InstantCertCredit - Spanish - ACE Changes

[Pats20]

I had a great experience with instantcert. With that said, I agree that they could’ve done a courtesy email to subscribers alerting them to the fact that their courses were up for review. Just as I think Straighterline, Sophia , Study.com, ect could do the same as well. But I don’t think any of them do. I only find out by this forum or by looking on the ace site myself.

Actually, I do think that SDC has emailed people when they thought/knew that they were going to lose ACE recommendation for a course.  I'm almost positive I heard that at least once.  I think several times people have posted that they were given a deadline to finish a course, and if they didn't do it by a certain date, the course would be adding something (more quizzes, more assignments) - that would certainly be due to ACE requiring additional things to renew the course.  So yes, SDC does do this.

I think Sophia hasn't lost ACE recommendation for anything, so it wouldn't apply.  I do know that they have phased out some courses and replaced them with new versions (Sociology, Psychology).  They do this long before expiration, so they allow people to finish a particular course before expiration, and then new people can only enroll in the new version.  So their approach is a bit different than SDC's.

So I would say that both course providers do take expiration dates into account for current students enrolled in those particular courses, and make sure that they are aware of ACE issues that will affect them.

Nah. Just about every computer science course I have taken through sdc has come up for review. I’ve never received an email alert letting me know. Not once. I’d be curious as to if anyone else has received these so called emails. This whole thread is people posting that  it’s the students responsibility to keep up with it, ( and I agree) so why would this be necessary if sdc sends out courtesy emails.

[dfrecore]

I had a great experience with instantcert. With that said, I agree that they could’ve done a courtesy email to subscribers alerting them to the fact that their courses were up for review. Just as I think Straighterline, Sophia , Study.com, ect could do the same as well. But I don’t think any of them do. I only find out by this forum or by looking on the ace site myself.

Actually, I do think that SDC has emailed people when they thought/knew that they were going to lose ACE recommendation for a course.  I'm almost positive I heard that at least once.  I think several times people have posted that they were given a deadline to finish a course, and if they didn't do it by a certain date, the course would be adding something (more quizzes, more assignments) - that would certainly be due to ACE requiring additional things to renew the course.  So yes, SDC does do this.

I think Sophia hasn't lost ACE recommendation for anything, so it wouldn't apply.  I do know that they have phased out some courses and replaced them with new versions (Sociology, Psychology).  They do this long before expiration, so they allow people to finish a particular course before expiration, and then new people can only enroll in the new version.  So their approach is a bit different than SDC's.

So I would say that both course providers do take expiration dates into account for current students enrolled in those particular courses, and make sure that they are aware of ACE issues that will affect them.

Nah. Just about every computer science course I have taken through sdc has come up for review. I’ve never received an email alert letting me know. Not once. I’d be curious as to if anyone else has received these so called emails. This whole thread is people posting that  it’s the students responsibility to keep up with it, ( and I agree) so why would this be necessary if sdc sends out courtesy emails.

So you have been in the middle of taking a course at Study.com, and then before you could finish it, it expired?  And was no longer ACE-recommended?  I doubt that.

If you're saying that they should email everyone every time a course comes up for renewal, I agree that they don't need to.  It's when they think that the course is NOT going to be renewed that it's an issue - and one you should be warned about.

[utility]

When you're testing out or getting alternative credits for your degree, expect the unexpected.

I did the Study.com version of American Government, then when it was time to transfer it to TESU, it wasn't ACE certified, I ended up having to do the InstantCert version, so some time was wasted.

I had a plan for one degree, TESU changed up the rules when I was getting close to the end, had to get a completely different degree that I didn't want because of this change and to avoid a lot more work.

As the student we are the ones required to make sure everything lines up for us and pivot as needed. Our research may not be perfect and there will be changes to most plans as you move forward.

During my journey I did read up about ACE renewals and checked ACE for renewal dates, skipped out on some courses over this. Just part of the journey if you want to save a lot of money and time on your degree.

It definitely would be nice to get notifications about recommendation changes but looks like it doesn't happen at most places.

[Pats20]

I agree, they don’t have to do diddly squat. An idea may be for these providers to have listed  on their course descriptions the ace approval dates. That way when someone looks at a course they know right then what  dates it’s approved for.  That would be simple enough, If courtesy emails are too much. Idk. Just a thought. I don’t have any alt accounts anymore , so I don’t remember if they do this or not

[LevelUP]

After a little investigation, I saw this notice on the welcome page for Spanish. I assume this was posted before June 30th? So there was some warning then that this course was going to expire soon. 

