Setting Up and Customizing Your LaunchPad Course

LaunchPad for An Insider’s Guide to Academic Writing, 2nd edition, is designed to work in tandem with your textbook to help students sharpen their critical thinking, reading, and writing skills and promote the development of digital literacy. We want you and your students to have an excellent experience. The resources below will help you get started, and the pages that follow will familiarize you with some of the resources and assignment types available in LaunchPad for An Insider’s Guide to Academic Writing.

For additional tips on using LaunchPad, or to offer tips of your own, join The English CommunityWill be opened in a new tab. at the Macmillan Learning Community Site!

Create and Activate Your Course

To activate your course so students can enroll, please consult these resources:

• Reference the Course ActivationWill be opened in a new tab. advice from the Knowledge BaseWill be opened in a new tab..
• After you click on the “Activate your course” link at the top of the screen, share the course activation email with students. Providing students with the direct link to your course will help them be certain they’ve enrolled in the correct course.
• Request TrainingWill be opened in a new tab..
• Contact Technical SupportWill be opened in a new tab. with any issues, and refer students to Tech Support if they have problems joining your course.

Locate Materials You Want to Use

You can locate relevant materials by:

• Viewing a LaunchPad unitWill be opened in a new tab.
• Searching the Knowledge BaseWill be opened in a new tab. for articles about your product (i.e. "LaunchPad for An Insider’s Guide to Academic Writing")
• Selecting the Resources panel to search or browse contents

Assign the E-Book and Activities

Creating your course assignments before students enroll is one of the keys to success with LaunchPad, and assigning is incredibly easy. You can assign a full unit or assign resources independently. Please be aware that some quizzes appear in the Resources panel and will only be available to students if you assign them (see the page in this Welcome unit titled “Types of Diagnostic and Summative Assessment Available in LaunchPad for An Insider's Guide” for more information). Students can access LearningCurve without it being assigned.

To assign, please review these instructions:

• Assigning a unitWill be opened in a new tab.
• Assigning items within a unitWill be opened in a new tab.
• Assigning items to groups or individualsWill be opened in a new tab.
• Explore advanced assignment settingsWill be opened in a new tab. from the Instructor’s Manual.

Debrief with Your Students

LaunchPad for An Insider’s Guide to Academic Writing can tell you a lot about students’ mastery of course content. By talking with students about the trends you see in their results, you’ll affirm their online practice and have a better sense of their strengths and weaknesses.

To debrief with students, these instructions can help you talk about their results:

• Diagnostic ReportsWill be opened in a new tab.
• LearningCurve reportsWill be opened in a new tab.
• LaunchPad Gradebook tutorialWill be opened in a new tab.
• Explaining Difficulty and DiscriminationWill be opened in a new tab.