Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

We will be using the ALEKS platform for this course. This class can have many purposes.  It can help you fill in gaps in your learning, it can reinforce math topics you have learned in the past, it can help you review content before you begin an actual math course, it can supplement your learning while you are attending an actual math course, and/or it can help you test into a higher-level math class.  It is not a study hall for a math course you are currently taking.

This is a Pass/No Pass class.  There are 3 requirements to meet to pass this class.  

• ALEKS: Each student will put in at least 25 hours for the 1-credit course or 50 hours for the 2-credit course in ALEKS. The more time you put in, the more likely you are to meet your goals.  Your goal is to make progress within the program to receive a passing grade, which is relative to where you “test in” the ALEKS program at the beginning of the term i.e., if you test in with 70 of 310 skills during the term, you will have to show progress of 25% for a passing grade.  There could be a few exceptions to this, as deemed by the instructor.  I am also requiring each student to memorize their multiplication facts (times tables). I will be asking each student to focus the first 2-3 minutes each class period on memorizing their times tables. Then I will "time test" throughout the term to check on your progress.
• Attendance/Participation: Attending part of a class does not count as full class attendance. You must also participate, work on math in the ALEKS platform as directed, complete knowledge checks or other assessments, and be respectful during class time to receive full attendance/participation points.  I will be checking in ALEKs to see that you are fully participating in the course each week. You may miss no more than the equivalent of 4 classes without making them up to receive a passing grade for the class; 2 absences for the Late Start class.
• Submitting weekly progress reports via D2L (Desire to Learn, also called Brightspace) and a Final Submission report that includes each class session information.  For the weekly reports, you will write down how many topics you cover each section and submit via D2L each week under the Assignments tab.  You must have at least a 70% grade on these reports to pass the course.

We will be using the Aleks platform for this course.  Our class will meet in a computer lab but access to the internet and a PC, tablet or laptop will be useful for working in Aleks outside of our class time.  Using Aleks on a smartphone is cumbersome and not advised.  The more time you spend in Aleks the more likely you will benefit in later coursework.