Sophia Quality... Questionable?

[ShotoJuku]

Hello All -

Received a note about some nasty comments and such so please feel free to discuss but please play nice.

Thanks!

[Lacedonia4]

Hey everyone! It's been a long time since I've posted on the forums but I just can't help but bring this up. 

I was taking some Sophia courses to test them out during the free period and I couldn't believe how easy they are. I took Sociology in just a day (just over 2 hours) and that's one of the longer ones! 

The most disappointing thing to me was the practice final. It's only 25 questions long, open book and not proctored. They of course have that typing test to verify that it's you, but you could have 10 people in the room helping you, or you could type the sentence and walk away to have someone else take the test. Not to mention, just opening other tabs on your computer, which it didn't seem to specifically say not to do. Although I didn't do that because it seemed like cheating and I wasn't sure of the rules, and it was so stupid easy I didn't need to. I didn't even need to use the open book material they prompt you to check during the test. Additionally, I went through it as quickly as I could so I didn't read one line of text from the transcripts, I only went through and took the quizzes and milestones. I don't say this to brag - rather to point out that I think anyone would do just fine with that method. Especially on the final, since some of the questions were so blatantly obvious a 10 year old could answer them. 

I understand that people shouldn't cheat even if they won't get caught, but it all just seems a little ridiculous. I know it's nice to have courses that are easy - I'd be lying if I said I didn't always look for the easiest CLEP, DSST, Straighterline and Study.com courses to meet my requirements. But something that easy (and easy to cheat on) seems like it really lowers the integrity of what it means for a course to be ACE approved. 

I'm honestly pretty disappointed to see this. But I'm curious to hear other opinions on i

It is all subjective, I took lots of sophia courses and am very grateful, some courses were harder than others but, it all boils down to age, level of education, experience and what study rigor you are accustomed to. As one that was initially a foreign student, I found most courses in America very easy, including at brick and mortar colleges, the only obstacle in US when it comes to study is the cost of education but the way courses are structured they are not as hard as in Europe. I do prefer the American way, more relaxing, education should be fun. In Europe it is free but it is very hard. Back to sophia courses, the only course I found hard was algebra, while having studied philosophy in the past I found ethics courses easy. It is all subjective. I just do not get why some are upset now that the freebie is over. So what it is too easy, you are not obligated to choose them, you can look for harder courses if you like a challenge. But just because it is too easy for you, it doesn't detract the value nor makes it easier for others. And yes also brick and mortar colleges offer non proctored, open book finals.

[innen_oda]

As one that was initially a foreign student, I found most courses in America very easy, including at brick and mortar colleges, the only obstacle in US when it comes to study is the cost of education but the way courses are structured they are not as hard as in Europe. I do prefer the American way, more relaxing, education should be fun. In Europe it is free but it is very hard.

Wonder what the reaction to a post entitled 'American university quality . . . questionable?' would be, where those of us who have lived in multiple countries write a long post rubbishing US education. Lol.

I do generally agree that academic rigour in US education is perhaps a bit less than in other nations - but this is balanced by a higher focus on workplace skills (public speaking, presentations, prepping marketing and informational materials, and creating a professional portfolio). So the average American graduate might not be as knowledgeable, but they'll make a better employee.
Whether this is a good or bad thing will depend on your worldview - but I don't think US tertiary education is 'easier', as much as it is 'differently focussed'.

[Lacedonia4]

As one that was initially a foreign student, I found most courses in America very easy, including at brick and mortar colleges, the only obstacle in US when it comes to study is the cost of education but the way courses are structured they are not as hard as in Europe. I do prefer the American way, more relaxing, education should be fun. In Europe it is free but it is very hard.

Wonder what the reaction to a post entitled 'American university quality . . . questionable?' would be, where those of us who have lived in multiple countries write a long post rubbishing US education. Lol.

I do generally agree that academic rigour in US education is perhaps a bit less than in other nations - but this is balanced by a higher focus on workplace skills (public speaking, presentations, prepping marketing and informational materials, and creating a professional portfolio). So the average American graduate might not be as knowledgeable, but they'll make a better employee.
Whether this is a good or bad thing will depend on your worldview - but I don't think US tertiary education is 'easier', as much as it is 'differently focussed'.

By no means I meant the quality was bad, easy doesn't equal poor quality. It is definitely different and students have to retain a lot more for the finals, it is indeed more focused on knowledge than workplace skills. In some lyceums in Europe they stress a lot on foreign languages and philosophy and yes that makes it easier to tackle courses like Ancient Greek Philosophers and Ethics. Summer is not fun in some schools on the other side of the pond when your summer read is Plato's Symposium. And I am not biased towards US education, the only obstacle for me throughout these years has been the cost, and I am an American now and seriously dislike it when I hear the people back in Europe saying US education is not worth it.

