Acellus resources are available through Acellus Academy, an accredited online private school, headquartered in Kansas City Missouri, and Power Homeschool, a flexible online resource with affordable classes designed for students to learn at their own pace. Both are programs of the International Academy of Science, a non-profit organization with a long history and mission of advancing education and scientific research. Acellus Academy provides online instruction to students in grades K-12 through the Acellus Learning System, which was developed by the International Academy of Science and is used to provide primary instruction to students in schools across the United States. Power Homeschool is a program intended to aid parents in homeschooling their student. Parents may choose up to 6 courses at a time from numerous courses (grades PreK-12). Students are able to learn at their own pace under the supervision and assistance of their parent.
Website: Acellus/Power Homeschool
(56 Reviews)
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Contributor Reviews
Reviews are solely the opinions of the contributor.
Cons: Not enough control - even if only taking 1 class, the program decides you can only complete 45 steps a week.
Grades Used: 6-10
I have recommended World History, basic science and the Social and Emotional Learning for 4 years. I did not like I did not have any control over the lessons, test, etc even though i am a certified teacher, but I dealt with it. Now, with this new set up, PowerHomeschool will not allow a student to compete more than 45 "step". My son was only taking 2 classes since Jan. Social and Emotional Learning he finally completed the year and World History he completed 1/2 (a semester) in May. I am requiring him to finish the WH by a dead line mid Nov. (He is about 71%) Saturday the program said he could not continue since he had reached his steps for the week. What??? Now they are saying how quickly he can go through the curriculum? Customer Service told me it was because students were just taking the test and finishing very quickly. First, that can not be accurate since I attempted to have some control over this while working as a certified teacher for sp ed students. Second, I work in percentages to monitor when he can be "done" for the day. The customer service rep said I could figure how to convert the steps to percentages, but would not tell me HOW to do it. (I don't think he knew how to do it either.) THEN would not allow me to talk to a supervisor. I might be able to understand the controlling of this SELF PACED program if I was in their "school". But I am not, we are purchasing just classes. and our sponsoring teacher in our homeschool program is giving the grade.
Self-Paced Courses Research Study: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01587919.2016.1233050
Cons: HORRIBLE customer service, junk Goldbook computer, glitchy and ineffective spp
Grades Used: 8
This program started out great. The teachers are very effective and my son likes them.
Four weeks ago his social studies class froze and he has not been able to do his history since then. Numerous emails to customer service were simply ignored. Weekly phone calls yield nothing. I got an email to “open the app on Chrome” apropos of absolutely nothing (how would they know what I was using?) I am disgusted and came here to see what actions others have taken against this company.
On a broader level I don’t know how this can possibly count as a year of school. I have the “steps” all the way to the top and it still only takes at most 2 hours daily. And their grading system is ridiculously generous
Thanks for letting me vent!
Grades Used: 6-10th
This program is not worth it, everything newer students do is completely outdated work from 2012.
This "Acellus" app is so glitchy/broken.
Whenever you are doing an exam you are not able to change any answer so if you missclick one wrong answer it will effect your grade.
If you are doing the "Technology" class it will be very difficult because it will ask you program a robot that you have to purchase from Acellus, without it you wont be able to continue so its a MUST HAVE, I wish they could of told me that before I was assigned that class.
Conclusion-
Too many glitches/bugs in the app.
It's pretty much a scam.
For anyone who is not very educated when it comes to computers the kid can easily cheat the system because the app is overcomplicated and a Mom or a Grandma etc, wouldn't understand.
Completely outdated work from 2012 to 2015.
Whenever you join the program, they see another dollar bill.
Cons: I don’t have any cons yet.
Grades Used: 4,6,7,8,9,11
I love this school! I have a lot of kids so I need something affordable, easy to navigate (for me and the kids) and gives the kids a good education! I love that Acellus gives the kids a choice on what subjects they take up to 7 subjects (for one price). My kids love their teachers and feel like they are always being challenged. I appreciate that the parent portal is super easy to navigate. I have only had to call customer service once and they were very nice and helpful.
Cons: The company does not understand homeschooling, zero loyalty to its patrons, and is covering their mess with lies.
