Today's Developmental Math students enter college needing more than just the math, and this has directly impacted the instructor's role in the classroom. Instructors have to teach to different learning styles, within multiple teaching environments, and to a student population that is mostly unfamiliar with how to be a successful college student. Authors Andrea Hendricks, Pauline Chow, and Kelly Jackson have noticed this growing trend in their combined 30+ years of teaching at their respective community colleges, both in their face-to-face and online courses. As a result, they set out to create course materials that help today's students not only learn the mathematical concepts but also build life skills for future success. Understanding the time constraints for instructors, these authors have worked to integrate success strategies into both the print and digital materials, so that there is no sacrifice of time spent on the math. Furthermore, Andrea and Pauline have taken the time to write purposeful examples and exercises that are student-centered, relevant to today's students, and guide students to practice critical thinking skills.
Prealgebra and its supplemental materials, coupled with ALEKS or Connect Math, allow for both full-time and part-time instructors to teach more than just the math in any teaching environment without an overwhelming amount of preparation time or even classroom time.