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Product Questions
- What are the core elements of Aplia's courses?
- Does Aplia work with my textbook?
- I can't make my students buy both a $100 textbook and Aplia. Do you have a solution?
- How is Aplia different from other textbook publishers' online materials?
- Are there any print materials that accompany the products?
- Do the products come on CD-ROM?
- Can I add my own problems to your system?
- Can I alter your problems?
- Can I use this as my course management system (CMS)?
- I use Blackboard or WebCT. Can I integrate Aplia into either of these systems?
- How can I keep students from cheating?
- Which courses do your products cover?
- How do I adopt Aplia for my students?
- How much time will it take to incorporate Aplia?
Technology and Support Questions
- What system configuration do my students and I need to use Aplia?
- What plug-ins do my students and I need, and where can we get them?
- How reliable is your system? Will I experience any downtime from the system?
- What if my students require technical support? What if I need help?
Product Questions
- What are the core elements of Aplia's courses?
The core elements of our economics courses include:
- Interactive content—problem sets, experiments, news analyses, and tutorials
- Digital edition of the textbook
- Easy-to-use course management system
- Personalized customer support
- Instant reports and grade book
- Does Aplia work with my textbook?
Yes. Aplia produces content that maps directly to the textbooks in a given course. We have Integrated Textbook Solutions, which provide complete choice and flexibility in terms of use—as additional material that complements the textbook, or even as a complete package that replaces the textbook altogether. Let us know which text you are using and we can help tailor an Aplia course to meet your teaching needs and style.
- I can't make my students buy both a $100 textbook and Aplia. Do you have a solution?
Yes. With our Integrated Textbook Solutions, instructors can offer their students several options to obtain Aplia, their course materials, and their textbook to fit a variety of price points and learning styles. Our solutions can be used as material that complements the textbook, or even as a complete package that replaces the traditional textbook altogether. Click here for more information or contact your Aplia account manager for more details.
- How is Aplia different from other textbook publishers' online materials?
Publishers do not invest significant resources in their online materials. Textbook content is often just repurposed without modification for the online world. Our content is developed from the ground up to be interactive and engaging. Our assignments feature questions that often require students to shift curves on a graph, plot data, or create a graph from scratch. We also have a library of real-time, online experiments, which have been received well, even by instructors who had never thought about incorporating experiments into their classes before.
Because Aplia's business is focused solely on providing a quality online experience, we are committed to ensuring that our website is always accessible.
- Are there any print materials that accompany the products?
Yes. We offer a wide variety of documentation, including our Quick-Start Guide, our more comprehensive Aplia User Guide for Instructors, and our step-by-step Experiment User Guide. We also have many other helpful documents, such as Getting the Most Out of Aplia and Tips for Teaching with Aplia.
- Do the products come on CD-ROM?
No. Aplia products are web-based and are designed to run effectively on a dial-up modem. The web allows Aplia's content to be dynamically generated. This means we can provide you with our most up-to-date content and tools for use in your class.
- Can I add my own problems to your system?
Yes. You can add your own problems to the Aplia system. This process does not require any special knowledge about building websites.
- Can I alter Aplia's problems?
Yes. You can modify both the questions and the answers of the problem sets in Aplia's Assignment Library. You can also add your own questions, as well as delete existing questions.
- Can I use this as my course management system (CMS)?
Yes. While Aplia's main focus is content, Aplia also provides you with an elegant course management system (CMS) that allows you to build a course website, add course materials, and monitor student performance quickly. We offer an all-in-one solution to course management—an easy-to-use CMS filled with economics content ready to assign to students.
- I use Blackboard or WebCT. Can I integrate Aplia into either of these systems?
Absolutely. Users of these other systems can link to Aplia's content by inserting links to our site within the Blackboard or WebCT framework. More information on how to integrate Aplia with Blackboard and WebCT can be found in the Aplia User Guide for Instructors.
- How can I keep students from cheating?
Student use of our product is tracked on an individual basis. This means that every student must have a unique login to the Aplia site. This eliminates the possibility that students will share a subscription. Aplia also randomizes the order of its multiple-choice answers and employs randomization algorithms in many of its interactive tool-based problems, minimizing the impact of students who attempt to share answers. However, similar to paper-based homework, students may still attempt to share answers as a form of cheating. We recommend assigning Aplia's problem sets as homework as opposed to quizzes or tests and setting the homework equal to 10%-25% of their final grade. This way, students are still responsible for knowing the material on a proctored midterm/final that counts for the majority of their grade and are encouraged to do their own work in preparation for those tests.
- Which courses do your products cover?
Aplia offers the following products:
- Principles of Finance
- Principles of Microeconomics
- Principles of Macroeconomics
- Principles of Economics
- Survey of Economics
- Intermediate Microeconomics
- Money, Banking, and Financial Institutions
- International Economics
- How do I adopt Aplia for my students?
Instructors adopt Aplia products similar to the way they adopt a textbook, and students pay for the service on a per-term subscription basis. Aplia can be purchased as a bundle with certain textbooks or as a standalone product.
As an instructor, you do not deal with payment. All payments are made by students through the Aplia website via credit card, or money order. We also offer other payment options. If your students are interested in these other options, please contact your Aplia account manager for more details.
- How much time will it take to incorporate Aplia?
Incorporating Aplia into your courses is simple and quick—you can create your course in minutes. Your Aplia account manager will help you integrate Aplia into your courses and personally ensure your success. In a recent survey of Aplia users, nearly 90% of our recurring users found Aplia either somewhat easy or easy to use. Our course creation process is so easy and efficient, you can adopt Aplia at any time—even if your book order has already been placed. Contact your Aplia account manager for more details.
Technology and Support Questions
- What system configuration do my students and I need to use Aplia?
When first registering to use Aplia, both instructors and students are prompted to run a configuration test to ensure that they have all of the necessary technology to run the Aplia site effectively. See System Requirements for a detailed listing of our platform and browser requirements.
- What plug-ins do my students and I need, and where do we get them?
The most important plug-in needed is the Flash Player. Most newer browsers include Flash with standard installation. If instructors and students don't have Flash or need to upgrade, they can download it free of charge from the Adobe website. It takes just minutes to download and install.
- How reliable is your system? Will I experience any downtime?
Although we can't guarantee 100% uptime in the system (no one is able to), we have procedures in place to ensure that our website stays online with as little interruption as possible. On very rare occasions, Aplia schedules website downtime in order to do maintenance. In these cases, Aplia gives advance notice of the exact date and time maintenance will be performed.
Some of the things that make our site reliable and secure include:
- Live, on-site server administration 24/7
- Site redundancy and load balancing
- Security mechanisms on all components
- Daily data backups
We do everything in our power to make our product as dependable as possible. If you experience any technical difficulties, please E-mail Us and we'll promptly look into the issue.
- What if my students require technical support? What if I need help?
- Aplia has an e-mail support form that students can access from their Aplia website. They will receive help within one business day of Aplia receiving their e-mail.
- In addition to an e-mail support form, we offer instructors dedicated phone support.
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