PsycLearn was designed to be a personalized digital learning experience for students in face-to-face, hybrid, and online courses.
By building PsycLearn into your LMS course, students can easily access the course content, but unlike traditional textbooks, you also have better visibility into their completion and comprehension of the content, as well as their learning path. Using these, and other PsycLearn features, you can engage in more immersive teaching because you have a deeper understanding of your students' familiarity with the material outside of the classroom. We've compiled some tips and best practices for incorporating PsycLearn content and features into your syllabus and existing assignments.
We also recommend linking to the PsycLearn Learning Commons in your course so that students can easily access self-service help and technical support.
If you're using PsycLearn: Research Methods with Academic Writer, you may also want to check out our documentation that aligns modules with Academic Writer activities.
The Orientation module is an overview of how to navigate and study within the PsycLearn platform. You can find the link to your PsycLearn course's orientation module in the LTI spreadsheet from your Customer Success Specialist.
The Student Resources module contains a wealth of information and tools from APA to help your students get inspired about topics in psychology; prepare for success in their studies and careers; and secure scholarships, internships, and more. This module is great for students pursuing a degree in psychology, but also offers valuable information for students in any discipline. To make this module available to students, you'll need to add it to your course in the same way you add other content modules.
We recommend assigning each PsycLearn module as a graded assignment. Modules can be reordered and suppressed through the PsycLearn Instructor Dashboard so that you can align content with your course syllabus. This ensures that students navigate modules in the desired order.
To reorder or suppress modules from the Instructor Dashboard, select
Course Material Customization, drag and drop modules in the desired order, and uncheck any modules that will not be covered in class.
PsycLearn was designed to be a personalized digital learning experience for students. To promote better engagement with the content, we recommend that you make modules required with due dates and grading standards. This has been shown to foster student accountability and motivation.
PsycLearn modules are graded for completion based on:
The completion score is passed back to your course gradebook automatically and in real-time. If you have set a due date, students can access and work in the module until the due date. Modules do not need to be completed in one session and all student progress is saved throughout. After the due date, the module is locked down and the completion score cannot be updated.
By building content into your course, you not only enable your students to easily access PsycLearn course content, you now have visibility into student progress and completion. This allows you to focus on more immersive teaching during class time because you know your students have already engaged with the material outside of your class meeting time. You can analyze student learning paths and customize your in-class instruction, whether it's face-to-face, hybrid, or online, based on activity you see in your PsycLearn Instructor Dashboard. For more information on using the dashboard, view our Instructor Dashboard Quick Guide.
At least two supplemental activities are provided for each module. Activities may help you flip your classroom and strengthen student understanding of psychological concepts presented in PsycLearn courses. These files are available in the Supplemental Resources section of the instructor dashboard and are downloadable as a .docx file allowing you to customize the activities for your class use. You can also find an activity guide that provides an overview of all the activities and ideas for how they may be used.
Each PsycLearn course has its own test bank available. Test bank questions are in a QTI file, which can be easily imported to your LMS. There are two available files that can be imported to your classroom. One file has only true/false and multiple-choice questions, while the other file also includes short answer questions.
Test bank questions are organized by module and categorized by learning objective. Questions are written by subject matter experts and reference material found in the primary learning path of PsycLearn. Some questions are pulled from within PsycLearn and some are presented for the first time in the test bank.
PsycLearn features a messaging tool that allows students to communicate directly with you from within PsycLearn. Students can use the tool to send a message or question about content from their location within the platform. You should encourage them to include any additional details about the content that they do not understand. Notifications of student messages are sent directly to your email with a link to the section from where they sent the message. This feature can also be disabled from the Instructor Dashboard.
Still have questions about Academic Writer or PsycLearn?
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