2016 TESU BALS

[YXJeff]

Hello all.  I am posting see if the community here can offer any insight into the most efficient way to complete my degree requirements.  I have taken, and like, Straighterline courses, and I'm willing to try others as well if they're more efficient in a certain area.  I have never done DANTES/CLEP/TECEP or any of the other exams however I am a great test taker if it helps.

In order to complete my degree program I need to complete:

Intellectual Skills
-ENC-102
-COM-108

Human Cultures
-9 SH

Gen Ed Electives
-16 SH

Liberal Studies Upper Level
-15 SH

Capstone
-3 SH

I was ready to knock this degree out a year ago when a lot of  "life" happened.  I plan to dig back into the threads here to see what's new.  I'll definitely put in the research time as well, but I wanted to ask the pros.  Maybe you will see something with the distribution, etc. 

I will be enrolling into a TECEP exam course for February in order to maintain my enrollment since I didn't end up finishing last year, fyi.

Thank you all for any help/insights/confirmations you contribute.

Anything highlighted in green is in need of completion, and notwithstanding ENC-102, COM-108, and Capstone, flexible.

Thanks!

[bjcheung77]

In order to complete my degree program I need to complete:

Intellectual Skills
-ENC-102  -  If you're taking a TECEP, take this one, it's going to be one of the easier ones ENC-102-TE.
-COM-108 - Study.com Comm 120 - Presentation Skills (It's their easiest/fastest/shortest course with 32 lessons)

Human Cultures
-6 SH - Not sure why you have 6 here when your spreadsheet says 9 remaining
Since you like Straighterline so much, I completed Intro to Criminal Justice, Psychology, Sociology in here

Gen Ed Electives
The amount of credits are weird, you need 1 extra credit so I would take the following for 15 credits
US History I, US History II, Western Civ I, West Civ II, IT Fundamentals
You should take all three TEEX courses for free 6 credits, but only 2 credits will be added here 

Liberal Studies Upper Level
-15 SH : StraighterLine Business Communications, Organizational Behavior, 
Study.com History 30 & History 306 (TESU HIS 351 & HIS 450) and Business 303 (Management Info Systems)

In order to get a discount, you should take two to four Study.com courses, see above to my recommendations.
Take two History courses back to back, then take the Comm 120 with the Business 303.
BTW, you have Principles of Management showing up twice, you just need one of those courses.

[YXJeff]

Thank you for the reply!

[dfrecore]

A couple of problems I can see:
1) Prin of Management is listed in AOS and Free Electives - delete it from the AOS, it won't go there.
2) Substance Abuse is not available via SL, only DSST
3) Vietnam War is not available via SL, only as DSST or HIS308: The Causes & Effects of the Vietnam War through Study.com (and also take HIS108: History of the Vietnam War for some overlap >>HIS-246)
4) Org Behavior is also available as a DSST

If you want UL Study.com courses, you can also take
- HIS306: The American Civil War Era >> HIS-450 (and also take HIS106: The Civil War & Reconstruction for some overlap >>HIS-252)
- BUS303: Management Info Systems >>CIS-301

[YXJeff]

Thank you for the assistance.  Due to being -1 SH in Ethics and +2 SH in The Natural World I'm net +1 Semester Hour which leaves me a 19 Semester Hour requirement in General Education rather than the 20 Semester Hours my degree is programmed for.

I'll have to research this again but I did take the following courses and TESU put them all in OTHER COURSES as Non Course Equivalency (*NE).  They total 4 SH.  Maybe I can get them to put the TEEX course in Gen Ed Electives...  Like I said, I need to dig back into all of this.  I don't really want to take (2) 3 SH courses to fulfill 4 SH of Gen Ed Electives, but I will...

National Emergency Training Center (NFA)
--Fire Service Supervision: Self Study NNFA-0145 Course 02/11/2017
--Self-Study Course for Community Safety Educators NNFA-0149 Course 02/10/2017

Texas Engineering Extension Service
--Cyber Security for Everyone TEEX-0250 Course 02/15/2017

[dfrecore]

Thank you for the assistance.  Due to being -1 SH in Ethics and +2 SH in The Natural World I'm net +1 Semester Hour which leaves me a 19 Semester Hour requirement in General Education rather than the 20 Semester Hours my degree is programmed for.

