spaceman Posted December 27, 2017 Share Posted December 27, 2017 I’ve read what I could online, but I’m curious if anyone knows any more. I’m trying to decide if I should do the books or online. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsuga Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 Do you know how well your kids learn when doing screen work? Mine zone out and just plug in random numbers no matter the activity. So we use books. I would suggest really evaluating how your kids work through issues before choosing an online curriculum. I am biased against online curricula for the basics, but even if it works for some kids it won't work for all. We use the books. I love that the kids can read the comics in the back of the car repeatedly. That won't happen with an app. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fralala Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 All I know is that I thought it was supposed to come out this winter (I thought January, but I won't blame that on the website, because my memory is far from perfect), but the website currently says Coming Spring 2018. Bumping this in any case, because I thought I remembered that several lucky people here had kids beta testing BA Online, so maybe they have the Inside Scoop. Fingers crossed. Although I'm a pencil and paper gal, I am excited by the potential of online math programs to identify kids' strengths and weaknesses and automatically adjust the problems given based upon how kids are doing with previous problems. (Especially when they give kids the opportunity themselves to rate problem difficulty). Even as a homeschooling parent who lurks heavily in the background and tries to attend to how my kids are doing, I find the most challenging component of teaching to be constantly recalibrating my own internal sense of how many problems of each type my kids need to do, where their weaknesses lie, and so forth. I am ready to concede that a computer algorithm might be able to do a better job of that than I can (if it's done well, and takes into account that speed isn't everything and some kids just like to stare out the window once in awhile and appreciate the beauty of nature, or that humans take bathroom breaks). I personally find Alcumus addictive, and think it has great features, so I'm hoping that BA will end up being awesome like that, but more colorful and cartoony. Well, actually, it's gotta be even better, much better, because it's not going to be free! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawthorne44 Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 I don't have the inside scoop, but I'd like to hear from the beta testers. I hope it allows a monthly subscription. My thought is that DD will do the books, then get a month of BA Online when she finishes the D book as review for the previous year. If she whizs through the problems from the books she just finished then she can get a start on the next year's. If they charge big money for access to one grade's stuff, then we won't do it. DD is grade 2 so has only done 2a. There was one section that she didn't Get until the end. The one where every number is +1, +10, +100, -1, -10, -100 from the next one. it would be nice to have some more of those problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted December 29, 2017 Share Posted December 29, 2017 All I have is spring 2018 and subsciotion at around the same cost as buying the books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted December 30, 2017 Share Posted December 30, 2017 I'm very intrigued and would love more info. I think this could be a great fit for my youngest ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaConquest Posted December 31, 2017 Share Posted December 31, 2017 (edited) My son is beta testing it because he's enrolled in AoPS Academy here in San Diego. We still read through the textbook, and they do some problems from the workbook in class, but his homework is all online. I am not sure how it will be different once it's released to everyone, but I think it's similar to Alcumus. You have a subsection, let's say factors, that corresponds to a subsection in the textbook, and you can either get 1, 2, or 3 stars. Typically, there are about 8 or so problems in each subsection, in increasing order of difficulty. There's also a status bar for the section as a whole that turns either red, orange, green, or blue, based on how well you did in each subsection. Happy to answer any questions. Edited December 31, 2017 by SeaConquest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawthorne44 Posted December 31, 2017 Share Posted December 31, 2017 SeaConquest, do the problems change based on how you did? For example, if the first two problems are wrong, will more of the easy problems be given? Cool name by the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaConquest Posted December 31, 2017 Share Posted December 31, 2017 SeaConquest, do the problems change based on how you did? For example, if the first two problems are wrong, will more of the easy problems be given? Cool name by the way. Not to my knowledge they don't. That's a good question, though. I'm really not sure. I know that there have been times where my son had to redo a subsection because he missed too many questions. It didn't dumb down the questions, so I'm really not sure if it is adaptive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawthorne44 Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 I have a tiny bit of inside scoop. I emailed them. My concern was that since an online version of the books were included, that it would be too expensive for those of us also buying the books. I also asked about a monthly option. They said that the guides would be online, but not the practice books. There would be a monthly version, but indicated that it would cost a lot more than Annual/12. This is the important part. They are considering a discount for those that bought the books from them. I'd bought the BA2A books from RainbowResource for the free shipping. The rest of grade 2 I'd planned on buying direct to get them ASAP. But, now I am even more convinced to buy the books from them. It seems that they are still discussing the pricing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 I wish they would get on with it. Our new year starts in a month and I don't know whether I can use it or not. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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