General Questions

1. How do the CNOWv2 access codes work? 1 term vs. 2 term codes?

The CengageNOWv2 access codes are term based. A 1-term IAC or PAC allows for enrollment in one course. A 2-term IAC or PAC allows the student to enroll in two courses, regardless of how far apart they are spaced. The duration during each course is 14 days after the course length. So, if an instructor set up a 1-year course, the student would use 1 term to get into the course, and would have access for 1 year + 14 days. The student would still have the second term to use for a future course.

2. Does a student access code ever expire if it is not used?

No, the access code duration does not get triggered until it is registered by the student. Adaptive Study Plan

3. What is the Adaptive Study Plan?

The Adaptive Study Plan is an assignable/gradable study center that adapts to each student’s unique needs and provides a remediation pathway to keep students progressing. Step 1: Students take a chapter-level quiz consisting of randomized questions that cover both conceptual and procedural/computational aspects of the chapter. Step 2: Feedback provided for each answer option explains why the answer is right or wrong. Step 3: Based on the quiz results, students are provided a remediation path that includes media assets and algorithmic practice problems to help them improve their understanding of the course material.

4. How do students access the Adaptive Study Plan?

The ASP can be accessed by students anytime under the Study Tools Tab. It can also be accessed in the assignment list (if the instructor has assigned the ASP as an assignment). If an instructor assigns the ASP as an assignment, they have the option to hide the ASP from the student on the Study Tools tab (see image below). In this scenario, if a student attempted to access the ASP from the Study Tools tab they would be directed back to the assignment list.

5. How do students start the Adaptive Study Plan?

Step 1: Student click on “Take Quiz” to start the chapter-level quiz consisting of randomized questions that cover both conceptual and procedural/computational aspects of the chapter.

Step 2: Feedback provided for each answer option explains why the answer is right or wrong. Step 3: Based on the quiz results, students are provided a remediation path that includes media assets and algorithmic practice problems to help them improve their understanding of the course material. Students can repeat this process until they have mastered all Learning Objectives.

6. Do students get the SAME quiz questions each time they retake the quiz?

No, students will get different question each time. The questions are selected from question pools. There are 9 questions total per LO and CNOWv2 will select 3-4 per LO at random. For the Warren Franchise: Qualitative/Conceptual and Quantitative/Procedural “bins” are set-up for each LO. For the Warren textbooks, there are 6 qualitative and 3 quantitative questions per LO. So, the qualitative bin will have a “question pool” that consists of 6 questions and the qualitative bin will have a question pool that consists of 3 questions. CNOWv2 will select 3 questions from the qualitative bin and 1 question from the quantitative bin at random.

7. If an instructor assigns the Adaptive Study Plan as an assignment, what grade will be reflected in the gradebook?

The student’s most recent quiz score will be recorded in the gradebook. Future enhancements to the Adaptive Study Plan will allow instructors to choose which quiz score is recorded in the gradebook (i.e. Best, average, most recent, etc.), however this is not available yet.

8. Did the Study Tools go away? When I click on the Study Tools tab, I only see the option for Adaptive Study Plan.

No, the study tools did not go away. After students enter the Adaptive Study Plan, they have the option to access the study tools by selecting the “Study” button or complete the Adaptive Study Plan by clicking the button “Take Quiz”.

Student Workflow

9. Can students print blank assignments? How?

Yes, if the instructors allows for printing in the assignment options. 1. In the assignment options, the instructor needs to allow printing.

2. In the assignment list, students will see a “Print blank assignment” button.

3. When printing a multi-panel view item, in the print preview students have the ability to open the panels and change to a stacked view so that all panels print out.

10. How can students increase work space when utilizing Multi-Panel View? Check out this screencast that shows tips and tricks for maximizing workspace!

http://screencast.com/t/QrSLGQZum

Adjust screen resolution to the highest setting (Computer > Control Panel > Display > Adjust Resolution)

Zoom out to 80-90% from the Browser menu.

Collapse the left menu bar. This gives you another good chunk of space to work with.

Go to full screen mode. Hit F11 or use your browser shortcuts. This buys you space at the top and bottom of the screen.

11. How do student access the ebook?

Students can access the ebook three ways:

1. MindTap eReader will appear on the students CengageBrain Home screen below the CengageNOWv2 course access. Click the Open button.

