I just completed my first MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). It was a developmental math course with Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C). Apparently they received a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and now offer this developmental math course for free!
I’ve been checking out some courses to take this summer on Coursera, and a co-worker of mine pointed out that Tri-C was offering a free MOOC. So I had to sign up and try it out and see just how rusty my math skills had gotten.
The course uses Blackboard and was pretty easy to follow. It was broken up into four levels that you can take at your own leisure, with advancement to the next level upon completing a test at a certain score.
- Level One – Integer Numbers
- Level Two – Fractions & Decimals
- Level Three  – Order of Operations
- Level Four – Variable Expressions
While I did breeze through the course and completed it in two days, I did realize that I had forgotten how to divide fractions! I’ve been living in a decimal world and it just left me. Luckily the great tutorials shared in the course by Khan Academy got me back up to speed in no time.
Oh, by the way Khan Academy is awesome. So check it out often!
While I wouldn’t really agree that the course offered “game” mechanics, it was structured very well and easy to follow along. The quizzes and tests were very easy to complete and timely.
While I didn’t learn anything new, I was glad to refresh up on some dormant skills and am glad I game this class a shot. It’s a fantastic free resource that I’d highly recommend to anyone looking to brush up or to improve their developmental math skills.