I'll have to research this again but I did take the following courses and TESU put them all in OTHER COURSES as Non Course Equivalency (*NE).  They total 4 SH.  Maybe I can get them to put the TEEX course in Gen Ed Electives...  Like I said, I need to dig back into all of this.  I don't really want to take (2) 3 SH courses to fulfill 4 SH of Gen Ed Electives, but I will...

National Emergency Training Center (NFA)
--Fire Service Supervision: Self Study NNFA-0145 Course 02/11/2017
--Self-Study Course for Community Safety Educators NNFA-0149 Course 02/10/2017

Texas Engineering Extension Service
--Cyber Security for Everyone TEEX-0250 Course 02/15/2017

I'll be there is NO ONE who has exactly 120 credits on their transcript, so honestly, it's not something you should worry about.

Those 2 NFA courses come in as FIS-391 and HRM-331, and both will go in Free Electives.

The TEEX course will come in as CAP-295, and is also a Free Elective.

---

I would think about what's the quickest way to get those Gen Ed's, and I think Study.com, where there will be overlap, is your best bet. Both Civil War courses (which will also have overlap with US History which you're planning to take), both Vietnam courses, maybe all 3 computer courses (MIS, Info Sys, & Intro to Computing). Several Psych courses. Several math courses. Things like that. When you take 2+ courses that are similar, it really cuts down on the amount of time it takes to complete them using Study.com (for example as you go through US History, there will be sections on the Civil War, so when you log into the first Civil War course, it will already have those done, and you'll be some % completed with the course. Then after you finish that course, and you go to do the 2nd Civil War course, an even higher % will be completed because you'll have done the US History course AND the 1st Civil War course).

[davewill]

...
I'll have to research this again but I did take the following courses and TESU put them all in OTHER COURSES as Non Course Equivalency (*NE).  They total 4 SH.  Maybe I can get them to put the TEEX course in Gen Ed Electives...  Like I said, I need to dig back into all of this.  I don't really want to take (2) 3 SH courses to fulfill 4 SH of Gen Ed Electives, but I will...

National Emergency Training Center (NFA)
--Fire Service Supervision: Self Study NNFA-0145 Course 02/11/2017
--Self-Study Course for Community Safety Educators NNFA-0149 Course 02/10/2017

Texas Engineering Extension Service
--Cyber Security for Everyone TEEX-0250 Course 02/15/2017

Perhaps this is a silly question, but did you submit those on an ACE transcript or did you try to submit them directly? TESU only grants credit for them through ACE.

Also, are you actually planning to take Intro to Psych at TESU? There are cheaper places to get that.

[YXJeff]

...
I'll have to research this again but I did take the following courses and TESU put them all in OTHER COURSES as Non Course Equivalency (*NE).  They total 4 SH.  Maybe I can get them to put the TEEX course in Gen Ed Electives...  Like I said, I need to dig back into all of this.  I don't really want to take (2) 3 SH courses to fulfill 4 SH of Gen Ed Electives, but I will...

National Emergency Training Center (NFA)
--Fire Service Supervision: Self Study NNFA-0145 Course 02/11/2017
--Self-Study Course for Community Safety Educators NNFA-0149 Course 02/10/2017

Texas Engineering Extension Service
--Cyber Security for Everyone TEEX-0250 Course 02/15/2017

Perhaps this is a silly question, but did you submit those on an ACE transcript or did you try to submit them directly? TESU only grants credit for them through ACE.

Also, are you actually planning to take Intro to Psych at TESU? There are cheaper places to get that.

I did submit those courses through an ACE transcript.  I have a ton of electives and "other" courses that don't fit anywhere in the degree program. 

As far as the TESU Psychology...  I need to take it (again) for TESU GPA purposes.  An expensive mistake but I didn't complete it the first time I enrolled in the course a couple years ago.  I didn't withdraw from it correctly either, obviously...

[davewill]

I did submit those courses through an ACE transcript.  I have a ton of electives and "other" courses that don't fit anywhere in the degree program. 

Ok, the reason I asked is because I didn't see any course equivalencies, which even an entries in "Other Courses" should have. Did they assign equivalencies?

[YXJeff]

They did assign equivalencies.

Intro Fire Safety Education / 1.0 SH / FIS-391
Human Resources Management / 1.0 SH / HRM-331
Intro to Security Basics / 2.0 SH / CAP-295

I've signed up for the Feb term ENC-102 TECEP. I test well, but I also do well with structure so I'm looking forward to see how this TECEP goes. I'm going to dig into the TECEP .pdf and just start attacking the subject matter.