Teaching and Learning blog

The challenge

At the University of Tampa, math students must master challenging concepts to succeed in their coursework; however, this is most often easier said than done. Students must first grasp key math fundamentals before advancing to more demanding concepts. What’s more, instructors must have the tools to identify whether students understand prerequisite content and whether they’re absorbing new material as it’s presented.

The solution

MyLab^® Math from Pearson, which combines respected content with personalized engagement to help students and faculty see real results, is empowering a University of Tampa math instructor to keep his finger firmly on the pulse of his students’ mastery. The learning platform helps him make real-time adjustments to his instruction and avoid teeing up more complex concepts before his students are proficient in material he’s already delivered.

The story

Prof. Sasko Ivanov, a lecturer in mathematics at the 11,000-student private institution located in downtown Tampa, Florida, has been a loyal Pearson user since before joining the school in 2010. He’s made MyLab Math a staple in the main three courses he currently teaches: College Algebra, Precalculus, and Calculus for Business.

“I'm really grateful and thankful to Pearson for creating MyLab,” he says. “I find it really helpful, and I get very positive feedback from my students about how helpful it is.”

Many University of Tampa students must complete College Algebra as part of their general graduation requirements. Some students, such as nursing and pre-med majors, must take Precalculus before moving on to Calculus. Business students must take Calculus for Business.

“As part of my strategy at the beginning of each semester, I don’t assume that everyone is coming from the same knowledge background,” says Ivanov. “I review a lot of topics from College Algebra. In Calculus for Business, you’re expected to know everything about adding and subtracting fractions. In my experience, I find that’s not the case. Most students struggle with basic concepts.”

For example, Ivanov reports that more than two-thirds of students struggle with factoring — the process of finding what to multiply together to get an expression. Proficiency in the skill is essential in Calculus for Business. So Sasko takes a step back to assess where the learning gaps are and how he will try to fill them.

Learning Catalytics

Learning Catalytics, a standout feature within the MyLab Math suite, helps Ivanov identify and target key gaps. In fact, he’s integrated it into his daily class cadence.

“I love Learning Catalytics; I was so happy when I discovered it,” says Ivanov. “I get real-time feedback about what students have learned in the previous class and whether they’re prepared for the section we’re about to cover.”

The interactive student response tool allows him to rapidly deploy questions and surveys while assessing student comprehension. He uses the real-time data to fine-tune his instructional strategy for the lecture.

Ivanov typically begins each class by pushing out five questions to students via Learning Catalytics. How well the students answer the questions sets the tone for how he’ll approach the lecture.

“If I notice there’s a question that’s necessary for them to know for the next section and 80 percent of them didn’t get it right, it tells me that maybe I didn’t explain the concept the right way. So I’ll look at an alternative way to explain that concept and hopefully that will be helpful for them to grasp it so they’re ready to learn the new topic.”

The Learning Catalytics exercise normally fills the first 10 minutes of class. Ivanov may also deploy the tool at the end of a class to gauge how well students absorbed the day’s lecture material.

“It doesn’t make sense to move to the next topic if they haven’t completely understood what was covered last class,” says Sasko. “I’ll take my time to go over that concept one more time and maybe use some alternative way. Hopefully that will be more helpful for them.”

Students who miss a class appreciate the Learning Catalytics-powered quizzes because they provide an opportunity to see what they missed and get up to speed.

Taking notes

Guided Lecture Notes from Pearson offer students another valuable tool for organizing and comprehending course content, says Ivanov. He encourages students to use the Notes, along with additional important material from the text, and distill them into one page for use on the final exam.

“I started experimenting with that last year, and the students really liked it,” says Sasko. “I got positive feedback that they were allowed to use those summary notes. Some of them create nice notes.”

Students must upload the notes to their learning management system (LMS), Canvas, providing Ivanov with an opportunity to review and gauge whether they’ll be helpful to the student. He’ll inform students if he doesn’t feel the notes will be helpful, providing them with an opportunity to redo them.

As an added measure, Ivanov creates an extra credit review exam with 40-50 questions to support the Guided Lecture Notes. Students can gauge their performance on the extra credit assignment to help them determine which information to include on the one-page summary they bring to the final exam.

