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e-Learning Ecologies MOOC’s Updates

Using ALEKS PPL as a Tool for Adaptive Assessment and Learning to Bridge Secondary and Postsecondary Sectors -

REPOSTING: I posted this incorrectly initially

McGraw Hill Education’s ALEKS PPL is an open-response, adaptive learning and assessment tool based on artificial intelligence that is designed to place students in a range of classes from basic math through Calculus I (McGraw Hill, 2017). ALEKS PPL is a prime example of adaptive learning in that it works by inviting students to demonstrate their current level of math knowledge. Further, the way that students perform on ALEKS prompts determines which questions they receive next and data is collected in the process that is used to benefits students in the classroom.

Media embedded August 23, 2017

Upon completion, students receive a customized report outlining their math skills and have the opportunity to utilize the software itself to brush up on customized math skills (based on individual performance) and then to retake the assessment. The college/university can determine how much time students must spend in remediation before they can retest. The post-secondary institution can also determine how many times students are permitted to retest. William Rainey Harper College, has been using ALEKS PPL for some time now. In fact, Harper’s placement data can be found in the attached brochure, page 10:

https://www.aleks.com/highered/math/ALEKS_PPL_Case_Study_Brochure.pdf

This page shows Harper’s FAQ's regarding ALEKS PPL:

http://goforward.harpercollege.edu/registration/testing/aleks.php

In more recent years, Harper and other institutions have determined a variety of other uses for ALEKS PPL.

I currently lead the Northwest Educational Council for Student Success (NECSS) http://www.necsspartnership.com/ a partnership organization that spans the boundaries of secondary and post-secondary sectors in a region of 23 communities in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago. Harper is our community college partner along with 3 school district which bring 12 high schools into the fold. Our aim is to facilitate college and career readiness for students in our serving region through innovative programming and pathways. As we have worked together, we have experienced great success in moving placement testing down to the secondary level so that we can determine readiness for our high school students – in the areas of math and English and if necessary, remediate at the high school level. For math, we use a McGraw Hill Education product: ALEKS PPL (Placement, Preparation and Learning. In so doing, we are able to jointly plan for dual credit and to save parents in our community significant money because their sons/daughters do not have to take developmental classes in college…they have already gotten them taken care of while in high school. ALEKS PPL is a vital tool to facilitate this objective.

What’s most exciting is that ALEKS PPL has enabled our learning network to reimagine what is possible pedagogically. As we heard with Affordance 7, Differentiated Learning, ALEKS PPL, provides a report that enables faculty members in mathematics at the high school and college levels to truly target learning to individual students needs while also meeting course objectives. Ultimately, this provides the best experience for students.