ALEKS: A Review

We had a great program to review, it is probably one of my favourites so far. Allow me to introduce you to ALEKS!

 What is ALEKS? (from the website)
Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces is a Web-based, artificially intelligent assessment and learning system. ALEKS uses adaptive questioning to quickly and accurately determine exactly what a student knows and doesn't know in a course. ALEKS then instructs the student on the topics she is most ready to learn. As a student works through a course, ALEKS periodically reassesses the student to ensure that topics learned are also retained. ALEKS courses are very complete in their topic coverage and ALEKS avoids multiple-choice questions.

When I was first given the opportunity to review this I wasn't sure I wanted to review another math product as we have had several this year.  I am so glad I did.  I enrolled Micaiah in the program and the first thing the student does is an assessment.  Once this assessment was completed he was given a pie chart of his knowledge.

There are several courses you can choose from covering Elementary Math up to higher level Math, Science and Business.  Micaiah's topics for grade 3 covered Fractions and Decimals, Place Value and Money, Addition and Subtraction, Geometry, Measurement and Graphs, and Multiplication and Division.

Once Micaiah looked as his pie, he was able to click on each slice and choose a topic from that section to work on. I allowed him to work through his pie at his own pace covering whatever topics he wanted each day.  He usually worked for 30 minutes to an hour.  This program is great for kids who are highly motivated and like checklists so it was perfect for Micaiah.

Here is an example of a question:

After 10 days this is what his pie looked like:

Seeing the progress motivated him to work hard.  He continued through a learning, assessment and review cycle until achieving mastery in all sections.  He was quite proud when is pie was completed!

The program has an additional feature called Quick Tables.  Quick Tables is a math fact mastery program for multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction for grades 3 and up. The online program offers ongoing assessment, learning, review, and visual tracking of student progress.  Here is a look at the quick tables report for division for Micaiah.  Since we had just stated division in math Quick Tables was a great reinforcement and opportunity to practice.


This again is self paced with highly visual results to motivate the student to achieve more.  An additional motivation was games that were unlocked as they made progress. They were games that helped to build the math skill being worked on.

 In addition to the online activities and learning,  I was able to download worksheets for Micaiah to work on based on the topics he was working on.  I could also customize a quiz for him to take if we wanted to concentrate on specific topics.  Detailed reports on progress, time spent on the program and topics needing review were readily available and accessible me as the parent.  I was even able to set a weekly email to be sent to Joe so he also could track Micaiah's progress.

Micaiah's Thoughts:

"Aleks was fun and I enjoyed finishing my pie.  It was challenging in the beginning but got easier as I went along."

Aleks is useful addition to any math program your child is currently using.  It certainly does help to fill in the gaps.

A subscription to ALEKS is

• $19.95 per student, per month, or
  
  
• only $99.95 every 6 months, or
  
  
• only $179.95 every 12 months.

They also offer a  family discount program.

Think you want to give it a try?  They are offering a free 2 month free trial! Click the button below.

Disclaimer:  As a member of TOS Crew review team, I was given a short subscription in return for my honest (positive or otherwise) opinion of this product.