ALEKS Review-Revisited

You may remember several months ago the first TOS Crew reviewed ALEKS, an online math curriculum which my son Scott really enjoyed. You can find my first review HERE.
This year, they've asked the new Crew to also review ALEKS, and those of us who are First Mates to tell you a little more about the Master Account and how they've improved it. to be honest, in my first review, I don't even think I talked about the Master Account, so here's the run down:

The Master Account is where you, the parent, can get all the information on how your child is doing using ALEKS. You can view their pie chart-showing you their initial assessment and the progress they have made. You can edit a student's level, add a student, change your billing set-up, change passwords, etc. All your normal administrator-type stuff.

New to the Master Account is the ability to make quizzes for your student(s). You can either make them yourself, or have ALEKS make them based on recently learned materials. Also new is the ability to designate when and to whom progress reports are e-mailed. Also, you can now track "attendance" on ALEKS to see when your child was logged on and for how long.

The Master Account makes it really easy to be in control of you child(ren)'s account and to see what they are learning and how much time it is taking them. While you still can't "assign" work to do by limiting their choices about what they can work on each day, it does give you the chance to make sure they have worked on what you have asked (if you chose to direct their learning) by allowing you to "check-up" on them. It's very easy to use, and is part of what your monthly membership fee includes, so there is no extra charge. I like that you can change their level yourself both for their quick tables and their subject-you don't have to ask the ALEKS people to do that for you.

I still really like ALEKS, and can see that day when it is the preferred math around here for at least one of my students. And I like the features the Master Account offers, so I know what my kids are learning even though they are doing it on the computer and I am not necessarily part of the process.

To check out ALEKS yourself, go HERE. They often offer a free one month trial which can't be beat. To see what other members of the TOS Crew have said about ALEKS or the Master Account, go HERE.