(12/22/2016) TULSA, Okla.–In the spirit of holiday giving, Expert TA, a Tulsa-based firm specializing in homework software for high schools and universities, announced today that it will donate its online Introductory Physics homework software to up to 150 high school classrooms in 2017. The gift comes as a result of its One-for-One program that results in a software donation to a classroom in need for each new college or university that purchases Expert TA each fall.

The One-for-One program was established to support STEM opportunities for students in schools around the country that are facing budget cuts and waning interest in math and science. Although the Department of Education reports an overall projected job increase of 14 percent for STEM fields by 2020 (with some areas like Biomedical Engineering projected to increase as much as 62 percent), only 16 percent of American high school seniors are proficient in math and interested in a STEM career. Expert TA Founder and CEO Jeremy Morton wants to do his part in reversing this trend, “We at Expert TA believe that young people choosing STEM careers will change our world in unimaginable ways. We want to clear as many barriers as we can to make these careers possible.”

This donation comes in partnership with OpenStax, a nonprofit organization that provides free, peer-reviewed textbooks with the aim of improving student access to quality learning materials. When Expert TA’s homework software is paired with OpenStax’s physics textbook, college and high school instructors have a high-quality curriculum combination that works seamlessly together.

Expert TA worked with OpenStax to develop a custom homework solution that perfectly integrates with each chapter. In addition to the Expert TA library of physics questions, all of the nearly 2,000 OpenStax problems have been enhanced with Expert TA’s hints and feedback, and where possible, intermediate symbolic steps are added, which require students to complete homework in an approach that more closely aligns with how they are tested.

The OpenStax College Physics textbook has been adopted by nearly 1,000 instructors to date, and remains their most popular textbook. Expert TA has been adopted departmentally for Introductory Physics at schools like Princeton University, Case Western Reserve and Auburn University. In recent case studies performed by experts in physics education, students were overwhelmingly observed to be more engaged, more interested in problem solving, and more likely to have improved learning outcomes based on the immediate and specific feedback that the software provides.

Expert TA is delighted to provide this software to in-need high schools through the One-for-One program. Additionally, Expert TA recently expanded its product line to accommodate other textbooks published by OpenStax including biology, sociology, psychology, anatomy and physiology and U.S. history. The One-for-One program will open to these subjects next year.

High schools will be selected this spring to receive the software in time for the Fall 2017 semester. Nominations may be sent to main@theexpertta.com for high school classrooms around the country. Qualifying classrooms must have a physics program and adequate hardware in place.

About OpenStax College

OpenStax is a nonprofit based at Rice University with the mission to improve student access to education. Their first openly licensed college textbook was published in 2012, and their library has since scaled to more than 25 books for college and AP courses used by hundreds of thousands of students. Their adaptive learning technology, designed to improve learning outcomes through personalized educational paths, is being piloted in college courses across the country. Through partnerships with philanthropic foundations and an alliance with other educational resource companies, OpenStax is breaking down the most common barriers to learning and empowering students and instructors to succeed.

About Expert TA

Expert TA was started in 2003 by Jeremy Morton. Morton was teaching and working on his PhD at North Carolina State University when he realized there had to be a better way for students to learn physics. Morton identified the need for human-like grading and tutoring technology, and Expert TA became the focus of his PhD research. In 2009, Expert TA incorporated as an LLC. The software provides features like real-time reports, partial credit grading and sophisticated, specific feedback that provides high school and college students with the information they need to truly learn. Expert TA is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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Media Contact:
Meredith McDaris
Propeller Communications
(918) 346-4084
meredith@thinkpropeller.com