Getting Started

Technical Mathematics for Industry

We are happy to have you join us in this learning adventure. This is an accelerated Math MOOC and aligns with the Colorado Community College System Common Course Numbering System. The MOOC covers material designed for career technical or general studies students who need to study particular mathematical topics.

The Technical Math MOOC is a 5 week course designed for students who have successfully completed high school math and need to refresh their skills with a review of pre-college level algebra. After successfully completing this course, the goal should be to take a college placement exam or CLEP exam earn credit for a course like Technical Mathematics.

Topics include numbers, conversions, measurement, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, statistics and graphs. These are presented at an introductory level and the emphasis is on applications. The math problems encountered in the real world tend to be messy problems for which textbook approaches are very tedious or simply won’t work. During this course, in addition to the standard textbook techniques, we will show you how to leverage technology to solve the more general problems you may encounter in real world applications.

Since this class reviews pre-college level algebra, and moves at a brisk pace, students should be somewhat familiar with mathematical concepts through first year algebra in high school.

Here are a few basics about the course to get you started.

Student Costs

There are no required additional costs for this course. If you would like a physical textbook for reference, then just about any Beginning and Intermediate Algebra textbook should suffice.

In the Textbook module, there are 3 different online textbooks you can use for reference:

Arithmetic, Geometry and Statistics Course Textbook
Beginning Algebra Textbook
Intermediate Algebra and Trigonometry Textbook

And you can find additional information for this course with this online textbook.

Beginning and Intermediate Algebra, 2nd Ed., by Tyler Wallace. You can download the entire book or individual sections.

When is the course available?

The course opens at 8:00 am MDT and runs for 5 weeks and will end 11:59 pm MDT.

How should I participate?

There are 5 "modules" or units of content, each covering a different topic. There are no real-time, synchronous meetings in the course. All of the module materials are available at the start of the course and can be accessed any time you like. The modules are largely self-contained, but are sequenced so you should understand the previous module material at a competent level before attempting the next module in the sequence.

What will I do on a weekly basis?

Each week you should complete a minimum of 3 modules. In each of the modules you will participate in some or all of the following course activities:

View the short video introduction to the module
Watch the 10-15 minutes of video lecture content
Solve the module practice
Take the short weekly quiz to test your understanding of the week's materials
Watch the brief “Think about this…” video segment and participate in the associated discussion forum
Review the optional and supplementary materials should you want more in-depth information about the topic

What if I am busy? Can I still complete the course?

Each weekly module is designed to take approximately 4-6 hours to complete. However, there is no required level of activity to stay in the course and you will have access to all module materials as they are released. So do as little or as much as you have time. And cramming is entirely welcome.