User’s Guide - ALEKS

1 User s Guidefor ParentsAdvanced Customer SolutionsALEKS CorporationALEKS User s Guidefor Parents, Version 2017 ALEKS March 15, by Advanced Customer Solutions, ALEKS is a registered trademark of ALEKS Account .. 12 System Requirements .. 13 Logging on to Your Account .. 24 Tools Tutorial .. 35 Knowledge Checks .. Checks in ALEKS .. Check Results .. Checks and Your learning .. 56 Home .. Timeline .. Pie and Details .. Guidance Menu .. Navigation Menu .. 117 learning Mode .. Page/Problem Page/Explanation Page .. Indicator .. Carousel .. with Objectives .. Topics .. 168 Reports .. History .. and Topic Report .. Details Report .. Report .. 189 Assignments .. 1810 Gradebook .. 19iv11 QuickTables .. 20vvi1 Master AccountAll ALEKS accounts for Independent Use have an accompanyingMas-ter account with a range of features for class management andreport-ing.

2 Several Independent use student accounts may be grouped undera single Master the teacher administering an independent study or distance learn-ing program, ALEKS includes features to manage, evaluate, and com-municate to their students. All of the information needed tokeeptrack of each student s progress is at the teacher s fingertips, throughthe features of the Master have these features in their Master Account to helpmanagetheir class:Edit Student AccountSelect theEdit Student Accountlink to change the class thestudent is enrolled in and to update individual student can create Quizzes to test students on specific topics andcheck their current reports available in the Master account include the ProgressReport, Pie Chart Report, and Attendance QuickTablesStudents are able to study Math Facts in a fun and effective wayusing ALEKS s internal message systemThis system allows the teacher to keep in touch with their stu-dents directly through the ALEKS for teachers and studentsThe Resource links include a link to the ALEKS course products,the ALEKS User Guides, Customer Support, and System RequirementsALEKS runs on many devices with various operating system andwebbrowser PCs must have at least 64 MB of RAM and Windows 7 or browsers are Internet Explorer or higher, Firefox25 or higher, and Chrome 30 or higher.

3 PowerMacs or iMacs must have at least 64 MB of RAM andoperating system Mac OS or higher. Compatible browsersare Safari 6 or higher, Firefox 25 or higher, and Chrome 30 orhigher. All courses are desktop and tablet compatible with the exceptionof AP Statistics (Quantitative), High School Prep for Statistics,Business Math, Fundamentals of Accounting, and Introduction toStatistics. These courses are not compatible with tablet most up-to-date requirements can always be found onthe ALEKS Logging on to Your AccountIn order to register as an ALEKS user, you must purchase a monthlysubscription to ALEKS . When you register with ALEKS , your nameis entered into the database and records of your progress are concise instructions for accessing your ALEKS You always log on from the ALEKS website: you are typing this URL by hand, pay careful attention tothe your convenience, add aBookmarkorFavoriteat this On the login page, enter your Login Name and Password pro-vided at the time of registration.

4 Be sure to type these correctly,without any spaces or Login Name and Password can be typed with upper- orlower-case letters. Neither may contain spaces or you forget your Login Name or Password, use the link on theALEKS Home page markedDid you forget your password?If you entered an email address at registration time and you re-member your Login Name, your Password will be sent to you byemail. Otherwise, contact ALEKS Corporation Customer Sup-port at It is a good idea to change2your Password to one you will remember easily but is difficult forothers to guess (Sec. ).3. If you enter your Login Name and Password correctly, you willthen come to the place you left off in your previous ALEKS ses-sion, or begin using ALEKS as a first-time Tools TutorialFigure 1: The Answer EditorThe ALEKS Tools Tutorial teaches you how to enter your answersin ALEKS . ALEKS avoids multiple-choice questions. Most answersare complete mathematical expressions and ToolsTutorial is not intended to teach mathematics.

5 The Tools Tutorialteaches you how to use the ALEKS input tools called theAnswerEditor(Fig. 1). Online help is also available while you are usingALEKS; just click the?button next to the input tools when you areworking in ALEKS . This will give you access to the various sections ofthe Tools Knowledge ChecksInstruction through ALEKS is guided by a precise understanding ofyour knowledge of the ALEKS class material. This information isobtained by Knowledge Checks in which ALEKS asks you to solvea series of problems. ( ALEKS s estimate of your knowledge isalsoupdated when you make progress in the learning Mode.) Your InitialKnowledge Check occurs immediately after the ALEKS Tools Knowledge Checks in ALEKSF igure 2: Knowledge Knowledge Check ResultsUpon completion of your Initial Knowledge Check you will seeyourALEKS Pie along with quick tips that describe how it works andhowto use it. The ALEKS Pie will display the number of topics masteredper pie slice and the overall mastery percent in the class based on the4 Initial Knowledge Check.