Grades Used: 6-9
Irate mom! We have used Power homeschool for 2.5 years and it worked perfectly. Mainly needed it for math, but also liked the English for reading and comprehension. They jerked the rug out from us all this week with zero notice!! Other reviews saying the content is lost, well it's not really. If you log in as a parent you can get grades. But for the student, it's gone! And there are NO WORKSHEETS or TESTS! How in the world does an education company think this is useful to parents? What am I supposed to do, make up my own algebra questions? No way. My son has special needs for math only, so tutorial mode is the perfect fit. They are trying to muscle people into their Acellus school and I do not appreciate it. I hope sparks fly from their computers when they read my scathing email telling them how poor customer service and customer loyalty this was for us. I emailed the tutorial address and they claimed they will manually put the tutor program back, and it will be the same for the classes I asked. But they completely blew their reputation.
Cons: scam behavior
Grades Used: standard
This company has taken money from people and wiped out their entire school year. As a homeschool parent and educator, I am appalled and disgusted by the behavior of these people out for profit - not educating kids. They have shown their true colors in that they do not understand what it means to homeschool your child, educational choice, and parent-led instruction. Stay away if you value freedom and choice in your child's education. It is not special needs friendly as advertised either. They lie and cover their tracks with deleted content and fake social media posts by fake "parents". You will be very sorry if you buy into their propaganda. The owner gave himself his college degree! Awful!
Cons: Listed above
Grades Used: auto grading of quizes/tests
If you've read the more recent reviews than you've seen the tutor mode debacle and both of my kids were caught up in that. Neither of them lost their progress and I'm not sure why my children did not and others did, however, that was the last straw. I printed report cards and we cancelled. The problem before this recent tutor mode debacle was that if they were in the middle of a review (some of them quite lengthy if they were a midterm or final review) and they needed to go back to a video for help then they would lose all of their work. They couldn't exit a review, quiz or test and return or they would have to start over. My son lost fifty review questions (out of 100 which I think is a bit excessive) in Algebra because he left his room to eat lunch, came back, the program had logged him out and he lost everything. If you don't finish every single lesson to the end you don't get the certificate at the end of the course. That sort of thing happened several times a year to each of my kids so this was going to be our last year using Power Homeschool anyway, but now after they got rid of tutoring mode without any email or communication, I cancelled early.
Cons: Tutor mode was taken away abruptly
Grades Used: 5,6,7,8,9
We used and loved power Homeschool for 4.5 years. My son is in 9th grade and has adhd, autism, and Tourette syndrome. We used to tutor mode as it was originally intended, to only be told we should have never used it that way, and that we were in fact cheating. There’s no cheating in Homeschool. Most parents homeschool to mastery including no need to go over redundant lessons and the ability to go over ones when the concept is not grasped fully. This is what tutor mode allowed us to do. I am ultimately the teacher in my household. I am more of an “open book” test & practice teacher so that my child retains what he learns hopefully into adulthood. Tutor mode was helpful in my first Year using ph as well because we switched from book work to ph in the middle of the year and I was allowed to skip what we had already gone over like many have been advised to do.
Cons: No consideration to students & no informing you of drastic changes within program
Grades Used: 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10
We used Powerhomeschool for 3 years and loved it until they decided to remove the tutor mode with absolutely no notice... this caused hundreds of kids to loose all their progress and their classes were started back to the beginning! Almost a full school year worth of work gone with no warning and no apology!
Cons: It's outdated and not without bugs.
Grades Used: 9th, 10th
I've been a student of Acellus for about two years now, and it's gotten to be extremely frustrating. First, just today, they randomly changed everything to teaching mode, and I can't change it back, before they then decide to delete all my progress on one of my classes, and I can't get it back. I was 78% done with it, and I really do not appreciate all that progress, effort and hard work just being thrown away due to some stupid update or whatever.
Cons: Very questionable and concerning business practices
Grades Used: 7, 8
My son (7th grade) started Power Homeschool late in the traditional school year after having already covered much of the material for his grade elsewhere. For that reason, we opted to put some of his courses in “Tutor mode” instead of teacher mode. “Tutor mode” was explained by Power Homeschool as a more flexible option allowing the Parent to customize their child’s learning as needed and to skip over lesson material that the child had covered elsewhere. We had planned to finish out this school year using Tutor mode for several courses on Power Homeschool and to sign up with their other, more expensive program (Acellus Academy) next school year. Note both programs are essentially the exact same with the latter offering accreditation (for several states) and some teacher support.
