Last Friday, our Marketing Director, Arianna Irwin, got to talk to a Coconino Community College Math Faculty Member and Derivita Power User: Marcus Szwankowski.

Marcus first started using Derivita when he was brought onboard to the Flagstaff-based campus in 2020. “It [Derivita] was already in use with some of the other courses in our department, so when I got my teacher load it had some Derivita in there”.

When asked what his initial reaction to the platform was, he replied, “I think my reaction was more curiosity, how does it compare to the others [math courseware platforms] that I’ve used”. 

With this curiosity, Marcus began to utilize Derivita in his courses. This semester he is using Derivita in three of his courses and “probably all 4 [of his courses] next semester”. 

Marcus kept using Derivita for the majority of his courses for the past three year for two reasons:

The first is that the “The students get that instant feedback” and although there are some syntax requirements in Derivita, Marcus finds the requirements are more flexible than other platforms This flexibility in how students can respond to a question allows the students to get more personalized and accurate feedback as they work through an assignment or task. 

The second reason is what Marcus labels as “the biggest thing for me” and that is Derivita’s Support Team. “It’s really impressive - at times I’ve found an issue, I’ll send it in that morning, and by that night, the issue is taken care of. Very rarely is it not taken care of within a couple of days”. 

But his favorite feature of Derivita is that he can easily create the sets directly within Canvas. He says that’s been “huge”, because “they [his students] are able to go into the Canvas shell and right there, I’ve got their homework sets embedded and they don’t have to go to a separate site”. 

Marcus utilizes Derivita mostly for homework sets these days. But during COVID, he used the Exam Mode alongside remote proctoring settings as well. “I have also used the SpotCheck in the classroom here and there to change things up in the classroom and get some instant feedback on some of the concepts”. 

While he can’t say that his students’ performances or grades have improved, declined, or shifted at all since using Derivita, he says he has gotten some positive feedback from his students: “They do appreciate the instant feedback that Derivita gives” and that “Derivita is better” than other platform that they may have used in the past.

Watch the full interview on our YouTube channel below:

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