Course Format Questions

Denison Algebra courses combine a physical kit (a consumable textbook, solutions manual, and parent's guide) with online lesson and solution videos accessible through our website. Visit our YouTube channel for a course walk-through that explains these key features in detail.

P.S. You can also view sample lessons by clicking on a course preview below, or dive into the first week of lessons by selecting a free trial (no email or payment information required).

Sample Lessons:

Pre-Algebra Course Preview

Algebra 1 Course Preview

Success Algebra 1 Course Preview

Geometry Course Preview

Success Geometry Course Preview

Algebra 2 Course Preview

Success Algebra 2 Course Preview

First Week of Course:

Free Trial of Pre-Algebra

Free Trial of Algebra 1

Free Trial of Success Algebra 1

Free Trial of Geometry

Free Trial of Success Geometry

Free Trial of Algebra 2

Free Trial of Success Algebra 2

Denison Algebra courses are primarily mastery. While the constant review offered by a spiral approach has its advantages, the downside is that students don't get to spend as much time focusing on the material being taught. Denison Algebra courses do include review in most assignments, but if a concept is particularly challenging, we let students just focus on the topic at hand. The reviews we include throughout our courses are very intentional. If a particular topic is coming up that uses a skill learned previously, we start reviewing that skill in the lesson leading up to its use. We also don't review skills that are being practiced in the context of other problems already. Math is very "spiral" by nature, especially in the world of abstract algebra, so lots of skills are reviewed simply by working on new concepts.

On a typical day, students will open their consumable textbook to that day’s lesson. They will watch a short, clearly taught instructional video that shows on screen the exact notes the students have in their textbook. They will add additional notes, work example problems with the instructor, and then work a couple of problems at the end of the lesson to see if they understand the concept being taught.

They will then complete the accompanying practice assignment. All assignments are less than 30 problems and are designed to reinforce and strengthen skills, build confidence, and reduce math anxiety. Students or parents will then check the assignment with an easy-to-use Solutions Manual and correct any mistakes (this is where the best learning takes place!) If needed, each assignment also has a solutions video that shows how each problem is worked.

You can check out sample lessons (including textbook notes, assignments, solutions pages, and lesson and solutions videos) by clicking an option below...

Pre-Algebra Course Preview

Algebra 1 Course Preview

Success Algebra 1 Course Preview

Geometry Course Preview

Success Geometry Course Preview

Algebra 2 Course Preview

Success Algebra 2 Course Preview

You can also watch a detailed course "flip-through" here, to help you get a feel for the format and daily flow of the course. 

On average, students will need 30-45 minutes to complete a Standard lesson and 20-25 minutes to complete a Success lesson. This includes the time it will take to watch the lesson video, complete the homework assignment, and grade/correct homework answers. Algebra 2 and Advanced Algebra & Trig lessons and videos are longer so math may take closer to an hour.

The exact time it takes to complete a course will depend on the individual student. However, every course includes a pacing guide in the Parent's Guide to give you a suggested time frame. Below is each course’s estimated length according to its pacing guide. These estimations account for daily lessons, study days, and test days.

• Pre-Algebra: Approximately 140 Days
• Algebra 1: Approximately 140 Days
• Geometry: Approximately 130 Days
• Algebra 2: Approximately 142 Days
• Success Algebra 1: Approximately 135 Days
• Success Geometry: Approximately 123 Days 
• Advanced Algebra & Trig: Approximately 165 days

You can also check out the individual pacing guide for each course by selecting an option below. These will show our suggested time frames along with a detailed breakdown of course content...

Pre-Algebra

Algebra 1

Success Algebra 1

Geometry

Success Geometry

Algebra 2

Success Algebra 2

Our video platform counts every video as a "lesson," including the solutions videos. This means the lesson count you see when you first log into your account is actually double the number of lessons in the course!

Yes! All of the teaching is done through videos, the assignments are designed to be done individually by the student, and the Solutions Manual is user-friendly and complete with a video solutions library where the instructor works and explains every homework problem in case a student gets stuck figuring out how to work a specific problem.

That being said, Denison Algebra courses are ideally designed to have some level of oversight by a parent, tutor, or teacher in the form of keeping the student on pace, recording grades, and administering and grading chapter tests. This keeps you, the parent/teacher, involved if you desire, but lets us carry the load of teaching and guiding the student through their math development. If your student is particularly diligent and self-motivated, he or she can complete the course independently with little to no oversight.