Now my plans have likely changed. Abruptly, over Easter weekend, a Facebook notification was made letting parents know Tutor mode was no longer a part of the program. Those who had been using Tutor mode for their children were informed their accounts had been automatically set to Teacher mode. What this meant for anyone with a child who had skipped over even one lesson in Tutor mode was that ALL the work they had done up to that point had been erased. Poof! There is no way to advance to the point their children had left off at. They were then cavalierly informed that their children could just start the courses over. Many homeschoolers follow the traditional school year so are essentially being told to just have their children restart everything….about a month before Summer vacation when many of them were nearing completion! Note that parents did not receive advance notification that a feature they had been paying for (and some utilizing extensively) was being removed. Those who aren’t on Facebook were not even informed as an email was not sent out! The owner’s response to these frustrated parents complaints and pleas (many of whom had children in tears) was that things were getting out of hand and he may just get rid of Power Homeschool all together (thus leaving parents having to pay for the more expensive Acellus Academy if they wanted to use the program). I now have serious concerns about the business practices of this company. This whole thing was handled in a highly unethical manner with the owner of the company showing complete disregard for the emotional distress and trauma he caused hundreds of families.
Cons: Poor business practices, not rigorous
Grades Used: 8, 3, 1
We have been using this program for only a little over a month. We came from a rigorous book curriculum, Christian Light Education. We loved that curriculum, but our season of life required a change and I knew online would be the best option for us.
My oldest daughter hadn't quite finished 6th grade CLE when we decided to make the switch. We had searched so many online curriculums and landed on Power Homeschool. I looked over the 7th grade syllabus and realized she had already learned all of the topics they would be covering, so I placed her in 8th grade.
Even though it has only been a month, she is halfway through the program. She doesn't spend more time on it than she would've on her previous curriculum. In fact, many days she spends less time. She takes 7 classes, with four of those being core classes. She already completed two electives and we ended up by dropping her Spanish class because she felt it wasn't a good fit. She will be done with the entire year's worth of work before two months is up.
My younger children, who are in 3rd and 1st grade, really enjoy the program. However, it's also not challenging to them. It is far too light and should be supplemented. Most homeschool families know how to do that, but unfortunately many new homeschool families are told this is a complete curriculum and don't supplement based off of those claims.
However, even with the lack of rigor, I could still recommend this program to others. Unfortunately, though, due to unethical business practices, lack of communication, and Power Homeschooling's lack of understanding the purpose of homeschooling, this should not longer be recommended as homeschooling curriculum.
As of 4/7/23, PH removed the tutor mode feature from their app/website. This was a mode many homeschool families used to be able to adapt the curriculum to their child's needs. For some, they used this to ensure their child couldn't move on until they met a higher grade requirement than PH requires. For others, they used tutor mode so their special needs child had plenty review opportunities, more practice, and that they could retake the tests as much as needed for mastery. Teaching mode, the only currently available mode, only allow a few attempts to retake.
This transition was made without any notification. To this day, no official email or communication was sent out, except by posts inside of their FB group. Not everyone has access to social media, and they will not be aware of the changes until they log into their account.
Due to PH stating that parents that didn't use every step of the subjects were cheating, it is not homeschool friendly. Parents are no longer allow to have their children skip items their children have already mastered, jump in midyear if they're switching from something else, or meet the needs of their special needs children.
PH did setup a secondary website called 2tor.online for parents to pay an additional cost for "tutor mode." That cost is $5 per subject, per month. It is not setup as the previous tutor mode, though, as it doesn't provide anything other than videos. For students to be able to use it, they'd still need to use and pay for PH or use another curriculum. It would be a good fit for those that do have other curriculums and need something to help teach their children difficult subjects, though.
For those not looking for a curriculum, but want an online virtual school that has videos for visual learners, this is a good option with supplementation.
Cons: Very poor communication skills, before major alterations of program which loose course progress
Grades Used: Yes
Owner of this business completely changed the program and removed 7 months of progress for students. Then instead of making it right by letting them finish their studies, he threatened to pull the product for everyone. This is the third time that I know of where this company has made changes that are drastic either by pricing, Or functionality without any prior notification to its subscribers. Bad communication and lost grade work for well over 500 (that I know of) tutor mode students.
