HMH Fuse: Algebra 1 for iPad and the 2010 school pilot

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) announced HMH Fuse on September 8, 2010, together with a year-long pilot of its Algebra 1 application for the Apple iPad. Fuse was presented as a new way of delivering curriculum through interactive platforms and mobile devices instead of a one-way print or digital textbook. HMH's chief executive described the launch as the start of a new era in curriculum development, in which content reaches students in a variety of ways so that students and teachers can individualize the learning experience. The first product, HMH Fuse: Holt McDougal Algebra 1, gave students feedback on practice questions, let them write and save notes, offered guided instruction and video lessons, and gave teachers ways to customize learning.

The launch took place at Washington Middle School in Long Beach, California. Speakers included California's Secretary of Education, the Long Beach Unified superintendent, an HMH executive vice president and Edward Burger, a Williams College mathematics professor and author of the Holt McDougal Algebra 1 text.

The pilot ran through the 2010 to 2011 school year in the Long Beach, Fresno, Riverside and San Francisco Unified School Districts, with 400 iPads spread across six schools. It compared eighth-grade algebra delivered on the iPad with the traditional textbook. A third-party research firm, the Silicon Valley-based Empirical Education Inc., conducted the study and measured both academic results and student attitudes toward learning algebra with each medium.

HMH Fuse is closer to interactive courseware than to a game, and it appears in the serious games field because of its interactivity and its early use of tablets in class. The app carried the full-year course plus supporting materials and tracked comprehension, giving students customized support and teachers real-time, student-specific feedback. A report on the study was expected in fall 2011; the announcement describes only the design, so no results are given here.

The address given for HMH's classroom products, hmhco.com/classroom, forwards in November 2026 to a page titled classroom solutions. That page lists current literacy, math, science and social studies programs, including core math titles such as Into Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2 and Into Math, and tools for professional development and assessment. HMH Fuse and the Algebra 1 iPad app are not mentioned, so no playable or purchasable version of the 2010 app could be confirmed.