New degree plan on the wiki - TESC ASBA

[alzee]

Looking over the requirements now and my options, I'm approaching a decision in the next month or so.

The first option is to continue as planned on the per-credit plan, using SL for all but the 12 credits I need for residency. 3 of those will be a single class, probably astronomy since it's something I'm familiar with already and have an interest in. The other 9 will be TECEPs in the "Knowledge of Human Cultures" subject, where I need 10 credits anyway. I'm tentatively considering:

Written English : CLEP or SL College Comp
Info Lit : SL Intro to Religion
Diversity : SL Cultural Anthropology
Civic Engagement : SL American Government
Human Cultures 3/10 : SL Intro to Psych
Human Cultures 6/10 : TECEP PR Thought & Practice
Human Cultures 9/10 : TECEP Environmental Ethics
Human Cultures 12/10 : TECEP Intro to Sociology
Understanding phys.. : TESC astronomy course.

All of my other requirements are met. This will require cramming/studying for 3 TECEPs at a cost of $450, and a single course for the GPA requirement for $1500. I looked into the other grade-granting options but everything I found said that *all* external credits transfer in to TESC without a grade.

Option 2 is similar, except I drop all the TECEPs for SL courses (keeping the astronomy course) and switch from per-credit enrollment to the enrolled options plan. This is more expensive by about $4,000 but has no residency requirement, and will be faster to complete since the SL courses require less study than TECEPs. Since I only enrolled at TESU this month (3/13) I still have time to make the switch.

Decisions decisions..

Edit: I meant more expensive by about $4000. Enrolled options is $3300, and the one 3cr course I'd have to take to make GPA would be $750. Plus a bit more for the SL courses.

[dfrecore]

Ahh thanks for the tip, I hadn't considered those options. I will look into them for sure. Does the GPA have to come from a course or courses that are being applied ot the degree, or can they fall outside the plan like the residency requirement credits?

Your GPA is your GPA, no matter which course(s) the grade is related to.

[High_Order1]

First,
OP, thanks for sharing. Your wiki has provided me with a lot to think about.


Question - Do you feel comfortable expanding on your Alek strategy? It seems that you are saying you don't have to complete the course. Never having any experience with ALEKS, or online college, would requesting ACE credit for a course you didn't complete not come back to bite you at some point?

Thanks!

[alzee]

First,
OP, thanks for sharing. Your wiki has provided me with a lot to think about.


Question - Do you feel comfortable expanding on your Alek strategy? It seems that you are saying you don't have to complete the course. Never having any experience with ALEKS, or online college, would requesting ACE credit for a course you didn't complete not come back to bite you at some point?

Thanks!

ALEKS, as it relates to college credit, does not offer "courses" in the traditional sense. When you start an ALEKS course, you're given an initial comprehensive assessment. As you work through the material (the "pie" -- it shows areas in your course as a pie chart) it periodically gives you an assessment on the topic you're working on. After some amount of time working on different areas, you're given another comprehensive assessment.

You will have two logins for ALEKS, one as the "teacher", one as the "student." You do the work and take the assessments as the student. You can login as the teacher any time and request that your "student" receive an assessment the next time they log in, rather than waiting for the system to automatically trigger one. So if you take an assessment and it shows that you've mastered 68% of the material, you can study on the areas where you were weak, and request another assessment immediately.

This "mastery" is what is reflected in the assessment score, and is what is used by ACE to determine if you've passed or not.

[High_Order1]

AH!

Makes sense. Thank you.

[DBRENNAN118]

ALEKS, as it relates to college credit, does not offer "courses" in the traditional sense. When you start an ALEKS course, you're given an initial comprehensive assessment. As you work through the material (the "pie" -- it shows areas in your course as a pie chart) it periodically gives you an assessment on the topic you're working on. After some amount of time working on different areas, you're given another comprehensive assessment.

You will have two logins for ALEKS, one as the "teacher", one as the "student." You do the work and take the assessments as the student. You can login as the teacher any time and request that your "student" receive an assessment the next time they log in, rather than waiting for the system to automatically trigger one. So if you take an assessment and it shows that you've mastered 68% of the material, you can study on the areas where you were weak, and request another assessment immediately.

This "mastery" is what is reflected in the assessment score, and is what is used by ACE to determine if you've passed or not.

It should be noted, however, it takes HOURS to get there, unless you are already at a high level of proficiency when you take the assessment quiz. You could spend 15-20 hours in single course. I did Int Algebra, College Algebra, and Statistics. It was so tedious - but still a better way to go than testing out. I did all three classes in less than a month ($20 total)!

[alzee]

It should be noted, however, it takes HOURS to get there, unless you are already at a high level of proficiency when you take the assessment quiz. You could spend 15-20 hours in single course. I did Int Algebra, College Algebra, and Statistics. It was so tedious - but still a better way to go than testing out. I did all three classes in less than a month ($20 total)!

Oh absolutely. The stats course took me two or three weeks. The math wasn't difficult, but I was completely unfamiliar with the notation used for sets, unions, etc. Once I got that down, it went much faster. I had no problem at all passing College Algebra though, my initial assessment was 75% or something. Unfortunately, at the time, I was also ignorant to how it worked.

I kept working on it, getting up into the 80's before I "gave up" and switched to stats. When that was doing the same thing ("where's my final exam?!") I decided I better google.. then I facepalmed and submitted stats to ACE. As soon as it showed up, I switched back to algebra, did one assessment, and submitted that. That's why they're just a day apart (and in the wrong order) in my signature.

[hoffdeb]

Is this ASBA from TESC using the new (2016) TESC figures/info?

[alzee]

Is this ASBA from TESC using the new (2016) TESC figures/info?

The best I can say is.. probably? It's the 2015-2016 catalog and will reflect the residency waiver. There will be no TECEPs, and only one TESU course -- the 1cr PLA-100 if I can get enrolled after my next SL final (in 15 minutes!).

If I can't make that enrollment, then I might be forced to take the cornerstone instead, which may result in other changes to the plan if they change the catalog for whatever term that ends up starting in.