What's New in MyCompLab?

What's New in MyCompLab? As is the case with any good technology, MyCompLab is improving every day. The Pearson Media Team is committed to providing high quality features and content to help instructors teach and students learn. The changes listed below are the result of the feedback we've received from our users—instructors and students alike. Thank you for being part of our team! Your feedback is valuable to us! Please feel free to email your comments and suggestions to EnglishLabs@pearson.com.

New Enhancements for Summer/Fall 2012!

Improved navigation. The left navigation bar has been revised to be more intuitive and easy-to-use. “Course Settings” has been renamed “Manage Settings and is now housed under the ‘course settings’ drop down above the navigation bar.” WriteClick has moved from the homepage to a sub tab under Course Home so instructors can control whether to hide or show WriteClick in their course. Student tab names have been streamlined. Instructors will also experience ease of use and improved performance when adding and modifying menu items.
New Course Roster and Gradebook features. Instructors can now sort student names alphabetically, search for individual students, and print their course roster. Instructors can also now set the time zone within course settings for their Gradebook items and Assignments. Coming for fall 2012!
Support for Section Instructors. Instructors can now designate section instructors for their courses. Section instructor access is controlled by the Instructor; access includes all Instructor Tools, such as the Gradebook and Assignment Manager.
Improved accessibility. Pearson is committed to making our content and technology accessible to all users. We’ve made changes throughout the application so the user interaction is consistent with Section 508 recommendations.
New Class Preparation Tool. The Pearson Class Preparation Tool (ClassPrep) is a search engine that helps instructors create and deliver presentations to their classes using the learning objects (e.g., animated or video tutorials) found within MyCompLab.

Improved mobility. In the ongoing effort to make our content and technology mobile-ready, we’ve redeveloped media resources, including the Writing in Action, Common Grammar Errors, and Avoiding Plagiarism videos, to work across more platforms and devices.

Updated Model Documents. An updated, enhanced player makes it easier to navigate and view helpful annotations and writing samples, including emails, letters, presentations, and essays. It also works across more platforms and mobile devices, and is Section 508-compliant/accessible. Additional sample documents will be added to the Lab this year.

Office Hours Plus (videos). The MyLab includes even more videos in this popular teacher-student exchange series. Topics include writing process, avoiding plagiarism, and peer review.

Writing in Action (animations). Additional animations cover various writing purposes topics.

New Enhancements for Winter/Spring 2011!

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Pearson is proud to announce our next-generation MyCompLab. Building on its hallmark features (diagnostics, personalized Study Plan, Composing, and instructor commenting), this new release of MyCompLab offers streamlined navigation, a suite of course management tools to save you time, and even more engaging and effective content.

More intuitive, familiar navigation. The top navigation bar has been replaced by a left-hand navigation tree.
New file attachment capability. The ability to attach a file to an assignment has been extended for Composition, Collaboration, Peer Review and Portfolio assignments. Instructors can allow students to attach specific types of files to their assignment submissions. Instructors can download the attachments, comment on the documents, and repost the file to send back to the student. TIP! This new feature is great for managing documents that require heavy formatting. Other applications include: off-line commenting, support for different file types (e.g., PowerPoint), and more.
New role for section instructors (teaching assistants). Instructors can now assign "section instructors" (a.k.a., TA status) to course members.
Ability to hide features. Instructors can hide features (e.g., the Composing space) that they choose not to use in their course.
Interactive chat and whiteboard. Chat & ClassLive tools enable instructors and students to engage in synchronous chat and whiteboard sessions.
Enhanced announcements manager. Announcements now have date and time display settings as well as expirations.
Enhanced email manager. A native email manager allows users to more efficiently control course email.
Enhanced document and file sharing. The document sharing tool allows instructors and students to post documents to be shared with the class. Instructors can use document sharing to post their syllabus and other course documents.
New search box functionality. The search box functionality has been modified to allow for auto-complete, which guides users to achieve more accurate search results.
New Media Index filter and search functionality. Users are now able to filter and search the Media Index through the Search Media Index tab on the Resources page. Users can filter by Chapter, Topic, and Media Type to quickly locate the desired assets.
Improved display (ability to modify the viewing area). Users are now able to drag and stretch the topic viewing area on the Resources page, and Gradebook Topic Results Summary to show lengthy titles. Also available to instructors in the Assignment Builder for the Skill Building assignments.
Improved accessibility. Pearson is committed to making our content and technology accessible to all users. We've made changes throughout the application so the user interaction is consistent with Section 508 recommendations.
Improved mobility. In the ongoing effort to make our content and technology mobile-ready, we've redeveloped media resources, including the Writing in Action, Common Grammar Errors, and Avoiding Plagiarism videos, to work across more platforms and devices.
WriteClick! WriteClick is a powerful application that encourages writers to think critically about their writing, then review, edit, and revise effectively--anywhere they write. WriteClick instantly analyzes writing for grammar and spelling errors, provides suggestions on writing skills, and puts useful tools at the writer's fingertips. WriteClick is available at no additional cost with the MyLab. Learn more.
Model Documents Player. An updated, enhanced player makes it easier to navigate and view helpful annotations and writing samples, including emails, letters, presentations, and essays. It also works across more platforms and mobile devices, and is Section 508-compliant/accessible. Additional sample documents will be added to the Lab this year.
Office Hours Plus. Completely updated videos address 10 topics useful for college writers, including writing process, avoiding plagiarism, and peer review.
Writing Strategies Topics. This new section offers instruction and practice for 9 of the traditional modes or patterns, including Argument, Cause and Effect, Comparison and Contrast, Definition, Description, Division and Classification, Illustration, Narration, and Process writing.
Writing in Action Videos. New instructional videos cover such writing purposes as Writing to Inform and Writing to Reflect.
Grammar Podcasts. Additional podcasts have been added to the Resources and the MyCompLab's Toolkit areas.

