McGraw-Hill Connect Reviews

Pros

Its a textbook, so it will only serve so many purposes in the modern classroom. The map resources are really helpful and the lesson topics are diverse and interesting. Assessments and projects lack depth, but a strong teacher should be able to implement textbook where necessary.

Cons

As noted, project ideas and assessments are weak. There are some decent ideas for project based learning, but the educator will have to modify for specific needs. Good

Pros

McGraw-Hill Connect gives teachers many different options on how they want to teach their classes. I can only speak on the math portion of the software. I like that you can create classes for students to access the online textbook and to practice multiple problems of the material we covered that day. Giving students access to the textbook online takes away the homework excuse that they forgot the book at school. You also get access to a test generator that I use almost daily. They also have different activities you can print off to use in class.

Cons

I can't think of one negative aspect of McGraw-Hill Connect.

Pros

I like nothing about this site. It is a headache to use. Student want simple things that work, especially when we pay $1000s each semester for e-books and connect!

Cons

This whole site needs an upgrade. it logs you out every 20 minutes. it takes 10 mins to log back in. We pay entirely way to much every semester for this site to be this aweful. Please hire the people who work on salesforce to fix your site.

Pros

When I shut my computer and turn off their program

Cons

Customer support is terrible. Call goes to Philippines with no help. Instant chat took 20 minutes before they got to me. Then they told me they couldn’t help me. Video so low volume even support couldn’t hear it. Told me to use closed captions to do my homework.

Pros

This is my fourth time using Mcgraw for textbook and assignments, I love this software. This is an easy-to-use program that assists in the learning of topic through well throughout assignments and activities.

Cons

The cost is a downside for me, the plus is an entire semester is covered but it is costly for program.

Pros

I liked how easily it integrated with canvas. It made it easy to connect with the classroom and access assignments.

Cons

I didn't like the courseware provided, it was not the best quality and often found easy ways to cheat and didn't require much thinking which caused me to fail several courses.

Pros

It's visually appealing I guess, although for the price you pay... Sure, whatever.

Cons

Price-Absolutely ridiculous. Should not be this expensive for a e-book that expires.
Concepts/Assignments- Incredibly tedious. Practically holds you at gunpoint until you answer the same exact question at least 4 times, and then does it again with every. Single. Question. I think I'd rather light myself on FIRE than spend another 4 hours doing 2 assignments with poorly-worded questions and absolutely ZERO feedback.

Pros

That I could at least work on my assingments there.

Cons

I hate it. Because everytime I try to do my assignments on there it zaps out because they claims that the connection is down even though my wifi connection is there. Colleges should not use Mcgraw hill connect ever because it cannot make up it's mind between it wanting to work or not. Also if I could rate it zero stars I would because I took my accounting exam last Friday and the amount of times I had to log back in on a TIMED TEST is insane. Please get your act together or you will go bankrupt.

Pros

I liked that it was simple to use and administer to students.

Cons

Oftentimes, too many questions were included on these practice exams, which would take students too long to complete. No problems with the software itself.

Pros

I like the games for students to play and the online features to project to the class.

Cons

It is NOT user friendly at all for first grade students.

Pros

1. Simple McGraw-Hill login and access.
2. A step-by-step navigation guide.
3. It is user friendly.
4. It has a personalized approach to building sessions and topics from various learning resources.
5. Making student assignments simple.
6. Day to day follow-up and tracking of student activities.
7. Supervising the slow learners is made easy.
8. Interactive Virtual labs are an attraction.
9. Excellent e-learning tool for students.
10. Assessment questions can be generated automatically based on topics selected and can be imported easily.
11. Instant technical support.

Cons

1. It's pricey.
2. Requires internet connection.

Pros

ease of connection to this software is pretty good.

Cons

The questions are overly wordy and the multiple-choice answers are so similar and some of them, that could be right, are graded as incorrect. Beyond frustrating to the point that I am seeking out to write this negative review.

Pros

It is visually appealing. That is the extent of any positive aspect

Cons

Everything else. The testing/quizzes practically holds the user hostage for hundreds of repeat questions. The reading/knowledgebase is a mixture of conjecture, ambiguity and specifics making discerning an answer or forming a conclusion exceptionally hit/miss. The best bet to save time is to write down the incorrect answers and use them to proceed.

Pros

That is sync's the assignment grades in Connect to your school's learning management system such as D2L.

Cons

Nothing is missing or difficulty to use. It works well with our learning management system (D2L) and was easily adopted.

Pros

I like that it allows my students to practice being practice and helps guide them towards becoming a more proactive individual, even as young as nine years old.

Cons

The only area that I would like to see a slight change is the progress reporting area. I would like to be able to focus on different areas of students learning at different times of the year.

Pros

Compared to its competitors Connect is falling by the way side. While some of the features are easy, like grading, the cons definitely out weigh the pros.

Cons

I have been using McGraw-Hill Connect for six years now in an administrative role, where I create master sites then share them to other teachers and myself. Then as a teacher role, where I assess student learning, create assessments, assign work, and provide feedback. So, as a platform, Connect is OK. A few years ago, its interface was more appealing that many of its competitors, but in the past couple of years, the competitors have really stepped up to make the language learning experience online a more collaborative experience, while Connect has stuck to the bare bones exercises that lack innovation, collaboration, and do not provide a fun experience that would help the students study for intrinsic reasons. Additionally, building the sites every three years when new textbook editions are released is a tedious affair. Moreover, the customer service for students is time consuming that hardly ever produces results.

