A website to help you with passing Aleks Math Courses

[cookderosa]

Oh, dear. Cookderosa should be popping in here on Monday.

Good morning, of course I'm here!

You know what? People can, and will, do whatever they want to do. I know people cheat, I don't have a personal objection to how others walk their life as long as it doesn't mess up my path too much. I am NOT the morality police, at least not beyond the walls of my home. But, on this forum, I am open about many things, specifically things related to credit-earning HERE. This forum, I believe, is the best source out there for support and information. It has been for years. I don't work here, I'm a member like all of you. But having been here a long time, I know that people browse more than they post. So, people will read this thread. And when someone brand new to the community pops in with a first/second post as a way to cheat the system, it ticks me off. This board is full of honest people who want legit degrees. There are OTHER sites where people can go to pursue unaccredited degrees. That's not what goes on here. So, THAT'S my motive Sanantone.

Mathway is a calculator that allows you to type in ANY problem and get a solution/answer. Some people will use Mathway as a TOOL to check THEIR work, and some people will use it to pass a cheat-friendly, at-home, self-paced, no proctor assessments with ALEKS.

I used Mathway -literally twice- a long time ago on begining algebra for myself. That course used to count for credit at TESC, so I started it, however the mathway section that shows your work was completely hard for me to grasp. Not being a mathy-person, I decided that I didn't understand the scratch pad so I enrolled in the 100-level math through TESC and took the class instead. But, that's how I learned about Mathway.

I allowed my son to use Mathway for his trig and stats via ALEKS when they got hard, but it didn't help him learn the material either; it helped him develop a habit of getting "help" on every problem! (which he denied of course- and that worked for a while, but I caught him eventually) He did, however, pass those classes, and for many people, that is the only goal, so they see no reason not to use Mathway. Your mileage may vary. For those of you with excellent memories, you'll know my son enrolled in a college that uses ALEKS. Fast forward- I opted to not send or pursue using ALEKS for college credit in his degree, and I have wiped those two classes from his high school transcript. Titles remain with high school credit, but not college credit.

In my home, we've stopped using ALEKS and went back to Saxon, because in my home, learning has to trump credit earning. I would consider using Mathway on your pie useful to some degree, but using Mathway on an assessment (which people CERTAINLY ARE DOING) is cheating cut and dry per their "guidelines."

I'm also wondering if ACE folks know how to use Google, because CLEARLY the credibility of ALEKS as a credit-source can be checked in about 5 seconds. It makes me wonder if their ACE evaluation is in jeopardy. Johnny is right, a proctored assessment would fix a lot. Tedium is also right, in people's excitement to share their cheating tips (wonder what that motive could be?) ALEKS will, eventually, have to step it up or they'll lose their ACE eval permanently in my opinion.

[publius2k4]

You know what? People can, and will, do whatever they want to do. I know people cheat, I don't have a personal objection to how others walk their life as long as it doesn't mess up my path too much.

I agree that if people want to cheat, it's their business and not mine.

However, I feel that the ability for a student to use this website cheapens the legitimacy of other students who have actually worked through the ALEKS courses and EARNED their credits for these courses. It's no different than a student having an essay writing website write their capstone project for them. Cheating the system cheats the student out of that knowledge, but it also cheats other students by making their degree seem less legitimate. It's already an up-hill battle for competency based education, and people taking these shortcuts are making it THAT much harder for it to catch on.

[Tedium]

This forum, I believe, is the best source out there for support and information. It has been for years...I'm also wondering if ACE folks know how to use Google, because CLEARLY the credibility of ALEKS as a credit-source can be checked in about 5 seconds. It makes me wonder if their ACE evaluation is in jeopardy...ALEKS will, eventually, have to step it up or they'll lose their ACE eval permanently in my opinion.

