06-01-2017, 03:08 PM
Hi!
See my signature line for my current experiences in academic learning.
I preface this by saying that I hate math, and I just completed the second of two math courses, and so I am pretty burned out on the whole 'online college' experience right now.
I have flirted with the idea of DAVAR since I began my process last year. For one reason or another, I've gone the conservative route and said no. But the current thread on '$99 DAVAR' got me to revisit the issue.
I went ahead and bit on their ENG 103 Information Literacy course. Here are my unique, jaded, and tired impressions. Your mileage will definitely vary.
Executive Summary:
If you can retain information well, and already have Comp I and II under your belt, go and take this! It is very cost-effective at the time of this posting, and InfoLit is a requirement at TESU (and, I assume the other of the Big Three, as well).
Long Summary Like I Typically Pore Over Before I Decide (LOL):
It's kind of weird. I am used to the Straighterline model, where you sign up, the course opens up, you read and watch and take quizzes. These you do over until you do well on, because if you do, you can really bomb the proctored final exam, and still pass. I'm comfortable with that.
This is not like that.
You can sign up for free.
You can download the course for free.
You can take as long as you like to learn the course. (I took maybe three days. Others have taken 3 months. It doesn't matter to DAVAR. Until you actually register, I'm not sure they even know you exist.)
For my course, I could not find any quizzes, just a zip file with a syllabus and a study guide. There was a mandatory book (free, online) that I picked up, and a couple of optionals (no free versions online I could find, skipped).
Information Literacy is more properly titled 'How To Go To The Library in the Modern Age'. Seriously. There is some information about actual library usage, but it is mostly geared towards the protocols of obtaining information for writing a research paper. This is why I said, if you've already done Comp I and II, you already know this (if you can remember it).
Going forward, if you are taking classes to learn and not just to earn credits; it makes more sense to take this after Comp I, but before Comp II.
I read the study guide; it was actually helpful in a global sense - I will actually keep it for some of the terminology explanations for when I do my next paper.
I skimmed the book. It was very collegiate and verbose.
Overall, the study guide and book explains primary and secondary sources, the difference between an article in Teen Bop versus a scholarly article and why the difference is important to an academic; how to google search with an academic eye, and yet another caution about plagiarism. The book is a long grind, but the study guide is easily digestible and written in a friendly format.
The Testing Prep Part:
Kinda convoluted.
I might be messing this up; I just did it, so don't print this out like a roadmap.
You go back into DAVAR Academy (which is located at http://www.mytestcom.net for some reason :confused
, and register for the test. You DON"T just click the test button next to the entry for your course. I found the register button at Take A Course - Davar Academy next to 'Register for your course'.
This is a simple fill-in-the-box of your name an stuff an things. You finish that, and then it immediately gives you permission to take the test.
You go back to the Six Steps, and click the proctor of your choice. I always do PU. This time, I tried RPNow. In RPNow, you download a 90Mb file, and run it. It opens up, you fill out some stuff, it asks you to pay. Here's something that bothered me - my camera was on, and the mike was on; I assumed they were recording or monitoring. Probably weren't, but I paid for their service via paypal through their system. I felt like they could monitor me logging into PP and I didn't like it.
Too late, I noticed that if you select paypal, you don't have to log in, and can just use 'pay by credit card', which I will probably do next time.
WHEW.
Once you pay, then something happens, I forget. Next thing I am conscious of is you are presented a DAVAR login screen. From there, you navigate back to the folder with the class, and click the icon on the far left. This brings up (I think, blurry) a thing for you to pay DAVAR for their test. I think I paid $15 to RPNow, and $80 to DAVAR. I never found where the $99 all you can eat special was, oh well.
Now that you've successfully paid again, you can take the test.
You navigate to the test screen, and push a button on top of the RPNow program that autofills the user / pwd for the test screen. My user was... RPNowuser. lol :o
Whirring and clicking and thinking begin.
