Congratulations on your interest in ALEKS! This is an online educational system like none you have encountered before, a system that uses computer technology to promote learning that is pedagogically sound and cutting edge.

The features of ALEKS make it a self-contained tool, opening new horizons for educators and learners alike in any educational context. The ALEKS Course Management System enables instructors to oversee and monitor their students' progress, communicate with them, track usage levels, and focus instruction. By its unprecedented use of Artificial Intelligence, ALEKS determines quickly and precisely what your students know and what they need to learn, guiding them down individualized learning paths to mastery. Assessment and practice problems are algorithmically generated, so the students cannot predict them. The syllabi used in ALEKS are customizable, letting you conveniently add or subtract topics. Since ALEKS is accessed over the World Wide Web using standard browsers, no complicated technical preparation is needed---and your students can work at any time, from home, from work, or from the classroom!

The benefits of using ALEKS are striking. Students work in a dynamic, interactive learning environment on precisely those materials that they are individually ready to learn, building momentum toward mastery. Students love ALEKS because they call the shots, working on their own schedule on what they need to learn right now. It is the personalized, "just-in-time" learning system.

ALEKS may be used in a variety of courses---whether in a traditional classroom or in a self-directed or distance-learning environment. ALEKS is sold to the student as a subscription. The student purchases a User's Guide with Access Code, usually through a bookstore. Using this Access Code along with the Course Code provided by the instructor, the student registers in the ALEKS system at the ALEKS website. Your sales representative will provide you with a Course Code once your order for User's Guides has been submitted to McGraw-Hill by your bookstore.

ALEKS can be adopted in one of two ways:

• ALEKS may be adopted as a supplement to a McGraw-Hill textbook. When you adopt ALEKS as a supplement, the student subscription cost is similar to the cost of a traditional print supplement, such as a study guide or student solutions manual. If you adopt ALEKS as a supplement, students will need to purchase a McGraw-Hill textbook bundled with the User's Guide with Access Code.
• ALEKS may be adopted as a stand-alone item. In this case, the instructor adopts ALEKS alone, and the students purchase the User's Guide with Access Code for about the cost of a traditional textbook.

This Instructor's Manual is intended to provide complete information on the functioning of ALEKS. A description of its contents can be found in Chapter 1.

ALEKS: An Instructor's Video, packaged with this Instructor's Manual, prepares you to use ALEKS. In the video, you will meet the cognitive scientist, Jean-Claude Falmagne, who co-developed Knowledge Space theory and tapped its potential for instruction. To help you understand how ALEKS works---from both the student's and instructor's perspectives---you will see a thorough demonstration of its Assessment and Learning Modes and Instructor Module. Finally, you will hear instructors discuss how ALEKS may be used in a variety of courses. We strongly recommend watching the video and being sure that all instructors involved in a course do so.