Educators and researchers share how Pearson products have positively impacted learning experiences for students.
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In Fall 2018, Pearson partnered with Professor Susumu Kasai at Salt Lake Community College to investigate whether MyLab™ IT with Microsoft Office 2016 (custom edition) positively impacted student success in their Business Computer Proficiency – Spreadsheet & Database course.
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In Fall 2018, Professor Daniel Ciomek from San Francisco State University in San Francisco, CA partnered with Pearson to investigate whether the custom package of MyLab™ IT, Information Systems Today: Managing in the Digital World by Valacich and Schneider (primary eText), Exploring Microsoft Access 2016 Comprehensive and Exploring Microsoft Excel 2016 Comprehensive by Poatsy impacted student success in his Information Systems for Management course.
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From 2012 to 2015, Professor Hector Enríquez at the University of Texas El Paso utilized MyLab Spanish in his five Elementary Spanish, Intermediate Spanish, and Spanish for Spanish Speakers courses. He partnered with Pearson to investigate how MyLab Spanish supports his students’ success. Through this research they found that:
Click here to read the full case study or continue reading to learn more
As coordinator of the lower division Spanish courses, Enríquez is challenged to meet many goals including:
With these goals in mind, Enríquez adopted MySpanishLab for the introductory and intermediate Spanish sequences and has been utilizing it for over a decade.
The five Elementary Spanish, Intermediate Spanish, and Spanish for Spanish Speakers courses are face to face, hybrid/intensive, and online. Content, homework, and assessments are pre-assigned with due dates through the MyLab Spanish master course shell. Pearson exams are used, and questions on MyLab Spanish homework are similar to the questions that will appear on exams.
Per textbook chapter, all machine-graded exercises are assigned in MyLab Spanish over the course of (approximately) two weeks. This includes some tutorials and one chapter practice exam. Students have unlimited attempts on homework. In Elementary and Intermediate Spanish MyLab Spanish accounts for 15% of the course grade, while it accounts for 20% of the course grade in Spanish for Spanish Speakers.
Examination of student results data across all five courses shows a strong correlation between MyLab Spanish scores and final course scores in the face-to-face* course format.
Students who scored 80 percent or higher on MyLab Spanish homework had higher average scores on compositions, exams, final exams, and final course scores than students who scored less than 80 percent on MyLab Spanish,
At the end of the day, Enríquez’s goal is to help students become proficient in the language. He maintains:
In addition to helping students become proficient in Spanish, MyLab Spanish also had a positive impact on teaching. Enríquez notes how it saves grading time, it allows instructors to better use in-class time, and it gives instructors the opportunity to see where students’ strengths and weaknesses lie in terms of understanding the content.
Learn more about how MyLab Spanish could benefit your course
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In Spring 2019, Professor KD Hatheway-Dial at the University of Idaho in Moscow, ID partnered with Pearson to investigate whether MyLab IT™ for Skills for Success for Office 2016 by Adkins and MyLab Accounting for Horngren’s Financial and Managerial Accounting by Miller-Nobles, Mattison, and Matsumura positively impacted student success.
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In Spring 2019, Pearson partnered with Professor Jeff Johnson at Athens State University in Athens, AL to investigate whether MyLab Economics™ for Essentials of Economics by Hubbards and O’Brien positively impacted student success in his Modern Economics course.
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by Pearson
Professor Laurie Metcalf at Blinn College in Bryan, TX reported many perceived advantages of using MediaShare™ for her online public speaking course. Specifically, she named her ability to accomplish the following:
Time-stamping specific feedback in students' videos to support their development of public speaking skills.
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MediaShare is a tool for sharing, assigning, discussing, and evaluating media in different formats, including video and audio files. It enables students and instructors to comment on media, and instructors can provide timestamped feedback to students on their assignments.
For her online public speaking course, Professor Laurie Metcalf has used MediaShare for five or more years. MediaShare’s role in her class is primarily for students to submit four required speech assignments and for Laurie to provide grades and detailed feedback on those assignments.
She views MediaShare as benefitting students through the development of students’ source citations and use of appropriate language, as well as offering her a way to see how individual students are progressing over time allowing her to offer targeted intervention.