“I hope they go over the notes and extract the most important facts from the section(s) they must remember, or maybe they have a hard time remembering, so they will find it useful on the final exam. If they can’t remember it now, how are they going to remember it on the final exam?”

A purpose-built solution for success

With the suite of features MyLab Math delivers, Ivanov and his students have a dynamic resource to guide them through challenging curricula with confidence.

Ivanov encourages his peers to adopt MyLab, creating instructional videos to help them navigate and integrate key features.

“I’m really thankful to Pearson,” says Ivanov. “I think it’s a great tool. I see Pearson is constantly updating their platform. They’re doing great things.”

Patrick Golden is a writer, marketing and communications specialist, and former journalist based in Massachusetts.

Like many instructors, I spent years using and teaching with the TI-83 and TI-84 Plus calculators. These devices were considered the standard in classrooms across the country. They were reliable, widely available, and supported by nearly every textbook publisher. For a long time, I had no reason to question whether they were still the best tools for the job.

That changed when my courses transitioned to fully online instruction, and I began using Honorlock to proctor my exams. The issue was not the calculator itself. The real issue was what was hidden from my view when students were using the calculator. During testing, students were often looking down, out of sight of the webcam for long periods of time. I could see their faces but not their hands or their work. From an academic integrity standpoint, this was a major problem. I had no clear way to verify what was happening just below the webcam frame.

As someone who takes academic honesty seriously, I knew I had to make a change. That change came in the form of StatCrunch.

At first, the move to StatCrunch was driven entirely by concerns about exam integrity. Because StatCrunch is accessed directly through the testing screen, students no longer had to look down or shift their focus off screen. It kept their attention on the test and within view of the webcam. This single adjustment immediately improved my ability to monitor exams and reduced the risk of students accessing unauthorized tools or materials.

An improved student experience

Exam security was a primary need. To my surprise, I found that students reported higher satisfaction with the platform. They liked that they did not have to memorize sequences of calculator key presses to run a basic statistical test. They appreciated the cleaner interface and the ability to work directly with real data sets. Many students, even those with prior experience using graphing calculators, found StatCrunch to be more intuitive and less intimidating.

Another unexpected benefit was that test completion times dropped significantly. Students were no longer slowed down by the mechanics of navigating multi-step commands on the calculator. They could get results quickly and focus more energy on interpreting those results correctly. That, in turn, allowed me to shift more of my instruction toward critical thinking. Instead of spending large portions of class time explaining how to find a confidence interval using a series of keystrokes, I could focus on what a confidence interval means, how to explain it in plain language, and how to make decisions based on the output.

It also allowed me to stop teaching students how to use a calculator that was never really designed for statistics in the first place. The TI-83 and TI-84 are graphing calculators with a few statistical functions layered on top. Some of the features I needed had to come in the form of downloaded programs, which was a logistical challenge in any classroom medium. StatCrunch, by contrast, was built from the ground up for data analysis.

This experience even prompted me to rethink my approach in other courses, such as College Algebra. Once I saw how much more efficient and transparent things became using modern tools like StatCrunch, I started reevaluating my use of the TI calculators more broadly. That led me to explore Desmos and other platforms that provide powerful visualizations and eliminate the need to teach around the limitations of outdated hardware. What began as a change for one course evolved into a shift in my overall philosophy of technology in math instruction.

Far-reaching benefits

In hindsight, I regret not making this switch sooner. What started as a fix for one problem ended up solving many others. It improved the integrity of my exams, boosted student engagement, reduced confusion, and created more space in my course for meaningful learning.

There will always be a place for the TI calculator in some classrooms, especially where testing environments and course goals are different. But for online instruction, especially when paired with remote proctoring, I have no hesitation in saying that StatCrunch has become the right tool for the job.

And I am not going back.

The challenge

Like his peers at Florida Southern College (FSC) and broadly across higher education, Professor Larry Young is navigating the choppy waters of generative AI in the classroom. Students increasingly turn to tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini to retrieve ready-made answers to difficult questions and concepts in their coursework. But quick wins can shortchange the deeper understanding and critical thinking they need to succeed — now and in the future.

