Portfolio Assessments Do Not Count as Residency Credits for Per Credit Tuition Plan

[sanantone]

I just thought this should be made clear since there are dozens of older threads that say that credits earned from portfolio assessments will count toward the residency requirements for the Per Credit Tuition Plan. It was very confusing how TESC worded it. Marc Singer provided SweetSecret with clarification. This is what counts toward the residency requirement:

Students who select the Per Credit Tuition Plan with the intention of graduating from Thomas Edison State College have academic residency requirements of 12 credits for an associate degree and 24 credits for a bachelor's degree. Residency requirements are met by earning credits via Thomas Edison State College Online (OL), Guided Study (GS) or e-Pack (EP) courses, TECEP exams (TE) or Portfolio Assessment (PA).

Thomas Edison State College | Per Credit Tuition Plan

"Portfolio Assessment" should really be called "PLA Course." From p. 91 of the catalog, these are what the acronyms mean.

EP = e-Pack (12 Weeks)
GS = Guided Study (12 Weeks)
NU = Nursing Undergraduate (12 Weeks)
NG = Nursing Graduate (12 Weeks)
OL = Online (usually 12 Weeks)
PA = Single Course, 12-week PLA course
TE = TECEPÂ Examination
PF = Portfolio Assessment
(after completion of PLA-200)

http://www.tesc.edu/documents/College_Catalog.pdf

[Glen1]

I'm disappointed in this. I was hoping to complete 12 credits in this manner to complete a BSBA at TESC.

[ladylearner]

Thank you for this much needed clarification. I'm pretty sure I've read a few times (and probably said it myself, too) that the credits assessed would count toward the residency requirement. Thank you to you and SweetSecret for letting us know.


TESC would have been a great option for me if I had gone there earlier. I would have done TECEPS like English 101, etc.

[cookderosa]

I just thought this should be made clear since there are dozens of older threads that say that credits earned from portfolio assessments will count toward the residency requirements for the Per Credit Tuition Plan. It was very confusing how TESC worded it. Marc Singer provided SweetSecret with clarification. This is what counts toward the residency requirement:


Thomas Edison State College | Per Credit Tuition Plan

"Portfolio Assessment" should really be called "PLA Course." From p. 91 of the catalog, these are what the acronyms mean.

EP = e-Pack (12 Weeks)
GS = Guided Study (12 Weeks)
NU = Nursing Undergraduate (12 Weeks)
NG = Nursing Graduate (12 Weeks)
OL = Online (usually 12 Weeks)
PA = Single Course, 12-week PLA course
TE = TECEPÂ Examination
PF = Portfolio Assessment
(after completion of PLA-200)

http://www.tesc.edu/documents/College_Catalog.pdf

:Residency requirements are met by earning credits via Thomas Edison State College Online (OL), Guided Study (GS) or e-Pack (EP) courses, TECEP exams (TE) or Portfolio Assessment (PA)."

I must be dense today.....your title says they don't count, but the bold says it does....? I read this as PA DOES count...what am I missing?

[Prloko]

I just viewed the official catalog published on the website and on page 186 you can read the following (notice the PF at the end):

http://www.tesc.edu/documents/College_Catalog.pdf

Per Credit Tuition Plan

The Per Credit Tuition Plan enables students to register and pay for course tuition on a per credit basis directly after they apply and are accepted into a degree program. Students who select the Per Credit Tuition Plan with the intention of graduating from Thomas Edison State College have academic residency requirements of 12 credits for an associate degree and 24 credits for a bachelor’s degree. Residency requirements are metby earning credits via Thomas Edison State College Online (OL),Guided Study (GS) or e-Pack (EP) courses, TECEP exams (TE) or Portfolio Assessment (PF).

It begs the question, if the catalog states PF, and the table of acronyms distiguishes PA from PF, can't the argument be made that the advisor is misreading it and portfolio credit counts?

[sanantone]

:Residency requirements are met by earning credits via Thomas Edison State College Online (OL), Guided Study (GS) or e-Pack (EP) courses, TECEP exams (TE) or Portfolio Assessment (PA)."

I must be dense today.....your title says they don't count, but the bold says it does....? I read this as PA DOES count...what am I missing?

PA is not really the portfolio assessment; it's the PLA course.

I just viewed the official catalog published on the website and on page 186 you can read the following (notice the PF at the end):

http://www.tesc.edu/documents/College_Catalog.pdf

Per Credit Tuition Plan

The Per Credit Tuition Plan enables students to register and pay for course tuition on a per credit basis directly after they apply and are accepted into a degree program. Students who select the Per Credit Tuition Plan with the intention of graduating from Thomas Edison State College have academic residency requirements of 12 credits for an associate degree and 24 credits for a bachelor’s degree. Residency requirements are metby earning credits via Thomas Edison State College Online (OL),Guided Study (GS) or e-Pack (EP) courses, TECEP exams (TE) or Portfolio Assessment (PF).

It begs the question, if the catalog states PF, and the table of acronyms distiguishes PA from PF, can't the argument be made that the advisor is misreading it and portfolio credit counts?

That's an interesting find. I wonder if they really mean PF instead of PA. I've argued with TESC before about the catalog being different from the OSS evaluation tool, but they stood by what was put into the evaluation tool. It's like they don't even see the catalog as some kind of contract with the student. I'm going to bug Marc Singer about this to see what he says. Who else should I bug about this? Registrar? Bursar?

[ladylearner]

TESC really needs to be consistent with their language and train their advisement staff accordingly.

[SweetSecret]

I went over this with TESC numerous times. They'll let people on the PPC plan use the TESC PLA-100/PLA-200 courses for credits, but any portfolios generated can't be reviewed for credits. I'm just going to straight out say... I think this is dumb.

[cookderosa]

TESC really needs to be consistent with their language and train their advisement staff accordingly.

Yes, I think this is probably the bottom line lol.

[sanantone]

Earlier this week, the bursar informed me that PLA courses and credits earned from portfolio assessments count toward the residency requirement. Marc Singer just informed me that they changed the website to reflect that PA and PF courses count toward the residency requirement. So, pretty much all you have to worry about is dealing with Todd Siben's department and them finding someone who is qualified to review your portfolios.