You could if you were a student in the IU high school Independent Study Program course titled Mathematics 11A Algebra Level I: First Semester.

The course, one of more than 300 distance education courses offered by the IU School of Continuing Studies, received a Meritorious Award this spring from the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA); it is the 54th course award UCEA has conferred on the school’s Independent Study Program.

The course was authored by Rebecca Alano, an instructional developer and instructor for the Independent Study Program, and edited by instructional developers Lawrie Hamilton and Rich Hinton. Designed for high school freshmen, the course is open to anyone who has completed pre-algebra. It teaches students the language of algebra and covers the following topics: operations with real numbers; solving equations and inequalities in one variable; and working with ratios, proportions, and percentages.

Alano wrote the course in a friendly and accessible style in hopes of taking some of the mystery out of learning math. "My goal was to get students to approach algebra as a beautiful language that can be translated into something they understand," she said. "Like working a puzzle, algebra can be sorted out and put back together in a way that makes sense to each individual."