Sitting in his office on Kendall’s fourth floor, economics professor Roger Butters grins as he shows a colleague the latest McGraw-Hill advertisement for the economics textbook he co-authored. Nearby, a large photograph on the wall reads “Government: If you think the problems we create are bad, just wait until you see our solutions.”
Butters began programming computers at age 11 and teaching online classes in 2000. After 12 years of online teaching experience, he and friend Carlos Asarta met with the vice president for business and economics at McGraw-Hill and discussed their proposal for an online economics-teaching tool.
Connect Master Economics is an interactive digital learning experience designed to live entirely on the Internet. Instead of a traditional online textbook like Aplia, Butters and Asarta explain specific economics concepts in three to four minute videos.
Students and professors will be able to purchase the online program for $100 beginning this August.
“McGraw-Hill is very excited about this new product—how it’s being received and how it’s being used in the classroom. We are looking to revamp how content is delivered to students,” said Hope Brandel, a digital learning solutions specialist for McGraw-Hill. “It’s an all-digital product so there is no comprehensive print version. Everything is being delivered to the student in electronic format so it’s a brand new approach to learning.”
Connect Master Economics is organized by topics and concepts. By August, it will include more than 200 videos. Since it lives entirely online, new content can be added at anytime. Butters said he and Asarta already have 130 additional ideas ready for immediate development.
“This is office hours help at three in the morning. It’s not going to waste your time,” Butters said. “McGraw-Hill has made this even bigger and more robust than we anticipated. With the advent of the adaptive learning engine, what would be a good online teaching resource is now the silver bullet for education.”
The adaptive learning engine allows the online product to create a custom learning plan for each user. The computer will test the user’s knowledge of various economics concepts and then create a lineup of videos for the user to study based on his performance.
“Economics is not always intuitive and his product allows you to rewatch a video lecture until a concept makes perfect sense,” Economics Professor Michael Clark said. “The education market is definitely changing and he has a product that’s at the forefront of that change.”
Hundreds of people have been involved in the multimillion-dollar project, which will be available in both English and Spanish.
“Every last piece of this product exists for a reason. With studying, sometimes you don’t even know where to start. This engine will tell you where to start,” Butters said. “The level of customization is unheard of. It will change the way education is done…McGraw-Hill expects it to be the product of the year.”
Butters stars in a majority of the English videos, and Asarta stars in some of the English videos and all of the Spanish videos. Both authors have spent months filming these videos in New York, writing and editing scripts, and describing the design they want for animations, design, and graphs to various project teams. McGraw-Hill owns the product, and Butters Asarta are co-authors.
“I was never going to have the resources to do something like this by myself so it’s really exciting to work with McGraw-Hill and actually see it happen,” Butters said. “It’s kind of terrifying because people count on you to deliver. But when someone gives you an opportunity to live your dream, you don’t say no. You obviously say yes.”
