Peer Review

Instructions make clear how to get started and where to find various course components. Students are introduced to purpose and structure of the course. There is a review for prerequisite knowledge in the discipline.

The site provides comprehensive coverage of standard college level algebra with topics normally covered in intermediate algebra and college algebra courses.  The bulk of the material is in the form of class notes  in seven major groupings (with sub-topics #): preliminaries (8), solving equations and inequalities (15), graphing and functions (7), common graphs (8), polynomial functions (5), exponential and logarithmic functions (5), and systems of equations (5). In general the class notes include text explanation, properties and examples with solutions, and common mistakes.

There are occasional language typos such as “lets”, “factored from” or “we’ve solve equations”.  As would be expected, not every algebra topic is present: some omissions are commendable (conic focus and directrix) and some surprising (determinants).

The site is comprehensive because is connected to reviews for College Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus I, II, III, and Differential Equations. Material can be freely downloaded as a pdf file.

In addition to the class notes material, there are several additional presentations including practice problems with solutions, assignment problems without solutions and extras such as cheat sheets, how to study math, trigonometry review, complex numbers and common mathematical errors.  This is a tremendous resource for the more able student.  Material may be downloaded as pdf files.  

The selection of topics and the rationale/presentation are both targeted for the traditional STEM major headed for the calculus sequence.  The material is dense both in content and visual appearance.

The materials are comprehensive and can be used for either teaching or learning purposes. The examples are well-chosen and the problems and solutions are very helpful.

The site is basically linear text.  Google local search is on every page to facilitate location of topics.

Students cannot generally interact with problems. However, there are several of diagrams, tables and clips that provide excellent visualizations for learning as well as clear and detail explanations.

Equation display is faulty in Internet Explorer 10 and 11 – but each page includes instructions on how to set compatibility mode.  Firefox and Chrome are fine.