• Different people learn differently.
• Some people learn best from online interactive activities, others prefer to use a printed textbook, and still others need to see, hear, and discuss the lessons with someone, whether it be the teacher or another student.
• Most people, however, find some mixture of these approaches works best for them. You should work closely with your teacher to determine which approach works best for you.
ONLINE LEARNING ACTIVITIES: Many students find the PLATO (or BuzMath, where available) online activities to be a good place to get started on a given lesson, since …
▪ The PLATO Tutorials (or BuzMath Discussions/Demonstrations, where available) generally present a good introduction to the critical concepts and skills.
▪ The PLATO Applications (or BuzMath Guided Practices & Independent Practices, where available) provide a fair amount of reinforcement and practice.
▪ And the BuzMath Self Checks, where available, are generally a good measure of how well you have learned the material and what things you still need to work on, if any.
▪ You are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to take advantage of these online resources; however, they are not required. The main thing is that you be able to demonstrate that you have learned the required concepts and skills by passing a written Cumulative Evaluation with at least 70%.
OFFLINE ACTIVITIES: Other students find they do better using offline activities,
such as the textbook (PAN) and teacher-
▪ PAGE REFERENCES in this Course Guide are to PLATO Academic Systems Algebra – Elementary Algebra (Personal Academic Notebook).
▪ RECOMMENDED READING: In addition to reading the recommended pages, make sure that
you fully understand the worked examples. -
▪ RECOMMENDED PRACTICE PROBLEMS: Do as many problems of each type as necessary for
you to feel comfortable. -
REVIEW ACTIVITIES:: You are not required to turn in the Practice Evaluations; however, it is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that you review them with your teacher before trying the Cumulative Evaluations.
REMEMBER: THE MAIN THING IS THAT YOU BE ABLE TO PASS EACH WRITTEN CUMULATIVE EVALUATION WITH A SCORE OF AT LEAST 70%.