The fall semester is over and the spring semester is upon us. Take a few moments to plan ahead and get ready for next semester.
Continue reading to learn 5 tips for preparing for the next semester with WebAssign
1) Changes to your Syllabus
Your syllabus is your guide for your course. Make sure you review it regularly and make any necessary changes while you have fresh ideas. Here are some suggestions:
You can increase student engagement by making student activities in WebAssign worth at minimum 20% of your course score.
Too many late assignments? Too Many Late Assignments?
Include WebAssign Support and Reference Materials: Make sure that your students know where they can find WebAssign Help.
The WebAssign Student Help Guide can be used to help students learn how to use the platform as well as answer their questions.
Tech Support: 1-800-354-9706
2) Save time: Copy your current course
Are you satisfied with the course structure and assignments? Don’t let your hard work go to waste. To prepare for next semester, copy your course content to a different course. This will allow you to avoid having to start from scratch. To easily upgrade your textbook to the latest edition, you can use our textbook edition update tool. This will allow you to seamlessly transition your course without losing your assignments.
You need a step-by–step guide for course copying. This video will show you how to copy a course.
3) Evaluate Your Course Topics
Even though you’ll be starting next semester as a new student, your current students can give you insight into areas where you should make changes. To find out:
What topics were most difficult for students? To improve understanding, you might consider adding questions or assignments to these topics.
Did students struggle to answer certain questions? To help students solve the problem, you might consider enabling learning support resources like Read Its. Watch Its. Students can also be given partial credit or reduced point values for more difficult questions.
4) Make adjustments to address common challenges
Are you going to set up your course the same way as next semester or will you need some adjustments? You can solve the following common problems by changing your assignment settings.
CHALLENGE: Low Homework Scores
Adjust the Number of Submissions Per Assignment
Your students should have access to learning tools at question-level. Allow questions towards the top of the assignment and gradually remove them throughout the assignment to create a scaffolded learning environment.
CHALLENGE: Low Student Engagement
To keep students interested in the material, schedule frequent assignments. Students can collaborate with each other by assigning group work.
WebAssign offers Homework Help Desk Hours. Demonstrate to students how to use Ask Your Teacher in their assignments in WebAssign. Also, communicate when you will be available for homework assistance using this feature. You will be able support students in need and engage them in your course material.
CHALLENGE: Students do better at homework than they do on exams
Homework Assignments: Deduct points for extra submissions. This allows students to actually learn the topic and not guess.
Assign the Personal Study Plan to a grade to ask students to test their knowledge and practice on topics that they are struggling with.
5) Enhance Your Course Materials
You might find areas that need improvement in your class performance, or you may just want to add some new elements to your course. Engage students with new questions, assignments, and resources such:
Custom questions. For help, contact the WebAssign Content Support Team.
Embedded video. To engage more visual students, incorporate video into questions.
Tutorial questions. Tutorial questions can be used to help students understand how to approach concepts.
Videos and lecture materials. For students’ convenience, make textbook resources such lecture materials and videos available on your students’ homepage.
Remember: You can search the question browser to find public questions, add resources and share them with other instructors. Remember, it happens sometimes.