Somewhere in all of this; I cannot remember and apologize but I was trying to remember InfoLit and only secondarily remember my experience to tell y'all, you have to 1- take a webcam picture of an ID, 2-take a webcam picture of your face, and 3-do a webcam tour of where you are sitting. By this, I mean you twist the laptop alllllll around to show the walls, and what's around you. This is all recorded.
Actual Test Part:
34 questions, 4 of which are essay questions. Yes, essay, with a little box like I am typing in as I speak.
The remainder are multiple choice, from 3 to 5 choices. They were gentle questions; if you read the study notes, at least in the test bank I was presented with, you should recognize the questions. Even if you didn't read the notes, if you truly understand InfoLit from an academic perspective, there should be no reason these questions would be unfamiliar to you.
By that, I mean I have taken college tests where I don't know where the question came from at all. It wasn't in the chapter material, and it definitely wasn't in the chapter quizzes. None of the questions were specific to the reading; like 'on page 350 of the book, Skinner talks about 3 kinds of tapioca. What were they?' None of that. If you know how to build a research paper, you will understand the questions. Does that make any sense?
The 4 essay questions... they don't tell you what an adequate response is. I like to be thin and direct. I was only docked five points, so apparently that is an ok strategy. In no case did I go above 150-200 words.
Without giving test material, one or two asked me to compare and contrast key words. The other two asked me to apply what I learned to a theoretical problem. None were strenuous in solving, but I assume my docked points came from one of the latter two questions in retrospect; I answered with a real world solution, and not 'ignore the theoretical problem, the correct solution is to give them an academic answer applicable to solving any problem in general'.
If that makes any sense, as well.
I found the RPNow interface klunky. I don't know if I was being actively monitored. In PU, there is an actual person you interact with. None of that occurred in RPN. It was also laggy, but I don't know if that was a part of the connection; requesting the next question sometimes was quick, but often was slow. You will need flash installed, if you don't have it, they will walk you through installing it.
Then, they said scoring would take three DAYS!!!
I don't know about you, but I recall having to go to school and look for grades to be posted. I like the immediacy of SL, where you test and BAM! there's your answer.
Having said that, my test today was reviewed, my video and whatever checked for honor (it wasn't open book, no phone), and they had my grade back to me (via email) in literally minutes.
I PASSED!!!
I lost 5 points in the essays, and I lost 10 points in the multipley guesses lol :coolgleam: Hopefully a mather will chime in and break down what you have to do to pass (essay weighted, and multiple choice weighted).
Recap and Conclusion:
DAVAR Academy offers some low-cost courses that are accepted directly by TESU without having to go through ACE. They are NCCRS, which apparently is like a sister to ACE. You send your transcript from inside DAVAR for free via a webpage form.
I took ENG 103 Information Literacy. I found the study guide easy to read and follow, and for my test bank, found it solely adequate. The process to get to the test is convoluted, and will aggravate those who are not computer savvy. The test was gentle, and fair. I am no college dynamo, and I completed the course in three days; at the top of my game, I could have done it in three hours, but I erred on the side of caution. This does not mean it's not valuable, or that there's nothing to learn. I will use the study guide in capstone, I am sure. But if you already understand Information Literacy at a collegiate / academic level, you won't find anything distressing about this course.
In that lens, HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
However, if you are test adverse, or have issues retaining information, need feedback, appreciate classroom interaction, or like the Straighterline model of getting most of your points in class, I recommend this much less.
Again, thanks to InstantCert, and the hive mind of degreeforum.net. I would never have known about DAVAR, and would probably not attempted it had I not come here first. DAVAR should consider being a site sponsor hint hint hint. :patriot:
See my signature line for my current experiences in academic learning.
I preface this by saying that I hate math, and I just completed the second of two math courses, and so I am pretty burned out on the whole 'online college' experience right now.
I have flirted with the idea of DAVAR since I began my process last year. For one reason or another, I've gone the conservative route and said no. But the current thread on '$99 DAVAR' got me to revisit the issue.
