COSC Accepting few SDC credits

[Tedium]

It’s an educated inference on my part based on their actions in the past few years with policy changes, the webinar I attended in February, and the quote from the OP. Most places don’t come out and say, “I want to limit your ability to receive a discount, so that you have to purchase a product at a higher rate from us.”

I think we’re starting to focus on the wrong thing here.

The real things we should be focused on are: COSC’s policy changes suck, they negatively impact students on this board and beyond, people on this board have expressed displeasure with the changes, and we have a right to do so.

[Jonathan Whatley]

Just want to let people know that COSC is severely reducing what they will accept from Study.com.  After many conversations with an Academic Advisor from COSC, they finally admitted (I don't think they meant to) that it "was unfair" that people were using COSC just for degree completion and not taking courses directly from them (at $1,500 each).

A Google search for 'degree completion +site:charteroak.edu' gets about 210 results, including pages titled "We Make Degree Completion Possible" and "Degree Completion Steps - You CAN Complete Your Degree!" Charter Oak's mission and brand has been degree completion since 1973.

I'm currently enrolled and completing a degree at Charter Oak myself. Staff have consistently been helpful. Staff have within this semester recommended Study.com options that would fit my degree plan. They did refer to course-by-course details in the agreement between Charter Oak and Study.com, and advice was specific to my degree plan, enrollment date, and schedule. With some Study.com courses that they indicated they will accept or will not accept, the details have surprised me, but in both directions.

When the advisor told you something going on here is unfair, did they indicate the asserted unfairness is to Charter Oak's revenue, to the meaning of a Charter Oak degree, to students who completed more Charter Oak courses, or to who or what, or was the who or what not clearly specified? Did the advisor mention tuition in close proximity to "unfair?"

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Most places don’t come out and say, “I want to limit your ability to receive a discount, so that you have to purchase a product at a higher rate from us.”

Don't forget that Charter Oak hasn't added a residency requirement, and hasn't reduced inbound transferability of courses that originate from RA schools. Charter Oak has reduced inbound transferability only of alt-credit, unless I'm missing something. Thousands of RA colleges still can provide credits toward almost all requirements in Charter Oak degree plans. The big 4 or 5 credit by exam programs have also been largely unaffected.

[Tedium]

They have not added a residency requirement, which was the point of my first reply if you’d read above. There are things they can do that don’t involve limiting alt-credits that would improve fairness to students taking courses from COSC, improve fairness to the college by increasing revenue, and continue to make COSC a viable option for people looking to test out/use alt-credits to get their degree.

When you have to start mentioning RA credits, the school is no longer a viable option for most of the people on this board. It’s too expensive to pursue.

I’m glad you like them, bud. So do I. I have enrolled three times now. I found the staff to be helpful as well. That doesn’t mean that their policies don’t suck and that people on this board trying to get a degree quickly and cheaply aren’t negatively affected by the policy changes.

[Jonathan Whatley]

When you have to start mentioning RA credits, the school is no longer a viable option for most of the people on this board. It’s too expensive to pursue.

This board was here before the 2010s generation of low-cost noncollegiate alt-credit providers, which has already scattered. Some are competitive today like SDC, some have become much less competitive in our market like Pearson Accelerated Pathways formerly Propero, some are out of the market like FEMA and Shmoop.

It's looking like the 2020s market is moving more toward flexibly paced alt-like credit that is issued from college sources. This can include the competency-based challenges model like UMPI, and maybe more in that paradigm but more readily purchasable course-by-course and transferable from a source school to a destination school. It can also include the ASU Universal Learner and Olivet Nazarene U Your Way models. Community colleges also seem to be doing more online with low in-state tuition for all. Almost 100% of a Charter Oak degree can still come from these. It's hard to think there won't be more UL and subject requirements available from sources like these soon.

[studyingfortests]

Schools are certainly entitled to do what they want within reason and applicable law. Certainly, COSC's decision to basically thumb their nose at folks using alt credit and actively drive away tens or hundreds of thousands of students who might otherwise use their programs is well within their purview.

What seems a little nonsensical here is why they are doing it. They could give the bigger of the Big 3 a run for their money by having a simple, low-cost program. Have the credit flexibility and minimal UL credit requirements of TESU, add a residency waiver, do away with all of their ridiculous policy additions and restrictive general ed requirements that have come about in recent years... spend a little bit on advertising or, better yet, social media marketing, maybe partner with Sophia and SDC and they could probably easily triple in size.

But instead it's as though they are actively turning their back on a crowd that, at least as I understand it, have been faithful COSC supporters for decades.  It's really hard to fathom the thinking behind this.  To me, it seems small-minded, but of course, there's a lot I don't know.