Laurie views the capacity to provide timestamped feedback in students’ videos as very beneficial to learning as it allows her to focus on a specific spot in the recording. Relatedly, Laurie has found the setup of MediaShare to enable more of her feedback for those moments.
Laurie finds the layout of the rubric advantageous as it allows her to do all of her grading on one screen. For the school break that extended through the end of the year because of the coronavirus pandemic, this functionality proved especially useful.
In addition, Laurie believes student performance has improved due to MediaShare in the way students give source citations and their use of appropriate language.
From her perspective, the positive aspects of MediaShare give her online course advantages above and beyond what is possible for an in-person class saying, “We don’t even have that ability in a live class to do that. To stop a speech and say, look, ‘Did you hear what you just said? Did you hear how that sounded?’ And, ‘Here’s the problem.’ Or, ‘Here’s why it’s great.’ So that in and of itself I think is fantastic.”
Learn more about how MediaShare could benefit your course
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Professor Dr. Peggy Goodson Rochelle at Tusculum University in Tennessee sees many benefits for instruction and a positive impact on student success since she has utilized Pearson eText and MyLab™ Education. She emphasizes the following benefits of these products:
Access to the text from the very start of the course;
Use of the products on their preferred devices; and
The opportunity to take practice quizzes.
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Pearson eText and MyLab Education offer access to course readings from multiple devices. The embedded videos of teachers in the classroom with actual students provide real-world demonstrations of the text’s concepts. Students have multiple options for reinforcing their understanding of the material, including practice quizzes. Instructors can make use of an array of assignments—quizzes, multiple-choice questions, short answer questions, writing assignments, and others—to assess student learning.
Peggy’s courses use Pearson eText or MyLab Education for three main reasons: they’re vetted, Pearson staff provide quality support, and the cost can be covered by financial aid.
She has used direct integration since 2018, which allows her to incorporate Pearson eText and MyLab into her courses. She will eventually switch to partner integration because it will offer consistency across the university while still allowing her to add deep links for her courses. Assignments differ between her courses, but she often assigns video case studies and self-check quizzes. Assignments within the products that students submit generally contribute 20% to 40% toward their final grade in the course. Other assignments that are not part of MyLab include having her students evaluate teaching videos and giving feedback on samples of elementary and secondary student work.
She allows students to engage with practice quizzes and other parts of Pearson MyLab that do not count towards their grade as many times as they like. She makes some tests and quizzes untimed in the product if she wants to encourage students to read or reread the text. Additionally, she often takes advantage of the product’s feature that randomizes the order of questions on quizzes.
When summing up her overall experience as an instructor using MyLab, Peggy again offered praise to Pearson’s product support and she described direct integration as “seamless”. On the topic of student reactions, she shared her view that students appreciate Pearson text. “They like having options,” she stated, referring to the options to use Pearson text on a phone, computer, or tablet and the ability to take practice quizzes and other ways to study before completing graded assignments. She added that students seem to appreciate not having to go to a physical or online store to purchase a book.
Learn more about how Pearson eText could benefit your course
Learn more about how MyLab Education could benefit your course
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In Summer 2021, Professor Ty Bryan at a community college in Southern United States met with Pearson to discuss how he uses and experiences Human Anatomy & Physiology, 2nd Edition by Amerman and Mastering A&P™ in his Anatomy & Physiology I and II courses.
Ty Bryan finds many benefits utilizing the Pearson textbook and Mastering A&P in his courses including:
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In schoolyear 2016/2017, his department switched from McGraw Hill to an OER resource called OpenStax in an effort to reduce the cost of textbooks. Once adopted, faculty further reviewed the OER textbook and found it lacking in artwork and diagrams, as well being heavily bogged down with unnecessary content.
In early 2020, faculty compared a variety of textbooks and publishers and decided to adopt Pearson’s Human Anatomy & Physiology, 2nd Edition by Amerman along with Mastering in Fall 2020. They landed on Pearson because of the superior way it was written and its concise, well laid out material. Anatomy & Physiology I and II are traditionally taught face-to-face, but due to the pandemic, course models had to be shifted. In response, courses had to be taught fully online, which meant faculty needed their Pearson textbook earlier than anticipated so it was adopted in Spring 2020.
