IXL Learning -- my REVIEW

Online learning is something that has many applications.  I do like having online courses that I trust my kids to use and learn with...and am always on the lookout for more.  This session we had the opportunity to try out an annual membership to IXL, produced by IXL Learning, which is an online platform for review/learning different topics in many different subject areas.

My children are in 9th and 11th grades.  IXL has many different options for these two ages...for the past several weeks my children have been using the language arts and some of the math offerings in this program.

It's really a quite easy-to-use program, each problem/question is quick to answer and if you get it wrong, the correction is given, as is a chance to learn why your choice was wrong, or to learn more information about the applicable topic.

There's no question about if you got the question right or wrong :) And the incorrect answers are followed
with a thorough explanation of what you did wrong...

...and then a great lesson about the rules or concepts that you have forgotten to use

...then followed by a chance to see how you should have answered the question.

 Math topics are treated similarly--

A huge list of skills/topics to review/test yourself on.

If answer is correct, you get a "Fantastic" but if it is incorrect, it is clearly wrong :) 

Instructions are given as to why your answer was wrong and the concepts you need to refresh/re-learn

And then you are shown how you should have answered, and why.

I really like this program, as do my children!  My daughter, especially, has been using the grammar sections a lot.  In high school, a lot of grammar is reviewing topics already learned, and we've appreciated the fact that there are mini-lessons given when a question is answered incorrectly.  This also helps with new/expanded topics. 

For the high school levels, the courses are basically maths and language arts.  The precalculus is quite thorough, and we are finding that the 11th grade precalculus and language arts are great reviews for standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT!  Not to over-repeat myself, but the fact that answers are not just marked wrong but are then taught/re-taught is SO valuable!  My students are learning, not just flipping through question after question.  

We also appreciated the independent usage of these "lessons".  I am not having to correct the work, but I can view a report which shows each child's usage, progress they are making,So far topics we ought to work on more together, questions and question types that are proving difficult to him or her, and more diagnostic/evaluative type data.

So far, I've only really told you about the high school subjects, since this is where my kids are, and these are what we've been using.  If you have a younger child, however, the program is available for not only math and language arts, but additionally for science, social studies, and even Spanish!

I am really impressed with this program.  I enjoy the level of materials it covers, the ease of a student's independent usage, the ability to "check up" on your student very easily, and--really--the enjoyable nature of the product!  My 9th grade daughter had this to say about the program:  "I really like IXL. It is fun and colorful. It has a lot of color, not just one or two. It ( at least for 9th grade) is a lot of review, not necessarily teaching. But it is very helpful. It aslo has explanations if you get something wrong. I like that part of it. They also give you "awards", like little badges when you complete something or answer 20 questions in a row correctly."

I definitely appreciate this product, IXL, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.  If you'd like to hear more about what other folks who tried this product out have to say--especially to hear what those with younger students who may have used more than just the math and language arts-- please click on the link below and check out many of their reviews!