Cheap, Accredited Online Degrees... Where are the windfalls?

[videogamesrock]

Good to know they took your ALEKS credits. My younger son has 6 ALEKS credits and 15 credits from Penn Foster's high school program. It's nice knowing all 21 credits will likely be accepted. Although we're going to do the free final semester so any more credits at this point would do no good at all.

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About Ashworth College, each course has 8 quizzes and two papers.  

How do their proctored finals work? That's the one thing I'm not seeing any new information about. I'm encouraged by your completion timeline, as my son works 35 hours a week and spends 12 hours a week at karate, so his dedicated school time is not going to be more than an hour or so a day. He may still be able to get those 3 semesters done at Ashworth in a year or so.

You have to nominate a proctor by submitting a form.  My neighbor works at the library so she gladly proctored my exams.  You can also use an online proctor.

[rowan555]

My son is a very very slow reader and takes a good bit of time processing questions - that's my only concern. Having seen what my older son has had to do for proctored exams with Straighterline, WGU, etc, I know he'd struggle. I'm assuming Ashworth's proctored exams are a bit easier to manage?

[videogamesrock]

My son is a very very slow reader and takes a good bit of time processing questions - that's my only concern. Having seen what my older son has had to do for proctored exams with Straighterline, WGU, etc, I know he'd struggle. I'm assuming Ashworth's proctored exams are a bit easier to manage?

The semester exams are ten questions for each course he took (5).  They give you three hours to complete the 50 question exam.  If you fail one of the 5 exams you can retake it again in 24 hours.  It is P/F and you need a 70% to pass.

[rowan555]

Thanks! That sounds very doable compared to what I have read about the Penn Foster proctored finals.

[cookderosa]

I don't know about being a boogyman, there are actual differences in accreditation types, which means you should know the differences before deciding because both will cost time and money. Both are legitimate (when an employer says "accredited degree" you'll be fine with degrees from Penn Foster or Ashworth).

I have both, my husband has both, and one of my sons is in progress for a NA degree with my full confidence and support- but it depends on what you want your degree for as an entry into a career / advancement in a career - and what you may or may not want to do with it in the future.

People who suggest always/ never to adults aren't giving good advice, because you can make a case for either. There are barriers when your degree is NA instead of RA. Does it matter? If you can't answer that yet, it's too soon to choose.

[miah]

My son is a very very slow reader and takes a good bit of time processing questions - that's my only concern. Having seen what my older son has had to do for proctored exams with Straighterline, WGU, etc, I know he'd struggle. I'm assuming Ashworth's proctored exams are a bit easier to manage?

It sounds like your son has a known learning disability; Has the disability been documented either under a Special Ed or 504 in primary or secondary school? And if so, is he getting accommodations for these exams? It sounds like he should be eligible for such.

[eLearner]

I definitely agree with getting an RA degree whenever possible. At the same time, my younger son is about to begin working on an NA associates degree. This is my kid who is just not academically inclined, and if it was up to him he'd have just gotten his GED and been done with school forever. My compromise with him was for him to agree to attend Ashworth in what would be his senior HS year - this upcoming year - and when he turns 18 he'll have an associates degree in criminal justice, and he can do what he wants at that point. The chance of him ever wanting to go get an RA bachelors degree are slim to none, so the limitations are not a concern. Being very familiar with the process of getting an online RA degree, since my 18 year old just did so, I know it's not in my younger son's wheelhouse. He just won't put in the work. for around $3,000 he can get an associates degree which at least might help him get his foot in the door for better jobs than he'd be eligible for without it. And should he find it fairly doable and want to continue for his bachelors at Ashworth, I'm happy to support him with that. I am well aware the degree doesn't hold much weight and that there will be positions for which he wouldn't even be considered with that degree. But when it's literally that, or nothing, I'll take that. And if he decided to do some sort of career program and go into a completely unrelated field, it's not like having the degree will hurt, nor will he have wasted time on it since he'll have it by the time he'd have graduated college.

Not to sound like a downer, but if your son is not willing to put in the work as you say, then he'll have a hard time ever finishing anything at Ashworth College. Let me disabuse you of the notion that it's some kind of program where there is little work and little motivation required because nothing could be farther from reality and this will be a very rude awakening for him if he shows up with that idea.

When I was with Ashworth, their degree programs required reading very long textbooks cover to cover and that was nothing under 1,000 pages (they tend to use ALL of the material too, which quite frankly most regionally accredited schools don't do), tons of tests, and in my program tons of essays. And now that they've added student interaction as a required component that's only added to the workload. I wouldn't say the workload is Nations University level, their workload is absolutely insane over there. But the workload at Ashworth is substantial and does take time. You'll also have to contend with the turnaround times of student services which isn't speedy and that's to be expected with a school carrying as many enrollments as Ashworth does.

