The New Experience enhanced instructor interface will automatically be toggled on. This new user experience allows instructors to access necessary information with fewer clicks, provides built-in accessibility (compatible with most screen readers and supports up to 400% magnification), improved design, and mobile optimization. Instructors who prefer the Classic interface of Connect are still able to toggle to that view.

Enhanced My Courses Page

An updated My Courses home page offers instructors a decluttered workspace, with sections displayed based on the current and most recent sections.

New and recently created sections are displayed in order of creation (as opposed to alphabetical order of discipline).
The 'Current' tab displays sections created within the past 20 months. Sections created more than 20 months in the past will be displayed in the 'Previous' tab.
Instructors can move sections they no longer teach to the Previous tab. Sections in the Previous tab can be re-enabled by moving to the Current tab.

Instructors can access and view:

Their eBook and launch from the My Courses page.
LMS pairing information.
Additional course-level features from the kebab elements: edit course details, add new section, and set registration date.
Section-level features from the kebab elements: edit section name and web address, delete section, see student registration sheet, manage sections & colleagues, duplicate section and send to colleague.
Sections that have been shared by another instructor and sections marked as a template.

Syllabus upload

Instructors can upload, download and delete syllabus files from the New Experience, eliminating the need to toggle back to Classic Connect to perform these actions. The syllabus file will be available for students registered to their sections. The logged in user will be permitted to complete the upload/delete action and the latest asset uploaded will show for the student.

Language Preference

Instructors can set their language preference to either English or Spanish.

Instructor Profile

Instructors can edit instructor information for their section including profile image, email, school and basic information from the New Experience. This information is displayed for students registered to their sections. The logged in user will be permitted to complete the action and the latest asset uploaded or metadata will show for the student.

If information is incomplete, instructors will be provided with a message informing them that their instructor information needs to be added.

Messages

For the ‘Ask Instructor' policy in Connect Question Bank assignments, a new ‘Messages’ page displays all assignments with student messages on a single page. Clicking on the message will take you to the Classic experience where instructors can reply to the messages.

This page can also be used to find in-progress Question Bank assignments where the instructor must end the attempts for students to receive a grade. This will always be pinned on the top and disappear once all assignment attempts have been ended.

Roles & Permissions

Instructors are now able to add a Teaching Assistant (TA) role to co-teach sections*. Course level and section level access to options will be available based on permissions for that role. Instructors and added instructors (referred to as “users”) will now launch into the user-friendly and accessible My Courses experience.

*Available only in standalone Connect and LTI Advantage LMS integrations for Blackboard and D2L.

Polling

A new polling feature is now available in all most recent edition Connect courses, allowing instructors to engage students in real time by creating and launching question polls. Features include the ability to create multiple questions in a poll, see student responses, preview poll as a student, and duplicate polls within a section. Students can access polls from a mobile device or computer.

SmartBook and Adaptive Learning Assignment update

Instructors are now able to allow students to continue work past the Due Date up until a Late Submission Date of their choosing, and students still receive full credit for their work. Students only see the Due Date in their view of the assignment but Connect will continue accepting scores up until the Late Submission Date.

Evergreen update

When ISBNs are marked as “Evergreen”, they will have release notes as the ISBN is updated. These release notes can be accessed via a secure link on the section home and section dashboard pages. The release note link will only appear for applicable Evergreen ISBNs.

Application-Based Activities update

Instructors can view details of each Application-Based Activity (ABA). This allows the instructor to quickly have a summary of the activity, learning objectives included, how it is scored, and all the questions included in the activity.

Proctorio update

Instructors can now share Proctorio-enabled assignments from the My Courses page or Section Dashboard. The secondary instructor (shared recipient) will have the following capabilities:

Section/assignment shared with All policies – Secondary instructor can view the proctoring policies and edit settings.
Section/assignment shared with No policies – Secondary instructor is not able to view proctoring policies or edit settings.
Section/assignment shared with Start and due date only – Secondary instructor is not able to view proctoring policies or edit settings.

A message indicates Proctorio-enabled sections and assignments cannot be copied.

March 2023 Connect Release

Test Builder Updates

The redesign of Test Builder provides a more user-friendly experience and higher visibility of preview, search, and collaborate.

The landing page has been updated to now include:

Product title, author, and edition.
A Format column (formerly titled Availabilities) allows users to see the status of the test being created (draft, pending, available for download, or regenerate after a test has expired).

Instructors now have the ability to Import/Export Test Builder files to allow for sharing and collaboration. Note: Test Builder will only import files from the same ISBN from which the test was originally created.