New Enhancements for Summer 2011!

In the Resources section, you will find the following content enhancements:

Introducing WriteClick! WriteClick is a powerful application that encourages writers to think critically about their writing, then review, edit, and revise effectively--anywhere they write. WriteClick instantly analyzes writing for grammar and spelling errors, provides suggestions on writing skills, and puts useful tools at the writer's fingertips. WriteClick is available at no additional cost with the MyLab. Learn more.
Enhanced composing space. An upgrade to the Composing Space editor provides numerous enhancements to improve overall usability.
Improved display/notification of status for writing assignments. We've modified our Rewrite feature for Composing assignments to better inform students when an instructor review is completed. Rather than simply noting an assignment is 'In Progress', the lab now informs students that a Rewrite is requested. This enhancement facilitates timely student and instructor interaction. The "New Reviews Available" area on the Home page has been enhanced to now include reviews that students have submitted to SourceCheck, Pearson Tutor Services, or Peer Review. Students are now able to find all documents submitted for review, and their status, in a single location.
Improved accessibility. Pearson is committed to making our content and technology accessible to all users. We've made changes throughout the application in line with Section 508 recommendations.
New Common Grammar Error Videos. New videos address some of the most common grammatical errors that writers make. New Writing in Action Videos. Additional Writing in Action videos cover writing purposes such as Writing to Analyze and Writing to Describe.
New Writing Strategies topics. This new section offers instruction and practice for 9 of the traditional modes or patterns, including Argument, Cause and Effect, Comparison and Contrast, Definition, Description, Division and Classification, Illustration, Narration, and Process writing.
New Grammar Podcasts. 47 new Grammar Podcasts and scripts from acclaimed author, June Casagrande, helps answer many of the most common grammar questions students have. (Podcasts can be accessed from both Resources and the MyCompLab's Toolkit in the Composing space.)
New MyCompLabs on Writing Videos. 40 additional videos from our Penguin Author Series can be found in the More Writing Resources section of Resources. All videos also include closed-captioning. New Writing Purposes Exercises and Assignments. 40 additional exercises and assignments can be found in the Writing Purposes sections of Resources and Assignments. All new exercises and assignments will be image- and video-based.

New Enhancements for Winter 2010/2011!

