300 Million Student Answers Submitted to Date, Demonstrating Need for and Value of Aplia's Learning System
SAN CARLOS, CA, February 04, 2008—Aplia Inc., a Web-based homework provider, today announced that students using its software have submitted more than 300 million answers, with answer submission rates exceeding 50 answers per second at peak times—a strong testament to the need the solution fills and the value it provides for both students and professors. To date, Aplia has focused on creating educational solutions for economics and finance, and serves over 850 institutions worldwide in those subjects. Aplia is now poised to enter into new domains such as accounting, business statistics, and business communication.
Aplia's homework system improves learning by increasing student effort, engagement, and course preparation. Amidst growing class sizes and rising educational costs, the company continues to create cost-effective learning solutions that enable students to get the most out of their study time.
These same solutions help professors to get the most out of their teaching time. The education system's pressure for increased research productivity has led many professors to shift attention away from students and towards research activities. This trend, combined with increasing class sizes and declining test scores, has resulted in less engagement in the classroom. With Aplia, professors spend less time on administrative tasks, and more time on quality student interaction.
According to extensive, methodical research from Professors Susan Pozo and Charles Stull, students in introductory business courses tend to be more engaged in the classroom and perform better on tests when they have completed homework assignments for a measurable reward, typically a letter grade. With Aplia's solution, students submit homework assignments online and the system automatically grades them. This provides instant feedback about student progress to professors and students alike.
Professors using Aplia can also track student accuracy and progress over time - at the individual student level and for the class overall. They can identify weak points in student understanding before a lecture based on auto-graded homework results, and more effectively use precious in-class time to target weak points. Students also have access to materials that review and build on course pre-requisites, such as basic knowledge of mathematics. These features combine to help professors better manage classroom content, and therefore provide more effective teaching.
"Aplia has been a great resource for me and my students. I'm able to track their performance on both graded and practice assignments through Aplia, enabling me to re-emphasize material where their performances are weak," said M. Cary Collins, assistant professor of finance at Bryant University, Rhode Island. "When you connect the practice assignments with the explanations for the answers and then directly link it to the text, you've created a powerful approach to concept management. We spend more class time on financial concepts, leaving repeated illustrations or examples to our off-line practice sets."
With its back-to-basics design, Aplia provides a highly cost-effective learning solution for students that economizes the valuable time of professors. The cost for Aplia plus a digital textbook is less expensive than purchasing a used book without Aplia, and the cost for Aplia plus a traditional textbook is less expensive than a new book without Aplia.
"Prices for textbooks are rising rapidly. Some students aren't even able to purchase books at all. Aplia has emerged as a simple and efficient solution," said Nicholas Smith, Aplia's president. "We at Aplia recognize that not only costs, but also the pressures within academic institutions have created disengagement among some students. Our web-based homework applications aim to aide both the professor and the student, and thereby help remedy this problem."
As the recent 300 million answer milestone attests, students and professors have discovered that Aplia's homework solutions fill a strong need at a cost-effective price.
"...My first ever economics course [was] one I found very interesting - I learned a great deal from the class," said Bryant Pottmeyer, a student at Ohio State University. "I felt that Aplia did an excellent job of presenting the material and helping me learn all of the concepts."
About Aplia Inc.
Founded in 2000 by economist Paul Romer, Aplia Inc. is built upon the premise that student effort is a key determinant in student success. Aplia's collection of Web-based tools enable professors to incorporate two key teaching elements: assigning frequent online homework that is automatically tracked and graded; and easily incorporating active-learning modules such as experiments and current events into the classroom. The result is better-prepared students, more effective use of class time, enhanced discussions, and more in-depth learning. Aplia is headquartered in San Carlos, California.
CONTACT:
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Susan Prager Marketing Manager 650-413-6678 sprager@aplia.com |
Lindsay Brown Director, Corporate Communications 203-965-8634 lindsay.brown@cengage.com |