Courses  What if I want to use an ALEKS course product with students much older than it was designed for? For example, I want my struggling 9th graders to use LV5, which is normally a 5th grade math level. What happens in ALEKS when my student completely masters everything in the course she or he is in? How is ALEKS content designed?
Learning Mode  If a student makes a mistake in Learning Mode, does she start over from the beginning on that topic? Why are my students asked to do review at the start of a day's session? What is the normal rate of progress for students in ALEKS?
Standards Reporting  How does the new ALEKS State standards reporting work for classes?
Subscriptions  How do I renew my students' accounts at the beginning of a new year, or when their accounts expire? Why does it say there are no subscriptions available to register my students? I know we have the subscriptions in our account. When does the time on my K-12 ALEKS subscription begin to run out? How can I tell when a student's subscription will expire? How do I check the number of subscriptions that we have used and that we have remaining? I have been using ALEKS with my students on a pilot basis. Now, the pilot is ending, and we have decided to adopt ALEKS. How can I continue my students' current accounts without losing information on the work they have done so far?

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What if I want to use an ALEKS course product with students much older than it was designed for? For example, I want my struggling 9th graders to use LV5, which is normally a 5th grade math level.

First of all, please consider Essential Mathematics and Foundations of H.S. Math, which are intended for cases like this. These are "remediation" courses designed to help enable students who are some grade levels behind to "fill in the gaps" in their knowledge of the earlier material, and to learn more effectively in their current class. Each ALEKS course contains combined instructional content found in the curricula for several grade levels as follows:

• The Essential Mathematics Course is primarily used for students in Grades 6 through 10 who need to improve their knowledge and skills in any of the Math content from Grades 3 through 6. Because ALEKS individualizes instruction to each student, students will only work on their particular educational deficits from this curriculum.
  
  
• The Foundations of High School Math Course is primarily used for High School students who have more or less mastered the bulk of Elementary School Math, but who need to improve their knowledge and skills in any of the pre High School Algebra 1 content. Again, because ALEKS individualizes instruction to each student, students will only work on their particular educational deficits from this curriculum.

If these courses do not fit your needs, please contact ALEKS Corporation Customer Support. We can help by assigning a different name to the course. Please note, however, that it may be important for parents and staff at the school to know the actual content level provided through ALEKS, to avoid misunderstandings. For example, if a parent sees that their child has completed the material in ALEKS but does not know that this material was chosen with a view to the student's difficulties, they may mistakenly assume that the child is now at grade level in math.

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What happens in ALEKS when my student completely masters everything in the course she or he is in?

Keep in mind that ALEKS has two ways of measuring a student's knowledge: by assessment, and by progress made in Learning Mode. As a rule, assessment is a stricter and more accurate way of determining what a student really knows. So, the first time a student fills in the pie chart to 100% completion, an automatic assessment will be triggered to check the student's knowledge of the course contents. Most of the time, the student will not get exactly 100% on that assessment (it is very hard to assess at 100%). After the assessment, the student will be able to work again through the material where extra work was needed. If this was 20 items or fewer, in most cases there will be no further assessment, and when the student hits 100% the second time, he or she is through. If it was more than 20 items, there may be additional assessments along the way before the student is done. ALEKS is trying to make sure that the student does have substantial mastery of the course materials, without causing undue frustration. When the student has completed, there will be a congratulatory message, and the student's pie chart will remain 100% full. The teacher can order a new assessment if desired; this is not usually necessary, however, as ALEKS will automatically provide enough reassessment to ensure substantial mastery of the course materials by the student. The student can also use the "Review" button to continue working on course topics, or the teacher can move the student to a new (more advanced) ALEKS course.

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How is ALEKS content designed?

ALEKS content is always based on particular course products intended for use at specific levels of Math study, such as "Math Level 3" (3rd Grade Math), "Middle School Math 2," "Pre-Algebra," or "Trigonometry." The ALEKS content designers begin by mapping out the coverage of the course in ALEKS with at least two goals in mind. First, the course content has to be comprehensive enough to cover what is included in practically all textbooks for the subject and in all applicable state standards. Second, there needs to be enough material built into the course at a lower level that the great majority of students enrolled in the course will be able to get the review they need to fill in gaps in their readiness. Then, the topics constituting the course are chosen so that the coverage is appropriate, and so that all possible learning paths within the content are provided for. Every step or transition between topics that a student may need to follow must be there; there can be no gaps in the connections running through the material, from top to bottom. In general, ALEKS content has a high degree of granularity, and topics are defined quite specifically. Most course products contain between 200 and 350 topics or "items."