Redesigned Resources display. A new design makes it easier to view all instruction, multimedia, and exercise content within each Resources topic.
Ability to require Resources. As part of the new Resources design, instructors can require students to complete individual assets or entire topics under the Resources tab. Instructors can assign a due date to individual assets resulting in the asset being added to each student's To Do list and Study Plan.
New Gradebook display and pages. A new column on the Student Results page has been added to display scores for required resources. A corresponding page provides specific details for each student's performance on the required resources. This new page also indicates which topics are on each student's Study Plan.
Adaptive To Do list and Study Plan. Each student's Study Plan will adapt based on her diagnostic results, assets required by the instructor, or comments made by the instructor on her writing submissions. The student can track the status of all assignments and required activities on their To Do list.
Integrated originality checker. Pearson's SourceCheck is now integrated into the Composing space. SourceCheck helps instructors monitor originality and encourages students to document and cite their sources. SourceCheck instantly spots similarities and reports matches. Documents can be submitted by the instructor or the instructor can choose to allow students to submit their own work.
Prebuilt Courses. Four book-specific courses and a course focused on the WPA outcomes include suggested syllabi plus preloaded composition assignments. These courses will make it quick and easy to create and administer courses.
Precise tracking of student submissions. The calendar and gradebook will display student submission dates based on time zone choices.
New Instructor Resources. A new Instructor Resources page linked from the homepage provides instructors with teaching tips, ways to solve course challenges, grading strategies, ClassPrep (a database of downloadable instructor resources), and more!
New Instruction Assets and Exercise Sets. We have added instruction assets and exercises to help round out coverage in selected Grammar topics.
Writing in Action Videos. We've updated the Writing in Action videos with an updated design, closed-captioning, and references to newer word-processing programs.
Common Grammar Error Videos. Videos have been added to cover more common errors!
Grammar Podcasts. The Grammar Podcasts have been added to the Multimedia resources section in addition to being offered in the MyCompLab's Toolkit.
New eText courses. We're launching eighteen new MyWritingLab products with eTexts for 2010 spring/summer courses.

New Enhancements for Summer 2010!

New Home pages. The instructor and student Home pages have been streamlined and designed to be easier to use.
Audio Commenting. Instructors now have the option to record and attach an audio comment when responding to student documents. (Available in August)
More Flexible Grading Options. Instructors can now grade on any point scale between 0.01 and 1000. The instructor can also customize grades in the Gradebook to display as points, percentages, or letter grades.
Enhanced Composing Space. The Composing space has been updated to provide more consistent formatting, more prominently displayed word count, and more.
Instructor Announcements. Instructors can now add course announcements that will appear for students on their Home page.
Syllabus Manager. Instructors can now manage and post their syllabus from their Home page.
Instructor Blog and Podcast. Instructors can use this tool to create and post podcasts, and author a blog for each of their courses.
File Submission and Support for Multi-Modal Composing. Instructors now have control to give students the option to attach files to their MCL submissions. Instructors can encourage this to support multi-modal composition (audio, video, PowerPoint, etc.). Students may also use this to submit fully-formatted documents illustrating documentation for research papers.
Course Deletion. Instructors can delete courses permanently. The option to archive still exists.
Learning Objectives. We have developed learning objectives for all Resources topics and subtopics.
Additional instructional content and exercise sets in Resources section. Selected topics are augmented with new instructional assets and exercises to address specific learning objectives.
MyCompLabs on Writing videos. Novelists, poets, and other writers inspire students as they talk about their work and the craft of writing. Students can access these in the Writing tab as well as from the Writing Tips area of MyCompLab's Toolkit.
Interactive "Grammar Apply" assignable sets. New sets are available for instructors will to assign to students through Assignment Builder. (Grammar Apply sets help students practice grammar interactively and within the context of full paragraphs.)
More image, audio, video, and interactivity. We've added more content that incorporates images, audio, video, and interaction to help students with varied learning styles.
Model Documents and Sample Papers. In both Resources and the MyCompLab's Toolkit, sample documents are now annotated and interactive.
Grammar Podcasts. New topics include Copular Verbs, Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases, Articles, Capitalization, Apostrophes, and End Punctuation. Students can now find these podcasts in the MyCompLab's Toolkit of their Composing space.
Writing in Action videos. Updated Writing in Action videos are being added throughout the spring and fall. These videos demonstrate writing in an electronic environment with an updated design and interface.
Comprehensive content review. As part of a broader, longer-term development plan, we have completed a full review of our vast Resources content bank. This initiative helps us ensure accuracy as well as continue strategizing and developing our learning aids and assessment to make them even more robust for 2011 and beyond.

New Enhancements for Winter 2009/2010!