[innen_oda]

By no means I meant the quality was bad, easy doesn't equal poor quality. It is definitely different and students have to retain a lot more for the finals, it is indeed more focused on knowledge than workplace skills. In some lyceums in Europe they stress a lot on foreign languages and philosophy and yes that makes it easier to tackle courses like Ancient Greek Philosophers and Ethics. Summer is not fun in some schools on the other side of the pond when your summer read is Plato's Symposium. And I am not biased towards US education, the only obstacle for me throughout these years has been the cost, and I am an American now and seriously dislike it when I hear the people back in Europe saying US education is not worth it.

I wasn't suggesting that you did say US education was poor quality - it was more just a reference to the title and original post of this entire thread, and how I suspect there'd be a bit more defensiveness if the subject was the USA and not Sophia.

Foreign language instruction does make more sense here - I can travel north barely one hour and be surrounded a language completely unrelated to my own, west one hour and be surrounded by another unrelated language to either of the two aforementioned ones, southeast three hours and be surrounded by yet another completely unrelated language, east or south three hours and not even be using the Latin alphabet - and English hasn't been included in any of those. In the US, I could travel 20 hours in any direction and still be surrounded by the same language. Understanding the history of Western civilisation and language makes much more sense in the birthplace of it. No point in teaching Latin in the US - you'd be better served by teaching marketing jargon, public speaking and business entrepreneurship.

Again, it's really about what you want out of tertiary education. If you want to be job-ready with plenty of networking, a high GPA, and be an all-rounder, US unis are perfect. If you want a more theoretical challenge in being taught how to think rather than what to think, with a very specific genre focus, alongside a so-so GPA and a shedload of studying, much of Europe and Oceania will serve.

The whole point of Gen Eds, which is what Sophia mostly offers, is to give the fundamentals of a range of subjects. Sophia courses aren't trying to provide an insurmountable challenge - they're an opportunity to ensure a good foundation for further focussed study. I'm not sure why OP would want to make 'Intro to' subjects harder, unless OP doesn't quite understand what the purpose of Gen Eds is.

[jsh1138]

It depends alot on what you're taking. Go try Visual Communications and tell me you did it in 2 hours

[rachel83az]

It depends alot on what you're taking. Go try Visual Communications and tell me you did it in 2 hours

Personally, I did do Visual Communications extremely quickly because I had some basic graphic design experience previously. Some of it was new to me but most of it was not. It was one of the faster ones I did (though I didn't actually time myself) because of that experience. I would guess 3 or 4 hours, tops, because (again) I had prior experience.

[ARhead]

You see JSH, you and I are in the midst of geniuses. Geniuses that are lightning fast at course completion, and signed up for this site long ago and spend a lot of time here, but still don't have a degree.

Strange that...

[wow]

... If you want to be job-ready with plenty of networking, a high GPA, and be an all-rounder, US unis are perfect. If you want a more theoretical challenge in being taught how to think rather than what to think, with a very specific genre focus, alongside a so-so GPA and a shedload of studying, much of Europe and Oceania will serve. ...

I've lived in both US and Europe, but think this characterization of U.S. higher education isn't quite accurate. The character of the education depends on the school and major. Someone going for a business or other vocational degree in a U.S. school will likely have the experience you describe. Someone attending a liberal arts college or majoring in an academic subject like physics or philosophy probably won't. Maybe the real difference is that, in the U.S., a single university will usually offer both "career-readiness" degrees and more academic ones. They'll have a department of engineering or business *and* a department of anthropology. In the parts of Europe where I lived, there are two entirely different systems in place for studying a vocational subject vs an academic one.

[rachel83az]

You see JSH, you and I are in the midst of geniuses. Geniuses that are lightning fast at course completion, and signed up for this site long ago and spend a lot of time here, but still don't have a degree.

Strange that...

Oh yeah, cuz nobody ever has issues with money. I had resigned myself to never actually getting a degree until Sophia made it possible. 

Seriously, I never claimed to be a genius. I've even admitted that I had issues with multiple courses. Is it really so hard to believe that someone might have prior experience that might allow them to get through a 9-challenge 3-milestone course quickly? Because that's what Visual Communications is; it's one of the shorter courses. 71 challenge questions. 96 milestone questions. At 2 minutes per question (because, again, I had prior knowledge and didn't need to read most of the text), that's just over 5 and a half hours. Did it take me more than 6 hours? Maybe. But I'm pretty sure that it did not. Seriously, it's a LL class. As has already been established, it's not supposed to take a super long time to finish such a class if you are familiar with the material.