Cons: Slimy company
Grades Used: 6-7
Do not use this program. The owners abruptly stopped half of the material for homeschoolers without warning, without notice, and without acceptable reason. Thousands of families are affected as they have erased entire school years ago f the children. And the owner is publicly posting on social media that the affected families are being ridiculous and he will expel anyone for speaking out etc. There are a number of pending class action suits being formed against the company. And for good reason. It’s so shameful what they are doing to so many families. I wish I could include a screen shot of the terrible and reuse comments the owner has been making to the families.
Cons: Recovery Mode
Grades Used: 11, 12
I’ve been using Acellus for over a month, and I am absolutely in love with it. Acellus has literally changed my life! The classes are pretty straightforward, simple, and the assignments are hella easy. I also really like how you can retake something immediately. The only thing that I hate is recovery mode, but other than that, it’s amazing. I don’t even know how the heck people even fail Acellus because Acellus is by far the easiest school ever. Also- I love Mark Rodgers!
Cons: Cult-like lessons, very different difficulties between lessons, no option for trans people to not be deadnamed, can be very expensive for some, very hard to get in contact with teachers/admins
Grades Used: Freshman
Terrible. My child was enrolled for one year (freshman) and then I quickly pulled them out. The "Social emotional learning" was weird and sounded like a cult at times, and everything else was either super easy or way too difficult. My kid also reported that after doing some exams, they would be deleted. One of these times it was a final exam. Whenever we tried to reach out to them via email, we would get pre- written messages where the only thing that was filled out was their name! No emails for certain teachers, nothing. On top of everything else, there was no option for a preferred name. My child is trans-nonbinary and has a new name, and since every single time the finish an exam or mess up too much they get a "letter" (it's another prewritten message) which always starts with "Hi, (deadname)!" It would be nice to have.
Cons: Awful way to learn.
Grades Used: 11th and 12th
Acellus has absolutely ruined my life. The whole concept of not being able to see your wrong answers as they just push you along to the next question is not how humans should be taught a subject, or for that matter, anything in life. How am I supposed to be successful in a unit if I am continuously sent to watch useless help videos yet am never revealed my mistakes. Don’t even get me started with recovery mode. This is quite literally the worst experience I’ve ever gone through. I learn absolutely NOTHING from recovery, and from here, I get sent into DEEP recovery. I’m almost to graduation and Acellus has made my senior year miserable. I get eye twitches from stressing over this ridiculous “academy”. I lose sleep at night. I don’t have a social life. Yes, I don’t have more than 4 friends to begin with, but Acellus has made it so I cannot go out and enjoy my youth hood. I recommend Acellus to no one. Although I like Patrick Mara, I hate the way they have set him up to teach. If you want to retain any information about the courses you will be taking in K-12, do not take a single class from Acellus.
Cons: Buggy (keep in mind, it may be my internet connection), Not Much Variety for Certain (student) Learning Paces, Unable to Go Back to Lessons & Videos
Grades Used: 8th Grade
Hello! I am a student of the Acellus program- have been for about a week now, and I’ve got a good idea of how this program works. For those looking for a home schooling program, Acellus is a good (enough) choice. Although, I haven’t been using Acellus alone. I’ve been using Khan Academy after I finish my Acellus lessons. I use both programs because Acellus gives a more structured schedule for lessons, though (in my personal opinion) it doesn’t have enough lessons. To fill out the large amounts of time I have throughout the day, I do Khan Academy so that I may work at my own pace and choose what I would like to learn. If I had to choose between the two, hands down- it’s Khan Academy. If you’d prefer an out-of-ten rating, Acellus 6/10 and Khan Academy 9/10. Khan Academy would have an 8/10 if it weren’t for the ability to create your own lesson structure. On the other hand, Acellus would be a 5/10 if it weren’t for the ability to work further than the day’s set goals per course. The average school day consists of 8 hours, but it only takes me an hour to complete all of my Acellus lessons for the day, hence the use of Khan Academy. (For better grade results on both learning platforms, I recommend keeping notes in a notebook for either what’s on the board in the Acellus videos, or what you need to study/remember on Khan Academy)
Cons: Sometimes the video can be long.
Grades Used: 10th
Hello Everyone
My 15-year-old loves this program for his 10th-grade curriculum.
He takes all his core classes and loves the videos and the pace. Our kindergarten will be starting this fall, and I think the problem is perfect for our family.
Cons: .
