Office Hours Top Posts

by Frank Marsaglia, Dan Goodman, and Dr. Babak Shoraka, zyBooks IT authors Your student completes a VLAN configuration lab following step-by-step instructions and gets 100%. The student can list the VLAN benefits: security, performance, management. Then comes the job interview: “Tell me when you’d recommend VLANs for a small business.” The Framework: A Three-Component Learning […]

By Dr. Nikitha Sambamurthy, Dr. Adrian Rodriguez, Dr. Yasaman Adibi, and Dr. Gregory Mason Introduction MATLAB ranks among the top three requested programming skills in engineering job postings. Analysis of over 130,000 postings presented at the 2022 ASEE Conference confirms its continued relevance across biomedical, chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineering positions. Yet instructors teaching MATLAB […]

In October 2025, the zyBooks content team led a peer-to-peer Materials Science Workshop that explored two critical areas: addressing common student misconceptions and implementing collaborative learning strategies. The discussion highlighted how students often struggle with crystallography, phase diagrams, mechanical properties, and more—not because these concepts are inherently difficult, but because of specific, identifiable misconceptions. The […]

By Dr. Ryan Barlow and Dr. Greg Mason Introduction You’ve seen it countless times: students solve manufacturing calculations flawlessly on exams, then design parts that are impossible to produce. They determine the correct extrusion pressure but can’t explain why material flows the way it does. They ace tolerance problems but specify features that would triple […]

When 50 engineering instructors gathered for our September 24, 2025 zyBooks workshop, we focused on a problem that costs us weeks of class time every semester: students who can solve thermodynamics and fluid mechanics problems perfectly but can’t explain what their answers mean.

By Dr. Yasaman Adibi and Dr. Mohsen Sarraf Introduction: Addressing the Complexity of Modern Electrical Engineering Education Teaching electrical engineering presents unique pedagogical challenges that have only intensified as the field has evolved. Students must simultaneously master abstract theoretical concepts, apply sophisticated mathematics, and connect both to practical applications—all while developing the problem-solving intuition essential […]

The emergence of generative AI has taken the CS education community by a storm in the last two years. As an instructor of introductory computer science (CS1) courses, I am keenly interested in leveraging AI to make CS1 better. While concerns about academic dishonesty are real, so is the golden opportunity to transform CS education. […]

As cybersecurity education advances, applied learning experiences are increasingly recognized as essential for preparing learners to apply their skills in practice and achieve workforce readiness. Foundational knowledge and theoretical instruction remain critical, but interactive components provide the bridge between “knowing” and “doing”. Too often, however, these activities remain fragmented and disconnected from the operational realities […]

Practical strategies for improving student success with interactive learning The Evidence for Interactive Learning Peer-reviewed research in engineering courses using zyBooks has documented statistically significant improvements when activities are assigned for grades. A study of engineering courses found that the percentage of students receiving A’s, B’s, and C’s increased from 45% to 57%. While these […]

As generative AI increasingly handles code writing tasks, computer science education must pivot from teaching students to write code to emphasizing code reading, prompt engineering, and testing skills that will be essential in AI-augmented development environments.

AI as Your Teaching Assisstant Course development has always been one of the most time-intensive aspects of teaching. GenAI tools can help instructors develop and improve their courses more efficiently, allowing more time to focus on teaching and research. For educators juggling course preparation, research responsibilities, and student support, AI can serve as a valuable […]

See the Data Structures choices with zyBooks, so you can choose the optimal content to meet your course objectives and students’ needs.

Moving Beyond “Yes” or “No” to GenAI When ChatGPT was first introduced in 2022, instructors often took one of two approaches to GenAI in their classes: yes or no. While bans on GenAI may be appropriate in certain courses, such bans are difficult for instructors to enforce. As GenAI tools have become more advanced and […]

by Dr. Nikitha Sambamurthy Why I Designed This Session As Editorial Director for zyBooks, I work with engineering faculty daily. In conversations, I kept hearing familiar refrains: “Students don’t read,” “grading takes forever,” “I want to give better feedback but…” But when I asked what they’d tried, I discovered sophisticated solutions I’d never heard about—strategies […]

A seven-semester study presented at ASEE 2025 provides new data on interactive homework effectiveness in engineering courses. Dr. Yasaman Adibi, Dr. Adrian Rodriguez, and colleagues tracked 345 students across similar course conditions, varying only whether interactive textbook activities were assigned for points or recommended and not assigned for points.  Key findings: The research addresses a […]

What if a simple change to your homework structure could reduce failing grades by 22% and boost student engagement by 500%? New research from a major public university reveals how zyBooks are transforming engineering education outcomes. Read the research here. Key Research Findings A new ASEE conference paper tracking 345 engineering students across seven semesters […]

Learning some of these facts about zyBooks might just help your course run more smoothly.

No credentials in information technology are more crucial than CompTIA certifications. Here’s how to help your students best prepare for them.

zyBooks offers powerful built-in customization that makes it fast and easy to the create course material you want.

How do you communicate a detailed engineering drawing to someone who can’t see? Groundbreaking work with 3D printing offers an answer.

Professor Matthew Liberatore shares his insights and research on the power of many small practice problems, and how it correlates with student success

Advanced zyLabs will change the way you teach programming. Check out these top tips to help you get the most out of our new cloud-based coding environment.

Simply put, learning R is hard. In this guide, I’ll share six steps to helping your students get comfortable with this important programming language.

Dr. Horstmann shares three key insights for teaching programming that every computer science instructor should add to their pedagogical playbook. 

Apply these key best practices to your own online classrooms to create a richer and more successful virtual learning experience for your students.

What do “student hours” look like? Check out a better way to help students outside of class. Hint: It doesn’t happen in your office.

To mark International Women in Engineering Day, we brought together an esteemed group of our engineering colleagues to talk about their own professional journeys, the challenges they and other women face in the field, and how to inspire more girls and women to become engineers. 

We spoke to Dr. Jacquelyn Kelly about how her university applies a theoretical framework to teaching math, and approaches academic rigor – insights you can put to work at your institution, too.

zyBooks is at the forefront of developing – and implementing – innovations to help students with visual impairments succeed in STEM. Innovations all educators should adopt. To learn more, we spoke with three engineering and science content experts who are leading the accessibility charge at zyBooks.

We spoke with Dr. Alex Edgcomb about the motivation behind Coral and how computer science instructors can use the language as a powerful onramp for teaching programming.