Initial Assessment. The initial assessment takes place at the outset of students' use of ALEKS, immediately after Registration and Tutorial (See Sec. 3.9). We strongly recommend that this initial assessment, which has the character of an orientation to the system for student users, take place in a supervised computer lab setting to ensure that students do not receive help or collaborate. In creating or editing a class account, the instructor can stipulate that the initial assessment be allowed only from school (See Sec. 7.17.).

Automatic Assessments. Additional assessments are scheduled automatically by the system based on two factors: overall time spent in the Learning Mode (called "Login Time Assessment") and progress made while there (called "Progress Assessment"). By default, a new assessment is triggered after 20 new items have been learned (but no sooner than 5 ALEKS hours after the last assessment) or after 10 hours have been spent in Learning Mode since the last assessment or after 60 days have passed since the last assessment. Some modification of these parameters is possible; please contact ALEKS Corporation Customer Support for assistance if you would like to do this. The Learning Mode itself updates students' assessment results as it goes along, periodically displaying new pie charts and new choices of concepts they are completely "ready to learn." The automatic assessments, however, provide a firmer basis for such guidance.

Completion Assessments. ALEKS also assesses students automatically when they complete the syllabus for a course. If the assessment does not confirm the student's mastery of the syllabus materials, they will return to the Learning Mode. More than one Completion Assessment is thus possible, but as a rule ALEKS will not reassess the student if only a small number of topics need to be relearned.

Requested Assessments. Assessments can also be requested by the instructor for individual students or for entire courses. For example, the instructor, department, or college may wish to have "midterm" assessments under supervision to guarantee sound results. ALEKS allows the instructor to schedule the assessment for a particular date and time (See Sec. 6.5.1). Students logging on to ALEKS within the time period specified for the assessment will automatically enter Assessment Mode.

The instructor simply announces the assessment for a certain time and place. Just prior to this time the instructor prompts the course assessment in the Instructor Module (See Secs. 7.9--7.10). The next time students log on they will automatically enter the assessment. Note that a requested assessment "resets the clock" for automatic assessments, so that students will not be assessed with undue frequency. Also, among the options for a requested assessment is one to prevent automatic assessments within a certain number of days prior to the requested assessment (See Sec. 6.5.1).