The solution

Pearson’s AI-Powered Study Tool, available in select Pearson eTextbooks and MyLab^® and Mastering^® courses, is an ideal solution for Young. It provides individualized support, practice, and feedback to learners directly within their assigned materials.

With Pearson’s AI tools, Young — who teaches biology and A&P — can confidently bring AI into his classroom, using clear guardrails to support real learning and critical thinking, while giving students a strong starting point for success.

The story

A native of southern New Jersey, Young developed an early fascination with the natural world, including a passion for saltwater marshes. The diamondback terrapin was especially fascinating to him because its unique physiology allows it to thrive in an environment that fluctuates multiple times daily due to changing tides. The terrapin found its sweet spot in the brackish marsh, much like the one Young is finding with generative AI in the classroom.

To Young, the challenge of AI in the classroom aligns with a familiar trend.

“Higher education is slow to respond to social changes,” he says. “There’s a new application out there, such as ChatGPT, and students are fast on it. They’re looking to see how they can get through content more easily. They start using it before we know it’s out there. That puts us in higher ed behind the eight-ball because we don’t have the opportunity to get out ahead of that and say, ‘No, this is how it can be used beneficially.’”

Many of Young’s students are heading into careers in healthcare delivery, such as nursing and exercise science. He sees the danger of AI providing students with shortcuts to finishing their work.

“They’ve never thought about the question, they’ve never reviewed their notes, they never went back into their textbook or attempted to critically think about what the question is asking,” he says.

However, AI’s potential for overreach hasn’t prompted Young to banish it. Quite the opposite.

“We’re embracing it by putting up guardrails around what we want students to use it for,” says Young.

The approach resonates with students.

“They’re starting to see a more positive, healthy relationship with AI,” he says. “Because they’re seeing their instructor embracing it, they’re seeing how it can be beneficial, and they’re seeing how it can make them understand the concepts better. They’re starting to realize we can use this as a foundational tool that’s going to allow for more conversations, more engagement, more review, more self-reflection.”

Pearson pilot underscores student adoption of AI tool

For the Fall 2024 semester, Young’s Anatomy & Physiology students participated in a pilot around the AI-Powered Study Tool. During the pilot, student usage of the chatbot available within the eTextbook was tracked.

The tool’s “Explain” feature, which provides an AI-generated assist for breaking down concepts in the eTextbook, consistently ranked as the most used.

“A student says, ‘I’m having a hard time understanding action potential formation. Can you please explain this to me in a more detailed or concise way?’ The chatbot will go into the section and re-explain it to the student in a different format or a different wording separate from what was used in the textbook, and possibly a little different from what I have, giving them a third voice in how to understand it.”

Young says that’s a healthy, beneficial use of AI.

“They’re still doing the work, but it gives them a context,” he says. “It opens engagement and dialogue with me. It flips the script to, ‘I’m a partner in your education. I’m here to support you, and these are the tools we’re going to use.’”

Students can compare the notes they take during lectures or while studying to the explanations provided by the bot to identify concepts they may have missed.

“They’re reviewing and studying those gaps without them really knowing they’re doing it,” says Young. “They can have a more in-depth understanding about a topic that perhaps they didn’t realize they didn’t understand. That’s a beneficial, healthy way of using this technology. It’s taking all this content, and it’s giving them a starting point so that they’re not so overwhelmed.”

At the end of each exam, Young includes a “wrapper,” a meta-cognitive survey that asks students to reflect on how well they feel they did, what they did to prepare for the exam, and what they could do differently moving forward.

“When we looked at what activity students were doing to engage with the content, I was surprised by how many were using the AI feature in Pearson,” he says, “whether it’s to summarize a diagram, create review questions that they can study from, summarize part of the text, or create an outline of key points.”

For Young, that’s an AI win, and an exciting reason to continue its thoughtful adoption in the classroom.

“Students are actively using it to identify gaps in their learning and understanding, and they’re filling those gaps. They’re coming in less anxious; they’re coming in with a better sense of what they know and don’t know, and that’s translating into higher success on exams.”

A dynamic eTextbook feature from Pearson becomes a game-changer for non-native English-speaking students at Eastern Florida State College.