We recommend that assignments be awarded 10 points for completion and 0 points for noncompletion. A complete lesson entails watching the lesson video and taking notes, completing the whole assignment, checking answers, and correcting any missed problems. We recommend this grading style so that students are not punished for messing up while practicing a new skill, as well as to provide them incentive to correct any mistakes made on the homework assignment  (which is where some of the best learning takes place!)  

As the parent you are always free to override this and grade assignments with the point system. To do this, simply  divide the total correct problems by the total problems in the assignment, and then move the decimal one place to the right for a score out of 10. 

When counted up, the points on tests add to 90. This is purposeful because when grading a test, you can think of it two ways. You can either think of it as starting from zero, and a student earns points for each correct problem. Or, you can think of the student as starting from 100 points, and subtracting points for each problem they miss. We usually think in terms of the student starting at 100 and counting off for missed problems. 
For example, on a 15-question test (that is worth 100 points), while each problem is technically worth 6.66 points, to make it easy on parents to grade, and to benefit the student a little, we recommended counting each problem as 6 points, rather than 6.66 points. So, if a student misses two problems, that would be 12 points off, and if you start at 100 and subtract that, you will have an 88. If each problem was worth 6.66 points, it just becomes a little more complicated to calculate. Again, we were going for simplicity in grading, and a slight boost for the student. It basically gives the student an extra 10 points overall. 
As the parent, you are more than welcome to modify this. If you would like the problems on a test to add up exactly to 100, then just change the value of each problem. It really comes down to what you feel would work best in your situation. 

The printed tests and solutions can be found in the Parent's Guide and Test Booklet, a looseleaf, three-hole punched packet included in your course kit. The test solutions videos for your course are housed on a hidden webpage accessible through a link included in the Welcome Email you received upon purchase. If you have trouble locating this link, just send us a quick email to [email protected] and we are happy to send it your way. We keep the test solutions video on a private page in order to give you control over when they may be accessed by your student.

For our courses, we recommend that students use a scientific calculator with a screen that is able to display typed equations (our personal favorite is the TI-30XS MultiView Scientific Calculator, but any brand will do!) A student can also use a graphing calculator, but these can be quite pricey and there is no need to buy one specifically for our courses (with the exception of Advanced Algebra & Trigonometry). 

Additional Calculator Resources:

Mr. Denison's Free, Downloadable Calculator Guide

Mr. Denison's blog post on "Calculator No-Nos to Avoid"

Nope! A student just needs his or her course kit (textbook, solutions manual, and test booklet), a computer with internet access, and a scientific or graphing calculator. Students won't need a protractor or compass for Denison Geometry.

Each of our courses comes with a physical, consumable textbook. We chose this format intentionally for the benefits it offers students (especially those who struggle with math!) The notes and assignments are all bound together so that nothing gets lost or disorganized. This helps remove stumbling blocks and reduces the cognitive load on students, allowing them to better focus on learning the material at hand. Working math problems and taking notes on paper allows students to engage in tactile and visual learning, both of which are important for cementing otherwise abstract concepts. Our printed materials also eliminate the need for tediously copying problems by hand from a traditional textbook, a massive brain-suck for a majority of students, and allows students to easily flip back and review past lessons, notes, and assignments. Taken together, we believe these benefits make a printed, consumable textbook an absolute essential for brain-friendly math learning.

Not if you want them to work as intended... The textbook/notes and videos are designed to operate hand-in-hand, and truly aren't effective unless used together. While we strongly believe in the power of written notes and working problems by hand, we purposefully designed our textbooks to reduce the cognitive load that comes from laboriously copying problems or taking complicated notes. For this reason, the teaching videos are most effective when students are following along with the printed materials. Conversely, the notes in Denison Algebra textbooks are designed to flow with Mr. Denison's teaching, and aren't stand alone lessons that can "teach" concepts. They must be used along with the lesson videos in order for their content to make sense.

Nope! We strongly believe that students learn best with physical, printed books in front of them. For this reason, we've chosen to release our books in a physical format only.

*See the "Why are your textbooks consumable" FAQ above for a more in-depth explanation of this!

Our books are bundled into kits at the printer so we don't have a way to order a la carte books. This means that courses must be purchased as a whole kit and that we are unable to sell any part of the course package individually. While this does mean that materials can't be reused for multiple children in following years, we have found that consumable textbooks and complete materials sets make a profound difference for students tackling upper-level math, particularly when they don't like the subject...(yet!)