Grades Used: .
During the lessons when you give a video that explains how to do the specific problem, there should be a way to re-watch that exact video. None of the help videos go over that exact problem, and using the "skip" button doesn't solve the question. Sometimes problems make more sense after they've been solved, so when videos are given for exact questions, I believe it would be helpful for the person in the video to solve the entire question slowly so it's easier to follow along and not get confused.
Cons: Videos, structure of the program, bugs and issues with the site that lower your grade and prevent you from moving on, countless others
Grades Used: 11
I myself am a student that is using this program for eleventh grade, and I would not recommend it for any student that wishes to use this program for High School. I highly encourage you to look for other online options, as you will doubtless run into many issues.
**Note: I have not bothered to check over any spelling or grammar mistakes, so I apologize in advance if you encounter any**
Summary: I am trying my best to find positives about Acellus. You can work at your own pace, while simultaneously seeing how many lessons you have left to be on track to finish. For pros, that's about it. (I do not say that with sarcasm, there are very little pros with this system). On the other hand, there are far too many cons. The system is noticeably bugged, with problems that will affect your grade badly. The user interface is lacking, and very outdated. Most courses' content is basic and routine, and you will have to find most of your information online and on your own. In a way, I believe it is comparable to how you would be learning in college. Lastly, you are required to complete "Special Lessons" which are mainly essays before receiving your certificate of completion. These are FAR too numerous (I have written around 17 essays so far, each needing around 200 to 300 words). If you are looking for an online option for high school, look somewhere else. Every day for me is a nightmare with this program, and I am hardly able to progress to due to its incompetence and neglect. Do not waste your time with Acellus; look for an online school that will provide you with a good education.
Pros:
Acellus is easy to use due to its simplistic and very outdated user interface. You are able to work at your own pace while still keeping track of how much progress you have left.
Cons:
To begin with, you will not receive a transcript until you complete at least one of your courses. While this doesn't sound too bad, its horrible for when you are working with a college advisor and they need to see your transcript. This has caused me to have to focus on certain classes over others, such as Math and Science over Spanish and Computer Science, just so that I have proof that I have been working on a class.
Another problem is the fact that while I am using Acellus, for courses such as Calculus and Chemistry, I have had to turn to Youtube and Khan Academy to explain most of the material. The teachers try their best to explain it, but the examples given in the lesson video are simplified, while the problems you receive after a lesson video are much more difficult. Oftentimes, they require extra work/calculations that are not explained in the lesson video.
A very major problem with this website, and the reason for me posting this review, is the fact that the website is noticeably outdated and bugged. As an example, as I near the end of my Calculus course, I have encountered a certain problem over and over again, with seemingly no way fix to it:
I get a set of problems, and begin working on the first one. I get the first one wrong, and retry it. I get it wrong again. This continues until I have seemingly no other ways to solve the problem, so I skip it to move on without damaging my grade too much. The same occurs with the rest of the problems, until I get to the last one. On the last problem, when I try to skip it, I am hit with a 15 minute long help video that is a repeat of the lesson video I took extensive notes on. The help video is designed to help; it does not. The help videos, which cannot be skipped, cover exactly the same content in the exact same manner that was presented in the original lesson video. Once the help video is over, the cycle rinses and repeats until by some stroke of luck, it is over. Now, while it is possible that I am getting each problem wrong, I have proof that that is not the case. Let's say that for Problem 1 my answer was 1.234, and it was wrong. I went through the cycle until I was hit with the help video, and restarted a new series of problems. Cool. Luckily, this time, I am able to complete two problems correctly until, would you look at that, there's the same Problem 1 that I got wrong last time. I try to solve it once more, and get the same answer: 1.234. I input it and this time, however, it is correct, and I can proceed with the lesson. I cannot explain in words how frustrating this is, as each time I get problems wrong, it lowers my grade. And yet, on almost each lesson, especially near the end of my Calculus course, this cycle continues two or three times at least, affecting my grade pretty hard. It seems that towards the end of some courses, the creators of this program got lazy with the development, as they were near the end anyways.