Pros

When I returned to college in 2017 to obtain my MBA, I was surprised how much everything had changed. For starters, I was earning my degree 100% online. This meant lots of e-books and e-learning tools, and both are found through McGraw-Hill Connect. What I like most about this software is that it's easy to get started and easy to maintain progress. The site stores your textbooks, and when you access a textbook, the application remembers where you left off. It's easy to tag and highlight text, sections, and pages. Toggling over to work assignments, you'll find these are easily mapped out so you always know what's due and when it's due (assuming your professor has properly set up the course, of course). I admit I found it all a bit intimidating at first, but now I quite enjoy the many features and functions this learning solution has to offer.

Cons

At times, especially when you first being navigating the site, it can be easy to get lost. And this, of course, can be really frustrating when you are on a class deadline. My advice is to navigate the site slowly and learn where everything is stored. A bit of practice will save a lot of headaches in the long run.

Pros

There is absolutely nothing I like with this product.

Cons

My students pay a huge amount of money for something that never works! I receive daily dozens of emails from my stressed students saying that they can't access their book to study and do the assignments. The E-learning is causing them troubles too. Everything is. I have tried to fix things with them but it was simply not working. This product is keeping away my students from learning. It is unbelievable! As a teacher using the platform, I can say that it is the least intuitive thing ever!!! Everything is sooooo complicated, even simple tasks that should take a second is a hard on Connect. Many teachers in my university are not happy with this product and we have been asking McGrawhill for few years to put their thing together and give a better product to us and most of all to the students but it never happened.

Pros

Using the McGraw-Hill Connect with an online biochemistry course, I could see that the company took a lot of effort to pack innovative features to not only supplement the paper textbook but to advance what publishers can do for higher education. These advancements include dynamic quizzes, bookmark syncing, supplemental animations for individual topics/chapters, etc. It's really jam-packed with resources that are organized in an intuitive way.

It's also a web-based platform. I didn't have any trouble accessing Connect through a PC or Mac which was nice.

Customer service replied quickly and intelligently to any issues I had regarding subscription periods and key redemptions.

Cons

The cost. I understand a considerable amount of investment is needed to curate and manage these online resources. But as schools are moving toward open source content in response to student backlash against rising textbook prices, it makes it more difficult to swallow an online subscription that will be gone compared to a physical textbook that can be resold.

Granted - having the online component is much more convenient and an effective learning tool. But the price needs to come down.

Pros

McGraw-Hill is aspiring to create an online ecosystem in which a student (such as myself) can learn on a PC/Phone/tablet. That is really cool, and I'm glad I can take my homework with me on my phone, makes it easy to connect and get to work.

Cons

The overall feel and experience of using McGraw Hill connects platform is akin to a prison yard. The online book will not let me copy text or use external reading functionality. This prevents me from googling difficult topics or taking notes for my exam with ease. The smartlearn platform is nit picky and incorrect in it's time assessments. An assignment that should take an hour ends up taking 4 because of repeat questions and a failure to move forward. The book we are using has yielded multiple mistakes which makes me (the user) second guess if I have the correct answer or if the book is wrong. I think McGraw Hill is trying hard to keep it's users from propagating the educational material it hosts, which I understand. But I would like to say it does it at the expense of a grad students sanity and patience. Please focus on the UX and UI, because right now it is unenjoyable.

Pros

The program has been an awesome addition to our online courses. We use Blackboard to organize our courses and McGraw-Hill Connect has allowed us to manage several of our course's tests, assignments, and discussions much more efficiently and then integrate the grades very easily back into the blackboard program seamlessly.

Cons

I have not had any issues with the program to date.

Pros

My favorite feature was the homework walkthrough -- when enabled, it would give a simplified version of the problem and point out the steps to finish it. Then, I could adapt the method to finish my assigned problems. It was useful, like an automated online tutor.

Cons

The data entry is finicky and can be frustrating. Depending on the exact answer entered, I may receive points off because of rounding or significant figure errors. I also have had trouble with graphing features, when I miss credit on a graph because I do not place a line or curve at the exact right coordinates. Because of these, I waste time and frustration on formatting while my learning is not increased.

Pros

This software has been used for many of my college courses and it has definitely helped me understand the material from the textbook better than if I were to be reading it on my own. Having the textbook be interactive, with important sections highlighted and questions being asked along the way, forces me to pay more attention and think critically about what I am reading. It also helped make my reading more efficient, because I was aware of what the most important sections were when I was being quizzed.

Cons

Sometimes if I just wanted to read the textbook without having the quizzes, or just read at my own pace, little reminders about how I had been reading for awhile and not looked at any of the questions yet could get very annoying. The software is great when you want to be using it but if you are trying to avoid it, it doesn't like not being used.

Pros

I like that students and I both have digital access to the text. In addition we have access to games and homework sheets.

Cons

The assessment software is very cumbersome. It is not user friendly. I have tried on several occasions to create test and it is not worth the time I put into it. It has potential to be powerful, but just not well executed.

Pros

This software is great for professors and students to communicate and submit assignments. I have been using this software since freshman year of college and have gotten very used to the functions. It is easy to use and your book is programmed online with your access code.

Cons

Textbooks are expensive, especially books with access codes so sometimes as a college student I try to avoid buying straight through the site.