using Goal-setting and Reflection Surveys positively impacts student course performance.  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 completing their surveys also complete up to 36% more of their assigned Achieve activities.  Goal-setting and Reflection Surveys help students pay attention to their needs in the course and self-advocate throughout the semester. These surveys can offer you a better sense of what your students are struggling with and help you notice classroom trends.    Learn more about Achieve! ... 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