Educators are increasingly looking for ways to help their students develop critical thinking, and Macmillan Learning and Packback have come together to provide a solution. The partnership combines Packback’s AI-powered technology with Macmillan Learning’s Achieve digital learning platform, offering educators an effective way to enhance student engagement and critical thinking.
Macmillan Learning’s Achieve digital learning platform was designed to support student success, and its IRB-approved and replicable research has demonstrated its efficacy in helping students learn and score better on exams. Achieve offers tools such as Goal Setting and Reflection Surveys to help students set goals for themselves and reflect on their learning throughout the semester. Additionally, the platform offers adaptive quizzing to personalize the learning experience for each student, and a wealth of interactive content such as graphs, videos, simulations, and animations to help students learn more engagingly.
Packback’s AI-driven conversation platform is designed to encourage higher levels of critical thinking among students, while also increasing student engagement and cooperation. The platform uses AI to act as a “digital TA” to help manage the discussion communities and evaluate the quality of student contributions. AI models are used to provide feedback on the student’s grammar, assign students a “curiosity score”, and advise when their posts may violate academic guidelines.
The combination of Macmillan Learning’s digital learning solutions and Packback’s AI-powered conversation platform has been proven to improve student outcomes. According to instructor comments, the combination of the two products has resulted in more engaged students with the text and examinations.
Kelsey Behringer, CEO of Packback, commented: “Packback isn’t just a platform; it’s a catalyst for critical thinking and a force for academic achievement. Together with Macmillan Learning, we’ll help students engage with the high-quality, vetted course material and demonstrate mastery by producing their work in their voice. This allows students to build foundational and much-needed AI collaboration skills that will be a bridge to their success from the classroom to their careers.”
Educators are now able to bundle Macmillan Learning’s content, assessment and other digital tools with Packback’s inquiry-driven discussion platform, to further increase active learning and engagement while helping students achieve higher critical thinking and metacognition levels. The two technologies help make the student experience more cohesive and rigorous, while allowing students to receive more efficient feedback on written responses.
Macmillan Learning and Packback are dedicated to providing educators with the most effective content and learning methods, and their technologies have been created with the help of learning research and continual feedback from instructors and students. Together, the platforms will help ignite the curiosity that drives academic growth and encourage students to participate more actively in their learning journey.
