Learning at Your Own Pace

Over the course of the last four weeks, the concepts in my Algebra and Probability classes have become increasingly difficult for me because it's been such a long time since I've worked with things like the vertex and factored forms of quadratic equations. In fact, I had to brush up on working with negative and positive numbers with exponents, because my understanding of Algebra even up through college was very basic.

You can imagine my panic when I saw we were headed for quadratic equations in Algebra and binomial distribution in Probability. What I found though over these last four weeks, is that it does not matter what level of math you come in to this program with;you can still be successful because of the way the courses are set up and taught.

The activities always begin with exploration in a concrete way and at a very basic level. The activities build upon one another, and are sequenced in such a way that it scaffolds your learning as you go. Because of this, you can truly learn at your own pace and at a level that suits your individual needs. When we finish a module each week, someone else may be,as an example, applying formulas for binomial distribution while someone such as myself is still using a very concrete way of approaching the problems because that is where I my conceptual understanding is.

We have the opportunity to asses where our understanding is, and how much progress we have made, and identify areas in which we still have questions or misunderstandings and then get feedback, prompts and support from both peers and instructors. This has been such a valuable aspect of this program for me because my bachelor's degree was in education with no specialization in math. Knowing that I can be successful throughout this program is what keeps me enthusiastic and interested, and it's been quite an enjoyable process so far. Jen