It's a good platform that has some very good content. We use Canvas as our learning management platform. It is nice to be able to integrate some of the pre-build WileyPLUS course modules into our Canvas course. Other publishers are good too and they sync with Canvas, but I find Wiley's Canvas modules easy to use and customize.
It would be nice if it communicated in real time with our other student database systems. We have to do a nightly update to share information with other systems, and still, some data gets stuck and needs to be "wiped".
The intervention tracking system, OnTrack, is difficult to set up and manage.
Assessment item banks could offer a better variety of items.
Illuminate DnA is a very usable system. A few items to learn and set up can be a bit time-consuming. However, once set up it is easy to use and powerful for a school that staff can master quickly. It has more features then we actually use but I hope we will over time.
Our issue was never resolved so that we could use the software to produce accurate reports. Their tech department looked into the issue several times and could never figure out why our student was off and then they just closed the case. They confirmed we were performing the correct steps to load the data and they confirmed our data looked accurate. Great, but again why was our student count off?
24-7 support is available by phone, chat, or email. They also hold annual events which I have been blessed to attend twice. The staff is excellent. They are knowledgeable and genuinely care about you and your students. There are online forums for instructors to collaborate, learn, and have fun. Instructors receive gift cards for their participation too!
Illuminate DnA offers more flexibility and additional features that our previous Data Director system offered. We were looking for a system that offered an online assessment portal and the ability to create elementary standard-based report cards when we selected the illuminate DnA software. We were impressed with the ability to easily create custom reports and liked the comprehensive student profile page.
I like the mechanistic approach and taught that way for several years. Klein makes a nice meeting point between the traditional, by-the-functional-group way of approaching the material and the mechanistic approach with common patterns pointed out and grouped along the way. It is one of the best, clearly written texts on Organic Chemistry on the market!! It isn't overly dry and intimidating, but more conversational - like a tutor guiding you through the foundational topic or thought process. The graphics are clear and understandable with good use of color. The canvas integration is wonderful! The adaptive practice is growing on me - I started a skeptic, but students really like the by-learning-objective feedback. From term to term, you can easily turn your homework assignments over for the next term if you like to assign specific questions.
We tried to get the product to work for our needs for over a year and could not get it to work and therefore it cost us $20,000 with no results and easily over 40+ hours of wasted time.
Before Wiley Plus, my students didn't do homework, because it was not possible for me to grade all their work. Now they do it to earn points needed to pass the class.
Before Adaptive Assignment, my students really struggled with the multiple-choice part of the exam. Now my students have the opportunity to practice a plethora of questions provided to them in Adaptive Assignment. Now the exam grades are much better!
