PLA Costs Question

[schristian10]

I see on TESU's site that there is an assessment fee for up to 12 PLA credits per semester and another fee for 6 additional PLA credits within the same semester. Maybe to be able resubmit part of a portfolio that didn't previously qualify, based on the feedback from the first round.

Noobie question- is TESU's semester equivalent to 2 three-month terms? thank you

As for the costs of the PLA credits, are there any further costs after the portfolio assessment? Such as paying for credits based on the regular tuition rate of $519/credit? Thanks again.

[rachel83az]

There is no additional fee after the portfolio assessment, but it's usually much faster, cheaper and easier to get your credits from places like Study.com instead of doing the PLA.

[jch]

There is no additional fee after the portfolio assessment, but it's usually much faster, cheaper and easier to get your credits from places like Study.com instead of doing the PLA.

I strongly endorse this view. I just finished PLA-200 as part of my plan to complete a handful of my cybersecurity degree requirements via PLA. Out of the ~200 total credits I've earned so far, these two were amongst the most difficult and stressful. Portfolio development is a hard way to earn credits. I now have a strong leaning narrative outline for one target course, but a lot of work remains to write the full thing. I'm not thrilled about the prospect of developing five more portfolios after this one. The process requires a substantial amount of work to document and support everything. Also, students pursuing PLA must provide evidence comprehensively covering all listed outcomes for the targeted course. Bottom line, PLA typically should only be considered as a last resort. ANY other option to earn the credit will likely be much easier and faster. Unfortunately, my program has limited alt-credit possibilities.

[ROYISAGIRL]

Am I the only one that likes doing PLA? I'd honestly do a portfolio over alot of courses at SDC (don't get me wrong I love them), but I love writing, so it wasn't that bad doing them. I will say only look at PLA for hard to find courses. If there's an exam or something else for do that instead.

[jch]

Am I the only one that likes doing PLA? I'd honestly do a portfolio over alot of courses at SDC (don't get me wrong I love them), but I love writing, so it wasn't that bad doing them. I will say only look at PLA for hard to find courses. If there's an exam or something else for do that instead.

Love/hatred of writing does play a huge role in this. Portfolios are essentially one huge writing project attempting to cover an entire college course. Although I can write well, it isn't something I find particularly easy or enjoyable. Expressing prior knowledge and relating it to college courses in a way acceptable to TESU also has a significant learning curve. Thus, PLA is challenging but doable for me. After I have the hang of things, I expect my future portfolios to go much smoother than the one I'm working on now.  

A few other points that I just sent someone in a PM: 
Portfolio development (and PLA-200) is hard because you must identify, articulate, and prove your proficiencies as they relate to a college course. If there is no other reasonable way to earn the credits you need (even via some community college), and you are pretty sure that you can assemble a portfolio asserting your knowledge in that area, PLA could work.
You don't HAVE to take PLA-100, but I recommend considering it. It really helps to introduce you to core prior learning assessment concepts. That entire course can be completed in 1-2 days, and I actually took both PLA courses in 2021JUL. During PLA-200, you do much of the work to develop your first portfolio. 
You can review the old open course versions of PLA-100 and PLA-200 here to get a sense of the content.

[ROYISAGIRL]

Interesting, I guess for me once I figured out how TESU liked portfolios, definitely blew through them. I don't really like taking classes if I have any prior knowledge, it feels like a waste of time. I took PLA 100 because it would count towards residency and PLA 200 was an interesting experience, I used none of what I learned to do my portfolio .

[rachel83az]

Interesting, I guess for me once I figured out how TESU liked portfolios, definitely blew through them. I don't really like taking classes if I have any prior knowledge, it feels like a waste of time. I took PLA 100 because it would count towards residency and PLA 200 was an interesting experience, I used none of what I learned to do my portfolio .

I suppose it depends on what courses you need. If you have prior knowledge, an SDC course can be finished in a couple of days. Usually, with very minimal writing involved. It's going to be faster for most people than writing what amounts to a gigantic essay about what they know. Coopersmith and Davar are even easier if you have prior knowledge. Just glance through the provided materials to refresh your knowledge and then take the exam.

If you need courses that are only offered at other colleges and universities, then PLA can be faster and cheaper.

[bjcheung77]

PLA is highly recommend for upper level courses that are hard to find or can't be had for cheap through alternative credit sources, other than that, they're pretty expensive compared to say ACE/NCCRS offerings from Davar/Sophia.org, etc. If you're into documenting/writing about your experience or experimental learning, then PLA will work wonders for those hard to get upper level credits and also hit some of the "RA" requirements.

[schristian10]

There is no additional fee after the portfolio assessment, but it's usually much faster, cheaper and easier to get your credits from places like Study.com instead of doing the PLA.

As far as cheaper goes, if 12 PLA credits were earned at $389, would that be $32.42 per credit? Is that more expensive? I'm still too new.

---

There is no additional fee after the portfolio assessment, but it's usually much faster, cheaper and easier to get your credits from places like Study.com instead of doing the PLA.

I strongly endorse this view. I just finished PLA-200 as part of my plan to complete a handful of my cybersecurity degree requirements via PLA. Out of the ~200 total credits I've earned so far, these two were amongst the most difficult and stressful. Portfolio development is a hard way to earn credits. I now have a strong leaning narrative outline for one target course, but a lot of work remains to write the full thing. I'm not thrilled about the prospect of developing five more portfolios after this one. The process requires a substantial amount of work to document and support everything. Also, students pursuing PLA must provide evidence comprehensively covering all listed outcomes for the targeted course. Bottom line, PLA typically should only be considered as a last resort. ANY other option to earn the credit will likely be much easier and faster. Unfortunately, my program has limited alt-credit possibilities.

Fast is my biggest priority, not because of an external requirement, but it just soothes the soul. When I looked at TESU's portfolio examples they seemed so simplistic that I thought I could complete them in a day each! My biggest hesitation then was that the provided examples were not realistic.

[rachel83az]

Yes, even $32/credit is overpriced when you can find the course elsewhere.

With Study.com, you can get a maximum of 15 credits in a month for $410. That's $27.33/credit. If you do 6 credits in a month, that's $33.33/credit. Only slightly more than PLAs and usually faster/easier.

Sophia is even cheaper. Even if you only get 4 classes (and it's usually possible to get much more), that's $79 for 12 credits or $6.58/credit. If you manage to do 6 classes, it's $4.39/credit.

For business classes, Davar is about $65 per class (if you include proctoring fees). That's $21/credit. For non-business classes, Davar is about $29/credit.

Coopersmith is $50 per credit, but they're just a single test and then you're done; so you're spending a little more money to save a lot of time.

Saylor is technically $8.33 per credit (though we don't generally recommend them) and OnlineDegree is $3 per credit (but they're only available to Americans).

CLEP exams can be $0 per credit through ModernStates, but they can take a while to study for. This is why we usually recommend Sophia instead of CLEPs. Sophia is faster and, once you factor in things like potentially having to take time off of work to take a CLEP exam, Sophia is actually cheaper because you don't have to schedule exams for Sophia.

For RA credit, you can get that for $50 per credit at Olivet Nazarene University or you can pay $66 at TEL Learning. TECEPs are $50/credit for LL or $75 for UL. We don't really recommend the UL TECEPs unless you know the material well, but that's a pretty good price for UL credits. TECEPs are also just one exam and then you're done.