As is the case with any good technology, MySkillsLab is improving every day. The Pearson Media Team is committed to providing high quality features and content to help instructors teach and students learn. The changes listed below are the result of the feedback we've received from our users—instructors and students alike. Thank you for being part of our team!
Your feedback is valuable to us! Please feel free to send your comments and suggestions to EnglishLabs@pearson.com.
Larger Window for Readings. The window size for reading selections has been increased to display more text and make reading easier for students.
Course Deletion. Instructors can delete courses permanently. The option to archive still exists.
Section 508-influenced content. Media resources and instructional content have been redeveloped in consideration of section 508 recommendations, including screen reader accessibility. Pearson is committed to making our technology and content accessible to all users.
Learning Objectives. Learning objectives are now available for all topics.
New reading skills, practices, and tests. More than fifty new passages with Practice and Test activities for select Reading Skills topics.
Reading Level (Lexile) content. Thirty new contemporary Reading Level passages and combined skills quizzes.
Recall-style Quizzes. New “Recall” quizzes (testing comprehension of the instructional content) have for every reading skills topic. This feature will give instructors a measure for determining if students spent time on the Review Materials before moving on to their Activities.
Expanded coverage of Main Idea. Main Idea has been split into two more comprehensive topics: “Stated Main Idea” and “Implied Main Idea.”
Enhanced coverage of Outlining and Summarizing. Outlining and Summarizing has been split into two new topics: “Outlining and Mapping” and “Summarizing.”
New Patterns of Organization coverage. In addition to developing a combined patterns topic that covers all 9 core patterns, we have added 9 individual Patterns of Organization topics. Each new topic has learning objectives, narrated overviews and models, recall quizzes, practices, tests.
New Flash Animations. We’ve developed new, topic-based animations to cover more granular topics and objectives. We will continue augmenting the program with these throughout the year.
MyReadingLab (Florida Edition). This special version, carefully developed with instructors from Florida, includes practice exams, two new topics, and other features specifically designed to help students prepare for the Florida Exit Exam. It is available for fall 2010 courses.
MyWritingLab (Florida Edition). This special version, carefully developed with instructors from Florida, includes more grammar topics, topics corresponding to Conceptual and Organizational Skills, and practice tests specifically designed to help students prepare for the Florida Exit Exam. It is available for fall 2010 courses.
New Grammar Apply sets. Our popular interactive grammar exercises have been added to select topics. These sets help students practice correcting and editing within the context of a full paragraph.
Additional Help for English-Language Learners (ELL). More learning aids and assessment have been added to further assist nonnative speakers of English.
Tracking of total time on task. Total time on task (total time a student spends on assessments) is now available from the Class Summary page in the Gradebook.
Posting notes or announcements. Instructors can now post a note or announcement on the Home page in the MyCourse portlet.
Ability to reset student scores. Instructors now have the ability to reset all scores for a student rather than by individual topic.
New Grammar Apply sets. Additional interactive sets will be phased in to the program starting January 2010.
New Reading Skills topics: Two new topics, Time Order and Spatial Order, have been added. Each has a corresponding overview, model, practice exercises, and tests. Selected coverage for both of these topics are also covered in the Combined Patterns of Organization topic.
Comprehensive content review. We continued with our annual content review of Recall, Apply, and Write sets to ensure our content is accurate and effective.
More research support. Pearson's MySearchLab™ has replaced Research Navigator™. Complete with extensive help on the research process and four databases of credible and reliable source material, MySearchLab ™ helps students quickly and efficiently make the most of their research time. Students now have access to a writing space (“Greenbook”), a bibliography builder, various tutorials and videos on writing, research, and avoiding plagiarism, a comprehensive grammar guide and an online handbook.
Updated Watch animations (Writing). Enhanced Watch animations are now available for all topics, including new animations for Summary Writing and Critical Thinking topics.
Expanded Critical Thinking content (Writing). The Critical Thinking topic now includes additional exercise sets and the new Watch animations mentioned above.
Even more Grammar Apply exercises (Writing). We’ve added interactive Grammar Apply activities to various topics, including more on commas.
2009 MLA updates (Writing). All appropriate content (e.g., research topics) have been updated to reflect the new MLA guidelines.
New Reading Level (Lexile) readings (Reading). Thirty new Lexile reading passages with diagnostics and combined-skills quizzes have been added.
Reading Level (Lexile) practice (Reading). Once a student reaches the highest Lexile level all of the readings at the highest level are made available to them for practice so they can continue to develop their reading skills.
Narrated Overview and Model content (Reading). Audio narrations of the Overview and Model content is now available for all topics and levels.
Additional Practice and Test content (Reading). Additional assessment content is available for the Inference topic. The assessment content has been augmented for the Main Idea and Supporting Details topic.
Comprehensive content review. We continued with our annual content review of Recall, Apply, and Write sets to ensure our content is accurate and effective.
Your feedback is valuable to us! Please feel free to send us your comments and suggestions by emails us at EnglishLabs@pearson.com.