E-Learning | News
McGraw Hill Highlights Adaptive Study Technology
McGraw-Hill Education has made its LearnSmart adaptive study tool available for purchase by students for the first time. The company is previewing its new adaptive study solutions this week at the Educause 2012 conference in Denver, CO.
LearnSmart, first launched in 2009, is an online adaptive learning program that assesses students' knowledge in subject areas and provides content recommendations to help master areas where improvement is necessary. It is intended to provide supplemental instruction outside the classroom.
According to the company, LearnSmart now has more than 1 million users, and the company will preview new adaptive study solutions this week.
"The new solutions will serve McGraw-Hill Education's larger goal of improving student performance by ensuring that students are knowledgeable and confident about the baseline concepts and information they need to succeed prior to starting higher-level courses, as well as by enabling meaningful scientific exploration and learning within a photo-realistic virtual lab environment," according to information released by the company.
Features of LearnSmart include:
- A learning calendar, which shows students' learning plans and progress;
- Chapters, which provide questions that also ask students to rate their confidence level;
- Immediate feedback;
- Adapted questions and difficulty level based on previous answers;
- Viewing of results compared to others in class;
- Monitoring of content likely to be forgotten; and
- Reports for teachers that show student progress and areas for improvement.
If a student answers a question wrong multiple times, he or she will be directed to content for review. LearnSmart can be accessed through the online portal or from the iOS app in the iTunes App Store, which can be used on iPhones, iPad, iPad Minis, and iPod Touch devices.
McGraw-Hill Education announced at Educause that LearnSmart can be purchased by students from academic hub Chegg's Web site. Previously, the study tool could only be bought by universities for classroom use. The cost to students is $24.99
For more information, visit mhlearnsmart.com.
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Tim Sohn is a 10-year veteran of the news business, having served in capacities from reporter to editor-in-chief of a variety of publications including Web sites, daily and weekly newspapers, consumer and trade magazines, and wire services. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @editortim.
