🖥️ MyLab Recommendations

MyLab is great software. However, over the course of using it for more than a decade with thousands of students, we have identified two limitations. We like to be upfront about these limitations so that students can have as much confidence in the product as we do.

1. MyLab saves your answers every 10 seconds or when you switch problems.

Recommendation: If you want to close the problem set window less than ten seconds after answering a question, you should either:

1. Switch to another problem in the same problem set before closing the window.
2. Wait five seconds before closing the window. If you do either of these, MyLab will send your answer back to Pearson and save it.

[Originally, when I posted this, I said it saved every 30 seconds. However, I reached out to our rep at Pearson, whom Bruce has known for many years, and he wrote back with the following: “The program saves every 5 seconds to ensure data integrity. In 15 years, I have never seen the system lose work. Data integrity is the number 1 priority of the system. Let me know if you have questions about this and or if you want to discuss further.”]

2. MyLab may regenerate the question if you haven’t entered an answer

This limitation is a bit hard to explain, but let me start by saying that this won’t affect the vast majority of students. Generally, you don’t need to worry about this issue unless you 1.) screenshot the questions, 2.) close the assignment, 3.) work out your answers, and 4.) return to the assignment to enter your answers without rereading the questions.

Many questions in MyLab are “algorithmic,” meaning that they generate different numbers for different students. If a student hasn’t entered an answer and closes the problem, it is possible that the system may generate new algorithmic values. However, once an answer is entered, the algorithmic values are fixed.

What does this mean for you? If you work on the problems like most people do, then this won’t impact you at all. You will only run into problems if you close the problem without entering an answer and then expect the same values to be there when you return.

Recommendation: If you close the assignment without entering an answer, reread the question when you reopen it.

The only problems I have seen leading from this are when people go through and screenshot every question without entering answers. Then they close their homework and work on the screenshotted questions for several days, returning to the questions to find that different algorithmic values have been generated. If you must take screenshots, redo the questions when you enter your answers just to be safe. (If you do this, please email me your experiences.)

After discussing this, a student emailed me to say, FYI, since I started the pset, my numbers in the problems have NOT changed (with and without entering answers). Thanks for mentioning that! I’m only bringing this up out of an abundance of caution. It typically only seems to affect students who screenshot. But, the bottom line is that MyLab has acknowledged it and this is the advice they give.

Plan Ahead

MyLab won’t work without internet access and people regularly have interruptions to their internet access. In my experience, these interruptions always seem to come at the worst possible times!

There may also be MyLab outages, documented at status.pearson.com. Prepare for these like you prepare for internet outages, family emergencies, work emergencies, etc., so they don’t catch you off guard. In rare circumstances of exceptional MyLab outages documented on status.pearson.com, Bruce may increase the number of dropped assignments. However, he generally feels that he is already dropping two assignments and that if people are planning ahead, two dropped assignments is enough. Preserve your drops!

Recommendation: Plan for outages and don’t do your problem sets at the last minute.

Should I click the submit button?

It’s okay if you don’t click the “submit” button in MyEconLab.

• If you do click the submit button when you are done with an assignment, you will be able to review your corrected assignment immediately after the due date. However, once you click the blue submit button, you won’t be able to change your answers, so be sure you are done!
• If you don’t click submit, I will go through and manually submit the assignment, but there will be a delay of a day or so before you will be able to review your corrected assignment. I suggest that you should never click submit before the second section each week.