We are thrilled that over 150 colleges – and over 5,000 students – are using our MyOMLab homework and assessment software this semester. It certainly changed our lives as teachers for the better – and the students seem to thrive using it. If you aren’t familiar with the system, just go to www.myomlab.com to take a tour.
With four years of experience under our belts (first in its predecessor PHGA), Jay and I can share some of our MyOMLab
experience with you, and hopefully, make a few useful suggestions.
Just up front, though, I want to promise that we have created a system that you can count on. I would say that we invested 1,000s of hours to create the algorithmic and book match versions of the more than 700 problems in MyOMLab. The coding and testing were tough jobs, but we think the final product makes teaching and learning OM easier on everyone.
So what is my tip of the week? I have used MyOMLab successfully for weekly homework assignments and for tests/quizzes. I have also assigned weekly “pre-quizzes”, selecting 10 or so multiple choice questions from the 2,000 question Text Bank (also part of MyOMLab). These pre class assignments forced the students to read each chapter before I covered it in class. Since the assignment is open-book, it’s hard to miss an answer. I weigh the pre-quizzes at 10% of the course grade and the students are thrilled to wrack-up A’s every week.
What a pleasure this has been! For the first time, students are ready for the lecture. They have read the chapter in advance! Jay has implemented the same system with his students and couldn’t believe the difference in how much more engaged the students were. Let us know what you think.