Everyone please read the following:

I was online today with EPGY and am now able to make student changes! I would like everyone to be aware of a few things that have changed on the system.

All children have been changed are are now listed under reinforcement, which means that there will be more detailed instruction given for all areas of instruction in math. If this is a problem for your individual child over the next few course log-ins please contact me and I will be able to change the individual child.

Tunes have now been added to all math programing. If this is a problem for the student it can be turned off individually.

Exams can be turned on for the end of each grade level, this will be individual choice. Contact me if you would like your child to complete the end of grade exams and I will enable it.

Individual course login session times can be changed to meet your individual child's needs. Contact me if you need this changed. The setting is enabled for 10-60 minutes.

There will be more courses added in the near future to the open enrollment program! Yeah! Particularly for the Introductory Algebra which will benefit many of us in the future. I also discovered that CTY uses the EPGY program under their heading.

Please email me directly with all course change requests under the subject 'EPGY course change request'. My email volume is very heavy right now and this will allow me to pick out your request. I am expecting many requests so please be patient I will get to them asap.

Thank you to this forun for allowing us to put this together for the benefit of all forum members who are interested in EPGY!

Thanks again, Melissa!

Thank you!

Thank you-- I sent an e-mail with changes.

thank you melissa
i have to say i am increasingly impressed with this system. - so far its a great fit for my 2E reluctant math kid who is verbally gifted and has speed issues. He thinks the folksy sounding guy is his real teacher and wants to do good work for him.. The little music that plays now he just loves..and as i mentioned in another thread, he does all his EPGY while sitting on an exercise ball and he hops up and down when he gets an answer right. I am a little nervous about what will happen when he reaches the timed drills but we'll cross that bridge...

My younger child is just going into kindergarden and likes it too- the fact that i accidentally started her as a second grader is a real eye opener for me as she seems to be able to do just about everything (except subtraction equations - fillingin number that is not the answer- which exposes a gap i had't even considered).

But it does make me wonder.. should i back up my going-into-K DD5 to give her a higher level of success? She is doing 1.7 with about 88% accuracy. But she is taking a long time to answer the questions that require exposure to math facts, and she is not liking it as much. I am wondering how far it will "back up" on its own for her if she starts strugglign as the numbers get higher, due to lack of memorization..if it automatically backs up as her scores go down, i'll leave well enough alone. any insight appreciated.

irene

Melissa,

I remember vaguely the thread going around about the EPGY group. What is required for us to participate(assuming that is still possible)?

Irene,
I PM'd you about the math races. If you see your DD struggling or frustrated then I would suggest backing her up. The system will eventually force her to continue to review until she masters that area, which may be very frustrating for her at her age. I would look through the grade level contents here http://epgy.stanford.edu/courses/math/M00A/index.html?grade1.html
and see where it would be best to place her. You don't want her discouraged to the point she doesn't want to work on the program. Just email me with any change requests.

Breakaway4

The original thread is here http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....50583/Interested_in_group.html#Post50583

All the information is there. If you are interested then just follow the instructions in the thread and I will work to get you set up.

Do you know what new courses will be added to the Open Enrollment? My son does EPGY through his school.

Thanks!

Is anyone doing the LAW? My daughter likes it, but is finding it repetitive - We have heard what "detail sentences" are at least 5 times now. It seems like the same lectures play over and over again. Also, it is a bit tough because sometimes when she clicks on an answer, it is highlighted - but other times there is no highlighting and it is hard to tell if any answer has been selected.

I am interested in the LAW too, but was unable to log in. How is it?

We are also doing LAW2. There is no problem with highlighting, but the lectures do repeat themselves at least thrice each. And the fonts are tiny and thin. Can the fonts be enlarged or changed to bold-face?

I haven't had my DD work on the LAW yet so I don't have first hand knowledge with the program in that sense. I did look back and would you be referring to the review settings? The program is set to review for the first 0-15 minutes of a log in. Right now I believe all students are set for some review. This can be changed individually. If it isn't review and the lecture is just repeating itself over and over then I will need to look into it with EPGY. I have a call in regarding some problems with it right now so just get back to me asap if this is another that needs to be addressed.

