There are many tools that one can use to save money in their quest for an online degree. One cost effective way to learn online is a program called ALEKS. This article will explain the program and how you can take advantage of it.
Explaining ALEKS and How it Can Save You Time and Money
ALEKS stands for Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces and is an online based learning and assessment system. This is an artificial learning, online program which can determine what a student knows and what a student must learn in a given subject area. Once this system determines your ability, it will then instruct you at that level of ability, making it a great choice for students to work at their own pace and ability level. This automated system will then reassess your ability to make sure you are learning and retaining the subject material being studied.
ALEKS costs only $19.95 a month, which makes it a cheap alternative to earning online college credit. During the month, a student of ALEKS is free to complete as many courses as he or she can. You must finish one course before starting another course. All ALEKS college level courses are certified by the American Council on Education. ALEKS can also be used for home schooling credits and grades, K-12, however this article will only discuss the ACE college level credit.
ALEKS Testing and Assessment
ALEKS avoids using multiple choice questions and instead uses input type questions. A student will take an assessment on the subject area they will be studying in. This assessment usually takes around 45 minutes on average for a student to complete. The assessment chooses each question according to how the student answered previous questions, giving each student a unique testing experience. ALEKS avoids the use of multiple choice questions and instead uses input tools that copy the use of pencil and paper. It is not possible to predict the questions you will be asked during assessment.
Once a student completes a subject area they will have proven that they have course level understanding of the subject. The great thing about ALEKS is you can work at your own pace. You can take as little as a day (perhaps working on the subject for eight hours) or you can take a month or longer to complete the subject area. Using ALEKS can save a student a lot of time and money since regular courses can be quite expensive.
College Level Courses Offered on ALEKS
There are currently several college level courses offered in the ALEKS program. They are worth three college credits each. These are your basic, general education college courses. The subjects are listed below, and several classes are available in each subject. Also, according to the ALEKS website, new classes are being added all the time (visit the website shown below for more details about the classes offered).
Mathematics
Business
Behavioral Science
Science
Keep in mind that the course must be ACE approved for you to be able to transfer the credit to most colleges and universities. Currently there are nine courses that are ACE approved for ALEKS.
Beginning Alegbra
Intermediate Algebra
College Algebra with Trigonometry
College Algebra
PreCalculus
Trigonometry
Introduction to Statistics
Business Statistics
Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences
Getting the Credits to Your College of Choice
Once you have completed the ALEKS courses of your choice you can request to have the transcripts sent to the college of your choice. You do not have to be enrolled in a school before taking ALEKS courses. ALEKS can be a cheap and time saving way to have 27 college level credits before you even enroll in an online college. These college credits are accepted by any school that will take ACE transfer credits. You should contact the school that you plan on attending to see if they accept the ACE transfer credits.
For more information about college credit, please see the following article on Bright Hub:
Taking CLEP Exams for College Credit.
Source
Aleks.com