While Bryan incorporates Mastering content as optional for extra credit, he does strongly encourage its use and explains to his students its many benefits. He narrows down the sections from each chapter he wants them to read and includes Dynamic Study Modules.
Outside of optional Mastering content, Bryan’s assessments in A&P I include four quizzes, six lecture exams and one standardized final exam. Students must receive a minimum of 50% on the final exam to pass the course.
One of the main benefits Bryan has noticed since switching from OER is the improvement in artwork quality. OER lacked detailed artwork that is so crucial for students in A&P courses. Another highlight for Bryan is the readability of the Pearson text. He believes his students are better understanding concepts with the Pearson text because it’s concise and easy to navigate without being too tied down with unnecessary and disjointed material.
Bryan finds the Pearson textbook sets A&P I students up for success in A&P II better than their previous OER textbook, with Bryan saying: “I think they are getting a better idea of chemistry from the Amerman textbook than they were getting from OER. (OER) is written by multiple people at multiple times. They go in there and do their little bit and it’s not easy to read. At least with the Pearson textbook…they’ve got a shot because it’s giving them something they can read, something they can understand, and the diagrams are plainly laid out.”
Bryan never had anyone to reach out to with OER, no support to go with the textbook if he needed any type of assistance. In contrast, with Pearson, he feels he has been supported every step of the way. There was plenty of training when initially adopting Mastering with step-by-step instructions.
When deciding to switch from OER to Pearson, Bryan and fellow faculty wanted a more effective way for students to develop a foundational knowledge of anatomy and physiology concepts that would prepare them for their clinicals. With Pearson, he finds the quality animations, diagrams, and concise wording all combine to help students be successful. As the instructor, he finds the continuous support Pearson offers to be invaluable in being able to offer his courses as seamlessly as possible.
Learn more about how Mastering A&P could benefit your course I
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In Fall 2019, Pearson partnered with Professor Lee Kooler at Modesto Junior College to investigate whether Revel for Abnormal Psychology in a Changing World by Nevid, Rathus and Green impacted teaching and her students’ success in Abnormal Psychology.
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Between Fall 2017 and Fall 2018, Professor Dr. Scott Demsky at Broward College in David, FL partnered with Pearson to determine how MyLab Math™ for Mathematical Ideas for College and Finite Mathematics (custom edition) by Miller impacted student success in his Foundations of Mathematical Reasoning and Survey of Mathematics courses.
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During Fall 2017, Stephany Rimland at Harper College in Palantine, IL partnered with Pearson to explore the impact of Revel™ for Art History by Stockstad and Cothren on student success, focusing on evaluating differences in Revel implementation and results between Rimland’s face-to-face and online Introduction to Art History (Art 131) course.
by Pearson
by Pearson
Pearson interviewed instructors across the United States in Summer 2020 to understand how they’re using and experiencing Revel Java Programming.
Researchers found that Revel’s integrated learning experience, that blends engaging content with practical experience and immediate feedback, lays a solid foundation for students to be successful programmers.
Read the complete findings here or continue reading to learn more about what they have to say.
George Meghabghab, professor at Roane State Community College in Tennessee, feels the integrated and immersive learning that Revel Java Programming offers means it is an “optimal learning space which encourages students to go into Revel… and engages them to stay there until finished.”
Frank Ducrest, recently retired professor at a 4-year school in Louisiana, was pleasantly surprised when immediately after adopting Revel the rate of passing the course went from 35% to 70% in the first semester. The subsequent 5 years of utilizing Revel has kept this success rate high, averaging from 60% to 80%, depending on the student majors.
“It has really been amazing, the difference I have seen in my students since starting Revel.”
Joe Parks, recently retired Lead Java Instructor at a community college in North Carolina, feels the immediate feedback Revel offers helps students realize a concept may not be well understood, thus allowing them to address the concern while the material is still fresh.
“The integrated quizzes, animations, activities, etc. follow this model, and allow a student to realize immediately that he or she needs to go through the current material again. Revel does this on an individual level, which is impossible to do in a classroom setting.”