I went ahead and bit on their ENG 103 Information Literacy course. Here are my unique, jaded, and tired impressions. Your mileage will definitely vary.
Executive Summary:
If you can retain information well, and already have Comp I and II under your belt, go and take this! It is very cost-effective at the time of this posting, and InfoLit is a requirement at TESU (and, I assume the other of the Big Three, as well).
Long Summary Like I Typically Pore Over Before I Decide (LOL):
It's kind of weird. I am used to the Straighterline model, where you sign up, the course opens up, you read and watch and take quizzes. These you do over until you do well on, because if you do, you can really bomb the proctored final exam, and still pass. I'm comfortable with that.
This is not like that.
You can sign up for free.
You can download the course for free.
You can take as long as you like to learn the course. (I took maybe three days. Others have taken 3 months. It doesn't matter to DAVAR. Until you actually register, I'm not sure they even know you exist.)
For my course, I could not find any quizzes, just a zip file with a syllabus and a study guide. There was a mandatory book (free, online) that I picked up, and a couple of optionals (no free versions online I could find, skipped).
Information Literacy is more properly titled 'How To Go To The Library in the Modern Age'. Seriously. There is some information about actual library usage, but it is mostly geared towards the protocols of obtaining information for writing a research paper. This is why I said, if you've already done Comp I and II, you already know this (if you can remember it).
Going forward, if you are taking classes to learn and not just to earn credits; it makes more sense to take this after Comp I, but before Comp II.
I read the study guide; it was actually helpful in a global sense - I will actually keep it for some of the terminology explanations for when I do my next paper.
I skimmed the book. It was very collegiate and verbose.
Overall, the study guide and book explains primary and secondary sources, the difference between an article in Teen Bop versus a scholarly article and why the difference is important to an academic; how to google search with an academic eye, and yet another caution about plagiarism. The book is a long grind, but the study guide is easily digestible and written in a friendly format.
The Testing Prep Part:
Kinda convoluted.
I might be messing this up; I just did it, so don't print this out like a roadmap.
You go back into DAVAR Academy (which is located at http://www.mytestcom.net for some reason :confused
, and register for the test. You DON"T just click the test button next to the entry for your course. I found the register button at Take A Course - Davar Academy next to 'Register for your course'.This is a simple fill-in-the-box of your name an stuff an things. You finish that, and then it immediately gives you permission to take the test.
You go back to the Six Steps, and click the proctor of your choice. I always do PU. This time, I tried RPNow. In RPNow, you download a 90Mb file, and run it. It opens up, you fill out some stuff, it asks you to pay. Here's something that bothered me - my camera was on, and the mike was on; I assumed they were recording or monitoring. Probably weren't, but I paid for their service via paypal through their system. I felt like they could monitor me logging into PP and I didn't like it.
Too late, I noticed that if you select paypal, you don't have to log in, and can just use 'pay by credit card', which I will probably do next time.
WHEW.
Once you pay, then something happens, I forget. Next thing I am conscious of is you are presented a DAVAR login screen. From there, you navigate back to the folder with the class, and click the icon on the far left. This brings up (I think, blurry) a thing for you to pay DAVAR for their test. I think I paid $15 to RPNow, and $80 to DAVAR. I never found where the $99 all you can eat special was, oh well.
Now that you've successfully paid again, you can take the test.
You navigate to the test screen, and push a button on top of the RPNow program that autofills the user / pwd for the test screen. My user was... RPNowuser. lol :o
Whirring and clicking and thinking begin.
Somewhere in all of this; I cannot remember and apologize but I was trying to remember InfoLit and only secondarily remember my experience to tell y'all, you have to 1- take a webcam picture of an ID, 2-take a webcam picture of your face, and 3-do a webcam tour of where you are sitting. By this, I mean you twist the laptop alllllll around to show the walls, and what's around you. This is all recorded.
