Sophia grading shenannigans

[warriortaupou]

My daughter never sees anyone online, either. My daughter submitted a request and it took several days before a reply. Today, she received two of her English Composition II papers back from grading and on one she said she received a 25/50, with "Style" at a zero. How do you score a 0 for style? She put alot of effort into it, I proofread her outline, and she followed the example they gave her. I was surprised she was given that score...she's thinking of dropping the course since the amount of work she put into it came out as a failing grade. I recommended Sophia to her based on the feedback on here, but I believe there are stylistic preferences. The grader left her a name, and she's a PhD, so I hope that grader/learning coach is looking at it appropriately.

[ss20ts]

I have seen the chat function on several days this week. I had not until this week. It's been during the regular business hours.

[rachel83az]

I did finally manage to catch them when they were online a few days back. They reset my touchstone, I resubmitted it, and got a good grade a couple of days ago. It's possible that Sophia has one nonsense grader for English comp. warriortaupou, did it look like a real name (first and last) or did it seem to be a pseudonym with only one name given? My initial failing touchstone was returned by someone who signed themself as simply Dr. [noun]. It's possible that it's a real name, but it sounded like the kind of name someone might make up to grade papers. Like if someone were to sign as Dr. Thesis.

[ctcarl]

"Professor Doctor Thesis" is the name of my Math Metal rock band.

[unfilteredsoul]

My initial failing touchstone was returned by someone who signed themself as simply Dr. [noun]. It's possible that it's a real name, but it sounded like the kind of name someone might make up to grade papers. Like if someone were to sign as Dr. Thesis.

I got a grade ZERO in English Composition I, it was graded by "Dr V."
Pretty shocking and demotivating.

[rachel83az]

I got a grade ZERO in English Composition I, it was graded by "Dr V."
Pretty shocking and demotivating.

I agree. It's very demotivating. It made me not want to continue with their English Composition II, but I think I'm going to do it anyway. I wonder how many students have given up on Sophia because of nonsense grading like that.

[monchevy]

I had the same issue with Public Speaking, discussed in another thread. Followed the rubric to the letter, and the grader (also a "Dr.") ripped it to shreds. The feedback made no sense. And I'm a professional writer, BTW. Nearly 40 years in my field.

I also found it to be demotivating to the point where I wanted to drop the class. But I submitted Touchstone 2 anyway. If she does the same to this one, I'm out.

[ss20ts]

I'm taking English Comp II the end of the month with Sophia. You're worrying me! LOL

[ctcarl]

I'm surprised to hear of the seemingly erratic grading of the enigmatic "Dr. V".

I'm currently helping to guide a relative through some Sophia courses.  As a result of what I've read here, I think I'll suggest sticking to courses without Touchstones for the remainder of the free promotion, and only working on courses like English Comp once they're back to business as usual.

I've taken both paid and free courses at Sophia.  While I never felt as though I was given "the bum's rush", I'd feel much more comfortable pitching a sharp complaint about overly harsh and capricious grading by a staffer who identifies themselves only as "Dr. V" if I were paying for the course.

With that said, I feel compelled to share a random screengrab from the staffer who graded two of my English Comp Touchstones.  She identified herself by her full name (I edited out her last name here), and FWIW, I found her comments to be succinct and on-point, and her grading consistently and eminently fair.  I loathe collegiate writing and I turned in what I considered to be a "solid C" Touchstone, for which she gave me a 77.

Hopefully once the promotion is over a week from now, we'll see more work from staffers like Shante R and less from Dr. V.

[monchevy]

I'm surprised to hear of the seemingly erratic grading of the enigmatic "Dr. V".

I'm currently helping to guide a relative through some Sophia courses.  As a result of what I've read here, I think I'll suggest sticking to courses without Touchstones for the remainder of the free promotion, and only working on courses like English Comp once they're back to business as usual.

I've taken both paid and free courses at Sophia.  While I never felt as though I was given "the bum's rush", I'd feel much more comfortable pitching a sharp complaint about overly harsh and capricious grading by a staffer who identifies themselves only as "Dr. V" if I were paying for the course.

With that said, I feel compelled to share a random screengrab from the staffer who graded two of my English Comp Touchstones.  She identified herself by her full name (I edited out her last name here), and FWIW, I found her comments to be succinct and on-point, and her grading consistently and eminently fair.  I loathe collegiate writing and I turned in what I considered to be a "solid C" Touchstone, for which she gave me a 77.

Hopefully once the promotion is over a week from now, we'll see more work from staffers like Shante R and less from Dr. V.

Yeah, despite my aggravation with the grading on this one, I tend to agree. These are likely woefully underpaid people working night and day trying to deal with the tidal wave of new students... bigger workload with no additional revenue means I doubt the graders saw an extra cent in their paychecks. If I don't make it through Public Speaking, I'll just pay to take it at a CC and hope for the best.

All I know is that without Sophia and CSMLearn, a degree wouldn't have been in the cards for me at all. I'm so grateful. What I'd love to see is some upper-level courses, because right now I can only manage an associate's. I'd be beyond happy to pay Sophia's full price for UL courses (still cheaper than colleges) so I could have a crack at a bachelor's. 

Saying that, I'd also love to see CSMLearn branch out into more ACE-recommended courses, because their adaptive learning courseware is pretty amazing. I learned things I never thought I could.