Business Communication Training Guide
Business Communication Training Guide
Training Guide
Training Checklist
Section 1: Getting Started
Assignment.................................................38
Assignments................................................39
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E-book Access.............................................44
E-book Highlight and Note Functions............44
Additional Instructor Resources....................46
Section-Specific URL....................................16
Section 7: Reports
21
Section 8: Support
25
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Adding Assignments....................................25
Available Assignment Options .....................25
Creating a New Assignment from
(Success Academy)......................................65
Assignments................................................30
Assigning....................................................33
Overview of Policy-Setting Categories..........31
47
Locating Reports.........................................47
Connect Reports..........................................47
Running and Exporting Connect Reports......48
LearnSmart Achieve Reports........................59
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What are your goals for product use? With which product features do these align?
Think about what you are looking for in the product and the
outcomes you chose for you and your students. This will help you
identify specific features that most suit your needs.
What percentage of your overall course grade will be comprised of the digital product?
Requiring use of the technology for a percentage of the grade leads
to the greatest impact on student outcomes. The typical percentage
range for instructors new to technology is 10-20 percent. See what
other instructors are doing at the Required = Results blog: http://create.
mheducation.com/wordpress-mu/connectblog/2013/08/14/
requiredequals-results-series/#.U0WtnPldWO0
What are your current assignment mix and course policies? Will that change with the
new product?
Consider applying your current course management approach to your
new course delivery with technology (mix and weight of homework,
quizzes, tests, etc.). This will provide for a smooth transition to
teaching with technology.
After youve walked through the steps in the guide, review these basic, yet critical elements to
ensure you are ready for class.
Account created.
Due dates.
Review the questions and topics above throughout your training experience. If you would like to see
how other instructors in your course area approach these topics, please contact your McGraw-Hill
representative.
Training Guide
A Connect course can be made up of one or more sections that correspond with the
actual sections you are teaching at your institution. Each section maintains its own
roster and student results.
Use additional sections under one course for each section that you are teaching in a given
semester.
Assignments can be shared across sections under the same course. Assignments cannot
be shared across sections in separate courses.
First, log into Connect at connect.mheducation.com. After logging into Connect, you will be taken to
your My Courses page where you can create new courses or view/manage courses you have already
created.
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A. Select the title you will use for your course. Scroll to the right to see
more textbook options.
B. After choosing a textbook, select the bundle you want to use.
C. Click Next.
User Tip: Make sure to exactly match the title and bundle with what you are
ordering for your students.
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User Tip: Use the schools course designation and term in the Course name
field (e.g., ACCT 201). When naming sections, create names that distinguish one
section from another (e.g., Fall 2014 M, W, F 10-11am).
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A. At the bottom of the summary, find the section web address. Provide this
URL to students for registration. Each section will have a unique URL.
B. Click Continue to section home.
User Tip: Copy the section URL to your syllabus at this time with the student
registration instructions.
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This is your section home page. When you add assignments, they will be listed here.
User Tip: If you only teach one section per term, it is recommended to
duplicate a new section for each term. If you teach several sections each
term, it is recommended to duplicate your course.
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Sharing a Section
To share an exact replica of your section with a colleagues Connect account:
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A. Change registration dates for all sections. This option allows you to set
the same registration dates for all sections within the same course.
B. You can change registration dates for specific sections. This option
allows you to specify different registration dates for different sections
within the same course. Click specific sections to view start and end
dates for each section in your course. Enter the start and end dates.
C. Click apply to save the changes.
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1. Licensed: The student has registered and paid for the course.
2. Courtesy Access: The student has signed up for courtesy access of the
course, which will expire on the date listed.
3. License expired: The students access has expired. The student must
upgrade to paid access before assignments may be taken.
4. Inactive: You have changed the students status from active to inactive.
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When students visit your section-specific web address, they come to a similar-looking landing page.
A. Once they verify the course and section information, they click
Register Now to get started.
A. Each student will enter his or her e-mail address to create an account.
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A. Next the student will enter a registration code from the bookstore
package.
B. If a student has not purchased a code yet, he or she can select Buy Online
C. or Start Courtesy Access.
User Tip: Prompt your students to purchase access up front if they are going
to stay in your class. If they dont, youll have to make sure that each of them
converts to paid access a few weeks into the semester.
