Onlinedegree.com

[Muldoon]

That's really interesting. I see 4 classes I'd want to take (out of personal interest, they wouldn't apply to my degree). The only part that makes me suspicious is the focus on helping students find colleges. I can't help but think of something like Education Connection where you provide your info and it allows the schools to market to you relentlessly. But who knows. I guess we will find out.

[dfrecore]

Looks like my teens may be taking the Culinary course this summer...

---

That's really interesting. I see 4 classes I'd want to take (out of personal interest, they wouldn't apply to my degree). The only part that makes me suspicious is the focus on helping students find colleges. I can't help but think of something like Education Connection where you provide your info and it allows the schools to market to you relentlessly. But who knows. I guess we will find out.

That's exactly what I thought.  I signed up with the email address I use specifically for this type of thing.

[MNomadic]

When I originally posted this, 13 courses had approval. I just checked the NCCRS site again today and they are at 15. Good to see that it is growing.

According to my conversations with them, The program should open up at the end of this month.
This is one of the correspondence:

"Hi Michael,

We're so excited to have you aboard! Yes, all of our NCCRS evaluated courses will be completely free for students. We will be opening the doors in about 30 days...we will keep you posted once that happens so you can be the first to get started.

Were there some ACE courses or schools you were looking for in particular?

Nick
Student Support Team"

So it seems that particular person wasn't familiar with ACE.

[xjarhead1999]

I'm somewhat watching this. I wish they were ACE approved instead of NCCRS though. Or if there was a way to "bank" NCCRS courses the way you do ACE courses.

[dfrecore]

New courses:

Turning Points in Modern History 15th Century to Present (sounds like it should be UL but it's not)
Language & Literacy in Education

Can't wait for another free source of credits!! Pretty soon, we'll be able to get our entire degrees for practically FREE!

[MNomadic]

Agree. I been hoping for ACE as well but I suppose beggars can't be choosers.

[jsd]

I'm somewhat watching this. I wish they were ACE approved instead of NCCRS though. Or if there was a way to "bank" NCCRS courses the way you do ACE courses.

it's really bizarre to me that NCCRS doesn't do this. It seems so easy to implement. And if they charge a nominal fee to send transcripts, say $5, it's a decent money maker for them.

[dfrecore]

I'm somewhat watching this. I wish they were ACE approved instead of NCCRS though. Or if there was a way to "bank" NCCRS courses the way you do ACE courses.

it's really bizarre to me that NCCRS doesn't do this. It seems so easy to implement. And if they charge a nominal fee to send transcripts, say $5, it's a decent money maker for them.

I totally agree!  I do not get why they didn't set themselves up like ACE, and do credit banking.  ACE is such a smooth process at this point, it's nuts not to do something similar; it would probably be LESS work for them than whatever they do now.

[xjarhead1999]

I'm somewhat watching this. I wish they were ACE approved instead of NCCRS though. Or if there was a way to "bank" NCCRS courses the way you do ACE courses.

it's really bizarre to me that NCCRS doesn't do this. It seems so easy to implement. And if they charge a nominal fee to send transcripts, say $5, it's a decent money maker for them.

I totally agree!  I do not get why they didn't set themselves up like ACE, and do credit banking.  ACE is such a smooth process at this point, it's nuts not to do something similar; it would probably be LESS work for them than whatever they do now.

Well I don't think it would be less work for the NCCRS. Isn't evaluating the courses the only thing they do? I understand it that the organizations offering the courses are responsible for submitting to schools.
I believe if they were organized like ACE then more schools would accept them. It would be less hassle for schools.
Another concern I have is what happens if I do a bunch of NCCRS courses and the organization disappears in a year or two? Or what if I take a course I can't use now but could use in the future and they are gone or something.
I have been avoiding NCCRS courses. I feel like I wasted my time with one on study.com that wasn't also ACE approved. Luckily I caught it before I took the proctored final. I see a few courses that I think would be fun on onlinedegree.com. If I do them it would mostly be for personal educationial gain, not college.

[Merlin]

I'm somewhat watching this. I wish they were ACE approved instead of NCCRS though. Or if there was a way to "bank" NCCRS courses the way you do ACE courses.

it's really bizarre to me that NCCRS doesn't do this. It seems so easy to implement. And if they charge a nominal fee to send transcripts, say $5, it's a decent money maker for them.

I totally agree!  I do not get why they didn't set themselves up like ACE, and do credit banking.  ACE is such a smooth process at this point, it's nuts not to do something similar; it would probably be LESS work for them than whatever they do now.

Well I don't think it would be less work for the NCCRS. Isn't evaluating the courses the only thing they do? I understand it that the organizations offering the courses are responsible for submitting to schools.
I believe if they were organized like ACE then more schools would accept them. It would be less hassle for schools.
Another concern I have is what happens if I do a bunch of NCCRS courses and the organization disappears in a year or two? Or what if I take a course I can't use now but could use in the future and they are gone or something.
I have been avoiding NCCRS courses. I feel like I wasted my time with one on study.com that wasn't also ACE approved. Luckily I caught it before I took the proctored final. I see a few courses that I think would be fun on onlinedegree.com. If I do them it would mostly be for personal educationial gain, not college.

I see your point, but I don't personally see NCCRS courses as a waste of time. Yes, it is true that any NCCRS provider could go away and you'd lose access to transcripts at that point, but ACE could disappear someday too. I'm not sure how much of a problem it is if you're intending to complete a degree using those credits in the near term. Once they are on your college transcript and applied towards a degree, you're pretty much good to go if that degree is your ultimate goal.

Of course, if you're planning to jump into a grad school program or something and they want to see the original transcripts, you might have a problem if the original provider is no longer around. But that happens with colleges too, so such things can be explained. In such a case, they may just accept the final transcript from the college that issued your degree. You might also be able to partially get around that by getting a personal (unofficial) copy of your transcript from each NCCRS provider and keeping them archived for just such a case.

Either way, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me. But, I agree it would be far more convenient if NCCRS had its own credit banking and transcript service like ACE. I also agree that it may help improve their recognition and acceptance. At that point, you'd only need to worry about them disappearing eventually.