University of Birmingham Business School — Finance ..., Lecture notes of Finance

Download University of Birmingham Business School — Finance ... and more Lecture notes Finance in PDF only on Docsity! University of Birmingham Business School — Finance Department McGraw-Hill 2 McGraw-Hill University of Birmingham Business School Case Study Adaptive learning solution from McGraw-Hill engages students and improves grades Birmingham Business School creates business degree courses which, academically and personally, prepare students for the working world. It offers a number of exciting and forward-thinking undergraduate degree programmes across its departments. The Challenge The challenges for Oksana have been twofold. The first challenge she has faced are large class numbers. Her cohort for this course is just under 270 students. The second challenge is the heterogeneity of the students beginning their courses with her. Some are already acquainted with the basics of Finance, whereas others will be coming to the subject completely new and will naturally need more guidance and more of an introduction to the subject. Oksana estimates that half of her yearly group will be familiar with the topics covered but the other half will be completely new, so ensuring everyone is engaged can be a challenge. The Solution Oksana was already using McGraw-Hill textbooks, and in partnership with one of MHE’s Learning Consultants moved to Connect. Connect is a digital learning environment that saved students and instructors time whilst improving performance through adapting learning pathways for each student based on their interactions with it. Connect supports students by helping them to test their understanding as they go, building confidence and knowledge every step of the way. Sitting within Connect is LearnSmart – an interactive study tool that adaptively assesses students’ skill and knowledge levels to track which topics students have mastered and which require further instruction and practice. Based upon student progress, it then adjusts the learning content based on their knowledge strengths and weaknesses, as well as their confidence level around that knowledge. Oksana was excited about using Connect because she felt it would enable the students with their differing understanding of Finance to find their own pace. “In addition to that I felt it would make my teaching more efficient and effective.”“For each chapter I created additional assignments and mid- term tests which has had several benefits: it increases my students’ knowledge and has made my teaching more effective because if students have made a mistake using Connect, these mistakes are picked up straight away with a really thorough explanation so they understand where they went wrong.” Case Study Facts Course: Module leader for Corporate Financial Management on MSc in Financial ManagementClass teacher for Introduction to Finance on BSc in Accounting and Finance # of students: 267 Instructors: Dr Oksana Pryshchepa Digital Product in Use: Connect® and LearnSmart® Credit Hours: 20 Case Study Terms: 2015/2016 (without Connect) and Autumn 2016/Spring 2017 Digital resources quality Cost and time avoidance/ efficiency “Connect proved to be exceptionally useful when dealing with large student groups by making teaching more personalised and learning more individual.”