Actual Test Part:
34 questions, 4 of which are essay questions. Yes, essay, with a little box like I am typing in as I speak.
The remainder are multiple choice, from 3 to 5 choices. They were gentle questions; if you read the study notes, at least in the test bank I was presented with, you should recognize the questions. Even if you didn't read the notes, if you truly understand InfoLit from an academic perspective, there should be no reason these questions would be unfamiliar to you.
By that, I mean I have taken college tests where I don't know where the question came from at all. It wasn't in the chapter material, and it definitely wasn't in the chapter quizzes. None of the questions were specific to the reading; like 'on page 350 of the book, Skinner talks about 3 kinds of tapioca. What were they?' None of that. If you know how to build a research paper, you will understand the questions. Does that make any sense?
The 4 essay questions... they don't tell you what an adequate response is. I like to be thin and direct. I was only docked five points, so apparently that is an ok strategy. In no case did I go above 150-200 words.
Without giving test material, one or two asked me to compare and contrast key words. The other two asked me to apply what I learned to a theoretical problem. None were strenuous in solving, but I assume my docked points came from one of the latter two questions in retrospect; I answered with a real world solution, and not 'ignore the theoretical problem, the correct solution is to give them an academic answer applicable to solving any problem in general'.
If that makes any sense, as well.
I found the RPNow interface klunky. I don't know if I was being actively monitored. In PU, there is an actual person you interact with. None of that occurred in RPN. It was also laggy, but I don't know if that was a part of the connection; requesting the next question sometimes was quick, but often was slow. You will need flash installed, if you don't have it, they will walk you through installing it.
Then, they said scoring would take three DAYS!!!
I don't know about you, but I recall having to go to school and look for grades to be posted. I like the immediacy of SL, where you test and BAM! there's your answer.
Having said that, my test today was reviewed, my video and whatever checked for honor (it wasn't open book, no phone), and they had my grade back to me (via email) in literally minutes.
I PASSED!!!
I lost 5 points in the essays, and I lost 10 points in the multipley guesses lol :coolgleam: Hopefully a mather will chime in and break down what you have to do to pass (essay weighted, and multiple choice weighted).
Recap and Conclusion:
DAVAR Academy offers some low-cost courses that are accepted directly by TESU without having to go through ACE. They are NCCRS, which apparently is like a sister to ACE. You send your transcript from inside DAVAR for free via a webpage form.
I took ENG 103 Information Literacy. I found the study guide easy to read and follow, and for my test bank, found it solely adequate. The process to get to the test is convoluted, and will aggravate those who are not computer savvy. The test was gentle, and fair. I am no college dynamo, and I completed the course in three days; at the top of my game, I could have done it in three hours, but I erred on the side of caution. This does not mean it's not valuable, or that there's nothing to learn. I will use the study guide in capstone, I am sure. But if you already understand Information Literacy at a collegiate / academic level, you won't find anything distressing about this course.
In that lens, HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
However, if you are test adverse, or have issues retaining information, need feedback, appreciate classroom interaction, or like the Straighterline model of getting most of your points in class, I recommend this much less.
Again, thanks to InstantCert, and the hive mind of degreeforum.net. I would never have known about DAVAR, and would probably not attempted it had I not come here first. DAVAR should consider being a site sponsor hint hint hint. :patriot:
Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies Thomas Edison State University 2018
Cert in Emergency Management - Three Rivers CC 2017
Cert in Basic Police Ed - Walters State CC 1996
Current Goal: new job
Working on: securing funding I don't have to pay back for a Masters.
Up Next: Toying with Masters Programs
Finished: First Degree
Older Experience with: PLA / Portfolios, RPNow, Proctor U, ACE, NCCRS, DAVAR Academy (formerly Tor), Straighterline, TESU, Ed4Credit, Study.com, The Institutes, Kaplan, ALEKS, FEMA IS, NFA IS, brick & mortar community colleges, LOTS of vocational schools...
My list of academic courses: link
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