Students buying Connect online will typically have two options, Connect
standalone or Connect Plus. Connect Plus contains all of the assignment and
assessment features plus an integrated e-book. Connect standalone contains
all of the assignment and assessment features without an e-book.
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After the student clicks the link, he or she must register using one of the following:
A. A registration code.
B. Access purchased online.
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A. Home page.
B. Library: additional course resources (links for the e-book, question
bank, lectures, instructor resources, media resources [audio/video],
and more). See Section 7 for more details.
C. Performance: view student results and run reports. See Section 8 for
more details.
A. Your assignments are listed here. Assignments that have not yet been
assigned to students appear highlighted in yellow.
B. Use these boxes to select assignments for action.
C. These links allow you to share, copy manage date, Show/Hide, group
or delete. You can choose to group assignments into categories by
clicking the group icon and also assign selected ones as prerequisites.
D. To create a new assignment, click Add assignment.
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F. If you have new messages, an envelope icon will appear here. Click
anywhere in the line to expand the list of messages.
G. In this Section info box, you will see your information, the title used
for the course, and other identifying section information. By clicking
on the gear to the right of Section info, you will see a menu of select
actions to take to edit the section info.
H. At the bottom of this box is the section web address and a place to
upload your syllabus.
I. Under my course resources there will be a link to LearnSmart, the
adaptive learning program as available.
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Student View
You are able to toggle to the Student View to see what students
will see once they log into their course.
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With Tegrity, students can participate during class instead of trying to write down everything you say.
After class, they can review your lecture through Tegrity on a web browser, iPhone, or other mobile
device. Tegrity can also be used for remote proctoring.
For more information on using Tegrity in your class, visit the Tegrity website at
http://www.tegrity.com.
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Section 5: Assignments
Adding Assignments
A. Click Add assignment on
your section home page
to access the assignment
options.
A. Create new from question bank: Build and customize assignments by adding
provided questions and exercises. These are sometimes questions from the text,
a workbook/lab manual to accompany the text, or additional exercises created
specifically for Connect.
B. LearnSmart Achieve within Connect Business Communication develops or improves
editing skills and empowers students to put responsible writing into practice.
LearnSmart Achieve is an adaptive learning system to help students learn
faster, study more efficiently, and retain more knowledge for greater success. It
pinpoints concepts the student does not understand and maps out a personalized
study plan for success. Based on students self-diagnoses of their proficiency,
LearnSmart Achieve provides students with a series of adaptive questions. This
provides students with a personalized one-on-one tutor experience. Instructors
have access to reports
that highlight progress
and areas for additional
reinforcement for
students as well as an
at-a-glance view into
students strengths and
weaknesses.
C. Group assignment: Create
assignments for student
to work on as a team.
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Section 5: Assignments
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Section 5: Assignments
A. Next you may be asked to select which bank of questions you would
like to view, and make selections from. These options are typically
divided by type of activity or source.
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Section 5: Assignments
User Tip: Use a consistent naming convention to ensure easy navigation for
your students. For example Week 1Quiz and Week 1Homework. This
aids in identifying items in the reports that are displayed in alphabetical order.
Abbreviate where possible (e.g., CH for chapter) to allow for cleaner reports and
gradebook viewing.
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Section 5: Assignments
User Tip: Assignments are most effective with fewer than 50 items. Some
question types (e.g., true/false and multiple-choice) take less time for the student
to answer, while others (e.g., interactive questions) take more time.
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Section 5: Assignments
User Tip: Changes to the assignment cannot be made once students have begun
working on the assignment.
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Section 5: Assignments
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Section 5: Assignments
D. Resources: Turn various resources on/off for the students as they work
on the assignment. For example, control whether students can see hints.
E. Feedback: Set the level of feedback that students receive when they
complete an assignment with automatically graded questions.
Options include varying levels of feedback, from no feedback to
detailed feedback including solutions.
F. Click on review & assign to complete the assignment.
User Tip: It is best to keep your policy settings consistent throughout your
course to prevent confusion among students. Once you have set your preferred
policies, you will want to click on save as default settings to save these new policy
settings as the defaults going forward.