The challenge

Eastern Florida State College (EFSC), with its enrollment of more than 18,000, supports an increasingly diverse student body, including many learners who are native to countries where English is not the primary language.

These students face a dual challenge: becoming proficient in English while navigating the rigors of demanding coursework. The language barrier can be especially acute in science-focused disciplines, such as biology, because layers of opaque terminology can get in the way of comprehension and engagement.

Discouraged, overwhelmed, and often feeling too embarrassed to seek help, these students risk underachieving, and, in some cases, dropping courses enroute to abandoning their academic and professional dreams.

The solution

Integrated within its eTexbooks, the Pearson translation tool provides rapid access to accurate, trustworthy translations in more than 130 languages.

At EFSC, this tool reversed the academic trajectories of two struggling non-native English-speaking students who were using Campbell Biology while pursuing careers in healthcare delivery. It also provided an aha moment for their instructor, who had been unaware that a solution to his students’ challenges had been hiding in plain sight.

The story

Dr. Andrew Dutra, associate professor of biology and discipline manager for general biology, biomedical/biotechnology at EFSC used to struggle to support students still honing their English skills.

He knows the challenges collegiate-level biology courses present for his students, and how a lack of English proficiency can render the courses impossible to navigate.

“Biology is its own language,” says Dutra, a New England native who melded his childhood fascination with the living world with his knack for teaching to forge a rewarding career as a higher education instructor. “There’s a lot of technical terminology, especially when it comes to the classification of organisms or biochemical processes.”

On the occasions when Dutra encountered non-native English-speaking students who struggled with English, an effective solution was difficult to find. Widely available tools, such as Google Translate^™, delivered hit-or-miss results.

A turning point finally arrived when Dutra sought to support a particular struggling student. A mother of two young children, the student had returned to school to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse. Dutra observed her to be bright, articulate, and diligent. However, her assessments and test scores didn’t reflect the effort she poured into her work. The language barrier proved to be the culprit. A native Arabic speaker, she struggled with the English text, especially the peculiar biology vocabulary.

Dutra first turned to Google to translate his General Biology lab manual into Arabic, but the student reported the translation was more confusing than the regular English text.

Determined to find a solution, Dutra reached out to his Pearson representative, who suggested he try the translation tool available in the eTextbook.

Dutra had been unaware of the feature and quickly introduced it to his student. Together, they selected the English text from the eTextbook and applied the Arabic translation.

“It changed everything,” says Dutra. “Within seconds, the entire page or chapter she was reviewing translated into her language. You could see the relief wash over her. Her shoulders relaxed, and she said, ‘I understand this now.’”

Unlike the unreliable online resources Dutra had tried, Pearson’s translation was accurate and dependable. He asked the student to use the tool to review previously covered material. She soon returned with higher-level questions that reflected how the content had finally clicked with her. She was more engaged and confident moving forward.

“This was a student I feared might not make it through the course,” says Dutra. “She did a complete turnaround and became one of the top performers. This tool was like a godsend for her. She thought she’d have to abandon her nursing dreams, but now she’s well on her way.”

The student continued to find success with the tool, employing it in Anatomy & Physiology I & II, which Dutra teaches. She even proactively mentions the tool to other students.

The wins didn’t stop there. Another one of Dutra’s students, a native Thai speaker who wanted to attend medical school, faced a similar a struggle. Dutra noticed something was amiss when the student needed five or six hours to complete a straightforward multiple-choice quiz. Again, language issues proved to be the culprit.

Dutra reports that the student had resorted to holding her iPhone over the eText on her iPad to snap pictures and translate it into Thai via Google Translate^™. The results were disappointing.

This time, Dutra knew exactly what do to.

“When I introduced her to the Pearson translation tool, she almost started weeping,” he recalls. “She told me, ‘I was about to visit my advisor and switch my major to humanities or something else, but now I think I can do it.’”

And do it she has — rapidly becoming one of Dutra’s top performers, just as his Arabic student had.

Dutra now mentions the translation tool to his students at the start of each course.

Its convenience complements its accuracy.

“It’s fully integrated into the courseware,” he explains. “Neither the student nor I must go outside the platform. With a couple of clicks, it translates exactly what they need. Plus, it’s coming from a trusted source, so I don’t have to worry about putting something into Google Translate^™, crossing my fingers, and hoping for the best.”

