This is ALEKS, an artificially-intelligent, web-based learning and assessment system. To understand what makes ALEKS the most effective learning system ever created, let’s look at the science behind how it works; science developed over decades of research at top universities.

Let’s take a look at Sam, a ninth-grader who is struggling with Algebra 1. The first thing ALEKS needs to do is determine Sam’s knowledge state. Sam’s knowledge state is everything he already knows in Algebra 1.

To get a basic understanding of what goes into computing a knowledge state, let’s pretend that instead of consisting of several hundreds of topics, Algebra 1 only consisted of 5 topics. But even with 5 topics, there are 32 possible knowledge states, or combinations of these topics. Now, some of these states are so impractical that in reality, there are actually only 13 feasible knowledge states that a student could fall into.

All the feasible knowledge states are organized into a learning space, a mathematical structure specifying the relationships among the knowledge states, and showing which topics the student is ready to work on.

To move from one knowledge state to another within the learning space, a student must learn a new topic; or forget a previously learned one.

So, our example only involved five topics. But if we look at the full Algebra 1 course, consisting of hundreds of topics, there are over one trillion feasible knowledge states that a student could fall into.

ALEKS can accurately and efficiently assess where each student is among these trillions of knowledge states, and know their exact position at all times. This is no simple task, and it’s a task that hasn’t been achieved by any other program.

All of this works because mathematical cognitive scientists and software engineers at ALEKS have spent years gathering data from millions of actual students using the program. This data allows ALEKS to construct all the feasible knowledge states and how they’re structured together, into a learning space; leading to personalized pathways to course mastery for every student, no matter where they start.

It all begins with a brief, individualized assessment. Using learning space theory, ALEKS intelligently chooses each question based on the student’s responses to all previous questions, to determine what the student has mastered, not mastered, and exactly what topics he is ready to learn.

The student sees their knowledge state as a multi-colored pie chart, which lets them know what topics are available to explore.

Everything happens step-by-step, one topic at a time, as ALEKS continually updates Sam’s knowledge state, and ready-to-learn possibilities.

ALEKS constantly watches Sam, and records his successes and failures, and this information is used to guide Sam along one of his optimal learning paths, through the trillions of knowledge states in the learning space. Only ALEKS has that power.

Because of this constant evaluation, ALEKS only presents topics that the student is actually ready to learn. ALEKS challenges the student without frustrating or boring, resulting in tremendous learning momentum, and increasing confidence.

ALEKS will periodically assess Sam, to make sure that he is retaining the material he learns. Research shows that periodic assessments not only ensure retention, but actually increase it. A cycle of individualized assessment and adaptive learning continues throughout the course, to ensure that Sam has truly mastered and retained the concepts presented.

At the conclusion of the ALEKS course, Sam will have a deeper understanding of the material, and dramatically improved mastery over the course topics.

ALEKS has already helped millions of students succeed in math, chemistry, and accounting at thousands of schools, colleges and universities.