Course Manual for Math 118 Online: Intermediate Algebra
• How to begin • How to study • How to use the materials provided
• How to use your time • How to succeed
OVERVIEW
This online course is a mixture of printed text, digitized videos and online facilities for course
management, learning direction and testing of acquired skills. This course should not be attempted by
anyone learning algebra for the first time but is intended as a convenient way to improve or relearn skills
previously learned but forgotten or just out of practice.
COMPONENTS OF COURSE
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“Textbook”: Thinkwell: Intermediate Algebra Bundle ISBN: 1931381526. Text is interactive on the
world wide web at www.thinkwell .com. (Authorization code is bundled with your box of CDs). The
lectures are on the CDs. A companion workbook is included in the bundle.
Access to the Thinkwell website. This is where practice interactive exercises are available with
lecture notes as well as transcripts of the lectures on CD. You will also be taking quizzes at the
Thinkwell site. They will be announced at the Thinkwell site. Look for those announcements.
WebStudy: a course management system to guide you in moving through the course, provide
communications with your instructor and other students in the class. Some supplementary materials
and links to help enrich your experience are also available.
GETTING STARTED (*DO NOT PUT THIS OFF OR YOU MAY FALL BEHIND!*)
Step 1. Purchase your CD bundle at the College bookstore or at the Thinkwell website (Thinkwell.com).
You will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader to read the lecture notes and Apple Quicktime to view the
lectures properly installed on your computer.
Step 2. Log in to WebStudy. Briefly, the process is: go to http://ccp.whyy.org and enter your username
and password in the form described below, then click the login button. Your username and password
should initially be your first initial plus last name plus the last four digits of your SSN. For example, If
your name is Marvin Smith and your SSN is 987-65-1234, then your login is msmith1234. Use for both
user name and password. Refer to the handout about login in to WebStudy for more details. After you are
in, click on the Timeline tab to see what the course looks like. Explore. Click on some links. Be sure to
click on the Self-assessment link and answer the 10 questions. It is self-scoring. Report your score to
your instructor. This exercise is to help you and test that WebStudy is working correctly for you. The
score is an indicator of whether online distance is suitable for your learning style.
If you have trouble with this, e-mail your instructor, Geoffrey Schulz at gschulz@ccp.edu and tell him
your name and SSN and what happened.
Step 3. Use the Thinkwell Authorization code to register yourself on the Thinkwell website for the
intermediate algebra course. That registration is only good for this semester. Be sure to choose my name
(Geoffrey Schulz) as the instructor. Once this is done, you will be able to see the exercises online and any
custom material that I may create there for you.
Step 4. Make sure you can view the videos. When you try to install the CDs make sure that you are also
online. If you do not have Quicktime, it will be installed for you.
Step 5. You are now ready to begin. Return to WebStudy and look at the assignment for the week.
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View the Videos on CD for the week. Try working some examples on paper. Do not just view the
video passively.
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Work the exercises on Thinkwell.Com. There is no printed text as such. It is all interactive and online.
(You may print out the lecture notes from Adobe reader if you wish for review).
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Examinations are taken in WebStudy. There are four exams. The grade for each exam is determined
by what you score on that exam along with what work you have done in preparation for that exam
(Thinkwell exercise). 20% of each exam score is derived from the work done at the Thinkwell site
(exercise sets).
TIME MANAGEMENT IDEAS
Taking a course independently can take from 9 to 15 hours of work per week. This includes all
activities from watching the videos, taking notes, working exercises and taking exams. The trick is to fit
that in with your schedule. The best way is to split it up. Decide how many days you can work on Algebra
-- the more you spread it out, the better. For example, if you decide to work 5 days, allow three hours per
day. If you are keeping up to schedule with less time -- great. This is just a reasonable estimate. Adjust
based on your background and abilities.
Do not fall behind the syllabus schedule. Do not wait until the last minute to take assigned exams.
Exams are due when they are first made available, but you are given a two week grace period. Since you
will be given two tries on each exam, the first attempt should be tried as early as possible. Then study on
the topics you did poorly on, trying to improve your score the second try. If you just take it twice at the
last minute, you will not do as well.
Use what helps you the most.
Not all the materials available for this course will be equally helpful to you, depending on your learning
style. Ask questions by sending e-mails inside WebStudy to your instructor. If you are having a technical
problem do not wait for it to vanish. It won’t. Get it resolved immediately.
Don’t forget about help.
As a registered student you are entitled to peer tutoring. Make an appointment with a tutor by calling the
Math Learning Lab (215-751-8481) if you need to or if you are on campus, stop in (M2-36) and make an
appointment.
This course is NOT self-paced. It is flexibly paced. However you must complete
exams or quizzes by the deadline or they expire and you get a zero. No makeups. No
exceptions.