Caroline Budwell, professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, appreciates how Revel’s practice opportunities encourage deep thought, saying:
“I like Revel because it does make the kids practice problems and it’s not as fluffy as what I was using previously because that program just gave them a lot of points to read and try stuff. Revel makes you think more; the practice activities in Revel makes my kids think more.”
Four of the instructors we spoke to, including Caroline Budwell and Sujing Wang, a professor at a 4-year school in the southern region of the United States, all find the autograding feature to be the most beneficial aspect of Revel, with Caroline saying:
“I haven’t manually graded anything since implementing Revel, so I would say it works very well for me. It reduces the time I have spent grading, I just go into Blackboard, sync the grades, and I don’t mess with it at all.”
Terrance Adam Smith, professor at a 2-year school in Texas, appreciates the time saved grading programming assignments saying, “I am definitely doing less work due to automatic grading.”
Learn more about how Revel Java Programming could benefit your course
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Between Spring 2018 and Fall 2019, Pearson partnered with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro to explore how the use of Revel for Introduction to Java Programming by Y. Daniel Liang is related to learner outcomes related to achievement on assigned tasks, tests, and the course as a whole.
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Manda Williamson at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln partnered with Pearson to determine if Revel for Psychology, 1st Edition by Marin and Hock could enhance student engagement and success in her Introduction to Psychology Course over the Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 semesters.
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In Fall 2017, Professor Robert Carlson at Texas Southmost College worked with Pearson to investigate whether Revel for Writing Arguments: A Rhetoric with Readings, 10th Edition by Ramage, Bean, and Johnson could increase student engagement in his Composition II course.
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In Spring 2018, Pearson worked with Professor Deborah Hable at Wayne State University to investigate whether Revel for Accounting Information Systems by Romney and Steinbart supported student success in her Accounting Systems Design and Control course.
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by Pearson
In Spring 2018, Pearson partnered with Dr. Heather Eaton McGrane at Daytona State College to investigate whether Revel for Strategies for Successful Writing by Reinking and von der Osten increased student success in her Introduction to Composition course.
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In fall 2018, Pearson worked with Lecturer Jeffrey Koplik at Bryant University in Smithfield, RI to investigate whether the use of Revel for Financial Markets and Institutions by Mishkin and Eakins helped students succeed.
Researchers found that:
Click here to read the full case study or continue reading to learn more.
Prior to implementing Revel™, Koplik found that students were frequently attending class without having read the assigned material and were unprepared for discussions. While finance classes are generally quantitative in nature, reading the chapter material remains an important part of the overall learning experience. In Fall 2018, Koplik elected to assign Revel readings and quizzes in hopes of increasing student preparedness and engagement.
Revel assignments are due on or before the day of lecture, so students come to class prepared to learn. On the student survey, 95% of respondents agreed that completing Revel assignments prior to lecture helped them prepare for the new material being introduced in class. Revel assignments are worth a combined 20% of the final course grade.
Responses from the Fall 2018 end-of-semester survey of Koplik’s students indicate that the majority of responding students recognize the value of Revel.
One student said:
“I enjoyed being able to practice after the reading. It was also helpful to be able to use the homework and quizzes to help me prepare for exams.”
Learn more about how Revel for Financial Institutions and Markets could benefit your course by visiting:
https://www.pearson.com/asia/revel/educators/browse-products/disciplines/finance.html
In 2018, Pearson worked with Garth Neufeld, Instructor at Cascadia College in Bothell, WA to investigate whether the use of Revel Psychology helped students succeed.
Researchers found that:
Click here to read the full case study or continue reading to learn more.
Instructor Neufeld has taught Psych 100 online for several years. In Summer 2018 he redesigned the course to address issues with student engagement and reading completion. He hoped that by introducing Revel™ and restructuring the course assignments, students would be more likely to read the course content, complete the assignments, and be more engaged in the course.
Neufeld created weekly Revel assignments, including readings and module and chapter quizzes and were due before the chapter was covered in class. Weekly Revel assignments are worth a combined 15% of the final course grade.