2. If the student has already entered the CengageNOWv2 course, they can access the eBook via

the Study Tools tab. Study Tools > Adaptive Study Plan > Select Chapter

3. If the instructor has allowed to “Show Additional Resources” when creating a homework assignment, the student can access the ebook via the End of Chapter Homework items.

12. If Check My Work only checks what students have attempted, how do students know if they have completed the problem?

The score in the upper right hand corner of the item is communicating how many points the student has earned for that item. For example, in the image below the student has earned 32/37 (86%) possible points for this item. This is communicating to the student that the journal is not complete. It is important to note, that this score does not represent the overall weight of the item. The weight of the item is set by the instructor during the assignment creation process. If the instructor made that item worth 5 points, then the student would receive 86% of 5 points, or 4.3 points.

13. How do students access the Study Tools? Did the Study Tools go away? When I click on the Study Tools tab, I only see the option for Adaptive Study Plan.

No, the study tools did not go away. After students enter the Adaptive Study Plan, they have the option to access the study tools by selecting the “Study” button or complete the Adaptive Study Plan by clicking the button “Take Quiz”.

Instructor Workflow

14. Can instructors change the order in which the assignments appear on the Assignment tab?

Yes, instructors can change the order in which the assignments appear on the Instructor View Assignments tab. Follow the steps below.

1. Expand Show All Option 2. Click on “Reorder Assignments” link 3. Reorder the assignments to the preferred order and click “Save and Return”. 4. The assignments have now been given a number. On the Assignments tab, click on the #

icon to sort assignments by their #.

15. When saving an "Assignment Option Set" the assignment point value doesn't save as part of the "set". Is that supposed to happen?

Yes, the assignment point value is not included in the assignment option "set". Part of this is because homework and test assignment point values are initially based on the sum of the item point values, which are likely to be different between assignments.

16. How do instructors customize Assignment Options (i.e. available date, due date, unavailable date, number of takes, etc.) for specific students?

1. Click on the Gradebook tab 2. Click on the Person Icon drop down menu 3. Click on the “Customize Assignment Options for Specific Students” link

17. Can instructors upload documents to CNOWv2?

Yes. Click on Assignment Tab and then click on Upload Files. Instructor View:

Once files have been uploaded, students will see a button to View files from Instructor. Student View:

18. Can instructors copy assignments from one course to another? Yes, using the copy/paste functionality. Click on Assignments tab > then click on Show All Option > then click on Copy/Paste.

If an instructor wants to copy assignments from another instructor’s course, they need to first be able to “see” the assignments before utilizing copy/paste. One way to allow instructor A to “see” the assignments in instructor B’s course is to have instructor B enroll instructor A as co-instructor in instructor B’s course. Instructor A can then copy the course in Instructor B’s course switch to her own course, then paste the copied assignment.

19. How does the CNOWv2 unavailable date work?

Majority of the time instructors set the due date and unavailable date as the same date. Once this date hits, the assignment auto-submits if the student has not already submitted the assignment.

If the assignment due date and unavailable date are different, the assignment will auto-submit on the unavailable date.

If an instructor wants to give students the opportunity to complete assignments after the due date for partial credit (late penalty), then the unavailable date will need to be set in the future. For example:

Chapter 2 homework is due on 9/10/15 at 11pm. The unavailable date is 12/12/15 (last day before final exam). The instructor has assigned a 50% penalty, which means

that if a student completes the assignment after the due date and scores a 100%, he will actually receive a score of 50% in the gradebook due to the late penalty.

Note: The nuance to be aware of with late penalties, is that if a student has multiple takes and has already submitted a take and received a score, and

then tries to retake the assignment after the due date, the system will not let them take the assignment because the late penalty will lower their score.

Students cannot access/open the assignment after the unavailable date. However, instructors can customize due dates and unavailable dates for one (or group) student.

20. Can instructors set tolerances in CNOWv2? No. This is due to the way that the items work with tolerances. Tolerances can create disproportionate impact as numbers carry through problem. For example, on a correct of 100,000 a tolerance of 5% would allow 95,000-105,000. Then, if you’re subtracting 80,000 in the next step, the answer would be 20,000. A 5% tolerance would be 19,000-20,000. Student answer could be 15,000 to 25,000 based on earlier tolerance. In effect, the student is getting the 1st answer right (even though they’re wrong) and the 2nd answer wrong (even though they’re “right”).

