Choosing the Best Number of Connect Assignments
One of the questions I get often from instructors using our book is how many Connect assignments should be used during a semester. I wrote (5) Connect exercises for each of the 14 chapters to give instructors maximum flexibility to choose from the (70) total Connect exercises built into the book, including one video case and one social media assignment in each chapter. The decision on how many of those (70) Connect exercises to assign can be based on a number of factors including teaching format (face-to-face, online, etc.), and time frame of the course (15 week semester, 5 week summer term, etc.). While there is no answer that is best for everyone, I wanted to share why I assign 19 Connect exercises each semester and then some things I have seen other instructors using our book have success with.
My Principles of Marketing course is a Tuesday-Thursday class that meets twice a week over a 15 week semester. With those 30 class meetings, I subtracted 4 classes where we have exams, 4 where I have quizzes, 2 classes the first week when people are still adding and dropping, and 1 class when their projects are due. When I took those 11 out, I had 19 classes that I assign a Connect exercise at the end of each of those classes. These are usually split between assignments that reinforce what I covered in class that day, and assignments that “flip the classroom” to prepare students before the next class. I picked the Connect assignments that I thought had the biggest impact for students and/or the topics they most struggle with. I picked at least one in each of the 14 chapters with a few chapters having a second assignment. With 5 different Connect Assignments in each chapter to choose from, you can pick what you are most passionate about or what you think the students need the most practice on. Depending on student feedback and assessment metrics, I typically change some the assignments I select each semester once I see where my students are having the greatest challenges.
I know instructors who adopted our book to teach in an online marketing class. These instructors are typically more concerned with keeping their online students engaged on a day to day basis. Some online instructors assign all (70) Connect exercises requiring students to average about one assignment per day during each week of the semester. The feedback I have received is it keeps the student’s more engaged in the course content on a day to day basis (something often missing in online courses) and has improved overall exam scores. Plus the autograding feature provides maximum flexibility for instructors who are balancing their online class with their other responsibilities on campus.
Please feel free to contact me at shunt@astate.edu if you ever want to discuss different strategies for using Connect with our book. Whether you choose 10 assignments per semester or 70, I have seen first-hand the positive impact it has had on my teaching, my students and their class performance.