Student performance data from Spring 2018 and Winter 2018 were used to compare results after implementing Revel. Data indicate students earned higher average final exam scores (final exam scores of zero were removed from analysis) when the course was redesigned and Revel was implemented.
Students earned higher average final course GPAs when the course was redesigned and Revel was used than during the two course terms prior to redesign.
Students’ survey comments regarding their Revel experience included:
Learn more about how Revel Psychology could benefit your course by visiting:
https://www.pearsonhighered.com/revel/educators/browse-products/disciplines/psychology.html
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Pearson’s Efficacy and Learning team reviewed six of the top OER competitors and evaluated Pearson’s strengths against each of these offerings.
Through this work we found that Pearson excels with supporting instructors and helping student achieve personalized outcomes.
Read the complete findings here, or continue reading to find out how.
Pearson’s solutions are low-cost, and we are committed to measuring our impact on the outcomes that matter most to learners and educators. Efficacy is central to Pearson’s design and evaluation process.
In 2018, Pearson was the first education company to publish third-party audited and independently reviewed reports in an effort to establish transparency and ensure confidence that is unmatched in commercial education. We continue to publish research that investigates our impact on outcomes.
This is opposed to no-cost solutions that do not have comparable efficacy research on impact and engagement. Pearson’s commitment to efficacy is a key differentiator against OER resources.
Pearson content is designed for impact and offers customization opportunities. Instructors can:
This high degree of flexibility supports instructor’s needs while not compromising on quality.
Pearson offers embedded practice and personalized support to all levels of learners.
In addition, Pearson provides low stakes, embedded, non-graded assignments to help students gain personalized practice. This is not something OER resources can do.
Free, all-in-one solutions lack the degree of adaptivity and personalization Pearson products offer. This means a Pearson product is more likely to meet the diverse needs of a large class in a more supportive, personalized way.
Pearson regularly creates new features that support student learning, deeper understanding, retention and personalization.
Revel includes features competitors don’t have such as shared writing, journaling prompts, and video quizzes – all shown to deepen learning and improve learning gains.
Further, Pearson offers relevant, engaging content that often incorporates current events that help learners see the application in their day-to-day lives.
Learn more about Efficacy and Research at Pearson
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Pearson surveyed 7 instructors and conducted 3 interviews in spring 2021 to better understand how they used and experienced Revel’s “Organizational Behavior: Developing Skills for Managers” by Lamm & Tosti-Kharas during a pilot period.
Through this work, we found that Revel delivers an engaging learning experience with high-quality content that promotes student success and supports instructors.
Read the complete findings here or continue reading to understand what they have to say.
Pearson interviewed Jeffery Byrd, a full-time professor at the University of Northern Iowa, in the winter of 2020 to understand how he’s using and experiencing Revel Art.
Read the complete findings here or continue reading to understand what they have to say.
Jeffrey finds the images and interactives in Revel give his students the opportunity to experience art in a way they were unable to in a traditional textbook, which has improved their performance.
“I think they are doing better on the tests now that they are using Revel. Art history is all about images. There are activities where they really get to interact with the images and that’s been really helpful.”
Most of Jeffrey’s students take his course straight out of high school. They find the material a bit of a challenge, as the vast majority of them have never viewed famous pieces of artwork in person before.
“The student generated content is crucial because they hear somebody their own age who’s excited about art, which really makes a difference. They feel like it’s not exotic or foreign to them anymore, it’s not beyond them.”
All the interactive features in Revel immerse students in art and capture their attention, according to Jeffrey, especially compared to a traditional textbook.
“I think students are more engaged. I think it really has to do with the fact that they are not just reading a book; they have videos, audio reading to them, and interactive components where they are able to engage with an image in a very interactive way. All of those interactives are really engaging to them. I really do think it helps them to connect with the material much better.”
Having the audio feature and ability to hear other people give correct pronunciations in relation to artwork helps curb some of the nervousness that prevent students from speaking up in class, which in turn increases student confidence.
“I think Revel helps them gain confidence in their learning because it brings art alive in a way that a regular textbook just can’t do. This material is very foreign to them. The audio feature and hearing someone say the words really helps students talk about the material because now they are not afraid of mispronouncing something. It has all to do with the sense that they are hearing somebody else say these words. They are hearing other people relate to the content and it makes it so much more of their own experience.”
