After receiving my PhD from the University of Pennsylvania this year, I joined Aplia because of my personal commitment to teaching. Although I had used Aplia before coming here, participating in this process was an eye-opening experience. I hope this "behind the scenes" look gives insight into how much we care about the content we develop, the people behind the content, and the roles that students and instructors play in our development process.
Our biggest challenge when writing problems is balancing clarity and difficulty. If a question states a problem too clearly, and the answer is obvious, then a student doesn't learn anything. But if the question is too abstruse, students may just give up and move on. The trouble is, the author of a problem has a very clear picture in mind as to what he or she wants to ask about—and it's hard, as an author, to put yourself in the shoes of someone who hasn't seen it before.
Our production process addresses this issue by having many people review each problem that we write. First, the problem is sent to an outside instructor for a "first look" at the problem's clarity and precision. These instructors cover a wide range of institutions, from high school to community colleges to Ivy League universities. Their variety of perspectives helps us to write for as broad an audience as possible.
Once the chapter assignment gets back from instructor review, it is revised by the original author and then reviewed by the editorial staff. Once the manuscript is final, we convert it to the web-based form you see online. Then it is reviewed by another expert on the content team, again by the author, and by a proofreader. For a final review, we send it out to students, who are given extra incentives to find any possible problem with the question. Finally, the problem is uploaded to the web site.
In addition to ensuring that each problem is clear and correct, we also ensure that the problems we develop for a particular course match the terminology, difficulty level, and style of the corresponding textbook.
For our Integrated Textbook Solution (ITS) courses, we take this a step further; these chapter assignments go through an extra stage of revision. Sometimes we send them out to an instructor who has used that particular textbook for many years, or one who was involved with writing study guide problems for it. In some cases, the textbook authors themselves review the work. For example, Marc Lieberman worked with us throughout the entire process of developing material for Hall and Lieberman. Indeed, he wrote and edited many of the questions himself. And Chris Buzzard, who contributed to the Brigham/Houston texts and test banks, wrote many Aplia questions.
Our production process doesn't end with the publication of a chapter assignment, however. We always love to hear from instructors and students here in Content, and the feedback we get helps us to refine our existing questions and develop better chapter assignments in the future. If you'd like to get in touch with us, please contact Support.
