Please...need help making SOS Biology a sucess

[kfeusse]

My son (actually me too) has never used a program that is solely online (no textbook to look at or refer to) and having not found a Biology that I thought would work, I decided on SOS.  My son looked at the first chapter...read it several times, ...looked at the video clips (which was one thing we were really wanting as part of the program), played the little vocab games...and took the first quiz and failed.  He was devastated. What was frustrating for him was that he had no idea what he was being quizzed over exactly, I couldn't help because I don't think I can see the quiz ahead of time.  He has never done anything quite like this and now I am not sure how to proceed from here.  I don' t know if the all online thing is hard for him or what.  I hate to give up so quickly, but our family has had a history struggling to find just the right program with some subjects...thus wasting a lot of time and then needing to make that up, which is frustrating and hard.

 

If you have used SOS and can give me some tips or ideas about how to help him understand how this type of program works or how I can help him be successful, I would be so grateful!!!!!

 

thanks.

[cbollin]

I was hoping some SOS users might chime in.

 

Not sure this is helpful. but maybe the bump will help.

I have used Monarch for a few things (which is SOS but online instead of disks). I don't have any active courses to check.   I can't remember if I could see the tests/quizzes before student. I could see lots of stuff.  I remember something was hard so I played around with settings and did that quiz over.  I figured in some ways we were still learning how to learn from a non text class so I had a lot of flexibility that way as far as I was concerned.   With some sections, I'd sit with middle gal and help her take notes and such.  We may have done some open book in some form until we got the hang of it.  With youngest, she needed a teacher, so I sat there.

 

not sure if any of that helps in your situation (or how SOS and monarch compare on that tech side), but wanted to bump in case someone has used something in SOS and had any ideas.

[Loesje22000]

Not a SOS user, but although dd loves biology, it is also a subject she had a steep 'how to study this subject' learning curve.

Does he make notes during the video?

Does he make a (handwritten) summary of the chapter?

Does he learn also the pictures? (Not sure what topic he is at, but we often search one on the internet to practice with)

 

Dd learned her 'study skills' not as a seperate subject, but during subjects like this.

And she had to learn that each subject / author has its own style and therefore requires different studyskills.