Faculty and students in higher education institutions today face a number of instructional and learning challenges. Adaptive learning tools – like McGraw-Hill’s LearnSmart, now used by thousands of students across the country – are being implemented to increase teaching effectiveness and learning efficiency. These tools improve student engagement, grades, and retention, thereby enabling students to be more successful in their college experience and ultimately more career-ready. Seven independent studies conducted at schools across the country have found that McGraw-Hill LearnSmart leads to:

• ● Significant improvements in pass rates (average of 12.5 percentage points) and in retention rates (average of 10.5 percentage points)
• ● More B students improving their learning and earning A’s; and more C students getting B’s
• ● Students, on average, performing 10.24 points higher on all exams as compared to those who did not use LearnSmart

Faculty at these institutions love the way LearnSmart engages their students and improves outcomes.

“Connect with LearnSmart has helped engage the learner in a way I didn’t think was possible. It has also helped me to be a more reflective teacher and pinpoint class issues with a topic.” 
        -Professor Frank Wray, University of Cincinnati

Read the full report here, or visit www.mhlearnsmart.com to learn more!

Students in Professor Meg Pollard’s Managerial Accounting classes struggled with concerns about how they were performing on homework assignments. She implemented Connect® Accounting to allow her students to review automatic feedback and work with confidence. Assignment completion rates greatly increased with Connect, indicating that students had the assurance they needed to fully engage with course learning objectives.

She says, “Connect Accounting provides students with meaningful practice opportunity with the accompanying feedback to close the loop of learning. Students often struggle with concerns about how to get started with their homework and whether their work is correct. Connect Accounting offers a structure that would allow them to engage with assignments and work with confidence.” Learn more about Professor Pollard’s experience with Connect in this CASE STUDY.

Connect is now easier to use than ever before, thanks to input from our Connect community! Your “My Courses” page now offers icons instead of a menu, so you can quickly and easily set course registration dates, duplicate, or delete your course.  You can also edit your course name and time zone directly from this page.

Connect also offers enhanced section drop-down menus, which clearly detail the functionality offered via the contextual labels to better inform you of your options to edit, duplicate, copy, share, or delete a course section. Enjoy these usability enhancements!

Professor Dave Welch and his colleagues were spending so much class time giving tests and going over homework that they struggled to get through the required course content. In addition, students wanted the ability to work through assignments multiple times for practice. Dr. Welch implemented Connect® Accounting in 2010, which provided algorithmically generated homework assignments that are automatically graded, giving students access to unlimited practice with immediate feedback. With Connect Accounting, Professor Welch has freed up the equivalent of two weeks’ lecture time. Read more about his experience in this CASE STUDY, and watch the Spotlight Video below to hear instructors and students talk about their Connect experience.

With Connect, Dr. Welch saw an increase in the number of students receiving A’s and B’s and an increase in pass rates. Class attendance has also increased by 20%. He says, “Connect has been the best learning tool we could offer our students. Their success rates and improved impression of the course have made their lives and mine much easier.”

Professor Sam Mirmirani needed to free up the considerable amount of time he was spending grading homework exercises and reviewing assignments. He also wanted his students to take on more responsibility for completing homework, while providing them with a resource to review for exams rather than take up valuable class time for review prior to the midterm and final. By implementing Connect® Economics, Professor Mirmirani has shaved his grading time from 10 hours per week to one hour per week, and his students have ample review opportunities to prepare for exams on their own. Now, Mirmirani reports, he sees far less traffic during his office hours and when students do come to his office, they know exactly what they need help with based on the feedback they receive from Connect.

He says, “With Connect, I now have more frequent and systematic information on how my students are doing. This enables me to re-assess and revise my lectures. I now know which areas to emphasize more and which ones less.” Learn more about Professor Mirmirani’s experience with Connect Economics in this CASE STUDY.