[dfrecore]

When you're testing out or getting alternative credits for your degree, expect the unexpected.

I did the Study.com version of American Government, then when it was time to transfer it to TESU, it wasn't ACE certified, I ended up having to do the InstantCert version, so some time was wasted.

I had a plan for one degree, TESU changed up the rules when I was getting close to the end, had to get a completely different degree that I didn't want because of this change and to avoid a lot more work.

As the student we are the ones required to make sure everything lines up for us and pivot as needed.  Our research may not be perfect and there will be changes to most plans as you move forward.

During my journey I did read up about ACE renewals and checked ACE for renewal dates, skipped out on some courses over this.  Just part of the journey if you want to save a lot of money and time on your degree.

It definitely would be nice to get notifications about recommendation changes but looks like it doesn't happen at most places.

This is a completely different scenario.  The OP is talking about a course's ACE recommendation expiring.  You are talking about a school changing how they bring courses in.  One has nothing to do with the other.

SDC's American Government course did not expire - TESU decided they would no longer accept it as meeting the Civic Engagement requirement (although they will still accept it as a SocSci course).

It was never hinted at here that schools won't change things.  That's not what we're talking about.  We are talking about a course you are taking with a course provider, and that course provider finds out at some point that the course will no longer be ACE-recommended. And if they have an obligation to tell current students of that course about it - or at least should tell them as a courtesy.

I think they should.

[uncoolbilly]

After a little investigation, I saw this notice on the welcome page for Spanish. I assume this was posted before June 30th? So there was some warning then that this course was going to expire soon. 

You are only able to see this currently because STEVE and ICC were awesome enough to reload the class back to the server for me!!! Thank you STEVE and ICC. (Spanish was completely hidden or removed when this thread started).

UMPI is allowing the course for credit for me, so I am grateful for their part as well. They understand the number of different moving parts involved in this process tends to catch people in the change over. Thanks again to UMPI for understanding.

I did not access my courses from home pages - I access them at the course level. I have all the bookmarks in a "pearltree" bookmark manager for the courses I am taking (I currently am taking 2 at ICC, 2 at Study, 2 at Sophia, 1 at SSC.edu). without this bookmark system I would get lost about what classes are currently happening - though my process seems to be flawed as I screwed Spanish up, obviously...

I have taken the Spanish final and passed the course, everyone involve has been very understanding - way more then they needed to be.

With non-time constrained courses it would be nice to receive notices about changes or deadlines as members might think they have more time to prepare then they do. I will make adjustments to my process to try to avoid this in the future. I have reviewed on ACE what classes I have to complete that could be expiring and I seem to be in good shape at this point.

I am not going up on this course getting reviewed by ACE again or at least receiving an explanation as to why it was credited and now no long is. Choices for Language credits are limited (like Lab courses) and the more option people have the better.

[ss20ts]

Choices for language at UMPI:
Sophia offers Spanish
Study offers Spanish
StraighterLine offers Spanish
ACTFL exams for numerous languages
Local community colleges for various languages including ASL
UMPI offers Spanish and French

Choices for lab science at UMPI:
Study has multiple courses available
StraighterLine has multiple courses available
ASU Learner has multiple courses available
Local community colleges
UMPI offers the lab science course

I wonder if the chem course from Saylor or ONU would transfer as a lab science. ONU also has an American Government course. There are a few community colleges in New Mexico with really inexpensive online courses. I wonder if they have any that would work for a lab science or language.

[P226mem]

......
You are only able to see this currently because STEVE and ICC were awesome enough to reload the class back to the server for me!!! Thank you STEVE and ICC. (Spanish was completely hidden or removed when this thread started).

.....
UMPI is allowing the course for credit for me, so I am grateful for their part as well. They understand the number of different moving parts involved in this process tends to catch people in the change over. Thanks again to UMPI for understanding.

....
I have taken the Spanish final and passed the course, everyone involve has been very understanding - way more then they needed to be.

That is awesome news!  Happy Dancing and rejoicing with you!

[bjcheung77]

@uncoolbilly, congrats! Great work reaching out to the ICC and UMPI teams to get the ball rolling towards receiving credit for the Spanish course!