Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
News
Aplia Launches Web-based Interactive Homework System
5/9/2008
Cengage Learning's Aplia division has launched a new Web-based homework system called Grade It Now. The system combines aspects of practice problems with graded problems to encourage students to improve results as they work.
Grade It Now is designed to encourage student effort by providing feedback and by implementing a "try and revise" approach to answering problems. Aplia described it this way:
"The assignments randomize both quantitative and qualitative aspects of questions, allowing students to get the practice they need through multiple attempts of core problems. Each Grade It Now problem covers one core concept, but each subsequent attempt of that problem provides students with a question and answer that are different from previous attempts and different from the attempts of their classmates, reinforcing their efforts and helping them learn."
So attempted answers are factored into the final score for a problem.
Detailed feedback is given on each attempt so that subsequent attempts
aren't just guesses. The company said that in its studies 83 percent of students improved their scores using the multiple attempts system.
"My students really enjoy the Grade It Now assignments," said Sam Liu, West Valley College (Saratoga, CA) econ professor, in a statement released this week. "The assignments reward persistence and hard work. My students tell me that the multiple attempts to answer the questions really help them understand the material."
Further information can be found at Aplia's site here.
About the author: Dave Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's educational technology online publications and electronic newsletters. He can be reached at dnagel@1105media.com.
Have any additional questions? Want to share your story? Want to pass along a news tip? Contact Dave Nagel, executive editor, at dnagel@1105media.com.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
Recommended Reading
- Cedarville U Sets Up SonicWall Firewalls
Cedarville University in southwestern Ohio has implemented SonicWALL firewalls to provide high-speed gateway firewall protection for its 3,000 students.
- Data Breach Strikes U North Dakota Alumni Association
The alumni association for the University of North Dakota has gone public with a data breach that occurred when a laptop belonging to a software vendor was stolen from a vehicle. The computer contained the names of 84,000 university alumni, donors, and others, according to coverage by the Grand Forks Herald.
- Tips for Selecting a Campus CRM tool
As competition for students increases, colleges and universities are looking more and more to customer (or constituent) relationship management software for help in remaining competitive.
- Intercast Networks Goes into Beta with Kazam Video Service at Internet2 Universities
Intercast Networks has redesigned Kazam, its student Internet TV and video service based on the company's VideoXpress platform. Following a spring semester alpha trial at Columbia and Purdue University, the company redesigned Kazam's interface based on student feedback and added additional content that caters to a student audience.
- Michigan State Managing MRI Images from Africa with Acuo Tech DICOM Services Grid
Doctors at Michigan State University have begun using the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) Services Grid from Acuo Technologies to transport and manage magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results from a hospital in Malawi, Africa in order to monitor the impact of malaria on children.
- IIT Delhi Delivers Services with Ingres Open Source
Administrators at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) have gone public with their installation of open source database management software from Ingres. IIT Delhi, one of seven leading institutes of technology in India, adopted Ingres Database to support administration functions such as grading, finance, human resources, procurement, and hospital administration.
