NetMath's mission is to bring the academic resources from one of the nation's top universities to students around the world.
Our online program is highly flexible; students can enroll and begin a course at any time and may work at their own schedule and pace. Courses go for 16 weeks. Students enrolled in a class that uses the Mathematica format may purchase up to three one-month extensions.
NetMath has served students online since 1991. The students served include a wide variety of students, including:
- Rural High School students
- Post-AP High School students
- Homeschool students
- University students
- Adult professionals
- Military personnel
- Anyone interested in learning math!
Students completing NetMath courses receive math credit from the University of Illinois (an accredited, Big Ten university), and there is no requirement that students ever come onto campus. Exams are done through proctors who are local to the students in the program and quizzes may be taken online.
Currently, NetMath offers courses in two different formats depending on the course:
Mathematica
Our Mathematica-based courses use an electronic textbook written at UIUC and designed to provide a focus on application and deep conceptual understanding. The same texts are used in our courses taught on campus.
NetMath combines our electronic text with Mathematica, the world's most powerful computer software system. This provides several benefits to students. While students are expected to be able to perform calculations by hand, abstracting away from the algebraic calculations can often make it easier to initially learn the connections between concepts.
Especially important is that Mathematica allows students to quickly produce and easily change graphics and representations of their formulas. This allows students to play with the math and get an intuitive understanding of the course's key concepts. This way, students will be able to remember math well after they've completed the course, and learn to apply it to challenges they encounter later on.
The Mathematica courses are visual, hands-on courses, which promote active learning. Students receive personal help from on-line mentors under the guidance The Mathematica based courses use the award-winning Calculus&Mathematica (C&M) courseware. Since students use Mathematica software to help them step through the boring routines of traditional mathematical learning, they are free to achieve a better conceptual understanding of the material while still gaining a good knowledge of the methods of problem-solving. The end result is a student who really understands the material he or she is working on.
Most of the Mathematica-based courses have two midterms and one final exam which are all proctored by someone at a location local to the student.
ALEKS
Students enrolling in ALEKS based courses will be given an initial assessment. The ALEKS system is fully automated and the ALEKS assessment is adaptive.
The first questions on the initial assessment will be drawn from across the curriculum, and may be too easy or too hard. As the assessment proceeds, your answers will be used to give the system an idea of your knowledge, and it will gradually focus the questioning in an individually appropriate way. By the end of the assessment you should find the questions generally challenging but reasonable for your individual level of knowledge. The length of the initial assessment runs from 20-35 questions. The exact number of questions will vary due to the adaptive mechanism just described. ALEKS then develops an individualized learning module for each student to master the course material. As students progress through their customized individual learning plan, the adaptive mechanism continues to reassess their knowledge of the course content.
Upon completion of the ALEKS based course, students will take a proctored final exam.