ALEKS (Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces) is not just another homework system. It is much more. From their website,
ALEKS is a Web-based, artificially intelligent assessment and learning system. ALEKS uses adaptive questioning to quickly and accurately determine exactly what a student knows and doesn’t know in a course. ALEKS then instructs the student on the topics she is most ready to learn. As a student works through a course, ALEKS periodically reassesses the student to ensure that topics learned are also retained. ALEKS courses are very complete in their topic coverage and ALEKS avoids multiple-choice questions. A student who shows a high level of mastery of an ALEKS course will be successful in the actual course she is taking. ALEKS also 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.
In my own words, ALEKS is a smart program that quickly and accurately identifies what a student does and doesn’t know, determines what topic a student is most likely to learn next, teaches the student those individually determined topics, and finally assesses the student on their mastery and retention of topics. My understanding idea of Knowledge Spaces is that all the information in a course is broken down into the smallest concepts/skills. This huge complicated space is then empirically connected to determine what topics are prerequisites for other items in the knowledge space. In this way ALEKS knows each individual knowledge space for a student.
The interface is one of the best I’ve used, meaning that I get the fewest number of questions from students. The students can always see their status as a pie, pictured below.
ALEKS Pie
As the students learn topics the pie fills. The good part is when ALEKS assesses the students, if they miss questions related to previously learned topics, ALEKS will determine if the student forgot the information and possibly remove the topic from the pie and teach it to them again. ALEKS doggedly enforces mastery, not just time spent. This focus on retention is something I really appreciate, because I think as teachers we often under appreciate the power of forgetting. Also, because each students Knowledge Space is different, it doesn’t bog down stronger students with work they don’t really need.
Student response to ALEKS is interesting. When I first saw it implemented, the students hated it and ALEKS didn’t get them to master the material. Once we learned how to implement ALEKS more intelligently the students still complain constantly, but we have almost an 80% of the students saying ALEKS significantly or somewhat increases their ability to learn chemistry. Most comments about ALEKS are are veiled compliments:
I really hate ALEKS because it forces me to keep working on something until I really understand it. And if I forget it I have to do it again.
Here is a list of things I really appreciate about ALEKS
- ALEKS is about mastery, not time spent. I’m interested in students ability to use information and skills later on harder problems. Just doing the problem once and moving on isn’t very valuable to me or to the students.
- ALEKS adapts to the student. In a traditional homework every student gets the same number of problems. So the strong student who understood the concept by the 2nd problem is forced to keep working on this concept instead of moving on to another. The weak student didn’t get enough practice, but moves on anyway.
- ALEKS understands the power of forgetting. ALEKS is always watching out student retention of information by continually assessing the students throughout the semester. This also makes ALEKS much more difficult to cheat.
- ALEKS’ report system is great. I can see exactly what the students are doing, what they are learning, and what is giving them trouble. It is obvious when students are using the system appropriately and when they are just trying to dodge the work.
Summary: ALEKS is the best automated tutoring system I’ve seen. It enforces retention and mastery of information instead of time spent or single good guess. The students find it easy to use, and while frustrating, very helpful.