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How digital course content updates are easing the burden for faculty—and making learning more engaging for students

The new Evergreen delivery model takes the guesswork out of keeping content current.


Tags: Article, Corporate, Evergreen

Earlier this year, McGraw Hill released an important set of updates to its popular Financial Accounting for Managers textbook – used by instructors and students on college campuses across the country. Some of the changes in the new edition were minor, like refreshing the name of an annual governmental report. Other edits — adding sections, new features, or updating examples – were more substantial.

In the past this would mean publishing new digital and print editions. While such updates to course content are essential and inevitable, they could trigger a cascade of time-consuming tasks for educators. But a new Evergreen delivery model from McGraw Hill has made the process easier for educators by providing valuable digital product updates directly to their existing courses, without burdening instructors with moving to a new edition. That meant the 2024 update to Financial Accounting for Managers was much more seamless.

“Just changing the edition of the text kind of destroyed the way I had my [graduate-level government accounting] course set up,” explains Kyle Goodin, an accounting instructor at Missouri State University. “With Evergreen, I can spend more time prepping engaging activities and assessments and less time making sure that my homework problems were still going to work with a new text edition,”

With the Evergreen delivery model, start to finish, the refresh takes just a few minutes, but the effect is long lasting. Students have access to the kind of current, relevant information they need to be successful and engaged in their coursework. And, with the burden of new editions lifted, educators can focus more on what matters: teaching.

The power of real-world examples

Traditionally, when new editions of public speaking or communication textbooks rolled out, Jeff Fox and his colleagues would spend several hours updating their course materials. Though the work was expected, he says, it was also time-consuming and “a little annoying,” says Fox, an associate director and associate teaching professor at Northern Kentucky University.

That changed in 2023, when McGraw Hill implemented the Evergreen delivery model. Content updates are now quick and seamless — Fox likens them to a smartphone update — and touch course materials from narrative content to case studies, homework assignments, exam questions and more. Having the most up-to-date content, tools, and accessibility updates at his fingertips has been a game-changer, he says.

While the basic principles of his field don’t change much, the world does. Using examples pulled from current events helps keep courses fresh. For example, in a unit on audience analysis, Fox might swap older exam questions with new ones that namecheck a recent political candidate. “You need to have updated examples that somewhat reflect current events at the time,” he says. “I feel like students can relate better to things when an example or scenario relates to something that has happened within the last year or two, as opposed to referencing something that happened before they can even remember.”

With the Evergreen delivery model, faculty decide if and when to incorporate content updates into their course. Fox, for instance, may add new videos to supplement in-class lectures or pull new exam questions from the question bank. “There’s still some labor involved, but it’s not nearly as labor intensive. The new Evergreen delivery model has made my course prep easy; the new content automatically flows over; and I can choose how to implement it,” he explains. “It’s more that the instructor’s life is easier, so they can put more emphasis on what they should be doing. And that’s engaging the students.”

With the Evergreen delivery model, Jeff Fox, associate director and associate teaching professor at Northern Kentucky University, can focus more on engaging students in the classroom.

Finding the new (and the fun) in accounting

Kyle Goodin knows most of the 250 students who enroll in his Introduction to Financial Accounting course aren’t planning to be accountants. But he sees the class as an opportunity to attract some much-needed young talent to the profession. The key, he says, is to get students more involved in the material. Having access to updated references in problems and cases has helped him do just that.

The Evergreen delivery model adds up-to-date, real-world information to course content. This means, for example, Goodin’s students can read case studies on familiar brands like Lululemon and Trader Joe’s or look up the most recent 10-K filing from Boeing instead of one from 2019. “Being able to use businesses that students are familiar with really shows them the importance of accounting information,” he explains. “The brand names make the course more meaningful for students. They’re asking questions in class now. It’s so much better.”

Perhaps most impactful is the time it gives back to Goodin and his colleagues. Hours that were previously spent rebuilding courses are now devoted to brainstorming creative ways to engage students. A custom-made Monopoly board game helps drive home his lessons about accounts receivables and bad debt. He uses a Mad Libs notes format to encourage students to jot down important points as they watch online lectures. Pub-style trivia games, complete with prizes, spark friendly competition and banter among his students. Not surprisingly, Goodin says his classes are often brimming with chatter, activity and enthusiasm.

“The reason I wanted to become an educator is because at some point, there was an educator that made me go, ‘Oh, I want to do accounting. That sounds like a valuable career choice,’” he says. “So when you see a student get excited because they have a balance sheet to actually balance, that makes me so happy. And it gets me excited to go into class and say, ‘OK, how can we get somebody excited about what we’re doing to talk about today? And how can we get somebody to see the value in what we do?

For more information about the Evergreen delivery model, visit: https://www.mheducation.com/highered/evergreen

The opinions represented in this case study do not reflect the opinions of Northern Kentucky University or Missouri State University.

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