Jeffrey’s main goal for switching to Revel was for students to retain more information. With Revel, his goal has been achieved.
“I think there has been an improvement when it comes to retention. They are able to remember more of the material and I think it has a lot to do with the way they interact with the material. It is not only the reading audio feature, but also the embedded quizzes. I think they are really beneficial.”
Learn more about how Revel Art could benefit your course
Pearson interviewed instructors across the United States in fall 2020 to understand how they’re using and experiencing Revel History. Through this work, we found that Revel History empowers students to actively participate in learning.
Read the complete findings here or continue reading to understand what they have to say.
David Toye, full-time professor at Northeast State Community College in Tennessee, finds that when his students use Revel, they perform better both in class and overall in the course, as compared to those who don’t take advantage of its learning resources.
“I see that students who are engaged with Revel and reading the textbook are doing very well in my course. The ones who do not read generally get a C or worse. The ones who are doing the reading come to class and are more likely to speak up and do well on class activities.”
Kevin Brady finds value in the variety of resources in Revel because they keep students engaged in the material, therefore strengthening their knowledge of historical concepts.
“The [interactives] keep them engaged. Once they finish a video they get to see the quizzes, the primary document, activities and more videos. It is kind of building upon what they can see next. It’s like entertainment for them.”
Kevin Brady appreciates the author’s style and ability to write a textbook that resonates with students of all levels, not just those desiring to be history majors. The author’s ability to entice students to delve deeper into history is one of the main reasons he continues to utilize Revel.
“I love H.W. Brands. He is a phenomenal storyteller. He definitely has charisma, a real knack for this. He is not only a great speaker, but he is also a great writer. He is so concise, with a bullet-point type style, so the information is not overwhelming for students. He writes in such a way that he’s not dumbing it down for anybody, but he’s not keeping it at such a level that only a history major would understand it. Students walk away from the chapters knowing the main themes. During our class meetings I will ask students what they did not understand, if there were any issues, and I don’t see that much from students [since implementing Revel]. It is not like I used to see when I used other textbooks where students were so confused about the material. This textbook works so much better.”
Revel is so well aligned with David Kiracofe’s course requirements, he has made all of his assessments come from Revel, which made the program an integral part of the course design. He finds designing the course around Revel easy.
“Customizing the textbook and being able to pull stuff out of it is really helpful. It is very intuitive to be able to go in there with that flexibility within Revel to customize. It is easy to do. It is easy clicking.”
Learn more about how Revel History could benefit your course
Pearson interviewed instructors across the United States in early fall 2020 to understand how they’re using and experiencing Revel Political Science. Through this work, we found that the high-quality, relevant content in Revel Political Science helps students succeed.
Read the complete findings here or continue reading to understand what they have to say.
David Dr. Rich Haesly, full-time professor at California State University Long Beach, finds real value in Revel’s Current Events Bulletins because they highlight important events. The Bulletins also strongly resonate with the students and establish high-quality writing prompts that engage students and encourage informed discussion.
“The Current Events Bulletins…are ripped from the headlines. [They are] ideas that become really great sources for writing prompts. This is stuff [students] need to know, not just to do well in the course, but they are important ideas to think about.”
Terri Evans finds students who take advantage of Revel quizzes perform better when compared to those who don’t utilize Revel.
“For the students that do not do well on their exam or need some improvement, the first thing I do is go into Revel and see if they are even using the system. I found for those students that are not using Revel to do some testing along the way, compared to those that do, there is a grade difference there.”
“The students that did take up work in Revel, it helped them. It helped them prepare for their final exam and their learning improved.”
Dr. Elizabeth Williams monitors student engagement and performance to intervene with struggling students.
“The student performance data I receive (on individual students, their grade trend, and time spent on task) allow me to tailor much earlier intervention with struggling students. I meet with them earlier in the term, well before poor performance on much more heavily weighed exams. It is a sort of preventive academic counselling, and very active listening on my part.”