Flexible group management for Peer Review and Collaboration assignments. Instructors will have the flexibility to change groups and move students after the assignment has started. Instructors will also be able to save group settings and use those groups in future assignments.
Save and reuse groups. Instructors can now save their groups as a template for reuse in other assignments. They can save up to 5 group templates.
Enhanced Draft History and Return for Rewrite. The user's Draft History and Comments will now capture two drafts and include instructor comments for both the student and the instructor. The instructor can use Return for Rewrite twice with each student for each assignment, allowing the instructor to provide feedback and track changes without assigning a grade.
Welcome message for first-time users. A "Welcome" message for instructors and students has been added to help users get started and call attention to popular Resources, including the self-assessment diagnostics.
Deleting MyComments. Instructors can delete from their list of favorite comments (MyComments) in their commenting Toolkit.
Easier assignment creation (all assignment types). Instructors can begin building an assignment without finishing all of the steps. When they want to resume building that assignment, they can simply revisit it and pick up where they left off.
Easier assignment creation (Diagnostics and Skill Building). We have swapped Step 2 (assignment details) and Step 3 (choosing diagnostics or skill-building topics) for Diagnostic and Skill Building assignments so instructors can see the assessments prior to giving the assignment a title.
Enhanced file manager. Instructors will be able to access all functionality in the File Manager as they build assignments.
Enhanced emailing functionality. Ability to add CC, BCC, and file attachments when emailing students.
Notes and announcements. Ability to post notes and announcements to the Calendar directly from the Calendar on the Home page.
Clearer direction lines. For example, we have changed "Draft History" to "Drafts and Comments" to be more accurate and intuitive.
Enhanced multiple choice questions in Grammar topics. We added additional distracters to several multiple choice questions, thereby reducing the potential for students to make "50/50" guesses.
Interactive grammar exercises. We have added grammar application exercises ("Grammar Apply") to make the assessment of these skills more interactive.
More assignable skill-building sets. We added assignable, self-graded quizzes to each of the Writing Purposes topics.
Updates to APA content. APA-related content now reflects certain updates made in the Sixth Edition (July 2009) of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.
Model Documents and Sample Papers. In both Resources and MyCompLab's Toolkit, sample papers have been revised to reflect recent updates to MLA and APA documentation. As well, many papers are now formatted in our interactive iViewer, which includes helpful annotations in context.
Podcasts. We have added podcasts to our series by June Casagrande (author of Penguin's Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies). New topics include Copular Verbs, Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases, Articles, Capitalization, Apostrophes, and End Punctuation. Students can find these podcasts in the MyCompLab's Toolkit of their Composing space.
Learning Objectives. Learning objectives will be added for each topic throughout the spring.
Writing in Action videos. Updated Writing in Action videos will be added throughout the spring. These videos demonstrate writing in an electronic environment with an updated design and interface.
New eText options. New eText options. We launched twenty new eTexts for 2010 spring/summer courses.
Comprehensive content review. We continued with our annual content review to ensure our content is accurate and effective.

New Enhancements for Summer 2009!

New composing space. Our new composing space is easier to use, better maintains formatting, includes a word count, and much more. It's a meaningful improvement all around. Students and instructors are going to love it!
Student summary gradebook report. Our new student summary report allows instructors to see the results of each student's work on the practice exercises. Instructors can see total time spent on exercises, drill down into specific topics, and even compare each student's results to the class average.
Resource diagnostics for self-paced practice/assessment. Diagnostics have been added to the Resource section for students who might be using MCL on their own or if instructors want to recommend diagnostics without having to create an assignment.
Relabeling of the To Do section of MCL to Assignments. This change will make it more intuitive for instructors to find where they can create, view, and grade assignments.
Peer Review Tips. A document describing "best practices" for Peer Review assignments has been added to the Assignment Builder. This document gives tips for using the Peer Review assignment effectively.
Clearer direction lines. The direction lines throughout the application have been revised to provide clear and precise instruction to the user, making MyCompLab easier to use.
Integrated "help tips." Tips for using MyCompLab have been integrated throughout making it easy for users to get help with the most commonly used features.
Print Draft History. Student and instructors can more easily print their drafts and reviews. Print Assignment Details. Students and instructors can now print assignment details.
Streamlined registration process. We were able to reduce multiple steps in the registration process by changing the way students join a course. Student will now need a CourseID to join a course. Please consult our new registration and getting-started guides for details.
Improved Grammar exercises. We've added assignable (Skill Building) exercise sets to twenty grammar topics. (Skill Building exercises are now available in sets of 10 rather than sets of 20, 30, or 40, which allows instructors more flexibility when creating grammar assignments.) Also, instant feedback is now available to students for the majority of grammar sets.
2009 MLA updates. Our eBooks, Resources content (instruction, multimedia, and exercises), MyCompLab's Toolkit, and model documents have been revised to be consistent with the new 2009 MLA updates.
New CMS content. We've added CMS coverage, specifically for endnotes, footnotes and bibliographic notes.
New podcasts. We've added to our podcast series by June Casagrande (author of Penguin's Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies) covering several topics, including Hyphenation, Passive Voice, Plural Possessives, and Stickler Words.
New eBook options. We're launching thirteen eBooks for fall 2009 courses.
Comprehensive content review. We've launched our annual content review in an ongoing effort to make sure our content is error-free and effective.

