- What is ALEKS?
- Registration
- ALEKS mastery
- Objectives
- ALEKS grading
- Getting the most out of ALEKS
- Technical support for ALEKS
What is ALEKS?
ALEKS is a web-based, artificially intelligent assessment and learning system. ALEKS uses adaptive questioning to quickly and accurately determine exactly what you know and don't know in General Chemistry, then instructs you on the topics you are most ready to learn. As you work, it periodically reassesses your progress to ensure that topics learned are also retained.
ALEKS provides the advantages of one-on-one instruction, 24/7, from virtually any web-based computer, for a fraction of the cost of a human tutor. ALEKS is a modern, powerful assessment and learning tool that can make your chances of doing well in this course significantly higher.
Registration
The charge for ALEKS is $40 for CH101 or $70 for both CH101 and CH102, if purchased online using the link below; it may also purchased from Boston University Barnes & Noble Bookstore. Here is what you need to do to begin using ALEKS.
- Go to http://www.aleks.com
- Click on "SIGN UP NOW"
- In the box provided, enter the code XHLYQ-LETHA. This code is to be used for all three lecture sections (A1 Abrams, A2 Caradonna and A3 Dill)
- Register, following the instructions. Be sure to correctly enter your Boston University nine-character ID number, so that you can receive credit for your work.
That's it. You will now receive a brief tutorial on how to enter answers in ALEKS before taking an initial assessment to determine what you have retained from your prior course work.
ALEKS mastery
ALEKS determines your “mastery” of a topic. This means it will ask you how to do a problem in a few different ways and will periodically assess you to make sure you are retaining this information. The ALEKS program determines how often and when to assess you. Trying to cheat the system by having a friend do the work for you will only hurt you later because when ALEKS assesses you and finds you have forgotten how to do something, it will remove that topic from your mastered list and teach it to you again.
Your ALEKS work will be broken down into objectives that follow along with the material being covered in lecture. You can always see your current mastery of all topics - and how close you are to completing an objective - by viewing your pie chart, which is on the first ALEKS page when you log in.
You will always be able to see, right below your ALEKS topics pie …
- what you need to be doing,
- when it is due, and
- the number of topics needed to complete an objective.
Also shown is the number of topics you are learning per hour, so you can always estimate the time it will take to complete your work (factoring in some extra time for assessment).
Objectives
Preliminary ALEKS Assessment
You are required to take a preliminary ALEKS assessment and begin working toward initial topic “mastery”. The preliminary assessment will take between one and two hours, will include 20-30 questions, and determines your background in basic math and chemistry.
Don't worry about doing well or poorly, just take the assessment as honestly as possible; that way ALEKS will adapt itself to you. Not taking the assessment seriously can lead to LOTS more work during the semester, because you have to master all the topics by the end of the course.
For completing the assessment, you will receive 1% of your final course score. After you have completed the assessment, ALEKS will begin to give topics it feels you are ready to learn. Another 1% of your final course score will be given for mastering the remaining summer introduction topics. The preliminary assessment and beginning course work are due at 11:59 pm on Sunday, September 12th.
Introductory quantum concepts
This objective is 13 topics and many of you have already gotten a start. Make sure to keep spending time with ALEKS and complete this objective for another 1% of your final course grade.
This objective is due at 11:59 pm on Wednesday, September 22.
Many electrons
This objective is 11 topics. It is due at 11:59 pm on Wednesday, October 27.
ALEKS grading
ALEKS will constitute 10% of your course score, broken down as follows.
- Initial Assessment, 1%: The first thing ALEKS will do when you log in is assess your current background and ability. You want ALEKS to adapt itself to you. Do not consult outside sources (e.g. Wikipedia, friends, textbook, etc). NEVER click “I don’t know” unless you really have no idea what the answer is. Even your wrong answers tell ALEKS something. Not taking this assessment seriously will lead to a LOT of work later. Taking this assessment (no matter your score) is worth 1% of your course grade.
- Mastery Goals, 4 goals, 1% each: There will be 4 times during the year we when will see how much course mastery you have obtained. This part of your grade is completely based on your ability to master topics. It is NOT based on time spent or number or problems answered. The first mastery goal will be at the start of the class based on your ability to complete the summer topics. The three other mastery goals will come just before the three semester exams.
- Overal course mastery, 5%: At the end of the semester we will look at the total number of topics you achieved mastery on divided by how many total topics there are. This will give you a portion of 5% of your final grade.
Getting the most out of ALEKS
ALEKS follows along with the course and book and can be a great help if used correctly. We expect most students to spend 2 - 4 hours every week working on it. If you put this work off, then it will require much more time. If you have others do the work for you, it will take you MUCH more time because ALEKS will reteach topics to you.
Because ALEKS is tailored to you, you might find you are a bit ahead or behind the lecture. This is fine, just keep spending your time with it. Do not allow yourself to fall too far behind the course because then you may find you have too many topics to learn before you are graded on your mastery goal. ALEKS only goes as fast as you are able to learn. No concessions will be made for incomplete work when objectives are due.
ALEKS technical support
At any time that you feel your answer to be correct and ALEKS to be incorrect, please follow the following procedure exactly.
- While working on the problem in question, select "Inbox."
- Compose a message to ALEKS customer support.
- Be certain to check the box near the bottom of the compose screen that says "Attach Page ... (Question)"
For all other technical problems using ALEKS, please contact ALEKS technical support at
http://support.aleks.com/
You can also visit http://www.aleks.com/support to find answers to all common questions. You may also speak with technical support at (714) 619-7090.
If you are working at a computer that does not allow downloads, then use
http://www.aleks.com/plugin
instead.