Professor Nick Brittin at Lake Michigan College has been using Hawkes Learning’s English Composition since 2016 in both his face-to-face and hybrid sections. Brittin chose to incorporate this software in his courses because he wanted to spend more time with students developing their ideas and their writing. By assigning homework through Hawkes, he uses less class time lecturing and more time on collaboration, essay development, revision, and in-depth class discussions.
Brittin believes the mastery-based approach of Hawkes benefits students, who are able to learn at a “personalized pace, so they aren’t held back by the rigidity of a traditional content structure.” He has observed how some students move through the material quickly, while others need to spend more time with the lesson content before mastering it.
Each student has access to interactive eBook content in the software’s Learn mode, which includes videos and relates lessons to students’ personal, professional, and academic lives. The Practice mode contains questions with detailed tutorials and step-by-step, error-specific feedback for common mistakes. The Certify mode acts as the homework that students must master at an 80% proficiency level to receive full credit for each assignment.
With this system and their valuable class time, students master the foundational content of a composition course while deepening the writing skills that they can apply to any college course.
