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9.1 General
General questions on ALEKS concern what it is, its purpose, and what
it contains.
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What is ALEKS?
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ALEKS is an online educational software program based on a cycle
of assessment and learning. ALEKS course products include
Mathematics, Statistics, Accounting, Business, and Chemistry. By knowing
exactly which concepts the student has mastered and which are new but
within reach, ALEKS enables the student to work on those concepts
they are most ready to learn. ALEKS is a full-time automated
tutor, including explanations, practice and feedback. ALEKS interacts
closely with the student, continuously updating its precise map of
the student's knowledge state. ALEKS combines the advantages of
one-on-one instruction and evaluation with the convenience of being
on-call, on your computer, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The cost
of ALEKS is a small fraction of the cost of a human tutor.
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What makes ALEKS different?
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A great many important differences exist between ALEKS and other
kinds of "educational software," including its finely individualized
instructional features, easy access over the Internet, rigorous and
comprehensive educational content, and full-featured course-management
module for instructors and administrators.
A critical difference is the capacity of ALEKS for efficient,
precise, comprehensive, and qualitative assessment. This not only makes
it a valuable tool for monitoring educational progress, but also enables
it to provide students with the material they are most able to learn
at a particular time. Students will not be given material they have
already mastered, or topics for which they have not yet demonstrated
prerequisite knowledge.
ALEKS is a self-contained learning environment, with complete
sets of practice and explanatory units needed for the subjects that
it covers. The units may also be referenced
or linked to textbooks for extended treatment of
concepts. There is an online student dictionary
accessed by clicking on underlined terms (hypertext links),
and a diagnostic feedback facility that, in many cases, is able to
explain the nature of misunderstandings and errors made by students.
For instructors, ALEKS offers a complete administrative and monitoring
facility through which individual and group progress can be checked,
standards established, enrollment managed, and messages exchanged.
ALEKS can be configured for use with diverse educational standards.
ALEKS is not a game or "edutainment." It is an automated
educational tool with robust, carefully-designed features for both
learners and educators.
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What are the parts or "modules" of ALEKS?
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The principal "modules" of ALEKS are the Assessment
Mode (assessments are also called "knowledge checks"), in
which student knowledge is rigorously assessed, the Learning
Mode, where students work on mastering specific concepts, the
Instructor Module, in which instructors and administrators are able to
monitor student progress and carry out administrative functions, and the
Administrator Account, which permits management and monitoring of an
arbitrary number of separate institutions, such as those making up a
multi-campus college system. There is also a Tutorial (which students take when first
registering with the system), online help, a accounting dictionary, graphic
display of assessment results and learning progress, and many other
features.
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Why is ALEKS on the Internet?
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ALEKS is available on the Internet so that a student who has
registered with the system can use it from any suitable computer, in
any location. No
disks, CD's, peripherals, or backup facilities are required.
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