COSC no longer accepts Coopersmith and others

[eriehiker]

I think that people should remember that learning is fun.

There is something really appealing to me about the challenge of taking these alternative classes. They are cheap. There are a lot of them. They have a lot of great information and help to develop skills.

I view it like surfers who travel to the big waves and then brag in the surf videos, etc. It is part of what makes the entire process fun. Someone does something crazy and them someone else tries to do something crazier.

I did the big all-you-can-eat month at Davar and it was so much fun. It was a lot of work and I am also a pretty smart guy, so not typical. That big month was a real academic challenge. I learned a lot and the ability to pull a big number of credits helped to motivate me to study and work harder. It also kept Davar in the forum threads.

There does have to be some quality control in alternative education. If it isn't a challenge, it isn't worth much. So I think that it is ridiculous to think that courses that have zero rigor or structural problems should stay around for very long. There are always more courses that pop up to replace the courses that go away. Just act fast before they go away.

[BrighterFuture88]

Ok, I might comment here. I won't call anyone names or get mad at anybody. I'll just share my opinion. In regards to what people post on here, some of it seems like bragging/exaggerating. One of the courses that I was told I could do in a day took me a week to complete, and that was with me working on it all day every day pretty much. One course I was told I could do well on the exam just by reviewing power points. I went and read the nearly 600 page book that was associated with the course and if I had not done so I do believe that I would have failed. It took me nearly a month to finish reading the book. The essays on the exam were challenging as well. So I think it would not be wise for Charter Oak and others to believe everything they read here, if in fact they read stuff on here. A lot of this alternative credit provider stuff is not "quick" or "easy" despite the assurances of a small group folks on this forum. The second point I want to make is, these courses are reviewed by professionals at both ACE and NCCRS. Teams of faculty evaluators in conjunction with subject matter experts scrutinize each course to make sure that students are learning what the course is supposed to teach. They take their jobs seriously. These professionals wouldn't recommend credit for a course if they didn't think it was worth credit. It seems like a bit of hubris to say that either ACE or NCCRS approved courses are just not up your standards. To quote the blog post by TESU mentioned earlier: "This is not to say that earning these alternative credits was a breeze. I had to study for every single one. Many of the online courses were just that – courses, with unit tests and quizzes that had to be passed. For my oral communication course, I had to prepare and record three speeches. It was not a walk in the park. There is a reason these courses have been evaluated by ACE as equivalent to a college course."

I think people are always learn at different speeds and find different courses difficult. I saw some reviews on RateMyProfessor that talk about the TESU BSBA capstone as being so easy they are worried the school will lose accreditation, whereas reading the syllabus, and seeing the amount of writing required, it looks pretty high effort to me.

There is no way TESU is going to lose their accreditation. From what I have heard from others and seeing the syllabus myself, that course is a pain in the ass.