Most of the course products offered by ALEKS are not new, and have been used by customers for a number of years. When this is the case, the content of the course will also reflect feedback that we have received from the users concerning what should or should not be included in the course, and how it should be presented. It will also reflect data that we have gathered ourselves from large numbers of students, indicating the degree of success students have had in particular parts of the curriculum. All of this information is used for continuous improvement of ALEKS content.

ALEKS courses contain certain "extra" material that is needed for some textbooks and some state standards, but not included in the default settings. These settings can easily be changed by the teacher by using the link "Customize this class" under "Class Admin."

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If a student makes a mistake in Learning Mode, does she start over from the beginning on that topic?

No, ALEKS always remembers the work that a student has done and the correct answers that she has given. If the student makes a mistake in Learning Mode, ALEKS will require some additional practice to make sure that she really understands the topic before moving her on to something new; it is not starting the student over from the beginning.

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Why are my students asked to do review at the start of a day's session?

Students are given a list of topics for review at the beginning of the first ALEKS session on any given day (subsequent sessions on the same day will not have this). These are the topics that students have most recently added to their pies. It is very important for students to do the review that is offered, as it will help them to show retention on their next automatic reassessment. Usually, students only need to get one or two answers right to complete a topic in review. The answers provided in the review will have no effect on their pie chart.

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What is the normal rate of progress for students in ALEKS?

Students vary widely in their rate of progress, and it is not possible to say what is normal. It is unlikely that any student would not be able to complete two topics in ALEKS in an hour; some might be able to complete as many as ten, especially if the material is in some way familiar to them. Focusing the students on their ALEKS work by rewarding them for topics mastered within a class period can have a marked positive effect on the rate of mastery.

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How does the new ALEKS State standards reporting work for classes?

This is a powerful feature that will help you see the immediate effects of using ALEKS to propel students toward Math success.  To see the report, log on to your ALEKS Teacher account, click "Reporting," then the name of the class, and then, from the list of reporting options, click on the top option, "<state> standards report," where <state> is the name of your state.  (This option will not be available if your state standards have not yet been implemented for this ALEKS course.)

On the State standards reporting page, you will see a set of vertical bar graphs, one for each major strand of the state standards applied to this class.  They will be filled in to show the percentage of specific standards within that strand that have been satisfied by the students in the class.  Please note that you have three options affecting how these percentages are determined. 

First, you can choose whether "mastery" of a standard means progress through 50%, 60%, or 70% of the ALEKS items supporting that standard.*  This option is used by clicking on the underlined 50%, 60%, or 70% in the rubric directly under the vertical bar graph display. 

Second, you can pick how ALEKS looks at the students' progress.  The menu labeled "Display Mode" contains the choices "Initial Assessment," "Most Recent Assessment," and "Current Learning."  If you choose "Initial Assessment," ALEKS will display the students’ initial course mastery by using only the results of their first ALEKS assessment; if you choose "Most Recent Assessment," ALEKS will display the students’ most recent assessment, but not take into consideration work they have done in Learning Mode; if you choose "Current Learning," ALEKS will display the students’ current learning progress, including all assessments and progress made in Learning Mode.  The last option will usually show the highest level of mastery of the standards. 

Finally, using the "Select students" menu, you can narrow the selection of students in the class based on hours spent using ALEKS.  By selecting samples of your class based on the amount of time they have spent using ALEKS, you will be able to see clearly the effect that ALEKS use has had on students' Math knowledge.

Underneath the bar graph display is a detailed breakdown of the standards mastery by this class.  You can choose to see this breakdown either by standard (in other words, what percentage of your students have mastered each individual standard) or by student (what percentage of the standards has been mastered by each individual student).

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How do I renew my students' accounts at the beginning of a new year, or when their accounts expire?

Student accounts in ALEKS are supposed to expire at the end of their subscription period, which varies according to the type of subscriptions purchased by your school. Let's say you have a student in your class whose account is going to expire. If you prefer for the student to have a new account that does not contain records of their previous work, you can simply give the student the 10-character Class Code for your class, have them go to the ALEKS website and click "SIGN UP NOW" in the upper left-hand corner to begin the normal registration process. This will produce a new account for the student, containing no information or records of their previous ALEKS work ("starting from scratch").

If, on the other hand, you wish the student to renew the existing account and continue using it, the student should do the following:

1. Continue using the account until it actually expires and cannot be accessed;
2. Attempt to log on to the account and come to the expiration message;
3. Click the button on the **left-hand** part of the window to renew the account;
4. Enter the 10-character Class Code when prompted;
5. Continue following the instructions to renew the account.

