At a Glance
Institution:
Brock University
Instructor:
Lewis Stevenson
Course Name:
Personal Finance
Course Material in Use:
Kapoor, Personal Finance, 9ce
Resource in Use:
Connect
Course Type:
Face-to-face and Online
Integration:
Blackboard + Canvas Learning Management Systems
Course Enrollment:
180 students total per academic year
The Challenge: Promote Student Success & Healthy Learning Environments
Before using Connect, Professor Lewis Stevenson found it challenging to consistently get students to read the course content before class. It was difficult to find an education technology that provided feedback to students as they progressed through their readings and assigned work. Luckily, he found a resource that offered him exactly the tools he needed: Connect.
In Professor Stevenson’s Personal Finance course, Connect is used for two course components totaling 20% of students’ final grades. He assigns chapter readings paired with questions and gives students the flexibility to complete the assignments over several weeks. This approach ensures that marks are awarded to students who are willing to do the work. He also assigns two online quizzes to be completed during or outside of class time with the difficulty being left up to the individual course instructors.
“It was very easy to implement. McGraw Hill’s tech support was great and the whole program is very simple to use.”
“I found it easy to implement Connect in my course. I followed the step-by-step instructions on the McGraw Hill website, and it took me only a few minutes to pair it with Blackboard and Canvas Learning Management Systems. Also, creating the SmartBook assignments was a straightforward process with a few clicks.”
Professor Stevenson found Connect's questions to be deeper and more challenging than other competitor learning technologies, resulting in better comprehension as students continue to read. Additionally, he liked that Connect forced students to go back to the questions they struggled with, encouraging them to actually learn the material before moving on. With Connect, Professor Stevenson can now allocate marks to individual efforts in a less stressful situation than heavily weighted exams, which is more conducive to learning success. Connect is also easily personalized for his desired teaching needs and outcomes.
On average, grades were found to be significantly higher for students who completed the Connect questions and quizzes compared to those who opted not to. As a result, the students who completed Connect assignments showed that they had a much better understanding of course content.
“Students like Connect because they find it helpful and most are willing to do the work. As the Professor, I can quickly adjust each question and quiz difficulty to accommodate the learning needs of every student.”
Professor Stevenson has been in the financial services industry since 1992, helping clients achieve their financial goals, protecting them against financial disaster, and reducing their tax burden. He graduated from Brock University in 1991 and is currently teaching Corporate Finance at Brock.
“Take advantage of the McGraw Hill team to teach you how to use the program and set it up. It’s easy once you have done it once and very user friendly. The single biggest reason I recommend that fellow instructors use Connect is student success. The online chapter assignments force students to do the work. As a Professor, you can view student progress to determine how everyone is doing throughout the course. Because Connect allows students to earn marks throughout the semester, not just on the final exam, it alleviates stress for them, which results in a healthier learning environment.”
To make the implementation of Connect smoother and more effective for fellow instructors, Dr. Kraichy shares his top tips:
- To avoid student fatigue, limit SmartBook assignments to 35 concepts (approximately 60 minutes per assignment).
- In order to decide whether a topic is a key concept for the course learning goals, use the Preview Sample Questions associated with each concept.
- He also recommends previewing each SmartBook assignment in its entirety to ensure that the concepts and associated questions are relevant to the course objectives and to find out how long it takes to complete the assignment.