Another problem I have is with Acellus's "special lessons". At the end of my first semester, I finished my History course, only to receive a message that I must complete my special courses for History before getting a certificate of completion. I think, alright, they're probably not too bad, let's see what these special lessons are. Lo and behold, I had to write around 12 or 14 (I lost track) 200 to 300 word essays discussing subjects I had covered. And if this wasn't bad enough, at the moment, I have around 11 special lessons for English, which I am only three quarters of the way through. There are too many of these "essays" that are mandatory to complete a course. While there isn't any quality control on what you write about (only basic requirements such as: "include the words: American Revolution", etc.), they still take lots of time.
The last problem I have with this program is simple: there is no way to skip through videos. There is no way to skip ahead in a video, and if you want to skip back, you must skip back by fifteen seconds. The interface is not the best, to say the least.
Cons: Lots, all covered.
Grades Used: 11
For context: I'm a 17 year old highschool junior with a part time job. My school is using Acellus as its own online program along with AP Classroom and UC Scout (great programs). I am taking Music Appreciation, Environmental Science, Pre-calc/Trig, AP Lang, and Spanish through Acellus. I'll go through each class with its pros and cons as best as I can, along with pros and cons of Acellus as a whole.
If you aren't aware of how Acellus functions, here it is: Each course has a certain amount of lessons. Each two lessons being a video and a follow up section with questions from the video. So, one lesson being the video and the second being the questions. The average amount of lessons in my courses is around one hundred and twenty. There are also special lessons that can include essays, worksheets, or quick projects.
Music Appreciation (elective): This class is fine. Probably one of the more enjoyable ones. It's essentially a listen and repeat class - most of these classes are. Take notes on the slides and listen to what she says, and you'll be able to ace each question lesson. Sometimes there are full videos of just listening to music, which I don't entirely mind, but can get annoying when you want to be efficient with your work but end up having to sit through seventeen minutes of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.
Environmental Science: Again, a listen and repeat class. It's easier to pay attention to because environmental science is of interest to me. However, it is very noticeable how outdated this information is. Especially with a topic as currently-changing as environmental science, I would expect to have more up-to-date information. Occasionally we got to watch the man perform labs, which were interesting.
Pre-calculus/Trigonometry: From what I have experienced, the math program of Acellus is downright awful. The lessons are learnable, sure, but if you don't understand something through the video they provided you have to go to a third party in order to learn it. When you answer a question wrong, there are *sometimes* help videos to help work through the problem. Other than those occasional videos, you get no feedback on your answers - only right and wrong. You can skip a question but they won't explain how to get to the right answer. You're left in the dark.
AP Lang: The only positive part of this course was the occasional interesting passages that you have to read and the teacher - he seemed friendly and talked as if he cared about his subject. The first half of the course is the same formatted lesson. Read a passage. Answer questions about the passage (that you don't even have to have read the passage for, just notice the pattern of the answers). And listen to a man talk about the passage for fifteen minutes. He was one of the only instructors not reading off of a slideshow, so props to him. The rest of the course wasn't much different; all that changed was the format, not the factor of repetition.
Spanish 3: Do NOT expect to learn any Spanish through this course. I grew up in a Spanish-speaking family but was never taught to speak it - but I do know more than the average high schooler. Each lesson is essentially the teacher reading off the translation for a list of words. Sometimes they discuss grammar but they're usually just one lesson never to be used again. I have not learned anything except for some new words that wouldn't help me in day-to-day conversation. I think it's incredbily difficult for an online program to teach a language, but Acellus surely can't.
ACELLUS Pros:
I'll start positive. Acellus enables you to an incredible amount of flexibility. I'm able to work a part-time job while in school which I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. I'm able to do schoolwork whenever I want. While my school provides us online students with a pacing plan, you could be able to pace yourself in any way you want to as well.
The second pro to Acellus would be the ability to retake video lessons (and exams if your teacher permits it). I don't find myself doing many retakes but it was always provided as an option to us which I would gladly use if I needed it.
ACELLUS Cons:
Instructors read directly off of the slides. In most videos I'd be able to mute my tab, take notes when a slide comes up, and then be able to ace the questions that follow the video. At times, the instructors add nothing to the slideshow that they are reading off of (especially Environmental Science).
Special Lessons are a true wonder to me. Math special lessons are just worksheets, usually. They have vague instructions and once again, you get no feedback. For english, most of my special lessons were essays. The program automatically grades your essays through the factors of word count, grammar, spelling, and word difficulty. You could write the dialogue of a movie and as long as it had those four things, you could get more than 100%. It was upsetting for me when I would do a special lesson and I would receive no feedback. Sometimes I was proud of what I submitted and knowing that no one would even comment on it bummed me out and took away from my minimal excitement for school.