Please note that renewing the account **will** consume a new subscription. There should be subscriptions available, of the right type for this class, for any students who are renewing their accounts.

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Why does it say there are no subscriptions available to register my students? I know we have the subscriptions in our account.

It is important to understand that any class in ALEKS is set up to use one particular type (length) of subscription, which may be 3 months, 5 months , 7 months, 9 months, or 12 months. The class will allow registration **only** if there are subscriptions available of the type it is set up to use. If there are none available of that type, you get the "no subscriptions available" message. You can always change the subscription type of the class, however, to use the subscriptions that you do have available. First, check with your school's ALEKS administrator to find out what type of subscriptions you have. Then, log on to your Teacher account in ALEKS, click the link for the class, and then click on the link for "Customize this class." On the page that follows, click "Class name or topic taught." The bottom menu on the next page is for subscription type. Select the correct type from the menu, then click "Save." The students should now be able to register.

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When does the time on my K-12 ALEKS subscription begin to run out?

The subscription period for any K-12 student account begins at the time when the teacher authorizes the student's registration. Subscriptions that have not been activated by a student and authorized by a teacher will remain valid. Unused subscriptions do not expire and can be activated when you need them.

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How can I tell when a student's subscription will expire?

Any student in ALEKS can check their expiration date by clicking on the "Options" button in their student account. As a teacher, you can also check this. Switch to the Advanced Teacher Module (link marked "Advanced" to lower left of your Teacher Module), then select the name of the student and click "Edit." On the page that follows, scroll down to see the Expiration Date. Student accounts can be renewed with no loss of data after they have expired. See "How do I renew my students' accounts at the beginning of a new year, or when their accounts expire?"

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How do I check the number of subscriptions that we have used and that we have remaining?

This information is available to persons with Administrator access.  To see the number of subscriptions available, log on to your Administrator account, and be sure that you are in Advanced Instructor/Teacher Module.  Select "All Instructors/Teachers" in the upper left-hand part of the Selector window, then click "Edit."  On the Edit page, scroll down and click "Subscription Information."  The following page will show complete information on all subscriptions.

Keywords: available subscription, remaining subscription.

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I have been using ALEKS with my students on a pilot basis. Now, the pilot is ending, and we have decided to adopt ALEKS. How can I continue my students' current accounts without losing information on the work they have done so far?

If you are adopting ALEKS, we assume that you have submitted an order for ALEKS subscriptions in which you (or your school or district) specify the teachers and classes where these subscriptions will be used.  If you have done this, the teachers will receive welcome emails containing ten-character Class Codes for their classes.  These Class Codes have been configured to use the new, non-pilot subscriptions that were ordered, and these are the ones that you should use in Step 3, below.  Do not try to continue your students’ pilot accounts until you have the new Class Code for your ALEKS class.

There are two main things to remember in this process.  First, do not click on the "SIGN UP NOW" link for new users.  This will create a new account that does not have any information from the student's previous work.  That is not what you want to do.  If you click it by accident and a duplicate account is created, please contact Customer Support to get the student information transferred (http://support.aleks.com).

Second, you have to wait for the students' current pilot accounts to expire.  Students cannot be transferred to new accounts until they actually get the expiration message and are unable to log on to their pilot accounts.  This does not mean that any data has been lost!  The students' accounts can be continued at any time after expiration, but not before expiration occurs.  Please note that the students’ pilot accounts are likely to expire at different times if the students registered at different times; you can continue any account after the time of its expiration without waiting for the other accounts to also expire. 

Once a student's pilot account has fully expired, here are the steps to follow:

Step 1.  Log on to the student's pilot account and get the expiration message.

Step 2.  Click on the left-hand button titled “Register” to continue the current account.  (Do not click on the right-hand button.  If you click the right-hand button by accident, please contact Customer Support at http://support.aleks.com to have the situation rectified.)

Step 3.  Enter the new Class Code as prompted.  Important: This should be the Class Code that you received in your teacher welcome email after adopting ALEKS, not the one used for the preceding pilot (see above).  If you don't have this new Class Code, wait until you receive the email containing it, or contact ALEKS Customer Support (http://support.aleks.com).

Step 4.  Continue the registration process until ALEKS says to wait for authorization.  At this point, you should log on to your ALEKS Teacher Account to authorize the student or students who are continuing their accounts.  (When you log on to your ALEKS Teacher Account, you will see a message in red that directs you to authorize students waiting for your authorization before continuing in the class.)

Once you have authorized the students, they will be able to continue using their accounts as before, with no loss of information or progress.

If there is any problem or if you have questions about this process, please contact ALEKS Customer Support (http://support.aleks.com).

Keywords: continue pilot accounts.

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