The WebAssign Story
For two decades, WebAssign has been the technology of choice for STEM education. Founded by Physics education specialist and professor in the Department of Physics at North Carolina State University, Dr. John Risley, WebAssign launched in 1997—becoming fully incorporated by Advanced Instructional Systems, Inc., dba WebAssign® in 2003.
It was Dr. Risley’s vision to provide faculty with the widest selection of content and unrivaled access to robust tools to support their pedagogical goals to foster student success. Under his leadership, WebAssign became an employee-owned benefit company, with the stated benefit of education. Dr. Risley passed away in April 2013, but his passion for using technology to connect students and teachers lives on in everything we do. In 2016, WebAssign was acquired by Cengage, one of the largest education and technology companies worldwide. The acquisition built upon a long and successful history of partnership between both parties. Since the acquisition, Cengage has increased investment in the platform, continuing its focus on product development designed to continuously improve the quality of learning. Now, the WebAssign content development and content support teams are staffed with current and former educators—ensuring strict adherence to a seamless and engaging student experience that remains pedagogically sound.
Product
Built by educators, WebAssign provides instructors with the tools needed to empower confident, self-sufficient learners. Students get quality content in an affordable solution that is deeply flexible—enabling instructors to customize each course to the different needs of their students. Proven to help hone problem-solving and critical thinking skills, WebAssign helps teachers help learners.
Impact
Adopted at secondary and higher education institutions worldwide, WebAssign is integrated with hundreds of textbooks and enhanced with a robust selection of original content curated from partner schools, learning experts, and the Open Education Resource community. WebAssign is easily accessible and widely used by faculty to enrich the teaching and learning experience.
In fact, more than 1.5 million students at over 3,500 educational institutions use WebAssign each year. Since our launch, we have delivered more than 5 billion questions to students in the form of homework, tests and practice problems—and feel honored to be a small part of so many students’ academic careers.