By Kathleen Park Talaro Foundations in Microbiology with Connect Plus Access Card (9th Edition)

I am an instructor and have recently been a student. All of my students seem to love Connect and a lot of them really like the learnsmart. As an instructor, I did not require the "Learnsmart" activities which are basically flashcards, but a lot of students really like them and did them all on their own. The "connect" homework is quite interactive and at first the students complained because it wasn't simply multiple choice questions and took more time. I realized I needed to put less questions on their homework because each question could be quite in depth and consist of multiple parts. Instructors must actually take the time to create an assignment in "connect" for most texts and the options include multiple choice questions, fill in the blank, video based questions (students watch video and then questions pertain to it) and there are also many interactive questions. There might be an important figure or concept map question in which students are required to arrange or drag and drop options. They even have case study modules you can assign. There are some excellent tutorials and modules on gram staining and other lab techniques that either use animations or a live video showing a demonstration that is accompanied by questions throughout. The students really seem to learn the material this way. Another plus for instructors is that once you have a connect course, you can pick questions from any McGraw Hill micro text - I used this book of course along with a couple of others and the lab manuals. I have used connect for Anatomy & Physiology, Microbiology, Biology, and Psychology (the psychology course actually had assignments already created, it was great) and it is quite a nice system. My major complaint is exporting or importing material could definitely be improved (i.e. examinations - I didn't like having to create them from scratch). We switched to a different book with a different publisher with less interactive items than "connect" and I got a lot of complaints even though the new homework was easier (the only options are regular multiple choice, true/false, etc.).

First of all let me say that I have seen this from both sides. I am both a college professor on whom LeanSmart has been pushed and I am a college student on the verge of violence due to the frustration of wasting precious hours of my life to use this product for my microbiology class.This program is absolutely terrible. McGraw Hill has successfully marketed this piece of crap to instructors as a "learning" tool with "proven" results, but in reality is nothing of the sort. What it is instead is a time wasting exercise in futility.Basically, LearnSmart is a never ending list of inane activities and questions, most of which appear to be written by illiterates. There are typos everywhere, questions are very poorly worded (the writers apparently have no knowledge of instrument design), and riddled with mistakes and inconsistencies. Overall, a very sloppy production. Furthermore, the website bogs down constantly, freezes, shuts down, harasses you to let it install stuff on your computer (which it will not explain). You cannot get any technical support-- all they do is read you the FAQs.Let's face it-- the student is NOT McGraw Hill's customer-- the instructor is. The goal is to con instructors into requiring their students to buy this garbage, each one shelling out somewhere around $100 for it. McGraw Hill has created this monstrosity as a profit scheme and nothing more. They have invested a lot into controlling web content regarding their company and all its many products as well. Search for McGraw Hill and you will find nothing but their promotional pages. Try to find complaints about LearnSmart and only one thing other than company pages comes up.If your instructor is requiring you to buy this, I empathize and I am so sorry for your loss-- of money, time, and sanity. If you are considering purchasing this of your own volition, I advise against it.