Understanding Your College Experience
John N. Gardner; Betsy O. Barefoot; Kimberly A. Koledoye
Third Edition | ©2020
College Success
Bridge the Gap Between Aspiration and Success
Students enter college with big goals, but many struggle with the unseen challenges—time management, motivation, and the strategies needed to thrive. Help them develop the skills, habits, and mindset to turn ambition into achievement—in college and beyond.
Explore College Success ToolsCollege Success Products by Course
Comprehensive First-Year Options
Concise First-Year Options
Solutions to Bring College Success to Life
Achieve Courseware
Custom Content
Instructor Resources
Achieve Courseware
An all-in-one platform designed to improve learning outcomes, spark curiosity, and inspire deeper learning.
LearningCurve Adaptive Quizzing
LearningCurve transforms the first-year college experience by empowering educators to set their students up for success. Through personalized, adaptive quizzes, LearningCurve identifies knowledge gaps, builds confidence, and improves retention—ensuring students come to class prepared and ready to engage.
For educators, it’s a powerful tool to support diverse levels of preparedness, creating a more confident, capable, and successful classroom from day one.
Tools to Support Metacognition
- Goal-setting and Reflection Surveys (GRS) empower first-year students to set meaningful academic goals, reflect on their progress, and develop strategies for success—building personal accountability and self-awareness.
- ACES (Academic and Career Excellence System), exclusive to Connections courses, provides actionable insights by assessing students’ strengths and areas for growth. Together, these tools help educators foster academic and career readiness, setting students on a path to success from day one.
Active Learning Tools with iClicker
iClicker is a powerful classroom engagement tool that fosters interactive, engaging learning experiences, equipping first-year students to thrive in their new academic environment.
- Active Participation: Engage students with real-time polling and group work, turning even large classrooms into hubs of active learning and self-assessment.
- Foster Accountability: Features like attendance tracking and focus mode help students stay on track and develop habits that pave the way for lifelong success.
- Confidence Building: By promoting engagement and real-time understanding, students gain the skills and confidence they need to succeed from day one.
Learning Modules for College Success
The new modules in Understanding Your College Experience deliver the latest research and expanded content on critical topics like test-taking, study strategies, mental health, and learning science. Fully customizable and designed for flexibility, these resources can be integrated into other Achieve College Success courses, helping educators foster academic and personal growth.
Custom Content
College Success course materials that reflect your teaching style, course objectives, and student needs.
Customize Prebuilt Course Materials
Don’t have time to create course materials from scratch? Mix and match prebuilt resources, or integrate your own materials, to create highly personalized course content that aligns perfectly with your course and institution. Plus, take advantage of Achieve's editable ebooks to tailor ebooks to fit your curriculum.
Create Your Own Materials
Design course materials tailored to your course and teaching style. From custom editable e-books and online resources to multimedia content and assessments, customize everything to fit your course needs in print, digital, or hybrid formats.
Ensure Your Content Stays Relevant
Easily update your materials to stay current and meet the unique needs of your students. Macmillan Learning’s expert editors are here to support you, ensuring your content remains engaging and impactful for your audience.
Support Every Step of the Way
Create and customize textbooks, assessments, videos, and more. From start to finish, the Macmillan Learning team helps bring your vision to life with materials tailored to your course and your students' needs.
Instructor Resources
Support your teaching and simplify your workflow with ready-to-use tools, analytics, and expert support.
Ready-to-Use Resources
Streamline your course prep with curated teaching tools like test banks, lecture slides, and iClicker questions. These resources save you time and engage first-year students with dynamic, interactive content tailored for their success. Create or log in to your instructor account to access these valuable tools!
TradeUps
Enhance your course with a Common Read program by pairing a college success text with one of Macmillan Learning’s trade titles at an affordable price. Spark meaningful discussions and inspire first-year students with relevant, impactful content that connects to their real-world experiences.
Assessments Aligned with Learning Objectives
Achieve’s assessment content is designed to support every student on their learning journey. Built on a Learning Objectives framework—developed with College Success instructors and grounded in learning science best practices—it helps track student performance by objective, making it easy to identify where extra support is needed. With every course and institution being unique, custom solutions are also available to fit specific needs and goals.
Dedicated Instructor Support, Always
Our team is here to help with tailored resources, training, demos, and best practices to meet your teaching goals. Need support? Schedule a demo or training anytime.
The Impact of Learning Science and Research
Empower student success with evidence-based product experiences in College Success.
See the ResearchLMS Integration
Sync Macmillan Learning tools with your LMS for easy access to assignments, grades, and course materials—all in one place.
Learn About LMS IntegrationInclusive Access
Provide all students with affordable, day-one access to digital course materials through your LMS.
Learn About Inclusive AccessExplore the Latest in College Success
Stay updated on trending topics, news, and valuable resources to keep you ahead in the world of College Success.
Research
Improving Success for Historically Marginalized College Students
How can sense of belonging and metacognitive strategies improve success for Black, Latino, Indigenous, and Lower-Income (BLI-LI) students? Explore the research below to find actionable insights and strategies to take into your own classrooms!
Research
Discover the Power of Multimedia Assessments
Interactive assessments go beyond simply testing knowledge—they actively deepen understanding and improve course outcomes. See the study below for more insights!
Research
Metacognition Drives Student Success
Students with strong metacognitive skills earn better grades, transfer knowledge more effectively, and graduate at higher rates. Explore the research and discover actionable strategies to support student success.
