Getting Started with Waymaker from Lumen Learning

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What is Lumen Learning and Waymaker?

How do I get started?

What is Succeeding with Waymaker?

Lumen Learning is an education technology company headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Lumen Learning is a team of former educators and students, some of them are even current students, so they understand how important your time is. That is why they create course materials that save you time by helping you learn more effectively and focus your studies to be more successful in your class.

Lumen Learning’s courseware, which is called Waymaker, provides tools that guide you through your course’s content giving you individualized feedback on your learning progress. This document will walk you through how to access Waymaker and show you how to complete your readings and assignments. It also covers where and how to pay for Waymaker courseware. You can also go to lumenlearning.com/gettingstartedwithwaymaker to watch a video of this process.

To get started with Waymaker, the first step is to log into your school’s learning management system. Once logged in, find your course. Once you’re inside your course, you will see that Waymaker is seamlessly integrated inside your course website. You don’t need to login anywhere else to complete your Waymaker homework or read your textbook.

“Succeeding with Waymaker” has helpful information about how you can use Waymaker to improve your learning. Your very first assignment is in the “Succeeding with Waymaker” module and is called, “Research Consent and Communication Preferences.”

Lumen Learning uses data to help them understand what works well and what works poorly in your course. For example, they look at which questions were missed so they can improve those questions and the content in the textbook. When you check agree, it gives them permission to analyze and use your data for academic research purposes. They anonymize all data used for these research activities, so your name is not associated with the research data. Once you have selected Agree or Disagree, scroll down to Communication Preferences.

Here, it is important to add your preferred email address so your instructor can communicate with you. Take a moment and think about and indicate your goals for this course. When you have completed both the Research Consent and Communication Preferences click submit.

Clicking NEXT will take you through the rest of the “Succeeding with Waymaker” module, which is a great place to revisit during the term if you need a refresher on how to use Waymaker.

4 Where is the textbook and how do I use it?Back on your course homepage, each content module (or chapter) is presented as a Waymaker study plan. Study Plans all have the same parts: Why it Matters, Show What You Know, Dive In and Finish Strong.

“Why It Matters” introduces the concepts or learning outcomes you’ll focus on in this module and how they relate to everyday life.

Next, you are invited to take an ungraded “Show What You Know” pretest to preview the material and see what might you already know from previous school or work experience. When you go back to the study plan after completing this pretest, you’ll see color-coded sections that tell you where to focus, based on your pretest results.

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How do I use quizzes and assessments?

What if I have questions?

When you are ready for your end-of-module graded quiz, click “Ready for the Quiz?” to exit the study plan. Then click on the module quiz to start.

Waymaker courses automatically let you take every graded quiz twice, and only your highest grade is recorded. Use your first quiz attempt to help you learn. Pay attention to the feedback you receive after you complete the quiz. This feedback is displayed after the quiz and also updates in your personalized “Dive In” section of your study plan.

If you have any content or grading questions during the term you should contact your instructor. If you are having trouble accessing or paying for Waymaker, please reference your syllabus for additional information on where you can go for help. Since Waymaker is inside your school’s learning management system you can typically contact your school’s help desk for assistance.

With that helpful guidance, now it’s time to “Dive In” to the content. Each section provides learning activities you go through to learn the course material. They can include text, videos, graphics, images, simulations, case studies, and interactive “try it” practice activities to test your understanding. This content is your textbook!

Be sure to take advantage of the many practice opportunities built into this Waymaker course. Research shows learning by doing is SIX TIMES more effective than just reading or watching a video, so you’ll definitely do better in this class if you take advantage of practice questions.

As you work through each section, you will see interactive “self-checks” along the way. Use these questions to test your knowledge and prepare for the graded quiz. As you complete these questions, the study plan updates to show you how your learning is progressing and where to focus to improve your performance. After going through the “Dive In” sections, you get to “Putting It Together” a summary of the material in the Study Plan.

While it can be tempting to take your second quiz attempt right after your first attempt, it is recommend that you return to your study plan for at least 20 minutes to review the content you missed on your quiz. Research shows students who do this perform 10% better, on average, with their second quiz attempt.

See a video overview of Waymaker and learn more at:

lumenlearning.com/getting started with waymaker

Have a fantastic term!