While I wouldn't call the work itself "difficult", I wouldn't call any collegiate work outside of tech and medical fields to be difficult unless you have a hardass for a Professor. The work is straightforward the way it should be. But Ashworth's work will require you to be self-motivated, willing to read a ton and take a lot of exams and this is why Ashworth graduates mostly diploma students rather than degree students. Their degree students have a high dropout rate and that's not a bad reflection on the school, it's more a reflection of people thinking the work was going to be quick and then they show up and find out it's going to take a lot of time.

If I had do it all over again, I'd start at a place like Straighterline and take all of the common associate-level courses, then transfer them in someplace, and then attempt to test out on a number of other courses. Of course, there are a lot more options available now than there were when I was starting out. Nevertheless, I wish your son luck, just make sure he understands that if he goes with Ashworth and intends to finish, he's going to have to work, it will take time, and patience is required when dealing with the school's processes.

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I don't know about being a boogyman, there are actual differences in accreditation types, which means you should know the differences before deciding because both will cost time and money.  Both are legitimate (when an employer says "accredited degree" you'll be fine with degrees from Penn Foster or Ashworth).

I have both, my husband has both, and one of my sons is in progress for a NA degree with my full confidence and support- but it depends on what you want your degree for as an entry into a career / advancement in a career - and what you may or may not want to do with it in the future.  

People who suggest always/ never to adults aren't giving good advice, because you can make a case for either. There are barriers when your degree is NA instead of RA.  Does it matter?  If you can't answer that yet, it's too soon to choose.

My point is that an NA degree isn't some kind of death sentence, far from it, yet many people in these degree discussion-style forums take that view.

The main thing people need to do before they jump into any degree program is research, even if it is RA since there are even RA programs that lack proper credentials and wind up leaving graduates out in the cold (see the Kaplan Nutrition program fiasco). Proper research would've saved those people but they didn't do it and they got screwed.

[rowan555]

I understand all that, and since my older son just did the Straighterline route, I know how amazing that is, and I recommend it often. It's not for my younger son. I have one year until he's 18, and I'm going to use that year to keep him motivated and get him through the program. The new Ashworth platform seems rather user friendly, and while he's only halfway through his first course, he's gaining confidence and feeling more motivated. I am going to continue encouraging him, as this is his best option for now.

[eLearner]

I understand all that, and since my older son just did the Straighterline route, I know how amazing that is, and I recommend it often. It's not for my younger son. I have one year until he's 18, and I'm going to use that year to keep him motivated and get him through the program. The new Ashworth platform seems rather user friendly, and while he's only halfway through his first course, he's gaining confidence and feeling more motivated. I am going to continue encouraging him, as this is his best option for now.

I hear they've streamlined a lot of things and now they use a more condensed e-text format for some classes, so maybe it's not like it used to be. I just know that I still have a 4 foot stack of textbooks from my old Ashworth program sitting in my closet. There was so much reading, smh. I enjoyed it, but it was tiresome. At the time, I had come over from Ashford University where we only used like 1/4th of the textbook, took few exams, and spent most of the time in forum discussions. I had the assumption that all of online schooling was subpar and lacking in workload like that. Ashworth quickly taught me a lesson not to assume, lol.

[miah]

I understand all that, and since my older son just did the Straighterline route, I know how amazing that is, and I recommend it often. It's not for my younger son. I have one year until he's 18, and I'm going to use that year to keep him motivated and get him through the program. The new Ashworth platform seems rather user friendly, and while he's only halfway through his first course, he's gaining confidence and feeling more motivated. I am going to continue encouraging him, as this is his best option for now.

I hear they've streamlined a lot of things and now they use a more condensed e-text format for some classes, so maybe it's not like it used to be. I just know that I still have a 4 foot stack of textbooks from my old Ashworth program sitting in my closet. There was so much reading, smh. I enjoyed it, but it was tiresome. At the time, I had come over from Ashford University where we only used like 1/4th of the textbook, took few exams, and spent most of the time in forum discussions. I had the assumption that all of online schooling was subpar and lacking in workload like that. Ashworth quickly taught me a lesson not to assume, lol.

Well, if the materials are now in an e-text format, if the student has a reading disability, it should be easier for them to "ear read" AKA "listen" along with the books/materials instead of solely reading it by sight, which should help to level the playing field for them with the reading work load you were noting.