Igor Dolgov, psychology professor at New Mexico State University, shares best practices for using the reports within McGraw-Hill Connect and LearnSmart.

1. Igor Dolgov, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
New Mexico State University

2. Presenter: Dr. Igor Dolgov
Dr. Igor Dolgov attained a Bachelor of Science and
Engineering in Computer Science from Princeton
University, with a certificate in Intelligent Systems
and Robotics. He continued his education at Arizona
State University where he earned a Ph.D. in
Psychology-Arts, Media, & Engineering in his tenure
as a National Science Foundation Integrated Graduate
Education and Research Traineeship fellow. Dr.
Dolgov currently holds a tenure-track position in
Engineering Psychology at New Mexico State
University where he has established the “Pacman”
laboratory that investigates Perception, Action, and
Cognition in Mediated, Artificial, and Naturalistic
Environments (PACMANe). Along with Dr. Dolgov’s
applied Unmanned Aircraft Systems
research, theoretical studies at the lab span across
visual and embodied cognition paradigms, as well as
all aspects of human-computer
interaction, particularly gaming. He teaches classes in
Human-Compute Interaction, Sensation &
Perception, and Introduction to Psychology which
range from 20 to 140 students. Since 2010, Dr. Dolgov
has also served as a national Digital Faculty
Consultant for McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

3. 
Allow instructors to view data at various levels of granularity
 Evaluate entire class performance
 Evaluate individual students’ performance.

4.  Many reports available - find what works for
you!
 Use to inform and save time (Igor-perhaps
address how much time you spend a day/week
looking at reports?
 Results include ???? What top 3 things? Fill
in, examples below…
 Improved student performance
 Higher instructor satisfaction
 Etc ect

5. Useful by:
 Outcome/purpose
 Time during
semester
 Audience
 Class
 Student

6. At-Risk Student Report:
 Helps identify student engagement…even without any assignments
having been turned in
 Allows for early intervention by contacting (groups of) students inside
Connect.
 I use it frequently at the beginning and less often as the
semester wears on.

7. Assignment Results:
 Functions like an enhanced gradebook:
 Customizable to limit number of assignments on screen
 Uses color to help instructors better identify performance trends.
 Syncs with gradebook in LMS (Blackboard, Canvas, etc.)
 I use this report throughout the semester to spot trends, as
well as to compute midterm and final grades.

8. Student Performance:

Complete record of a student’s assignments on a single screen.

Easily identify trends like lateness.

View a student’s answers in specific assignments

Adjust credit for an entire class.

I use this report throughout the semester when a student contacts
me to discuss their progress or is concerned about their
performance.

It lets me cut to the chase and have a more informed conversation
with them about why they are struggling and what can be done to
remediate their course standing.

9. Section Performance and Assignment Statistics Reports:
Allow instructors to identify assignments with which students are struggling.
 Both reports present the same data; one is interactive whereas the other is a
data table.

 I use these after assignments
are due in conjunction with
Item Analysis reports.

10. Item Analysis:

During the semester, this report allows instructors to spot specific
questions that are either challenging for the class and address those
topics at a later time.

I use this report in conjunction with the Assignment Statistics and
Section Overview reports throughout and between semesters.
 Between semesters this report allows me to weed out poor or outdated
questions.

11. Category Analysis:

This report allows instructors to see how their students are performing
along specific metrics, like levels of Blooms, or discipline-specific
national standards (e.g., APA or SACS).

I use this report between semesters to ensure all of my
assessments are fulfilling a measurable outcome.

I also use category analyses(discipline specific and Bloom’s
taxonomy) as evidence of my teaching efficacy for my annual
performance review.

12. Assessment
(AX)
AX of
Learning
Objectives
Class
Snapshot
AX of
Specifi
c
Topics
ID of
Strugglin
g
Students
At-Risk
Student
Report
AX of
Students’
Performan
ce
X
X
AX
Instructio
n
Efficacy
X
X
Assignment
Results
X
Assignment
Statistics
X
X
X
X
Category
Analysis
X
Item
Analysis
X
X
X
X
X
X
AX of
Students’
Engageme
nt
X

13.  Instructor - all reports
useful throughout the
semester to:
 monitor progress
 improve teaching
 communicate with
students
 Student - personalized
reports available to:
 help identify holes in
their knowledge
 provide remediation and
add’l practice

14. Progress Overview:

This report allows instructors to see students’ Learn Smart progress and
time-on-task.

Allows instructors to easily identify progress trends with the use of
representative dot color and size.

15. Module Details
Most Challenging Learning Objectives
Missed Questions Reports

Identify topics and questions students are struggling with

I use to address these topics in a future class or communication to
the students

16. 
This report looks at LearnSmart data from the perspective of main learning
objectives for the chapter.

Average performance will vary from topic to topic, with more challenging
chapters resulting in lower average correctness across topics.

I use to identify topics that challenge students more than others.

17. 
This report looks at LearnSmart data from the perspective of sub-objectives for
the chapter.

The list of the top 5 most challenging topics also points the students to the page
in the book where their knowledge can be remediated.

I use to better understand the results of the module details report
and to refine the material that will be presented to the class.

18. 
This report looks at LearnSmart data at the level of individual questions for
the chapter.

The list of the top 10 most challenging questions and also provides a
frequency count of the number of students who got those questions wrong.

I use to better understand the results of the other two reports
and to refine the material that will be presented to the class in
the future.

19. Student Details
Metacognitive Skills
Practice Quiz

These reports let me have an honest conversation with students about
how they have been approaching preparing for exams and, in
consequence, suggest more targeted remediation strategies.

I use these reports throughout the semester in conjunction
with the Connect Student details report when a student
contacts me to discuss their progress.

20. 
Shows time spent and progress in LearnSmart for each chapter and student.

Functions as a measure of engagement with the course content and shows how much
additional practice students undertook after the assignment due date.

If students are spending twice as much or more time on the assignment than the
estimate on the content you’ve assigned, then they are likely not reading the book.

21. 
Shows LearnSmart performance broken down by student’s awareness of their
knowledge (as measured by the confidence prompt after every LearnSmart item)

Ideally, students will have high %s in the Correct & aware column; their %s in other
categories can help diagnose faults with their approach.

Moderate %s in the Incorrect & aware column paired with low %s in the unaware
columns means students are at least aware of the holes in their knowledge and can
study selectively to remediate.

Moderate and high %s in either or both of the unaware columns means students are
guessing a lot, and are likely not reading the book before doing LearnSmarts and
need to change their study habits significantly.
IGOR: can you grab a screen shot here to show stats that
demonstrate the last bullet point?

22. Assessment
(AX)
AX of
AX of
Learning
Specifi
Objectives c
Topics
Module Details
& Most
Challenging
Learning
Objectives
Missed
Questions
X
AX of
Students’
Performanc
e
AX of
Students’
Engagement
X
Progress
Overview
ID of
Struggli
ng
Students
X
X
X
X
X
Student
Details
X
X
X
Meta-cognitive
Skills
X
X
X
Practice Quiz
X
X

23.  For more best practices and usage tips search YouTube
for the following terms.
“Connect reports with Igor playlist”
“LearnSmart reports with Igor playlist”
 Questions?

24. Click here to watch this
recorded presentation.