Learn more about how Revel Political Science could benefit your course
Pearson interviewed instructors across the United States in spring 2020 to understand how they’re using and experiencing Revel Introduction to Sociology by Macionis.
Through this work, we found that Revel Sociology delivers an engaging learning experience while developing the necessary skills and knowledge to be successful in class.
Read the complete findings here or continue reading to understand what they have to say.
Wes Abercrombie, professor at Midlands Technical College in South Carolina, believes that the variety of resources available in Revel engage a broad range of students. It is flexible enough to cater to their differing needs, all while aligning to what students are reading and what is being addressed in class. Wes explains:
“Revel is highly adaptable to a broad scope of different types of students. It is very useful because it allows them to go to trustworthy sources, besides my own prepared materials, that
augment what students are attempting to learn or struggling to understand. It’s been an asset to me.”
Wes can tell students are engaging with the material and are comprehending what they are reading, as evidenced in their work. Wes says:
“I can tell when students are reading Revel because they will bring up what they read in discussions and the articles from Revel are being integrated into assignment or term papers. [As a result], I know they are reading it, understanding it, and applying it correctly.”
Wes Abercrombie notices how Revel gives students a solid foundation to help them come to class with good questions, enabling them to fully participate in class and online discussions.
“It does help them be more prepared for class. Even if it doesn’t explain something, it gives them a foundation to ask a question so they can communicate what they are not understanding.”
Learn more about how Revel Sociology could benefit your course
Pearson interviewed instructors across the United States in mid-summer 2020 to understand how they’re using and experiencing Revel Psychology.
Through this work, we found that Revel Psychology empowers students to actively participate in learning.
Read the complete findings here or continue reading to understand what they have to say.
Kathleen Hughes, full-time professor at Pasco Hernando State College in Florida, believes Revel is a valuable tool that helps students understand their own everyday lives. The content is designed to connect psychology to real-life, explain why psychology matters, and how to apply it to life.
“One of the priorities I have is helping students to understand themselves, their role as students, how to do better, and how to be a better student. I think giving them Revel, a tool that helps support that, helps their everyday life of just being a student.”
Garth Neufeld, full-time professor at Cascadia College in Washington, finds the way the book is laid out resonates with students, saying:
“I think the way the book is written and the way it is presented is extremely applied and relevant to my students’ lives.”
In addition, Garth appreciates the specific textbook he uses in his General Psychology course as he thinks “it does a great job of being current.”
Lisa Bohon finds that Revel enhances her students’ abilities to think critically.
“The writing and personality inventories develop critical thinking. I have taken essay questions from the Pearson test bank as a starting point and have students write about the topics and respond to someone else. In doing that, that’s part of critical thinking, your ability to take something abstract and then thinking about something in the real world that applies to you.”
Dr. Bernadette O’Leary sees students performing better in their homework, exams, and overall grades due to the support Revel offers with comprehension and retention.
“I've noticed an increase, a wonderful increase, in student performance and not only course grades, but points that they earn from each chapter. [Students are] more attuned, they're comprehending more, they're remembering more. I notice that in the point values, as they're doing the homework and then also as they are preparing for the exams. So, I do think that a companion site like Revel can actually help students comprehend as well as retain more information.”
Learn more about how Revel Psychology could benefit your course
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Pearson interviewed professors across the United States between the summer of 2020 and the winter of 2021 to understand how they’re using and experiencing Revel.
Read the complete findings here or continue reading to understand what they have to say.
Kevin Brady, full-time History professor at Tidewater Community College, has found that students who take advantage of Revel are performing better overall in his course.
“I am seeing student success in my class. Very few students fail my course. They are consistently pulling As and Bs and I think the videos are really helping them, as they don’t discourage them. They don’t overwhelm [students]. They are one of the best features of Revel. It keeps me going back to Revel to say I am not going to change anything about this.”
David Kiracofe, full-time professor of History at a 2-year school in the southeast, has seen an increase in student engagement and confidence when utilizing Revel, which translates to improved performance.
“Overall, Revel really helps keep students engaged, so their performance improves. When we’re in a standard class where I gave paper and pencil quizzes, they ran towards a B- average. With Revel, they are pushing towards an A-. I think it’s because the embedded quizzes help keep them focused and help reinforce comprehension. That improves their confidence and improves their mood.”
