A Year in Review. What’s new in Knewton Alta in 2020

Putting achievement within reach for all students is a continuous journey. Students evolve as quickly as technology does, which is why Wiley is committed to a culture of continuous improvement with Knewton Alta.

We’ve continued to pound the pavement in 2019, asking every student and instructor we can get in front of how we can make their Knewton Alta experience better. Our goal: making an even bigger impact on learning outcomes by continually optimizing our journey together.

Of course, improving the experience of students and instructors requires more than just listening. It takes action. Throughout 2019 we’ve released a series of features and enhancements that address the feedback we received.

Below you will find a year-in-review, highlighting all of the enhancements made to Knewton Alta throughout 2019. If you haven’t looked at Knewton Alta in a while, you’re missing something special.

New Pricing Models

We believe that cost should never be a barrier for students.

• New pricing model: doubles-down on the Knewton Alta affordability promise by dropping the single-course cost to 39.95 USD (for standard-price courses).
• AltaPass: We also introduced the AltaPass as a promise to the student, that they will not need to pay more than $79.95 USD on multiple Alta courses within the same discipline.
• Monthly Subscription: Students can also subscribe monthly to a single course for $9.95 USD per month to suit their needs.

 

Updates to Adaptive Learning

We are adapting to provide a consistently improving experience for instructors and students

• Milestones: We’ve added messaging (and confetti!)  to recognize students’ progress and accoumplishments as they work in Knewton Alta’s adaptive experience. Every student should know where they stand!
• New Assignment Builder: We’ve launched a more streamlined experience for instructors to create adaptive assignments quickly, while providing more transparency. This includes the ability to search for topics, include multiple topics or chapters in an assignment, and a more accurate duration estimate based on historical student data.

 

Managing your Course

Less time managing your Knewton Alta course equals more time for teaching and learning

• Improvements to assignment date and time settings: Instructors can now change both due and start times for individual students or assignments, in addition, we now have the capability to change dates in bulk for multiple assignments at once.
• Supporting changes to grading policies with automatic regrades: When you change a due date for an assignment, provide an extension, or change a grading setting (e.g. turn on late policies late in the semester), Knewton Alta will automatically regrade all relevant coursework in the sections of the course.
• Improved data insights to identify struggling students: Instructors can now see the bigger picture view of student analytics beyond an individual assignment. Easily identify individual students struggling on many assignments and identify trends with difficult topics. Instructors can now easily discover when many students are struggling, across the course and can use help right now – without waiting for the student to ask for help.

 

Tests and Quizzes

The new Assessment Builder makes it easier to create the right type of assessment (quiz or test) to match your needs.

• New Assessment builder for Quizzes and Tests: Instructors can now use the exact same flow and features for tests or quizzes – including Review Centers and the ability to select specific questions or adding your own. Calling an assessment a “Quiz” means only that the results of that assessment will appear under the Quiz section of the dashboards.
• Search Capability: It’s easier to navigate the table of contents with the addition of search and filters.
• Fewer limits: No limit on number of questions allowed per Learning Objective. (Just a limited bank of questions)
• Easier to Manage: We’ve added the ability to Copy and duplicate tests.
• Adjust grading of individual test questions: You can now delete a question from a test, mark a question as correct on a test, and mark an individual student’s answer on a test correct or incorrect even after students have started, and automatically update grades for the whole class.
• Weighted test questions: While creating an assessment, instructors can assign different point values to each question (differentiating according to difficulty/amount of time or work it takes, etc.). and students will see each question’s point value when working on assessments.

 

Community

Instructors will experience a more seamless experience when navigating to the Knerd Studio

• Launched Knerd Studio with Single-Sign On: You can now login to the Knerd Studio using your Knewton Alta credentials. This makes for a smoother transition and easier access to our Knerd community!