ALEKS question - How does it teach math?

[magflo]

I had hoped to use ALEKS this year for my 9th grader as his high school algebra in order to also gain ACE credit.  Needless to say I was SO disappointed when ALEKS lost its accreditation.....so I started him on an algebra program I already owned and that he had already started working on in 8th grade (Teaching Textbooks).  He's hit a wall for the second time with this program and I'm thinking of switching programs.  I'm considering ALEKS purely for high school purposes now but the thing I don't understand about ALEKS is how does it teach the math?  Their website and info videos explain how it is adaptive and only has you work on the skills you haven't mastered but I just don't see how it teaches those skills.  Can those of you have taken ALEKS courses speak on that please?

[quigongene]

I really didn't learn much from ALEKS. You're likely better off using Khan Academy, EdX, Modern States or the slew of other MOOCs out there.

[cookderosa]

I had hoped to use ALEKS this year for my 9th grader as his high school algebra in order to also gain ACE credit.  Needless to say I was SO disappointed when ALEKS lost its accreditation.....so I started him on an algebra program I already owned and that he had already started working on in 8th grade (Teaching Textbooks).  He's hit a wall for the second time with this program and I'm thinking of switching programs.  I'm considering ALEKS purely for high school purposes now but the thing I don't understand about ALEKS is how does it teach the math?  Their website and info videos explain how it is adaptive and only has you work on the skills you haven't mastered but I just don't see how it teaches those skills.  Can those of you have taken ALEKS courses speak on that please?

ALEKS changed their format a bit, so the details I'm explaining may be outdated. But, the way it works, is he'll take an assessment of what he already knows. Expect it to be low because you have to be really really precise with the way you answer an ALEKS question, and most people aren't familiar enough with the platform to have that intuition. You're not supposed to use a calculator when you take it, but that's on an honor system.
So, once complete, he'll get a pie chart. It will have everything in it he has to learn. As he clicks on a topic, there will be a question. If he doesn't know how to do it, he can open the topic and read how to do it - there is usually also an example problem. After he feels comfortable, he can answer the real question.
In my experience, this works best for learners who are self-directed AND can learn by reading how to do something instead of being shown. There are no teachers or ways to ask for additional help, he'll have to google if he has questions.
My oldest did 7 ALEKS math courses over about 4 years, (and we also used Saxon with him) but the purpose was college credit. I opted not to use ALEKS with my other 3 since I wanted to be sure of what they were learning, and I don't trust ALEKS for that. Why? ALEKS is cheatable - if your teen uses an online calculator, it's easy to get the answer. I suspect my oldest looked up MANY answers despite getting all of the courses completed. This is based on years after the fact him being clueless about math.
Since it only costs $20 for a month, you could try and see how it goes. High School Algebra / Algebra 1 is still considered "pre-college credit" level, but in order to get to the "College Algebra" credit-earning level, he'll need solid Algebra 1 and 2.

EDIT to add: fast forwarding 2 kids later, my favorite Algebra 1 is the Critical Thinking Company's 2 products meshed together into 1 year. (1) Their Balance Math series (fun!!!!! Do them all from level 1) and Understanding Algebra. In addition, their Building Thinking Skills (level 3 figural) is also part of what we do for math but isn't technically math, but I love the way it teaches kids to think. My son did all 3 last year for Algebra 1 and scored nearly perfectly on his Otis Lennon Ability Test *99th percentile* because it is a near perfect match to what they do in Building Thinking Skills. (he was in 10th grade, so he wasn't at the Algebra 2 level but still scored in 75% percentile on The Stanford 10 for math which considers 10th grade math to be Algebra 2) Keep in mind my son was working under his grade level but scoring above it. That can only be the curriculum. When we used Saxon it was horrible.

[magflo]

Thanks for your replies, helps me to see that ALEKS is probably not what I'm looking for. Saxon worked for a while for my older son but with my younger son I know it would be horrible for him! I'll look into your suggestion Jennifer!

[High_Order1]

I liked Aleks.

I am exceptionally, exceptionally math adverse.

I don't feel it really 'taught' me.

It was more like prior learning assessment credit.

After I badly splashed the assessment, it would give me a topic. I'd use youtube, some various webpages, and phone a friend (lol) and then I'd test out what I learned on the Aleks machine until it blessedly gave up on that portion of the pie and moved on.

If, for whatever reason, a pie piece 'clicked' for me, I'd do the entire portion. The goal for me wasn't really to master the information; it was to get that counter to 70% and move on with my life.

So, for kids whom you'd like to actually learn the topic, I don't know that I can recommend the Aleks system. What it is excellent for, is if you're teaching the topic, and need a good online platform to test your student's accumulated knowledge.

[rlw74]

I think there is a way to customize ALEK to do the teaching. My daughter is in 9th grade Algebra at a public school and they use ALEKs. She says pie charts are just extra homework - not the main part of what they use it for. She said her teacher loads the lessons and they go over the lessons in class and then do the pie charts as practice. They have separate tests that are not the same as the assessments I've taken. I don't know what that looks like but I showed her my ALEK account and she said her account looks nothing like that. She actually scoffed at what I showed her and said she would never be able to learn like that. So maybe its customizable??? but maybe schools have different kinds of access?

[cookderosa]

I think there is a way to customize ALEK to do the teaching. My daughter is in 9th grade Algebra at a public school and they use ALEKs. She says pie charts are just extra homework - not the main part of what they use it for. She said her teacher loads the lessons and they go over the lessons in class and then do the pie charts as practice. They have separate tests that are not the same as the assessments I've taken. I don't know what that looks like but I showed her my ALEK account and she said her account looks nothing like that. She actually scoffed at what I showed her and said she would never be able to learn like that. So maybe its customizable??? but maybe schools have different kinds of access?

Yes. ALEKS is in colleges as well. Their success (and dominance btw) in the education market is probably part of why they are no longer pursuing ACE evaluation in the indy market. Every community college in my state (58) uses ALEKS math for 100% of the developmental math series.

[a2jc4life]

I am, admittedly, currently working through descriptive statistics, which is a bit different than, say, algebraic equations. (I may have improved feedback later.) But so far I'm finding that although the explanations are not *lengthy*, they're *clear* enough for me to follow. I'm not getting bogged down in formal equations, which is where I was getting lost on statistics before.

[burbuja0512]

It's been YEARS, but ALEKS got me warmed up and ready to pass the College Math CLEP. I definitely credit it for being a friendly and easy-to-use program that helped me advance. I also used other material, like Khan Academy and other random YouTube videos, especially once I was in grad school, but ALEKS get much of the credit for the CLEP.