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Section 5: Assignments
Assigning
A. On the review and assign page, you can select multiple sections within
the same course.
B. Click Assign when you are ready to finalize the assignment.
C. If youre not ready to assign, use the Save & Exit button on the bottom
to come back later.
D. If you dont want to keep the assignment, use the Delete Assignment
button.
User Tip: If teaching multiple sections with the same assignments, but different
due dates, it is recommended to create the first section and all assignments. Once
completed, duplicate your section to create additional sections and adjust due
dates as necessary.
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Section 5: Assignments
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Section 5: Assignments
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Section 5: Assignments
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Section 5: Assignments
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Section 5: Assignments
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Section 5: Assignments
A. Check off the assignments you want to manage and select the action
you want to take (BG).
B. To change the start and due dates for the assignments, click Manage dates.
C. To copy or share an assignment to another section in your course or to
a colleagues course, select Share or Copy.
D. To show or hide the assignments on the student side, select Show/hide.
E. To move several assignments into a group you have created, click Move.
F. To delete selected assignments, click Delete.
G. New assignment groups (folders) can be created by clicking Add
Groups after clicking on the folder icon.
User Tip:
Align groups with syllabus weeks/language and, if possible, try to create groups
prior to creating the full semester of assignments.
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Section 5: Assignments
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Section 5: Assignments
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Section 5: Assignments
In the adjust credit screen, you can award full credit, drop the question and its points, or flag the
question for manual grading.
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Section 5: Assignments
A. Enter the name of the student whose assignment grade you need to
change.
B. Click the score link under the assignment you want to edit and the
student performance assignment detail page opens.
From the student performance assignment detail page, you can edit the score for each
individual question.
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A. Any highlights and notes made in the e-book can be found in my notebook.
B. To share your highlights or notes with students, click the eye icon.
Sharing notes and highlights can be helpful to guide students to the
most important parts of the book.
C. To delete a highlight or note, click the trash can icon.
D. Print highlights or notes by checking the box next to what you want
to print
E. and clicking print checked items.
You can print any section of the e-book by going to the section you
want to print and clicking the print icon.
A. To add a bookmark from a page within the e-book, click the bookmark icon.
B. Click add bookmark to create a bookmark. All bookmarks will be listed
here and can be accessed from anywhere in the e-book.
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Section 7: Reports
Locating Reports
The variety of reports, described below, will help you to assess student performance in your class.
A. From the section home page, click on the Performance tab and hover over
Reports. Click on the report you wish to view or click on View all reports to
go to the reports home page.
Connect Reports
Assignment Results
The Assignment Results report shows your entire classs performance across all of
your assignments. Each student attempt is listed along with the score, organized by
columns, for each assignment. You can look more closely at a particular students
work by selecting the students name and choosing an individual assignment attempt.
Assignment Statistics
Assignment Statistics reports will give you quick data on each assignment including the
mean score, high score, and low score, as well as the number of times it was submitted.
Student Performance
Tailor your lecturesand office hours. The Student Performance report helps you search for a
specific student in your class and focus on that students progress across your assignments. You
can view assignments that have been submitted and any assignments the student currently has
in progress, so you are able to provide guidance or feedback during or after an assignment.
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Section 7: Reports
Item Analysis
The Item Analysis report is the best way to get a birds-eye view of a single
assignment. You will be able to tell if students are improving or if the concepts are
something you want to spend additional time on in class. When you want to see
what your class is struggling with on a particular assignment or quiz, this report will
help by providing you with the average score for each individual question across all
students attempts, the average of best scores, and the average of the most recent
attempts on the question.
Category Analysis
The Category Analysis report is the place to go to find out how your students are
performing relative to specific learning objectives and goals. Run customized reports
on the content in your assignments to determine performance across aspects like
learning objective, difficulty level, Blooms taxonomy categories, and even your
own criteria if you have taken the time to edit questions in your assignments with
individual learning objectives for your course.
At Risk
The At Risk report provides instructors with one-click access to a dashboard that
identifies students who are at risk of dropping out of a course due to low engagement
levels. Connect looks for patterns of online student activity to determine the
engagement level of the student, including such events as the frequency of logins
and assignment submission. Other factors that may affect prediction include special
events or manual grading.
