Increase student performance with Revel Sociology
Pearson | July 16, 2021 in Meaningful Outcomes
by Pearson
Associate Professor Catherine Medrano at College of the Sequoias worked with Pearson to understand whether Revel Sociology could help increase student success.
Researchers found that:
- Students earning higher Revel scores also earned significantly higher average participation, average exam, and final course scores.
- Data indicate a strong correlation between the overall percentage of Revel points earned and average exam scores.
- Data indicate a strong correlation between the overall percentage of Revel points earned and average exam scores.
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Why did Associate Professor Medrano adopt Revel?
In Spring 2015, Adjunct Professor Catherine Medrano adopted Revel Sociology in her Sociology I course at the College of the Sequoias to determine if it would increase student success on exam scores and increase participation. She found students came to class better prepared and performed better on their exams.
Once accepting a position as an Associate Professor at College of the Sequoias, she continued to implement Revel Sociology in her Sociology course and decided to incorporate three new writing assignments to promote the analysis and application of sociological concepts where she found students struggled.
In addition, she found it to be a challenge to grade essays and provide meaningful feedback for her 250+ students per semester, so she replaced one professor-graded essay with a Revel auto-graded writing assignment.
How was Revel used in her course?
Sociology 1 met twice a week where they covered 15 chapters over the course of the Spring semester. There were six exams, three essays, and Revel quizzes. The final essay was auto-graded through Revel and the Revel quizzes were due once a week where they were given three attempts to correctly answer each question. Revel quizzes were worth a combined 18% of the final course grade.
Did Revel improve student success over the semester?
- Students who scored above the median Revel quiz score earned significantly higher participation scores (26 percentage points) than students who scored below the median.
- Students who scored above the median Revel quiz score earned significantly higher exam scores (22 percentage points) than students that scored below the median.
- Students who scored above the median Revel quiz score earned significantly higher final course grades (31 percentage points) than students who scored below the median.
In addition, Medrano found the formative Revel module and chapter quizzes led to more in-depth, summative assessments (exams).
Did students like using Revel?
Responses from the Spring 2017 end-of-semester survey of Medrano’s students indicate the majority of students recognize the value of Revel.
- Students were happy with their experience with the Revel’s auto-graded essay, rating it an average of 4.2, with 1 being poor and 6 being excellent.
- Revel supports student confidence with 78% of students rating themselves as confident or extremely confident in their ability to participate in discussions during class after using Revel.
- Students see Revel as worth the price-point with 73% of students rating Revel as a good or extremely good value for the money spent.
One student said:
“I think Revel is better than a textbook. I actually read it more and understood the content better.”
Conclusion
Over the time she has used Revel, Medrano’s goals of increasing engagement with the text, participation in the course discussions and improving student exam scores were satisfied.
Further, she decided to incorporate an auto-graded assignment from Revel to reduce the amount of time she spent reviewing essay assignments and provide students with meaningful feedback in a timely manner.
Learn more about how Revel Sociology could benefit your course
