A FEW WORDS OF ADVICE ABOUT CONNECT
by Nina Schmidt
We will be using McGraw’s online assignment system called Connect. In this class, Connect and
Blackboard are “paired”, that means that you will have to access the Connect assignments through
Blackboard. To access Connect for the first time, click on the “Content” button and then “Module 1” and
“Chapter 1”. You will see a link to Connect at the end of Chapter 1, when you get to your first
assignment. This will guide you to Connect. When you sign on to Connect for the first time you will be
asked to sign in with a username and password. All your Connect scores will be reported in Blackboard
under “My Grades”. Once you have submitted an assignment, you can always refer back to it to see the
solutions and explanations at a later point by either going to the link at the end of the module for the
assignment or by going to “My Grades” and then clicking on the grade of an assignment and then clicking
on “calculated grade”.
IMPORTANT: when you are ready to take an assignment, you have to go through the link on
Blackboard under “content” and the “module” and then a “chapter”. Do not access Connect
directly to complete an assignment (this may result in your grade not showing up in Blackboard)!
In Connect, for each chapter you have to complete one assignment that contains only conceptual
questions (these are multiple choice) and one assignment that contains only calculation questions (these
are mostly fill-in-the-blank).
The conceptual assignments are always “timed” but the calculation assignments are not. For a timed
assignment you have to complete the assignment once you start it, you cannot “save it” and come
back to it. However, for the non-timed assignments, you can save the assignment and come back to it any
time you want, as long as you submit the assignment before the due date and time. All the “practice
tests” in Connect are NOT timed. (Note: For the practice tests you may be given multiple
attempts. But be careful, many of the problems in the practice tests - calculations are “dynamic”.
This means that if you start a new attempt, you will see the same questions but with different values
for the input variables. Do not just copy over the answers from a prior attempt!)
For the questions in Connect that are fill-in-the-blank, it is very important that you enter the answers in
the CORRECT FORMAT! Always look for any directions that are given in the beginning of an
assignment for any pointers on the formatting of answers. For example, in the chapters on present and
future values, the answers have to be entered as positive numbers (even though the answer may be shown
in your financial calculator as a negative number). Entering a negative number will be marked incorrect!
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Also, be careful how you enter rates! Most rates have to be entered in percentage format, again follow the
given instructions! For example, if your answer for a return is 0.1345 and you have to enter the answer in
percentage format with two decimals, make sure that you enter the answer as a 13.45. Towards the end of
the semester, you will be calculating variances and standard deviations. Variances are squared returns,
these have to be entered in decimal format not percentage format; however, standard deviations are
returns and will need to entered in percentage format. Always look for the instructions on the formatting
of your answers!
It is very important that you always “submit” your assignments and quizzes on time, even if you do
not have time to complete them! The reason for that is if you submit your assignment before the due
date and time, you can always pull up “the report” at a later point in time and see the questions and
explanations through the assignment link at the end of a module or through “my grades” (click on the
score and then “calculated score”). This will help you study for the exams. If you do not submit the
assignments on time you will not be able to pull up the report. In the report you will see which answers
are correct and which ones are incorrect. You will also see the explanations on how to get the correct
answers! For most calculation questions you will see a green key to the left of the question. Underneath
the green key you will see “show correct answer” which you have to click on in order to see the
explanation. Once you see the correct answer, you will have to click on “show your answer” to the left of
the question in order to get back to your answer.
ALL homework assignments and practice exams will count towards your Connect grade!
Your final Connect grade in % is calculated as follows:
(total points earned/total possible points)*100+5
Best of luck with using Connect!
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