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Section 7: Reports
Additional detail can be found by clicking the help link at the top of the screen.
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Section 7: Reports
The Assignment Results report will display with a list of your students in the first column and a
subsequent column for each assignment with corresponding student scores.
Note: If you have a Blackboard integration and the option to export to Blackboard is not appearing,
you have not yet inserted your students' Blackboard IDs into the student roster. The total score will
be located in the last column in the report. You may need to use the scrollbar to reach it.
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Section 7: Reports
A. To view a report for a specific student, type the students name in the
search text box in the page.
B. Customize the list of assignments by choosing the assignment category
you want to view.
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Section 7: Reports
Select and deselect assignments by using the Ctrl key while clicking
assignment names in the list box. Use the select all and clear all buttons
available at the bottom of the list box.
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Section 7: Reports
User
Tip: Only
questions
from the question
bank can be used for
the Item Analysis
report.
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Section 7: Reports
A. Here you will see your selections from the previous screen and the
report below.
B. Click a question to preview it.
C. Click the plus sign to view individual student scores.
D. Next to each question/student name you will see the first, last, and
best or average assignment attempt score.
E. You can export
F. or print the report.
G. Edit your report options at any time by clicking Show options.
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Section 7: Reports
User Tip:
These
categories
vary based on
what section and
assignments you
choose. A category
or category group is
only available when a
selected assignment
contains a question
with content related
to this category or
group.
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Section 7: Reports
A. At the top you will see a summary of the settings you selected in the
last screen.
B. Click the blue arrow next to the title to see the assignment details.
C. Listed next to each category you can find the number of questions
assigned that relate to the topic, the number of students who have
submitted answers out of the total number of students, and the
average percent of how students are doing in that category.
D. You can also export
E. Or print the report.
F. Edit report options at any time by clicking Show options.
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Section 7: Reports
A. You will be able to see the online engagement indicator score that
shows which students are at risk and allows you to e-mail those
students directly.
B. You can see your entire class and how many students fall into each
category.
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Section 7: Reports
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Section 7: Reports
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Section 7: Reports
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Section 7: Reports
Within the Student Progress by Topic report, you will be able to select
a specific unit and topic to examine. Once the topic is selected, you
will be able to see every student enrolled in the course, their progress
on that particular topic, time spent on that particular topic, and the
students e-mail address.
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Section 7: Reports
Within the Section Averages by Topic report, you will be able to select
a specific unit and topic to examine. Once the topic is selected, you
will be able to see a learning objective breakdown by each topic that
includes the average student results across the section.
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Section 7: Reports
Metacognitive Skills
The Metacognitive Skills report allows you to view a detailed breakdown of each students
metacognitive skills and responses within LearnSmart Achieve. This report should not be used for
grading purposes, but may be helpful for instructors looking to identify at-risk students or students
who are struggling within their coursework in LearnSmart Achieve.
Within the Metacognitive Skills report, you will be able to see a list of
all the students enrolled in your section and a breakdown of their selfawareness and responses within LearnSmart Achieve. The categories are:
Correct & Aware: Students answered the question correctly and knew
they would.
Correct & Unaware: Students answered the question correctly but were
not sure they would.
Incorrect & Aware: Students answered the question incorrectly but knew
they did not know it.
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Section 7: Reports
Within the Student Progress by Unit report, you can see all the
available units in LearnSmart Achieve, the amount of time each
student has spent in LearnSmart Achieve, each students overall
progress for all assigned LearnSmart material, and a progress score
for each unit within LearnSmart Achieve.
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Section 8: Support
What If I Have Questions?
Sales
Representative
Class test
request
Purchasing
issue
Product
questions
Product demo
Digital Success
Academy
Easy access to
videos, tips/
tricks, how-tos
and frequently
asked questions
http://www.
connectsuccessacademy
.com/
Digital Success
Consultants
One-on-one
training via
WebEx
Product
walkthrough
How do I
contact
Customer Experience
Team (Tech Support)
Technical support
Student support
(access codes and
registration questions)
Password resetting
Learning Management
System (LMS) support
Blackboard pairing
issues
Direct phone:
800-331-5094
http://mpss.mhhe.com/
products.php
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