New Enhancements for Winter 2008/2009!

Endless practice exercises. Exercises in the Resource section are now available for students to take over and over without the need for instructors to reset the topic.
Copy assignments. When instructors copy or link a course, all assignments associated with that course will copy over as well. Delete assignments. Instructors now have the ability to delete assignments.
Shared My Comments. "My Comments" created by instructors will carry over from course to course.
Upload and attach documents. Instructors can upload and attach documents. There is a new section on the instructor Home to post documents, such as a syllabus. Instructors can also upload and attach documents to their assignments. The functionality supports multiple file types. All uploaded files can be shared with students.
Link to topics and Resources from assignments. Instructors can now link to topic pages under Resources from their assignments. This means instructors can more easily recommend or require exercises from the Resource section and complement their assignments with MyCompLab's instruction and multimedia assets.
Longer calendar notes. The character limit on calendar notes has been increased by 400%.
New eBook platform. Beginning January 1, 2009, all eBook versions of MyCompLab include a new interactive eBook. The new eBook allows instructors and students to customize and personalize their eBook experience with highlighting, note taking and extensive search capabilities.
Test drive assignments. Instructors can now try out their assignments without limitation. If instructors attempt one of their own assignments, MyCompLab will not prevent them from making changes (e.g., adjusting groups or changing Skill Building exercises).
Grading flexibility for Skill Building assignments. Instructors can now grade Skill Building assignments using any value between 0 and 100.
New gradebook options. When clicking on a grade in the gradebook, the user now has the option to open the assignment, view the draft history or change the grade (if applicable).
Late assignments recorded in gradebook. Gradebook now records an "L" if the due date has passed and the assignment has not been submitted. The instructor can then click on the "L" and change the grade (e.g., "0").
Emailing students. Instructors now have the ability to email all students in their roster at one time in addition to emailing students individually.
Smarthinking Tutor Review alert. Students now receive an alert on their Home page when a document reviewed by a tutor has been returned.
Clearer direction lines. As users move from page to page in the application, the directions explaining what can be done with specific functionality has been edited to be clear and concise.
Revised Multimedia Index. A more robust multimedia index allows users to easily navigate MyCompLab's video, audio, and interactive resources.
News and announcements. The MyCompLab login page now has a "News and Announcements" section, where the MyCompLab team can post important announcements for our users.
New Skill Building exercises. Assignable Skill Building exercises have been added. There are now exercise sets for all topics.
Interactive Avoiding Plagiarism tutorials. These new animated tutorials use visuals and audio to teach students to avoid plagiarism while writing research papers.
New Chicago Manual of Style coverage. Instruction, exercises, and diagnostic tests covering CMS style have been added to the Research section of Resources.
Additional assignable diagnostics. We've added four new assignable diagnostic tests to give instructors more flexibility. These diagnostics are available from the Diagnostic assignment from To Do.
New Audio Lessons. Updated content and newly-designed lessons allow students to download an audio version of key topics or read the text on screen.
New Weekly podcast. Author June Casagrande (www.grammarsnobs.com) provides an interesting and entertaining introduction to writing and grammar topics. The MyCompLab Weekly Podcast is available from the login page accessible from www.mycomplab.com.
New Model Documents. New interactive model documents have been added to the Writing section under Resources, allowing students to click on highlighted portions of each document and read the corresponding annotations.
Comprehensive content review. We've launched a comprehensive content review/edit in an ongoing effort to make sure our content is error-free and effective.