Invitational Week #9 - Hop on the Learning Express!

This week we were to experience Learning Express. I viewed both the tutorial from Learning Express as well as the one from MARVELous Maine Invitational and was glad I did. They helped me right from the start since I had to edit my Marvel account to a public library affiliation in order to log in to Learning Express. The editing was simple and once done I progressed to Learning Express with no problems.
Browsing the courses and exams was eye-opening.  It was pretty easy to move around and navigate the site. I was surprised, I guess, by the wide variety of courses, exams, and e books provided by Learning Express as well as by the wide range of "levels" for different kinds of learners. I was surprised to see a practice test for the U.S. Citizenship Exam. The final section of "helps" was even in Spanish!
I decided to try a high school entrance exam. I tried the COOP Practice Exam 1: Part1. The section of the test I did was on sequencing - scary at first but then fun! Once I stopped the test, I really liked how the test gave me my score and then showed how I did, question by question, even giving explanations about each and every answer. Very helpful for someone practicing for the exam! I can imagine how these practice tests could save someone time and money (no paying for courses to prep for exams - just do it on Learning Express!).
Next I moved on to the Job Search and Workplace Skills section. I had to add the course I selected to My Center so I had to be sure I logged in. Again, pretty painless. I downloaded a course called Job Search and Networking Skills. It gave information as well as links to several job search sites. There were many helpful hints for someone looking for a job and the language was not complicated, the site and links user friendly.
Finally I decided to browse some of the e-books available. Quite a variety! I downloaded 8th Grade Reading Comprehension Success to My Center. I'm not sure an 8th grader would enjoy the book but the information was something that would definitely help a student. I plan to go back and check out a few of the e books on vocabulary skills practice.
Overall I see a great deal of value in Learning Express. It is definitely a user-friendly resource which could meet the needs of a wide range of a library's visitors.