OK - yes, I think the problem might be with the "review" settings. I think some review is good - but there really is too much of it - especially since the "lecture" part of the review is *exactly* the same each time. I keep hearing a frustrated voice from the other room "maaaa, I already did this!!"

I also had difficulty with the size of the font initially. My dd said that the teacher needed to write bigger : ) At first I would change the "accessibility settings" on my computer to try to make the font larger (making the window larger does not seem to help with the font size). Changing the computer settings helped, but made the page more difficult to navigate. It seems as though my daughter has gotten used to the smaller type now.

It is interesting to hear that others have not had the same problems with the highlighting. Sometimes when my daughter clicks on words they highlight so that she can see what she has selected - other times she clicks on an answer and it does not highlight, so she keeps clicking and clicking... she also seems to need to hit "OK" and then "done" and then "done" a second time after each answer. (I'm done - I'm really really done : ) (and just as an aside, shouldn't it be "finished" instead of "done"? - this is a language arts course after all).

These are all minor things... We really do like the program. The two parts I like the best are: a) it has taught my daughter to carefully read directions - "click on all of the proper nouns" -"Mom, I clicked on the proper noun and it says try again" --- read the instructions again honey ; ) b) the paragraphs they choose are interesting - and she is learning a lot just from those - she has learned what a "toast" is, about "Kimchi (I am spelling that wrong) and about slavery (that was a rather involved discussion). So in all, thumbs up.

I would like to enroll our daughters. Our oldest took a course last year but it became to expensive. How would I enroll under your school?

Is there any way to get a live preview or trial like ALEKS offers? That would be extremely helpful.

The paragraphs chosen in LAW2 are indeed educational by themselves. One particular strength of the EPGY courses, whether they were Math or English, is apparently the breadth of materials presented. It would be a lot of work trying to assemble on our own, contents that are as rich from other sources.

As a science person myself, I wouldn't pay much attention on the subtleties between "Done" and "Finished". :-) Most likely the EPGY programs are written by CS persons, who may also name the buttons, such as choosing "Done". But yes, why is it necessary to click the sequence of "OK-Done-Done", instead of just one click?

Question for Melissa ----- Are the "reinforcement" mode in Math and the "review" mode in English, adjustable in multiple steps or only in terms of On/ Off? Thanks.

fyi - if you don't want to listen to the lecture again, just x it out and the next problems will come up. And,if you need to listen to the lecture again, click on the icon in the lower right corner of the screen - I think it's the one that looks like a cartoon bubble.

Also, we had trouble with moving the letters to the tiny little blue square, until DS realized that as long as you move them into the exercise box, they will appear in that order in the little blue square. They definitely need an upgrade for the format, which they seem to be doing little by little.

OK guys here goes...

LAW: Right now every child is set with 6 review exercises as the default on the program. This can be changed, personal choice. The options are 1-15 exercises. I went back and checked that specifically, not minutes, exercises.

The instructional mode can only be changed in math and is one or the other. Reinforcement is the standard for the stand alone program, the other options is for less instruction such as when using the program as a supplement for topics already taught or someone who needs little or no instruction in math. This can be changed say to the advanced setting when reviewing to grade level for the student and then set to reinforcement once the child reaches new material. Parental choice at this point, just email me with change requests. (Please include the child's name, I'm having to email back a number of parents with different last names.)

I am wondering if you need to click multiple times to submit and answer because students have gotten used to the second chance option on the math side? Again, I haven't been in this side of the program so I'm guessing here. I need to try and do that just to control my curiosity at this point.

There is no trial available. Demo lessons and exercises are available from the main EPGY website.

Hope that helps a little.

Melissa,

I just sent you a PM asking if it's still possible to join. Thanks for putting this together!

BB

I poked around tonight, but couldn't find any live-action demos. I'm trying to get a comparison between ALEKS & EPGY in terms of functionality.

Do you have a link for the demos?

Thx.