It's my understanding that the Big 3 have always served a lot of people in the armed forces. When I was at TESU, they apparently have some sort of corporate deal with Jet Blue, as my professor told me they had a huge number of JetBlue employees.  And it seems COSC is actively driving away those sorts of students.

It's a sad chapter, but it certainly seems like the Big 3 are now Excelsior, TESU and UMPI. It would be interesting to fully understand why they're alienating the crowd the put them on the map.

[Jonathan Whatley]

Schools are certainly entitled to do what they want within reason and applicable law. Certainly, COSC's decision to basically thumb their nose at folks using alt credit and actively drive away tens or hundreds of thousands of students who might otherwise use their programs is well within their purview.

What seems a little nonsensical here is why they are doing it. They could give the bigger of the Big 3 a run for their money by having a simple, low-cost program. Have the credit flexibility and minimal UL credit requirements of TESU, add a residency waiver, do away with all of their ridiculous policy additions and restrictive general ed requirements that have come about in recent years... spend a little bit on advertising or, better yet, social media marketing, maybe partner with Sophia and SDC and they could probably easily triple in size.

But instead it's as though they are actively turning their back on a crowd that, at least as I understand it, have been faithful COSC supporters for decades.  It's really hard to fathom the thinking behind this.  To me, it seems small-minded, but of course, there's a lot I don't know.

It's my understanding that the Big 3 have always served a lot of people in the armed forces. When I was at TESU, they apparently have some sort of corporate deal with Jet Blue, as my professor told me they had a huge number of JetBlue employees.  And it seems COSC is actively driving away those sorts of students.

It's a sad chapter, but it certainly seems like the Big 3 are now Excelsior, TESU and UMPI. It would be interesting to fully understand why they're alienating the crowd the put them on the map.

Let's keep clear the distinction between what's a real Charter Oak policy change and what's speculation that Charter Oak might be changing its broader direction.

The main real policy change described in this thread seems to concern Study.com computer science courses. Are tens or hundreds of thousands of students even in the market for an assessment college to take more than 5 SDC computer science courses to? Is there any degree program from UMPI that has ever taken more than 5 SDC computer science courses towards a major or concentration requirement? (Unless I'm missing something there is not.)

[rachel83az]

It's already hard enough to find UL credit for COSC.

There are currently 40 UL courses at SDC per https://study.com/college/school/charter...llege.html Of those, 5 are in Comp Sci. Without knowing which courses COSC is going to stop taking, it's completely possible that they'll only be LL courses left. That's 12.5% of possible UL SDC courses just gone.

It's true that most degree completion students probably don't take more than 1 or 2 CS courses, but it's also true that most students from this forum aren't going to take (or be able to take) the exact same courses as everyone else. Everyone has different strengths & weaknesses. Some might prefer CS 303 and others would prefer CS 310 due to different experiences and abilities.

[carrythenothing]

It's already hard enough to find UL credit for COSC.

There are currently 40 UL courses at SDC per https://study.com/college/school/charter...llege.html Of those, 5 are in Comp Sci. Without knowing which courses COSC is going to stop taking, it's completely possible that they'll only be LL courses left. That's 12.5% of possible UL SDC courses just gone.

It's true that most degree completion students probably don't take more than 1 or 2 CS courses, but it's also true that most students from this forum aren't going to take (or be able to take) the exact same courses as everyone else. Everyone has different strengths & weaknesses. Some might prefer CS 303 and others would prefer CS 310 due to different experiences and abilities.

Slight correction: I counted 39 UL courses and 4 that transferred into COSC as UL.

[rachel83az]

I must have counted something twice. 4 UL CS courses out of 39 UL total courses is still a potential loss of 10% of UL courses from SDC. If this does become standard across all subjects, that's a huge loss of credits.

[studyingfortests]

Let's keep clear the distinction between what's a real Charter Oak policy change and what's speculation that Charter Oak might be changing its broader direction.

The main real policy change described in this thread seems to concern Study.com computer science courses. Are tens or hundreds of thousands of students even in the market for an assessment college to take more than 5 SDC computer science courses to? Is there any degree program from UMPI that has ever taken more than 5 SDC computer science courses towards a major or concentration requirement? (Unless I'm missing something there is not.)

I'm looking at the broader trend. I don't remember all of the specifics, but I seem t remember that, for example, they don't accept CSMLearn as a math course, they have changed in no longer accepting NCCRS credits, not taking CLEP English credits as English credits, now reducing SDC course acceptance to those they don't offer, and I believe there was another post about being a lot more restrictive on other ACE credits.

All of those changes (if I am remembering correctly) would seem to point in the direction that Scottiefoll reported was told to him by the COSC advisor. At least to me, it seems COSC is more interested in having all of nothing rather than part of something as far as the many alt credit students are seeking.