Study.com contributing to TESU GPA??

[cookderosa]

I would like it to, but many people here make a sport of trying to do as poorly as possible and still pass so they can zip through the courses and it won't be popular with that crowd

I don't know if that's a fair assessment. We can't really layer in qualifiers above and beyond what the colleges require just because it makes us feel better. Why should I care if someone gets a 70 or a 100? Why should I care how hard they tried or what they learned? We're all here for the same thing doing the same thing. The rest is just bluster. Whatever the rules are, whatever they end up being next year or ten years from now, people will deal and move forward. If someone doesn't want grades, they won't use that brand.

[dfrecore]

I would like it to, but many people here make a sport of trying to do as poorly as possible and still pass so they can zip through the courses and it won't be popular with that crowd

I don't think people actually TRY to do poorly, that's an unfair assessment of what's going on.  If you take a CLEP and don't study at all, and pass, were you trying to do poorly?  Or just trying to do enough to pass the test?  That's what I did for 4 exams, because I'd been in the workforce for 10+ years and already knew a lot of the material.  Does only scoring a 50 on a CLEP mean you're not going to be an awesome employee?  I doubt it.  For Study.com, I read the lessons and then take the quizzes.  If I only get 4/5, I don't go back to try to score a 5 on every quiz.  Does that make me a slacker or a loser?  No, it just means that I don't think that last point is important enough to spend more time on, when I could be getting through the course more quickly - and I know it doesn't really matter because I don't get extra credits for scoring higher on the quizzes.  NOW, if I knew the course was graded, would I spend the time?  Of course I would.  Would I have learned more?  Not really.

Judging how much people learn, or what their motives are, from the outside is just impossible to do.  AND, it's completely unimportant to YOU how much I personally do (or don't do).  I would worry more about yourself and your own motives and less about what drives others, since it will have zero impact on your own life.  Some people REALLY like to pass judgement on others for some reason...

[Nixi]

Wow, I think it's great, would definitely take this up if I hadn't already graduated from TESU. It's cheaper than taking a TESU course to improve GPA, and beneficial too if you're planning on applying to graduate school. Those who want pass/fail would still have many other alternative course options.

[fork]

I voted no but on thinking about it I guess it might be a good thing. It does kind of suck that my GPA for my entire degree is going to depend on just 1 class, the capstone. No pressure there...

[eriehiker]

If this happens, maybe study.com courses will meet the 50 percent requirement for certificates? Maybe tuition waiver won't be needed? All hypothetical, but study.com was the TESU partner in the failed DOE test project.

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Maybe no 90 credit limit?

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It does seem like some kind of walled-garden approach is developing. The for-profits need non-profit university partners. These partnerships improve the balance sheets on both sides. Sophia, study.com and onlinedegree.com all follow the partnership approach. It would make sense to freeze out competitors or force them to negotiate agreements.

[a2jc4life]

... Especially since lots of people(myself included) really half ass the essays or skip them to just meet the minimum requirements for passing. ...

That doesn't actually sound like a positive if the goal is education.

Well, for some of us the goal -- of the specific course -- isn't education.  I know I'm appreciating the education I'm getting at school, but I'm equally appreciating all the time I'm not wasting on useless general ed or stuff I already know but didn't have a piece of paper to prove knowing.  And I guarantee it's the same at any brick-and-mortar school (that some people are taking some classes for the sake of passing what they have to have, more than for the sake of learning the material).

I'd rather spend the bulk of my actual focused learning efforts on things I have decided are important to learn.

[dfrecore]

I'd rather spend the bulk of my actual focused learning efforts on things I have decided are important to learn.

I AGREE!!!

[davewill]

Well, for some of us the goal -- of the specific course -- isn't education.  I know I'm appreciating the education I'm getting at school, but I'm equally appreciating all the time I'm not wasting on useless general ed or stuff I already know but didn't have a piece of paper to prove knowing.  And I guarantee it's the same at any brick-and-mortar school (that some people are taking some classes for the sake of passing what they have to have, more than for the sake of learning the material).

I'd rather spend the bulk of my actual focused learning efforts on things I have decided are important to learn.

I would like everyone who gets a degree from one of the Big3 to really do the work so that my degree isn't considered second rate. I suspect hiring managers would expect that, too.

[dfrecore]

I would like everyone who gets a degree from one of the Big3 to really do the work so that my degree isn't considered second rate. I suspect hiring managers would expect that, too.

I have been a hiring manager, and if a degree is required (usually by someone other than the hiring manager), it's almost always as a check-the-box type of thing (and it's gotten to be more so over the last 10-15 years).  I only care that someone can DO THE JOB, not that they took History 101 while getting the degree.

[a2jc4life]

Anyone who gets a passing grade on the course DID do the work, adequately to be considered legitimate. There are other things far more likely to "cheapen" a degree, like lax grading in actual classes that leads to average students/work getting A/B grades, and some of the ridiculously junk classes.

But to give you an example of what I mean when I say I'm not really concerned about learning the material...I am now having to take English 101 and 102 for essentially the third time. I already write well in English (notwithstanding my heavily informal writing in fora like this one), have gotten A's in previous iterations of these courses, and have been writing college-level papers for three years now with straight A's. But none of my prior English classes will transfer in, for various reasons. I have better things to do with my time than spend ages polishing up a paper so it's "A-worthy" when all I need is a C to pass a Straighterline class so I can get the blasted general ed requirement out of the way. I'm not "bypassing" any learning; I just already KNOW the material and don't feel the need to waste a lot of time on it.

The entire POINT, for most of us, of getting a good portion of a degree program done this way, is to not waste time and effort on things that aren't worth it.

On the other hand, in my ACTUAL college classes, I've had to deal with students whose writing is atrocious, who still can't figure out how to cite their references after three years in school, and who act like being asked to define "adverb" is rocket science. And these people are, by and large, not only passing, but getting good grades. That is a far greater threat to the integrity of college degrees than those of us who are doing the bare minimum to eke out C's on general ed to transfer in.