Acellus if very "one-size-fits-all." I mean this with one thing in mind: the lack of video speed adjustment. It is hard to listen to slow-talking old men for long periods of time. Even if we were given the option of 1.25x speed, it would make the videos so much more engaging. I believe that this function was available for a few days but was immediately taken away. Hopefully they'll reinstate it.
I've watched videos twice on Acellus. Not because I wanted to, they just showed up twice. Same video, same questions. My first semester of math and current second semester have already had around 50% of the same videos. Sure I'm only two months into my second semester, but I was expecting new content. I've also experienced this with Environmental Science to a lesser degree.
Once again, I really want to emphasize that there is no feedback on wrong answers. This also applies to exams which, in my personal opinion, should definitely provide a way to see what you did wrong. You can't even see *which* problems you get wrong on exam, just a final percentage. What's the point in taking an exam if you can't learn from it?
All in all, Acellus is, simply put, a bad program. It's outdated, nonengaging, and repetitive. Coming from a student of Acellus who has to deal with it on a day-to-day basis, I can't stand it and won't be continuing with the program next year. Please do not enroll your child into Acellus.
Cons: Some repition
Grades Used: 8th
I've read other peoples reviews and they constantly talk about how Acellus is sexist, racist, and religion based, but I couldn't disagree more. Based solely on my experience, Acellus has been a very mature and neutral regarding any sensitive topics. In my history class we have discussed the oppression of women, slavery, the government, and different types of religions and in all cases the teacher simply stated facts and did not try to sway my opinion in either way.
I greatly enjoy that I can work at my own pace. In my past experiences with the education system, I was greatly slowed down by my peers and my age. With Acellus, I can work at my own pace so I no longer need to wait for others to grasp a concept I memorized immediately and the teachers are actually capable of answering my questions unlike previous teachers of mine.
I, unlike others, love that the lessons are short. This allows me to spend time doing what I enjoy, which my previous school system did not. This also means that I can get more done in less time and if there is anything I would like to teach myself I now have to time to do so.
To be fair, the school I was enrolled in before was extremely flawed and did not give me the time or resources I needed to succeed academically, so there isn't a fair comparison. I am also socially challenged and enjoy the isolation, which I know is not the best for me. I agree that some of the lessons are repetitive, but it does help with the memorization of more challenging concepts and the videos aren't that long so it is not unbearable.
There are pros and cons to every school system, but so far I have had a positive experience with Acellus.
Cons: Some special lessons are confusing and no structure in essays, have to be a self-learner because they don’t get back to you quickly
Grades Used: 8th, 9th and 10th
This will be my third year using Acellus and so far it has worked very well. The special lessons could use some work but overall I have learned a lot.
Cons: Most of the website seems to be hot garbage
Grades Used: 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th,
I am a student of Acellus and my brother did Acellus full-time last year. I believe Acellus offers next to none on engaging school work and can get really boring and frustrating when it seems like they don't explain the subject very well or some of the teachers are just downright annoying to listen to (The old math Teacher). I haven't personally seen the sexist and racist comments but I wouldn't be surprised if it was true because the videos are super outdated. I also have problems in math when I miss a question it shows a help video every time so It just gets me pissed off and makes me not want to pay attention to the help videos and such because even if I do they just don't explain it well so I get the question wrong and get sent right back. This usually causes me to just go to a website called math papa and put in the problem and see what formula they use to get the answers. I also feel like I'm falling behind because before I started using Acellus I was at the top or near the top of my math classes but when I took my diagnostic after a year of Acellus I was a grade below when usually I'm at the next grade level or end of the year already. I also believe it's not engaging because I have my lesson goals set at 10 for math, 15 for history, and 13 for Spanish but, I'm able to get all my lessons for the week done in one sitting using two class periods it used to be three but I felt that was too much time. It usually just leaves me playing games after I'm done since it doesn't make me want to come back and do more math and, right now I'm currently halfway through the year in my courses but we have like 2 months till 2nd semester. I'm actually currently writing this during a study table for Acellus. Lastly, I feel the special lessons have not much to offer but they come in hordes of lessons so every 20-30 lessons I'll get like 5 special lessons back to back.