Employability has become a lens through which many of our college administrators view and rate the relevancy of our courses and even entire disciplines. The decline in funding for liberal arts disciplines nationwide attests to the perspective that unless the college course can demonstrate its direct value to a specific job, then the course is of little use to the college student paying tuition to earn a degree that will result in a career.

This is Part I of a two-part blog series.

As mathematics educators, we're always seeking innovative ways to streamline our workload while maintaining the highest quality of instruction. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful tool that can support math teachers in multiple aspects of their professional responsibilities.

In Part I, we’ll look at how AI can become your ally in lesson planning support, allowing you to focus on what matters most: inspiring your students to love math!

This is Part II of a two-part blog series. Be sure to check out Part I, first.

As mathematics educators, we're always seeking innovative ways to streamline our workload while maintaining the highest quality of instruction. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful tool that can support math teachers in multiple aspects of their professional responsibilities.

In Part II, we’ll take a look at how AI can help you simplify grading, feedback, and communication, enabling you to focus on what matters most: inspiring your students to love math!

In today’s educational landscape, technology isn’t just a tool—it’s a necessity. As an instructor of Anatomy & Physiology (A&P), I have quickly learned that virtual wet lab simulations must meet the unique needs of instructors and students while providing a solution to support the challenges of learning when lab resources and time are often limited.

In an era where more is expected from both technology and education, Pearson Interactive Labs for A&P rise to the challenge, delivering an impactful and accessible learning solution for all.

Pearson Interactive Labs for A&P Delivers More

Pearson Interactive Labs for A&P are designed to enhance critical thinking, comprehension, and build confidence. The modular design of these virtual lab simulations allows them to be integrated seamlessly into any A&P 1 and 2 lecture or lab course.

• Sparking Student Interest from the Start: Each lab begins with a pithy “Spark” that piques student interest and connects each lab to the real-world. Learners are then provided with essential background information to ensure they feel prepared for the experiment to come. For example, the “Spark” for the Blood Typing Lab ignites student curiosity by sharing that a person in the USA needs donated blood every 2 seconds.
• Real Wet Lab Experience Encouraging Critical Reflection: Each Experiment provides students with a realistic A&P lab experience that mirrors the tasks they would perform in a real wet lab. Using a prepared workbench, students collect and analyze data while being prompted with "Stop & Think" questions. These reflection points help them pause, integrate a “lab partner’s” feedback, and connect the data to key concepts.
• Applying Knowledge to Clinical Scenarios: Each lab concludes with an “Application” module where students are challenged to apply their newly acquired A&P knowledge to real-world scenarios. The Compound Microscope Interactive Lab includes a case study examining the margins of excised tissue of breast cancer patient to understand if the removal was successful. This final step solidifies the learning experience by making it both practical and relevant to students’ future careers.

Pearson Interactive Labs for A&P offer flexibility for both students and instructors:

One of the most valuable aspects of Pearson Interactive Labs for A&P is its flexibility, offering multiple ways for instructors to integrate them into their curriculum to engage students. These labs can be used as:

• A Complete Wet Lab Replacement: There are many reasons that virtual labs are beneficial, including limitations with physical lab space, resources, and time. Additionally, instructors may teach online lab courses, need to offer a way for students to make-up labs, or there may be safety concerns to ensure that students and animals are protected from harm. Pearson Interactive Labs serve as a fully immersive alternative. Students conduct these virtual experiments that simulate a real wet lab experience without compromising the depth of learning.
• A Complement to In-Person Labs: Instructors can assign the labs as supplementary exercises before or after in-person labs to reinforce key concepts covered in a traditional lab setting. By offering students additional practice and reinforcement outside the classroom either as pre-lab exposure or as post-lab review, instructors can create more efficient and effective in-person lab experiences.
• Pick and Choose Lab Components: Instructors have the flexibility to select specific modules of the lab simulations that best align with their course objectives. They can even edit or add their own questions or content. This a-la-carte approach allows students to focus on the most relevant sections, ensuring that the labs meet the specific needs of the curriculum.