The ability to preview questions is now easier to view and navigate. A new design allows instructors to:

Perform a keyword search for a question.
Preview the questions and answers directly on the panel without the need to open a modal. Answer options and any reference data can be previewed by individual questions or expanding all.
See the number of questions available in the test bank.
View the question order display in order of the Connect content (versus alphabetical order).
Expand the panel into full view.

The Your Test panel allows instructors to perform a keyword search, expand into full view, and expand answer options. Additional enhancements include:

The ability to see how a test is distributed across chapters, question types, level of difficulty, and learning objectives (where applicable).
The option to bulk update point values.

The settings page has been updated to provide a clear distinction of the QTI file export.

The DOCX output now includes updated languages and the ability to scramble answers, questions, or both. The Show Question Info has been updated to Show Question Detail and will also include the question source.

February 2023

New Instructor Experience updates

Instructors are now able to search for students within the Section Dashboard widget titled "Student performance" and launch directly into that specific student’s reports.

Instructors can search by name or email via the search bar (must have three or more characters).

If there are no results, the instructor will be informed there are "0" results.

Instructors will now receive an alert when they copy/share a section with an associated title that is going out of print. More immediate, relevant alerts will be highlighted in yellow, above the going-out-of-print notification

SmartBook and Adaptive Learning Assignment updates

Within SmartBook, the content selector now supports up to 400% zoom. At a higher zoom level, the concept tree or slider will be displayed. 100%:

200%:

400%

Students and instructors can click on the “Assignment scope” button, which will open the slider in a modal.

User instructions have been updated to make the controls easier to find.
Button controls for the slider have been arranged horizontally to provide a more intuitive focus order.
The slider includes the minimum and maximum number of concepts that can be assigned.

Test Builder updates

The output of Test Builder documents has been streamlined.

Extraneous spacing in the content has been reduced.
List items have been reformatted for content alignment.
Question numbers have been formatted, so when a question is deleted, they are automatically renumbered.

Before:

After:

The chapter and question source have been added to the question details for content tracking.

JANUARY 2023

Students are now able to archive a class by clicking the ‘Archive Class’ link in the left menu. Archiving a class will remove that class from the Classes section and any assignments from the To Do and Calendar pages. Any messages or notifications associated with that class will also be removed.

Students will receive a warning message advising them which class they are about to archive and the associated instructor.

If a student needs to restore a class, they can do so by going to Archived Classes in the Classes section of the lefthand navigation. Once restored, that class will appear in the Classes section, its assignments will reappear on the To Do and Calendar pages, and any messages or notifications associated with that class will reappear.

December 2022

New Instructor Experience updates

Instructors are now able to print and download their student registration sheet from the New Experience via the section information menu:

Instructors may now view assignment submission statistics for assignments due in the next seven days, sorted first by date, then by assignment name, and then by assignment type (if two assignments have the exact same due date and name).

EHR Case release

EHR Case, a new assignment type released in a limited pilot Fall 2022, will be commercially available beginning February 2023. All remaining Connect workflows are now available, including:

The ability to use the copy function (assignment and section).
The ability to use all share workflows:

Share course, section, and assignment
Un-share EHR Case assignment
Share to colleague and self

Manage dates and extension workflows

Deep integration with Learning Management Systems (LMSs), including Blackboard, Canvas, BB Ultra, D2L, and Moodle.

Instructors have access to grade directly from the student activity page.

November 2022

Delete Section

• Instructors can now delete a section from the section information widget on the home/dashboard page in the updated interface.

Section Copy/Share

• In the updated instructor interface, instructors can now copy/share a section directly from the section information widget on the home/dashboard screen instead of having to go back to the My Courses page.

Student Registration Sheet

• Instructors can now view the Student Registration Sheet and edit the section name and URL directly from the section information widget on the home/dashboard screen instead of having to go back to the My Courses page.

September 2022

New Instructor Experience updates

Instructors are now able to do the following in the New Experience in Connect without toggling back to the Classic Connect experience:

• Edit Connect section name and web address

• See the student roster

• Manage sections and colleagues

• Duplicate a section

The menu option “send to colleague” will initiate the copying or sharing of an assignment.

LTI Advantage updates

In the New Experience, instructors are now able to pair and deploy assignments, and set the master section for Auto Copy/Pair.

Section Pairing

Deploy Assignments

Deploy Status

Set LMS Master Section / Auto Copy/Pair

Additional instructors can now be added to non-shared sections. Additional instructors are automatically added to the Connect section through the LTI Advantage launch.

Assignment name, dates, and points will automatically update in the LMS without having to redeploy assignments in the following flows:

Edit assignment from the Connect section home page for all assignments
Manage dates from the Connect section home page for all assignments
Edit assignment from the assignment launch in the LMS for Question Bank and SmartBook 2.0 assignments only

LTI Advantage will be clearly designated in the Connect widget to better identify which integration instructors are using.

