Free All-Inclusive ACE-approved College Courses at Sophia Learning until 7-31-20
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For anyone not familiar with Sophia, they are a website that provides self-paced online college courses which range from $199 to $329 (most are $329). They include all materials including videos, tutoring, and what I have found to be high-quality study guides. Online quizzes called “Challenges” are provided, and once you’ve gone through all of those, there are tests called “Milestones”. At the end of each course, there’s a “Final Milestone”.
Some courses, like English Comp and Public Speaking, have assignments called “Touchstones”, but thankfully for those of us that dislike essays and assignments, the majority of courses are exclusively multiple choice tests.
The scoring system is very interesting. You are given multiple attempts to answer each Challenge question correctly, and both Challenges and Milestones are open book. You must pass the Final Milestone to complete the course, but it’s not factored into your overall score.
Sophia’s proctoring tech is unique. They don’t require RPNow, ProctorU or any other third-party service. They use biometric analysis to verify your identity, so there’s no proctoring fee, no waiting for a time slot, no privacy concerns, and no sterile testing enviornment necessary. You get your final score instantly, and there’s no fee to send a transcript. You simply create an ACENet account and add that course to your credit bank, and within a day or two, they verify and approve the credit.
Most testing centers are closed, so if your (current or prospective) school accepts ACE credit, this is a remarkable opportunity to pick up some courses at no cost, especially if you’re idled as a result of recent events. As you can see on their homepage, Sophia also has course equivalence agreements with a number of schools, including the online “Big Three”; Excelsior, Charter Oak, and Thomas Edison. You may even find, as I did, that their English Comp I course will satisfy your school’s Written English requirement, which is a big plus.
So far, Sophia’s customer service and tutors have proven to be very responsive and helpful, but if anyone has any general questions, post them and I’ll do my best to answer.
Good luck!
