Has anyone experience with Pearson Online?

[Vida Winter]

Sorry if this has been discussed. The search function is not coming up with much. Our school district is going back face to face or online with Pearson (students have to choose). Please share if you have tried any of the classes.

[Guest]

My daughter's college math class went to Pearson the second half of the semester. SHe pretty much ended up using Khan Academy to learn the content, because the teaching piece wasn't very good. Having said that, her professor also pretty much just vanished, so if there had been teacher support, it might have been different. Her class this fall is also using Pearson, but has a weekly Microsoft TEAMS lecture where students will have a chance to ask questions,etc in real-time, so hopefully it will go easier. 

[Vida Winter]

24 minutes ago, dmmetler said:

My daughter's college math class went to Pearson the second half of the semester. SHe pretty much ended up using Khan Academy to learn the content, because the teaching piece wasn't very good. Having said that, her professor also pretty much just vanished, so if there had been teacher support, it might have been different. Her class this fall is also using Pearson, but has a weekly Microsoft TEAMS lecture where students will have a chance to ask questions,etc in real-time, so hopefully it will go easier. 

That's what I am concerned about -- the teaching. The samples look like automated tasks. I didn't realize there was a real teacher on the Pearson side. She'll have a teacher at her school overseeing the process.

[Guest]

I think it may depend on how the school sets it up. At least at DD's college, there is still a professor of record who is supposed to be teaching the class, although the one in Spring kind of phoned it in after everything went online. This semester, most of the classes have a weekly live session, which will hopefully help. 

[Vida Winter]

I guess I'll be able to give everyone an update in about a month. Fingers crossed.

[City Mouse]

Pearson online is the new name for what used to be Connections Academy. Actually, Connections Academy still exists, but that name is used for stand-alone schools. So you may find more information by searching Connections Academy. Pearson has just made a distinction between the full Connections Academy schools and the Pearson online curriculum.

i have a lot of experience with Connections Academy and the Pearson online curriculum. Overall, it is a strong curriculum. Many of the older versions of the curriculum did not take good advantage of the online platform. It was a lot of watch these videos, read xxx pages out of the textbook, do this assignment and turn it in. Over the last few years as the individual courses are redesigned, they have become more interactive and less “boring” (my son’s words).  Math is the most difficult subject to teach online with a mostly asynchronous platform, and I think that most kids do better in person with a hands-on approach, but I think Pearson’s math classes are not any worse than any of the other asynchronous online platforms. Math was my DS’s best subject, so I can’t comment much on that. The curriculum does have lots of built in spots where real live teachers are having to check/grade student work. My DS attended a school for 11th and 12th grade  that uses Edgenuity curriculum. The curriculum as written is just as good, but there was much less teacher over sight and was much easier for kids to cheat because so much was computer graded.

 

Edited August 26, 2020 by City Mouse

[Noreen Claire]

I will be teaching two mathematics classes this fall at the University using Pearson MyLab. Is that what's being offered?

[BusyMom5]

The only experience we have is Pearson My Math lab for college Algebra.   Overall DD preferred Khan Academy for teaching,  but she did very well in the class despite having no teacher.

[Vida Winter]

Thanks for the input BusyMom5 and City Mouse. In a weird twist I will be helping a group of kids through their Pearson experience at the school where I'm a TA. Luckily I have taught math before so I can help my daughter if she needs it with Algebra 2.

[kiana]

Pearson mylab has gotten a lot better. I am using it now.

One of the nice things is that if you want to ask a question and they don't have questions like that you can import questions from any textbook on the topic. You can search by learning objective or by title of text. You can also write your own questions and/or modify/edit questions.

There are a lot of guided visualizations and animations that can be very helpful if they are enabled.

Depending on the textbook the accompanying videos range from "meh" to "very good".

[BlsdMama]

On 8/22/2020 at 9:55 AM, dmmetler said:

My daughter's college math class went to Pearson the second half of the semester. SHe pretty much ended up using Khan Academy to learn the content, because the teaching piece wasn't very good. Having said that, her professor also pretty much just vanished, so if there had been teacher support, it might have been different. 

We had the same experience.  

[Vida Winter]

I don't think our district purchased teacher support, but I can help the kids through their courses. I still don't have the whole picture - maybe there is teacher support but it didn't sound like it! Will have more information next week.