SmartBook 2.0 and Adaptive Learning Assignment upgrades

A new read-aloud feature is available for probes in SmartBook 2.0 and Adaptive Learning Assignments. This is not enabled in courses where the product’s primary language is not English or is using the special character palette (i.e. some World Language products).

Instructor reports for SmartBook 2.0 and Adaptive Learning Assignment have been updated to include further details.

The Time Spent report includes a new Accuracy column, so instructors may view individual student accuracy percentage. Accuracy includes data from both the assignment and Recharge.

The Time Spent report widget provides a data summary, including minimum outliers, so instructors can easily identify students who completed the assignment in a much shorter or longer time than their peers.

The assignment creation flows for SmartBook 2.0 and Adaptive Learning Assignment have been improved for accessibility. This includes the Chapter/Modules selection checkboxes in the Select Content page.

ReadAnywhere App improvements

The ReadAnywhere App will now automatically remove the beginning and trailing spaces within Fill-in-the-Blank questions. This was causing students to be marked as incorrect since the authored answer did not contain spaces.

August 2022

Question Bank Accessibility

The ‘Check my Work’ flow with a screen reader has been improved. Students are now aware they have changed modes, may go back, and are able to click the return to question button to exit the Check my Work mode in a Question Bank assignment.

New Instructor Experience updates

Instructors can now access the following features in the New Experience in Connect without toggling back to the Classic Connect experience:

The new instructor reports still provide the same four tiles as the current reports:

Ability to manage account profile settings from the My Account menu
Ability to quickly copy the section web address that students will use to register for an instructor's course section

July 2022

SmartBook® 2.0 Instructor Assignment Report

The SmartBook 2.0 Instructor Assignment Report has been updated to improve the user experience and accessibility. The new report layout has a landing page with class-level details. The instructor can then navigate to pages with specific student-level details.

The new instructor reports still provide the same four tiles as the current reports:

Assignment Progress
Completion Time
Learner’s Metacognition
Challenging Concepts

Instructors can view a class summary report immediately and drill down to a page for each individual learner.

Mheducation.com Cart and Checkout

A new cart and checkout user experience are now live on mheducation.com for increased accessibility. Students are now able to access a more modern, streamlined user experience with fewer pages. Payment information can be saved and has been updated to include PayPal, with more payment options added later this year.

This new user interface has been updated for accessibility with improved mobile and tablet responsiveness.

June 2022

Question Bank Updates

Instructors are now able to add up to 2,000 points for an individual question or assignment in the Question Bank. Previously, an assignment point-maximum was 1,000 points, while individual questions were a maximum of 100 points.

The source location of each Question Bank assignment question is now presented at the bottom of the “organize assignment” page. This will assist with new course setup and the transition from edition to edition.

Writing Assignment enhancement: Peer Review

Instructors now have the option to assign a peer review milestone in manually scored assignments with a draft. Functionality includes the ability to set the number of peer reviews completed, automatic assigning after the draft due date, and anonymous peer commenting.

Progress can be easily viewed using the “Peer Review Summary” option. If instructors want to review peer comments in detail, they expand the inline comment menu for responses to guiding questions. For a more cursory review, instructors have the option to see an individual student’s activity at a glance before giving a score and providing feedback.

LearnSmart Technology sunset

With the sunset of original LearnSmart assignments being complete in May 2022, any remaining assignments will generate an error message: “Alert! This assignment type is no longer supported. Please contact your instructor.” Instructors can assign SmartBook 2.0 or Adaptive Learning Assignments to replace LearnSmart. Please contact a McGraw Hill representative for assistance.

Anatomy & Physiology Revealed ®(APR) enhanced reporting

Updated APR Assignment reporting now includes detailed data on score, time spent, clicks, student engagement, quiz results, and item analysis for quiz questions.

Proctorio Gradebook access for co-instructor(s)

Co-instructor(s) are now able to access the Proctorio Gradebook for proctored assignments to view students’ recordings and report details.

Instructor and Student My Account pages

My Account pages for both students and instructors have been updated to a new streamlined design in both Connect standalone and Learning Management Systems for consistency.

Student Renewal link

After a student’s Connect license expires, when logging directly into Connect, they will be directed to renew the license in a more user-friendly experience with clear next steps for renewal.

LTI Advantage

Instructors now have the ability to relink assignments in a Connect shared section without having to redeploy to the LMS.

LMS users that have a master/child Connect course model can now enable a one-click seamless connection to Connect via our Auto Copy/Pair (ACP) process. ACP automatically creates the user account, shares and pairs the Connect master section, and relinks the assignments with the LMS.

LTI Advantage will now support Connect without an eBook for McGraw Hill International accounts and provide those students with the option to purchase an eBook.