CengageNOWv2 Grading

21. If a student stops working on an item when he is half-way done, will CNOWv2 auto-submit for him?

Yes. CNOWv2 will auto-submit at the unavailable date. A student will receive credit for the work they completed, but not the work that they left blank. Note that the unavailable date may be different than the due date.

22. Is it possible to set CNOWv2 to automatically submit upon due date? Can instructors force submit a student’s attempt in progress

Yes, the expected behavior is if the due date and unavailable date are the same, the assignment will auto-submit on that date.

23. Are all questions in CNOWv2 graded the same way? No. Journals, ledgers, financial statements and other key accounting forms are graded a little bit differently than fill-in-the-blank, TF, and MC questions. In accounting, there are many types of errors that a student can make when completing an accounting form. Some of these are more serious than others. CNOWv2 uses a special grading algorithm designed to give students the best score possible given their entries.

24. How does CNOWv2 grade fill-in-the-blank items? Items that use drop down menus or Fill-in-the-Blanks will use standard grading with each cell being of equal value.

25. How does CNOWv2 grade a journal?

CNOWv2 grading is designed as a holistic solution. The journal grader looks at each cell in each line but also grades the entire transaction, and the entire journal. Journal entry errors are not limited to date, account title, amount and post ref. The student also has to identify all of the accounts affected by a transaction, record debits before credits and record the required entries in chronological order. To effectively grade all of these factors, CNOWv2 grades at the following levels and places a different value on the various gradable elements.

Cell/Line Level o Account Title = 6 tokens o Amount = 4 tokens (2 tokens for correct amount and 2 tokens for correctly recording as

a debit or credit) o Post Reference = 1 token (if the item requires posting to the ledger)

Transaction Level o Date = 2 tokens o Recording debit(s) before credit(s) = 1 token o Correctly identifying how many accounts are required for the transaction, that is, the

transaction size = 2 or 4 tokens

Journal Level o Transactions are recorded in chronological order =1 credit

(See Image Below)

Following this logic, a student who enters one account wrong, and one amount wrong therefore loses 8 tokens out of a total of 25, or 68%.

Note: The CNOWv2 grader is designed to optimize the student’s score, therefore, the student will be awarded the tokens that maximize their score. For example, if a student records the correct account titles, but enters the correct dollar amounts but in the wrong columns, the grader will award tokens for account titles rather than dollar amounts Here is a video that explains how CNOWv2 scores accounting forms (i.e. journals and financial statements). https://youtu.be/hx8qDxbZ0JA

26. Why only the minor penalty for errors such as recording credits before debits and entering transactions out of chronological order?

Based on feedback from instructors, CengageNOWv2 does not overly punish students for certain types of errors. Instructors told us that if the student gets the account title correct, and the amount correct it was more important to reward them for correctly identifying the account than punishing them completely for entering things out of order.

27. How does the “score” convert to the students’ final grade on the assignment? Journals, financial statements and other items in CNOWv2 have a “score” on some of the forms. This score is defined as the number of tokens a student has earned out of the total number of tokens available. For example, in the case below, the student has earned 17 out of a possible 25 tokens, or 17/25 – 68%.

If the student only has one activity panel such as this journal entry, then her score on the item (in this case Ex 3-18) will be 68% of the points the instructor has assigned to that item. If the instructor made that item worth 5 points, then the student would receive 68% of 5 points, or 3.4 points. The “Points” box below the task shows the percentage correct for that particular task. If there are multiple tasks in an item, the percentage earned for each task is shown separately.

28. How are Financial Statements Graded?

Financial statements are treated very similarly to journal entries. There is a total “score” that is used to calculate the student’s ultimate score. Similar to Journal Entries, some fields are worth more than others. For example, the account titles are worth six tokens and the period is worth two tokens. Note: In some cases, students can earn partial credit for an amount if their math is correct.

29. In the gradebook under Edit Grade Details, the students score is showing up as 0 in the Take Structure and Item Grade Details even though the student has completed some of the assignment items. Why?

It is mostly likely because the assignment take is still in-progress. The information in the “take structure” field and “selected item grade details” will not populate until the student has completed the take and submitted the take for grading.

30. The student has submitted the Adaptive Study Plan quiz for grading. Why is the gradebook

showing the take as in-progress?

The Adaptive Study Plan score will be reflected as “in-progress” until the unavailable date passes. At that time, the student score will be color-coded and will no longer be reflected as “in-progress”.