Debora Herold knows first-hand that interactive materials are vital to effectively engage students and ensure they carry forward the concepts of your course. As a cognitive psychologist, she teaches students how important it is to regularly engage in retrieval practice and to frequently test their knowledge and understanding. To model this approach in her classes, she sought support to promote active learning throughout the textbook authored by the IU Indianapolis psychology department.
Debora Herold
Teaching professor & director
of undergraduate studies, Psychology, IU Indianapolis
Herold highly recommends working with the IU Indianapolis Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) when developing projects. She recalls, "the CTL has been incredibly helpful with reviewing materials, helping me think through the changes, keeping me on track, and making suggestions for even more technologies I might consider in the future."
This process is mirrored in the updates that Herold has made to the psychology textbook. With funding from a 2024 Curriculum Enhancement Grant, she is working to improve long-term retention of course materials by enriching the text with engagement tools.
Reflecting on her observations of students' relationship with the text in the past, Herold shares that she "knows how easy it is when you are reading a textbook to allow your mind to wander. It is common for students to get to the end of a section, or even a whole chapter, and realize that they have no memory of what they just read." Here is where the need for deeper engagement comes in. Herold has strived to make the text more interactive, including incremental requirements (e.g., a tutorial activity, a video, or flash "Check Your Understanding" quiz questions) to test the reader's knowledge.
While she initially focused on making the book more interactive and engaging, Herold also emphasizes that it is equally important for the text to be affordable and inclusive of all students' accessibility needs. As such, the department decided to make the book available through the IU eTexts initiative. Ordering through IU eTexts has allowed psychology students to access the book at a significantly discounted price. The digital format also allows students to read it on any device (from a phone to a desktop computer) using the e-reader, which is designed to promote engagement, academic success, and retention.
Fall 2024 IU Indianapolis Psychology B110 instructors and students are now the first readers to try out the revamped book. With their feedback, live edits and enhancements can be pushed to the text immediately. "If we hear from students that something was unclear, we can make an update right away. If they tell us that something is very helpful and that they want more of it, we can immediately revise."