Associate Professor of Economics Roger Butters promises his online program can raise students’ test scores by as much as 10 percent.
After teaching online for 12 years, Butters said he realized teaching technology, at the time, was archaic and that a traditional textbook was not interactive enough for students. He created the online program ConnectMaster Economics to teach students economics through a modern, user-friendly platform.
Now used in institutions of higher education across the county, Butters’ system incorporates video and interactives to teach microeconomics and macroeconomics in a personalized manner for students that traditional textbooks can’t.
“The textbook doesn’t tell you where to start. You start reading on page one,” Butters said. “The textbook doesn’t tell you where you’re confused. The textbook can’t tell you where you need to review, and the textbook can’t answer questions in the middle of the night.”
The online program is powered by McGraw-Hill Education’s LearnSmart, an online study tool using interactive teaching methods that is available for various subjects. ConnectMaster Economics instructs students at their own pace. It identifies what students know by testing them on their level of knowledge and then proceeds to explain the fundamentals. It also evaluates students on a conceptual basis and not by chapter.
“If you have a lecture and you don’t take good notes, then you might have some problems later when you’re doing your homework,” sophomore Samson Racioppi said. “But the videos are there and you can just keep on referring to the information and go right to where you need.”
The program began in the spring of 2011 when Butters, who had taught online courses at Solano College in California, and coauthor Carlos Asarta, his colleague at the University of Nebraska, met with McGraw-Hill to explain the idea.
“I spent about 45 minutes in my office with a white board outlining what it is I thought we should do,” Butters said. “And he looked at me and said, ‘We’ve been trying to figure that out for three years. That’s exactly what we want.’”
Butters had a hand in almost every part of ConnectMaster Economics, including creation of the tests, videos, and texts.
Today, community colleges, two-year schools, four-year universities, and more use Butters’ program. In his own classes, Butters requires students to use the online videos and testing activities.
“What makes that nice at a school like Hillsdale is that we don’t limit ourselves to a basic understanding of the principles of economics. We can rely on that to give you the basics, and then we can just go crazy and have all kinds of fun discussing application,” Butters said.
Against competing products, ConnectMaster Economics boosts exam scores up to 10 percent, he said. The program became so popular that only six months after its publication date in 2015, McGraw-Hill contacted Butters about making a second edition.
But beyond the academic help, students said they appreciate it for tracking their growth.
“LearnSmart is really cool because it takes what you’re learning and adapts to your own learning style, what you’re picking up and not picking up. It just keeps feeding you practice questions like a personalized tutor that knows how your brain works,” senior Tucker Phillips said. “I think it’s pretty revolutionary.”
