Sapling Learning Partners with W.H. Freeman

Sapling Learning Teams Up with W. H. Freeman to Offer Online Homework for Select Chemistry and Physics Textbooks

AUSTIN, TEXAS (January 3, 2011) Sapling Learning, a leading provider of effective, interactive homework and instruction that improves learning outcomes in chemistry and physics, today announced a strategic alliance with W. H. Freeman and Company to offer online homework for key titles in chemistry and physics for higher education professors and students throughout the United States and Canada. This partnership allows W. H. Freeman to bundle Sapling Learning access codes with key titles in those disciplines.

The arrangement between Sapling Learning and W. H. Freeman marries outstanding science textbooks with coordinated online homework assignments that create unique learning solutions designed to improve the practice of teaching and help ensure student success.

The W. H. Freeman titles for which Sapling Learning will offer online homework are:

• Atkins/Jones, Chemical Principles, Fifth edition
• Atkins/Jones, Exploring Chemical Analysis, Fifth edition
• Blei/Odian, General, Organic, & Biochemistry, First edition
• Guinn/Brewer, Essentials of General, Organic, & Biochemistry, First edition
• Harris, Quantitative Chemical Analysis, Eighth edition
• Harris, Exploring Chemical Analysis, Fourth edition
• Kesten/Tauck, University Physics for the Physical & Life Sciences, First edition
• Tipler, Physics for Scientists & Engineers, Sixth edition
• Vollhardt/Schore, Organic Chemistry, Sixth edition

Driven by today’s digital lifestyle and the need to compete in sciences on a global level, both instructors and students are finding that augmenting textbook instruction with active, engaging digital instruction of benefit. Sapling Learning provides a robust, interactive learning experience with tutorial instruction complete with assistance, remediation, and practice to adequately prepare students for class. As they work problems, they receive targeted feedback, hints and solutions, which not only help them learn the subject matter they also learn strategies that make them stronger problem solvers in general.

For instructors, Sapling Learning relieves them from of the burden of grading homework assignments. The automatic system provides sophisticated student interactions (such as molecule drawing, vector diagramming, etc.) which allows them the ability to assign meaningful, discipline-specific homework that would be too prohibitively time-consuming to grade if assigned as traditional "pencil and paper homework."

“The National Science Foundation (NSF) National Survey of Recent College Graduates (NSRCG) reports that science is experiencing far too much attrition between freshman intentions and undergraduate outcomes. It’s a contributor to the United States’ declining competitive edge in the sciences,” said James Caras, PhD, CEO, Sapling Learning. “By combining best-in-class textbooks with Sapling’s online homework systems, students receive digital problem-solving practice and coaching that is proven to be more effective in terms of increasing student exam performance than the hand-graded paper-and-pencil homework of the past. This, in turn, improves the impact and quality of science education and retention which is essential in ensuring our competitiveness in the global community.”

Independent instructor studies conclude that students who use Sapling Learning for 80% or more of their problem-solving practice see 18% greater scores than students who do not. This equates to an equivalent of a 1.3 letter grade difference, essentially taking students from a C+ to a middle A.

“W.H. Freeman is delighted to make Sapling Learning available with its titles in the physical sciences,” said Jessica Fiorillo, Executive Editor for Chemistry and Physics, W. H. Freeman.

About Sapling Learning
Sapling Learning is a leading provider of interactive homework and assessment software for the Higher Education sciences. Since 2004, Sapling Learning has focused on providing students with rich, discipline specific interactions, such as molecule drawing and graphing, to promote engagement and comprehension in challenging problem-solving disciplines of chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering. Sapling Learning provides instructors unprecedented flexibility to create and customize instructional content in an easy-to use, flexible, code-free environment. No other solution in the market provides the level of seamless integration of rich learning elements for both creating and learning scientific material.

For more information, visit www.saplinglearning.com.

About W. H. Freeman
W. H. Freeman collaborates closely with top researchers and educators to develop superior teaching and learning materials for the sciences. Our motto is: We know that a dedicated instructor and the right textbook have the power to change the world—one student at a time. We are committed to superior quality, discerning editorial vision and long standing commitment to education. For more information, visit: www.whfreeman.com

Media contact:
Patti Hill| 512.218.0401 | patti@penmanpr.com