Pearson Interactive Labs for A&P not only foster deeper student engagement and learning but also offer instructors the convenience of integrating interactive, customizable lab activities into their curriculum. Incorporating these labs will empower your students with the critical thinking and hands-on skills they need to excel in A&P and beyond.

Last year, technology writer and editor Sage Lazzaro experienced an “aha” moment and realized that AI was truly buzzworthy.

“I was out at a restaurant and overheard a table of teachers seated next to me asking, ‘What are we going to do about ChatGPT?’ It was unheard of a year before to hear people in casual conversation talking about AI,” she said.

Lazzaro, whose writing has appeared in publications including Fortune, VentureBeat, and Wired, among others, has covered AI for a decade, long before it rocketed into orbit as a cultural and business phenomenon.

At the Pearson Ed.Tech Symposium 2024, a virtual event held this October, the veteran tech journalist shared her insights on the potential impact of AI on education and other fields with an audience of over 1,000 curious educators.

An intriguing, yet cloudy future

Educators in the U.S. and beyond are eager to understand how burgeoning AI tools will impact the classroom, students, and the future of the teaching profession.

“I don’t think there's a golden answer to that question because it's still so early,” said Lazzaro, adding that there’s even confusion around defining AI.

To some, AI is ChatGPT or the human-like robots dreamed up in Hollywood blockbusters. But those are AI use cases, Lazzaro explained, continuing that AI is an umbrella term for techniques that enable computers to complete tasks without being explicitly programmed.

That opens AI to a universe of use cases.

Lazzaro highlighted some that recently led to groundbreaking discoveries — particularly in science and medicine. The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scientists for their work in using AI to design and predict proteins that could help researchers develop new life-saving drugs, such as treatments for cancer, in a fraction of the time typically needed.

Lazzaro also sees other potential benefits of AI, such as performing monotonous tasks that most people would gladly hand off. Professionals, including educators, could offload tedious duties in favor of more interesting, fulfilling endeavors, thus changing the relationship between humans and work for the better.

Is AI head-of-the-class ready?

As educators ponder their role in an AI-driven future, Lazzaro sees a potential parallel to how the workforce has repeatedly adapted to other technological breakthroughs.

“While it’s very early, I think AI is going to drastically change the jobs we do and how we do them,” she said. “Look at the Information Age. Most of us work jobs now that didn't exist 30 years ago.”

Educators are also challenged to navigate the intersection of AI and pedagogy, given the challenges the technology presents.

“I think you should approach AI with curiosity, but also skepticism,” said Lazzaro. “It's important for educators to be aware of ethical considerations and be an active part of discussions around when and how AI is used in schools.”

AI tools are far from a panacea in their present form. They can be quirky, unpredictable, and unreliable. Current Generative AI models might “hallucinate,” retrieving information that doesn’t exist, or providing misinformation that appears plausible — especially to an untrained eye.

What’s more, AI is trained on large data sets that may include biases, likely unintentional, against certain populations, Lazzaro cautioned.

With AI’s wrinkles yet to be ironed out, Lazzaro suggested educators limit AI use to specific tasks, such as fuel for brainstorming sessions or as a launching point for developing lessons.

She also advised educators to be wary of AI-detection software that claims to identify work, such as writing assignments, as AI-generated rather than student-generated.

“I see stories all the time from students who say they got a failing grade or are facing disciplinary action for using ChatGPT to write an assignment that they wrote themselves,” she said. “There are lots of studies showing that these detectors aren't accurate, especially for students for whom English isn't their first language.”

And what about concerns that AI will ultimately siphon off jobs in education? Lazzaro offered a straightforward approach, be human.

“The best advice I would give is to stay flexible, open, and aware of these changes, but also lean on the attributes that make someone a strong professional or job candidate today, or in any environment,” she said. “Take initiative, be reliable, be organized — the types of things that go far and that make us human. We’ll still go far in the future no matter what the job landscape looks like with AI.” 


In October, tech journalist Sage Lazzaro was featured in the Future Forward session at Pearson’s inaugural ED.tech Symposium. In this session, Sage offers viewers her perspective on the current and future state of AI based on her long tenure on the AI beat.