May 2022

McGraw Hill continuously strives to provide the best user experience. Here is a summary of improvements made in the May 2022 Connect Release.

New! Connect Instructor Experience

Beginning May 6, 2022, McGraw Hill Connect will have a new instructor experience available for select pages. This opt-in update will feature a streamlined interface, better organization, time-saving enhancements, and improved accessibility. Within a section, instructors will have the option to turn on the new experience with the toggle at the top of the page. Once the toggle is turned on, all sections will have the new experience. Users have the freedom to toggle back and forth between the classic and new experience as needed. (Note: the My Courses page will remain in classic view for now.)

Below is a summary of improvements to the instructor experience:

At-a-glance insight into section performance—putting course analytics at the forefront. Information is displayed with accessibility features.
Section Performance showcases assignment averages and other analytics.
Assignment tiles surface information with fewer clicks to allow instructors to see student progress and important information quickly.
Assignment tab maximizes screen space by having a separate Assignments page. Instructors can quickly and easily:
- • See student progress and LMS assignment deployment status (for all major LMSs that leverage deep integration). Additional information will display if you hover over the student progress numbers to see student insights.
- • See points and due dates.
- • See important information about each assignment without clicking in.
The ability to toggle to Spanish is now added.

Manage Users: Ability to add instructors

Additional functionality to add multiple instructors to sections.* Within the new instructor experience, instructors will click on “Manage Users” from the section dashboard. (Note: if your Connect section is paired with an LMS, other instructors launching over from the LMS section will automatically be added to the Connect section as co-instructors.)

*Some specific situations are not currently supported.

December 2021

Connect Login page redesign

To further promote consistency across McGraw Hill pages, the User Login page has been redesigned. Note: if there is anything that is missing in the user's profile, the user will be prompted to complete the profile.

Writing Assignment enhancements

Instructors now have the option of allowing and accepting late submissions in Writing Assignment. While you will still select a due date, you can then also select if you would like to accept late submissions and the date to which the assignment will be kept open (the “Late Submission Date”). Submissions will be marked as late to both you and the student.

Updated Policy Setting for Assignment Results Report

The Assignment Results Report has a setting called “exclude attempts submitted after the due date,” which hides any scores from attempts submitted late. This policy was enabled by default, so when instructors ran their reports without noticing this setting, they received a limited view of student submissions. The default for this setting has been changed to disabled.

Virtual Lab enhancements

New! Instructors can add a custom note for Virtual Lab assignments that displays in the lab for students.

Fall 2021

Application-Based Activities (ABA) enhancements

Instructors can access a new link to all ABA-Level reports within the Connect reports. These provide more in-depth data on class and individual student performance in the assignments.

Adaptive Learning Assignment (ALA) updates

ALAs were released in World Language courses where LearnSmart was replaced with our next-generation adaptive technology.
Instructors can now preview a sample ALA probe before they select content to assign.
A new ALA Reports link has been added to the assignment activity page so instructors can easily access ALA-specific reports for more in-depth data on class and individual student performance in the assignments.

eBook updates

The navigation bar in the eBook will now stay at the top of the page as students and instructors are scrolling through the text. Previously, the user had to scroll up to make the navigation options appear again, now it will remain visible.

SmartBook ® 2.0 enhancements

Read Speaker functionality is now available for instructors and students, so the pages can be read aloud to the user. We’ve also enabled a full screen viewing button for videos that are included as a resource.
Instructors can now preview sample probes in the SmartBook 2.0 Concepts Performance report. It will only show one of the available questions per concept.
The adaptive functionality was improved, allowing learning objectives to be assigned across multiple chapters in a title.

Question Bank updates

For content that contains foreign languages, the special character palette has been repositioned so it’s fully visible to users while they’re working in Connect.

Virtual Labs enhancements

New class-level assignment reporting is now available for Virtual Labs.

Writing Assignment updates

Manage dates and extensions is now available for instructors to use in Writing Assignments.
2022 Connect courses include manually-scored prompts and rubrics instructors can easily assign and the program will also provide basic automated writing feedback on things like focus, organization, and style/mechanics to students under the Tools section.
Share functionality is now fully enabled in Writing Assignment for instructors to use. This includes being able to share writing assignments in a course, section, or individual assignments, as well as being able to share to a colleague or to self for another Connect course.
Manually-scored prompts and rubrics will be available in all C2022 Connect courses and some C2021 Connect courses with Writing Assignment. Ask your McGraw Hill Learning Technology Representative for more details.

Connect Sunset notice

McGraw Hill is sunsetting some older titles in Connect this year. You may see a notice in Connect if your title has been designated as Going Out of Print or Out of Print. If you do, please contact your McGraw Hill Learning Technology Representative immediately for more information.