The official ALEKS mourning thread

[aviator guy]

They've extended? I was thinking about getting my butt in gear this week

Yes, good through June 30th at this point. I don't think anyone is sure of what the future holds.

Interestingly enough, I received an email from them this week announcing that they've released a new system. I'm no longer a member, so I don't know what the new system looks like or has content wise; however, if they significantly re-vamped everything, they may be waiting for more permanent ACE approval based on the new system. If it's all just cosmetic/interface changes, I doubt that has any bearing, other than maybe they were too busy working on that to put effort into the renewal process. The email seems to indicate that most of the improvements are on the cosmetic/interface side, but I can't say for sure.

This is all just speculation/guessing on my part, the truth could be something else entirely.

Here's what the email said:

The New and Improved ALEKS Is Here!

As an ALEKS alumni, you've experienced the value of our personalized learning courses and adaptive assessments. Now it's even better! We've upgraded our student module just in time for the start of summer. Check out the latest enhancements and give your learning plan a boost this summer.

Many new benefits are part of this upgrade, including:

Modern interface and graphics
Video and interactive learning resources
Improved progress monitoring and reporting
More control of learning activities and assessments

What's considered easy and or hard

(What I am about to say is predicated on 1. You being new to ALEKS and 2. The changes to the system not significantly modifying the way ALEKS "works.")

Well I suppose that's relative, but you'll find out soon enough when working through the pie. You can click on a topic, start working on it and then return to the pie to try something else without penalty if it starts irritating you (the topic will still be there later for you to work on.) The problem with this is that everything is interdependent, so you have to complete certain topics in order to have access to others. You can blow out a bunch of easy topics and then have to work through a few difficult ones in order to access more easy stuff.

For the love of all that is holy - please, please study for the initial assessment before taking it. Do not, under any circumstances click "I don't know." I pretty much goofed around on my first one, thinking I would just work my way to 70% and it would be all sunshine and rainbows - NOT. There is a way to reset a bad initial assessment (by enrolling in a new course, then switching back to the one you were on) but I wasn't aware of this at the time.

[cookderosa]

"More control of learning activities and assessments"

and there it is.......

[aviator guy]

"More control of learning activities and assessments"

and there it is.......

Yeah, I don't really know what that means. I know that at first blush a lot of people are going to interpret it as allowing for proctored activities, but in my mind it could just allow for more control on the administrator side.

Here is a walk-through video.

Someone with an active account needs to check it out thoroughly and report back.

[Thorne]

Yeah, I don't really know what that means. I know that at first blush a lot of people are going to interpret it as allowing for proctored activities, but in my mind it could just allow for more control on the administrator side.

Here is a walk-through video.

Someone with an active account needs to check it out thoroughly and report back.

I'm running through it for a month (finished up 12cr already, working on PreCalculus now) and was switched in the middle.

It doesn't appear that there are any options for proctoring or the like, it just seems like a more granular approach than what I saw on my first day. It's much smoother (a master can prescribe specific learning assignments and, I think, specify which topics go into assessments), but nothing ground-shaking

[vetvso]

Newer software but no change from proctoring point of view. I 'm hoping they will extend again at the end of the month.

[originalamyj]

"More control of learning activities and assessments"

and there it is.......

One thing I will tell you is that I can'd seem to "force" a new initial assessment like before. You used to be able to switch to a new class and then switch back and it would trigger a new initial assessment. Now all it does is return you right back to where you were to keep on working the pie. My daughter is at 63% but it's likely she won't get much past that because she has some dyscalculia. I guess I will just have her keep on working that pie.

[n2yoga]

One thing I will tell you is that I can'd seem to "force" a new initial assessment like before. You used to be able to switch to a new class and then switch back and it would trigger a new initial assessment. Now all it does is return you right back to where you were to keep on working the pie. My daughter is at 63% but it's likely she won't get much past that because she has some dyscalculia. I guess I will just have her keep on working that pie.

Here are the steps:
--Login to your master account
--Select her as a student
--Click "Progress Report" which appears in the second column.
--Look for the link at the bottom of the page under MORE OPTIONS that says, "Request a New Knowledge Check"

[seouljah760]

Here are the steps:
--Login to your master account
--Select her as a student
--Click "Progress Report" which appears in the second column.
--Look for the link at the bottom of the page under MORE OPTIONS that says, "Request a New Knowledge Check"

Can confirm. This is how you trigger a new Knowledge Check. I kept triggering a new one on my stats class to get passed a 70. If you make say a 60 on a check, the additional 10 points toward pie completion do not count as 70. You MUST take a knowledge check and pass with 70+ to earn ACE credit. I learned the hard way. I had roughly a 55 and made another 30 points on the pie, and tried to submit credits. I got an email back saying I needed a 70+ on a knowledge check. Passed it after two attempts. Stats is an SOB.

[Old Guy]

Other than a tiny bit of wiggle room - you generally can't advance your grade on knowledge checks. You advance by completing topics on the pie chart. You confirm this score with knowledge checks. If you get 100% on a knowledge check, it will just confirm the grade on your pie chart. Endlessly triggering knowledge checks will lead to endless frustration but little advancement.

[originalamyj]

Other than a tiny bit of wiggle room - you generally can't advance your grade on knowledge checks. You advance by completing topics on the pie chart. You confirm this score with knowledge checks. If you get 100% on a knowledge check, it will just confirm the grade on your pie chart. Endlessly triggering knowledge checks will lead to endless frustration but little advancement.

Correct. You need a new Initial Assessment to attempt to jump in to the class at the highest possible percentage. The work-around was removed. However today I did email and request a new one. They replied that they cleared my daughter's account which will trigger a new Initial Assessment. I only did this because I am hopeful that after a lot of work she will be able to jump in at 70% or above, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.