Alcumus

by rrusczyk, Nov 13, 2008, 10:52 PM

At long last, we're finally ready to release our first version of Alcumus to the public. It's an adaptive learning system that includes a database of problems with solutions and a bunch of video lessons (those that I've linked to in my blog earlier). Alcumus is backed by an algorithm that selects appropriate problems for students based on their past performance in Alcumus. The program currently complements our Introduction to Counting & Probability book, with support for more of our books to follow.

We've been working on this for so long, it almost feels anticlimactic to finally release it!

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12 Comments

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Hmm its all around mathcounts level

by #H34N1, Nov 13, 2008, 10:58 PM

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Of course, Mathcounts is one of the most popular competitions, so this should attract a lot of parents and some students.

by CA Math, Nov 13, 2008, 11:55 PM

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Congrats! BTW, where does the name come from?

by Osud, Nov 14, 2008, 2:08 AM

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DPatrick came up with it. In Greek mythology, Alcumus was the father of mentor.

If this thing works out, we're going to be able to learn a lot about how strong math students learn. (And they're going to learn a lot of math in the meantime.)

by rrusczyk, Nov 14, 2008, 2:18 AM

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I found Alcumus quite addicting (and thats a good thing). Alcumus is a good way to gear up all those C&P memories from the past. Also, the videos have a lot more humor than my teachers. (and that is a very good thing)

by dragon96, Nov 14, 2008, 6:09 AM

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Very, very nice! Elegant, slick, awesome, very nicely executed. I'm definitely impressed.

by sophia, Nov 14, 2008, 7:22 AM

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very nice :lol:

by Wichking, Nov 14, 2008, 12:28 PM

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Are you planning to charge for it in the future? (Your wording on "Curently Free" is scary)

Great job on incorporating the learning algorithm though!

by n0vad3m0n, Nov 14, 2008, 7:42 PM

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Good question. We haven't decided. My personal hope is that Alcumus draws enough new traffic and increases book and class sales so much that we can continue to develop it and release it for free. But obviously that only works if we're both bringing more people in and they're still signing up for classes and buying books. Alcumus is meant to complement both of these activities, but obviously there will be some replacement effect. If the replacement effect (i.e., I'm doing Alcumus so I won't buy books) is too large, we won't be able to maintain it as a free service. I think this is fairly uncharted territory, so I'm not really sure what to expect.

by rrusczyk, Nov 14, 2008, 8:06 PM

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This may sound familiar, but can I use Alcumus at my math team while it's free? :oops: After my presentations and such, it'd be nice to cool down with some easier problems like these.

And since my principal was so nice about paying for our team to compete in the HMMT, I don't think he'll mind buying a few copies of the AoPS 1/2 for the team, so this definitely won't "replace" any of the paid services.

by jvenezuela716, Nov 14, 2008, 11:25 PM

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Sure, you can do some of the problems with your team, and even show them videos.

by rrusczyk, Nov 15, 2008, 12:53 AM

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Alcumus is great! (12 year bump :-D )

by BorealBear, May 12, 2020, 9:13 PM

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