Dr. Rich Haesly, full-time Political Science professor at California State University Long Beach, finds real value in Revel’s Current Events Bulletins because they highlight important events. The Bulletins also strongly resonate with students and establish high-quality writing prompts that engage students and encourage informed discussion.
“The Current Events Bulletins…are ripped from the headlines. [They are] ideas that become really great sources for writing prompts. This is stuff [students] need to know, not just to do well in the course, but they are important ideas to think about.”
David Raymond, full-time professor of Political Science at Northern Maine Community College, believes the textbook author and intro videos in Revel help students see the application of political science in their lives.
“[The author] is good when it comes to bringing in the real-world connection in his textbook, especially in the intro videos that connect concepts for the students so they can see Political Science does have a relevancy for them.”
Learn more about how Revel could benefit your course
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Pearson interviewed instructors across the United States in the winter of 2020 to understand how they’re using and experiencing Revel Criminal Justice.
Read the complete findings here or continue reading to understand what they have to say.
Mike Penrod, emeritus professor at Kirkwood Community College in Iowa, has seen how the content based on learning science in Revel has helped his students be successful in his courses through increased retention and critical thinking skills.
“The way Revel is set up, it’s brain-based learning methodology. The more times you get to look at the material, through the embedded quizzes, SharedWriting, end-of-chapter quizzes, they are seeing the
content constantly broken down into smaller pieces and it just makes a lot of sense…I think Revel has helped not just with learning, but the number of students who stick with the course too…SharedWriting helps develop critical thinking skills. It’s not just a regurgitation of information, but they have to think about the issues out there in the real world.”
While John Baker, full-time professor at St. Cloud University in Minnesota, gets calls from other publishers every day and has used other platforms aside from Revel before, the main reason he sticks with Revel is because his students prefer it over all others as indicated through end-of-year surveys.
“Students love the Revel platform. We love it. It is accessible to them on multiple devices…they like the ease of it. They like the ability to listen to each chapter, pretty much everything that is involved with Revel…and the cost is very, very good too.”
Revel is a tool that supports instructors
Mark Eger, part-time professor at Yuba College in California, appreciates the reduction in workload when it comes to setting his course up in Revel.
“It is much more labor intensive when you have to set up a course yourself. With Revel you just sit back and watch. You interject if needed and watch the students chart their path. I am a firm believer in this program.”
SharedWriting assignments help Mike Penrod and John Baker establish dialogue between students, which can be challenging in an online environment.
“I really like the SharedWriting assignments. They are like discussions in a lot of ways. Now that we are stuck totally online, they help to build some type of community.”
Learn more about how Revel Criminal Justice could benefit your course
by Pearson
Pearson interviewed instructors across the United States in winter 2020-2021 to understand how they’re using and experiencing Revel Communication.
Read the complete findings here or continue reading to understand what they have to say.
Seth Horning, adjunct professor at DePaul University, saw a drastic improvement in grades after using Revel Communication, commenting:
”My students’ quiz scores were much higher in Revel (as compared to when it was not utilized). I was really happy with their Revel quiz scores. They were typically in the 90% or higher range for all students.”
Rebecca Cooney, scholarly associate professor at Washington State University, has seen her students’ writing skills and overall proficiency increase since adopting Revel. She says:
“I have been seeing an improvement in writing quality overall and an improvement in competence.”
Laura Carr, full-time professor at Dallas College in Texas, utilizes SharedWriting as a way to facilitate interaction between students online.
“Revel is great for online courses because built into it are times where students can interact, particularly with the SharedWriting.”
Rebecca Cooney believes the content in Revel is aligned to her course curriculum so well that she could run the entire course out of Revel. She explains:
“You could run the class out of Revel and the textbook. You could use the book as your curriculum. It really is that comprehensive. I could dump everything into Revel and just run it from there. It is that in line with our curriculum map… I like having an anchor and I think having Revel gives that anchor for the entire curriculum.”
Learn more about how Revel Communication could benefit your course
by Pearson
by Pearson
