Welcome to an intro to the Open Arithmetic
Prealgebra Course, offered free by Phoenix College
as part of the 2013 AZ Science Tech Festival.
My name is James Sousa,
I'm a Math instructor at Phoenix College.
For a little bit of a background,
I've been creating Math tutorial videos posted on YouTube
for over two years now, though it wasn't until recently
that I've been able to combine free eBooks
and a free Online Assessment program
in order to create Complete Online Courses.
And the featured Arithmetic Prealgebra Course
covers the following topics.
Let's go and take a look at the course.
This is where all the course materials are located.
So once registered, this is where we would login.
We do want to select this third option,
force image-based math, and then click login.
Again once registered, there will only be one course
over here on the left, 2013 Open Arithmetic/Prealgebra.
So if I click on this link,
this is the homepage of the course.
Notice this first link here is for announcements.
This first announcement contains important information
about the course including this Video Welcome,
entering answers and a way to download
or purchase the textbook.
Let's take a look at how the course materials are organized.
It's very similar to a textbook,
but instead of chapters we have modules.
So there are seven modules to this course.
Let's go and enter Module 2.
All the modules are organized the same way,
every module contains several sections.
After the sections we have an optional practice test
and then a module test.
Within each section, there are three subsections.
So if I click on Section 2.1,
we have a textbook link, video links and then
a homework link.
And again each section has these three same links.
So if I click on the textbook link,
this brings up the textbook which is a PDF file,
so this can be saved or printed.
Next are the videos, and there are two types of videos.
There are video lessons and video examples.
Again these are all hosted on YouTube.
Let's go and take a look at that video lesson.
Welcome to an Introduction to Integers.
The goal of this video are to define the set of integers,
compare integers using inequality symbols,
define the absolute value of an integer,
and then determine the opposite of an integer.
Integers are the numbers.
So these lessons are designed so that you can
take notes from the slides in your math notebook.
And the math notebook is an important component
to be successful in the course.
So after watching the video lesson, you can also watch
the supporting example videos if you wish.
Let's take a look at one of these.
These have graph paper background.
To order these integers from least to greatest
we'll go ahead and plot these on the number line
and that will automatically put them in order
from least to greatest because
the smallest numbers occur on the left.
So after reading the textbook
and watching the videos,
you should be ready for the homework.
Let's take a look at the homework.
Here we're asked to compare -20 and -9
using inequality symbols.
Within a homework question if you need extra help,
most of the questions have this work example or video link
which opens up another video that works a similar problem
to help you solve the given problem.
You want to compare the integers using
the greater than, less than or equal symbol.
There's also an option here to post
this question to a forum.
This will allow you to get help from other students
in the class, and I will also monitor this forum.
This forum is called the Math Lounge.
So if I click on this link, it takes this homework question
as we see here, and posts in the Math Lounge.
But it is important that you also ask a specific question
so that someone could help you.
As a third option for help, you can click on this
jump to answer link which will give you the answer
to this specific question.
But then to get credit for the question,
you would have to work a similar question,
meaning the numbers would change.
So the way the homework is set up,
there's unlimited attempts for each question,
but if you miss the question twice,
to get credit you will have to work a similar problem,
not the exact same problem.
So again, every section is set up the same way.
We have the textbook, the videos and the homework link.
Let's go back to the homepage.
You can also access the Math Lounge
from the discussion forums
where you can click on New Thread
and then post any other questions or comments
that you have about the course.
To check your progress any time, from the homepage,
you can click on the online Gradebook here.
And it will give you specific grades for each assignment
and at the bottom it will give you
an overall score in the course.
Because this course is an open course,
there are no due dates which would normally show
on the calendar from this calendar link here.
I hope you found this introduction helpful.
Before I show you how to register for the course,
I do want to mention one more thing.
If you're interested in getting help on other courses
other than Arithmetic or Prealgebra,
I do have videos that range all the way through Calc three
and beyond which you can access several ways.
One way is through my YouTube Channel which is Bullcleo1,
given here at the bottom as well.
Or if you visit mathispower4u.com,
click on the course tab above,
and then scroll through the library.
And the third option is to go to the Mathispower4u Blog,
again the address is given here below,
where you can actually search by topic
using this window here.
To obtain registration directions for the Arithmetic,
Prealgebra course, please visit mathispower4u
to download the registration information.
I hope you find these resources helpful.