...However, I feel that the ability for a student to use this website cheapens the legitimacy of other students who have actually worked through the ALEKS courses and EARNED their credits for these courses. It's no different than a student having an essay writing website write their capstone project for them. Cheating the system cheats the student out of that knowledge, but it also cheats other students by making their degree seem less legitimate. It's already an up-hill battle for competency based education, and people taking these shortcuts are making it THAT much harder for it to catch on.

QFT.

I think we have a pretty big responsibility on this board to do things the right way. For better or worse the things we post or allow to be posted have a real influence on the world of CBE, DLing, and the everyday lives of people just trying to earn their degree. For example, how many times have you searched for something about one of the Big 3 or a CLEP and had many of the top results come from this forum? Happens to me all of the time. The CBE/DL community may not be very large in the scheme of things, but like it or not, we are big within that community. It is not out of the realm of possibility that something posted in passing on this forum, or the aggregate of several posts, caused ACE to rethink their attitudes regarding ALEKS.

If that's the case then at that point saying that other people are ruining it for everyone else is no longer just a turn of phrase; it's a fact. This is a critical time for ALEKS right now, and we are still getting ignorant and selfish posts (at least, thank god, it wasn't a damn spreadsheet again. How stupid was that?). I'm proud of the work I did with ALEKS and I think that it genuinely helped me to learn material that I did not think I could learn. I recommended it to my sister and girlfriend who both suffer with math courses as well. Now that might not be an option for them anymore. That's what upsets me so much.

[ironheadjack]

Off-topic.


Has anyone confirmed that ALEKS losing their ACE accreditation a few months back was because ALEKS needed to make changes to their proctoring policy?? Or is that just speculation?

I think it's more likely that the lady in payroll forgot to send in the ACE renewal check.....why after 14 years of ACE accreditation would ACE suddenly want to make drastic changes to the ALEKS system.

[Daithi]

Off-topic.


Has anyone confirmed that ALEKS losing their ACE accreditation a few months back was because ALEKS needed to make changes to their proctoring policy?? Or is that just speculation?

I think it's more likely that the lady in payroll forgot to send in the ACE renewal check.....why after 14 years of ACE accreditation would ACE suddenly want to make drastic changes to the ALEKS system.

It's just speculation. Last year StraighterLine had to start using proctoring, so I think that is the source of this speculation. However, ALEKS was bought by McGraw Hill several months ago, so this could just be the new company not wanting to shell out more money -- nobody really knows.

For what it's worth, I'm pretty much in agreement with Cookderosa. I don't want to be the "cheat police," but I do think cheaters are screwing it up for for everyone else. With that said, while working through pie sections, I did use Mathway to double-check my work AFTER I did the work myself by hand, so I'm not really one to talk. I can live with myself, but I was technically cheating.

[cookderosa]

Off-topic.


Has anyone confirmed that ALEKS losing their ACE accreditation a few months back was because ALEKS needed to make changes to their proctoring policy?? Or is that just speculation?

I think it's more likely that the lady in payroll forgot to send in the ACE renewal check.....why after 14 years of ACE accreditation would ACE suddenly want to make drastic changes to the ALEKS system.

My opinion is speculation, but that doesn't mean it's not true or likely. I've no doubt that ALEKS and ACE are aware of how their system is being beat. To think otherwise is naive. And your point about renewal is valid, when is the last time someone here has paid a bill for 14 years and all of a sudden forgot? Doesn't happen. Something is going on. (has it really been 14 years?)

[keymommy2000]

Does Mathway have anything that will help with word problems? because i am the worse with word problems...

[ironheadjack]

Well from the other thread ACE accreditation is back for ALEKS.

Now the next question, is proctoring now a part of ALEKS or mentioned anywhere? Maybe someone will use it soon and be the test case.

[Daithi]

That's good news about ALEKS.

I also took a look on their site and couldn't find anything about proctoring, so it looks like it is still unproctored -- at least for now.

[FilMor]

So after the initial assessment for college algebra I'm at 56%, I'm I far away from the 70% needed for completion?