6 Clicking on an individual pie slice will givespecific information about the topics in that Knowledge Checks and Your LearningThe purpose of Knowledge Checks in ALEKS is to throughout yourlearning path to confirm that you have retained material previouslylearned and to provide review and reinforcement when it is Knowledge Checks occur at regular intervals (typically20 newtopics learned or 10 hours in the system), or after the completion ordue date of an Objective. Note that any new Knowledge Check resetsthe clock, so that they don t occur one after can see when your next Knowledge Check is coming up by clickingon the Knowledge Check icon on your Home page, next to the Time-line/ ALEKS Pie switch. When it is time for the Knowledge Check,you will see a notification, and you will have 24 hours to begin it (theexact period may be different if your teacher sets it differentlyforyour class). Before beginning the Knowledge Check, you may wish toreview by clicking onReview for Knowledge Check; this optionappears under the Knowledge Check notification and on your PrimaryGuidance is important to make your best effort on the Knowledge Check!

7 Donot rush or work when tired; remember you can always break off andresume the Knowledge Check later. As always, only use theI haven tlearned this yetbutton when you have no idea of the answer; it salways better to try to respond if you possibly can, since I haven tlearned this yet is counted as incorrect. Note that you are likely toget at least a couple of questions that you haven t learned yet, due tothe adaptive nature of the Knowledge Check More Practice. It is also normal to lose some topics fromyour mastery count on a Knowledge Check. This simply means thatthose topics need additional reinforcement ; in most cases you will addthem back quickly. ALEKS will present these topics in the beginningof the Topic Carousel underNeeds More HomeThe first time you enter your ALEKS Home page you will be guidedthrough an introduction giving a brief description of how ALEKS5works. There are also pop-ups and animations that appear whenyouare seeing something in ALEKS for the first time, to ensure thatyouunderstand the interface and know how to use Home page includes some important information such as thename of the ALEKS class, progress bar, notifications, Main NavigationMenu (Sec.)

8 , account Settings (Sec. ), Primary Guidance Menu(Sec. ), and next Knowledge Check Home page shows the Timeline by default (Sec. ), but you canswitch to the ALEKS Pie view (Sec. ) to see your progress withineach slice. The view last selected will appear as your Home Page thenext time you log any point in ALEKS , you can click on the Home symbol or ALEKS icon in the upper left corner to return to the Home ALEKS TimelineFigure 3: ALEKS TimelineThe ALEKS Timeline is a visual tool that graphs your progressandgrowth over time. It helps you understand how to achieve learning6goals and reach milestones. You can use the timeline to view what youworked on in the past, what s ahead, and when topics are due next soyou can plan your class accordingly. As you learn or lose topics, thetimeline is updated with real-time key points about the timeline: The timeline is intended to show information at a macro can select points on the graph to access information.

9 Forexample, the blue goal topic marker is a projection to show whatyou are working towards next. The orange marker displays your progress today, and the numberof topics you have left to reach the next goal on the shows what was completed on that day. The area below the timeline contains assignments created bytheinstructor, showing when the assignments start and end. Youcanselect the assignment name to view detailed information. Whenthere are multiple assignments available, they are stackedandprioritized by due can select theTimeline Detailbutton to see a more detailedfull-screen view and a longer time range than what is displayed on theHome page. You can filter the timeline by day, week, or 4: Timeline IconsFor a key to the icons that may appear on the timeline, see ALEKS Pie and DetailsFigure 5: ALEKS PieThe ALEKS Pie view is an alternate Home page. You can switchback and forth between the Pie view and the Timeline; whichever youlooked at last will appear as your Home page on your next ALEKS Pie allows you to see your overall progress toward comple-tion of the class.

10 Slices represent topic categories. Mastered, learned,and remaining topics are shown in different colors within pie slice is color-coded to match the list next to the ALEKS darker color in the slice represents topics mastered, the lightercolor represents topics learned, and the outer space without color rep-resents the topics remaining to be learned and mastered (Fig. 5).You can view your progress in real time by selecting a pie slice. Thearea to the right is a legend that displays the slice name and thenumber of topics mastered, learned, and remaining in each categoryfor the slice number of topics you have demonstrated mastery of in aKnowledge number of topics that you have practiced successfully inLearning Mode but have not yet confirmed through a number of topics you have left to number in the middle of the ALEKS Pie is a counter that repre-sents the total number of topics you have mastered or can also click on theALEKS Pie Detailbutton to see yourclass progress broken down by the topics that you are ready tolearn,have learned, and have mastered in each slice.