Case Study: Georgia State University achieves higher engagement, exam scores, and grades with McGraw Hill SmartBook

Georgia State University - Customer Case Study

Georgia State University faced falling grades and students who had become accustomed to memorization rather than critical thinking when classes returned face‑to‑face after COVID. Instructor Chad Hartnell partnered with McGraw Hill to pilot McGraw Hill Connect® and its SmartBook® adaptive assignments in his Managing People in Organizations course to boost exam performance, preparation for closed‑book tests, and in‑class engagement.

McGraw Hill implemented SmartBook through Connect in one section (weekly 45‑minute adaptive assignments with extra credit) and provided instructor performance reports to focus classroom time. After adoption the Connect section outperformed the control by 6% on Exam 3, 11% on Exam 4, and 6% on the final (7.5% overall exam improvement), raised the average final grade by 3.3 points (83.5% to 86.8%), produced 22 A’s versus 13 in the control, and achieved a 100% pass rate versus 88% for the control—along with noticeably higher student confidence and participation.

Georgia State University

Chad A. Hartnell

Professor