TEL Learning - your new best friend (cheap RA credits)

[dfrecore]

With TESU's new policy (90cr max alternative credit, need 30cr RA to get a degree starting 1/1/20), and COSC having this requirement as well, I thought I'd give some info on TEL Learning.

First, they are $67/cr - not the very cheapest RA credits you can find (in-state as some schools will be less, I'm looking at you California) - but they are the cheapest self-paced RA credits you can find.

No UL, unfortunately, but with smart planning, you can use these for your GE and/or Free Electives to get those needed 24cr of RA at COSC and TESU; save your alt-credit for hard-to-find requirements and UL Core/AOS courses!

My DD18 (college freshman) has a long 6-week winter break, but the winter intercession courses are only 4 weeks long, they don't make use of the next 2 weeks she has off, and 1 week at the end (finals) overlaps with a vacation she's taking, so that's not an option for her. The self-paced format will work perfectly for her, since she'll have no other courses to take for the next 5 weeks. She does want to take Bio & Chem as recommended but not required pre-reqs to Intro to Anatomy & Physiology that she'll take next fall.  So she's going to take Bio starting next week, and Chem in the summer.

I've heard some good things about the format and content of a different TEL course, so I'm hoping the quality is good here as well. I'll report back as we go.

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Also, there are 4 partner schools you can use to transcribe the credits.  TEL has a page showing the course equivalencies for each school.  This is very important - you want a course to be called something that the receiving school will understand and give you credit where you think it should go easily, no need to fight about it. The only TEL course that won't work is the ENG1100: Intro to Reading & Writing which is deemed pre-English Comp I at all 4 schools. Don't take it.

Here's a breakdown of the issues at the 4 schools:

Mid-American Christian University (MACU)
PROS: It looks like you get 5cr for Latin - a bonus there!  Every course is named something that's an easy transfer to most schools, so it's probably going to be the best option for everyone.
CONS: PHY1103: Physical Sciences comes in as NATS2103: Environmental Science, which may or may not be an issue for some people.
This school gets top billing because it's the best option for the most number of people; it has every course; and the equivalencies are great.
This school is 1st on my list of 4

Lane College
PROS: All courses except the "cons" ones have good equivalencies
CONS: BIO1303: Intro to Biology comes in as BIO143: Biological Science for Education, which I don't love.  Latin, Chinese and Intro to IT aren't available here
This school is 2nd on my list of 4

Oklahoma Christian University
PROS: It looks like you get 4cr for Chinese, and 5cr for Latin - a bonus there!  All other courses except the "cons" ones have good equivalencies
CONS: ENG2303: Literature & Composition comes in as ENGL-2213: Perspectives in Literature rather than English Comp II, which may be a big issue for many.  HUM1103: Intro to Christianity isn't available.  And the 3 science courses all require you to do the lab before you can get credit; if you don't need a lab, this is an issue. 
This school is 3rd on my list of 4.

Greenville University
PROS: none
CONS: You're required to take both ENG1303: Language & Composition and ENG2303: Literature & Composition to get 3cr for ENGL105: Writing & Critical Inquiry - NO THANKS!  AND, they did not give course number for all of the courses; they seem to have just showed what area the course will work at THEIR school.
This school is 4th on my list of 4. Actually it doesn't even hit 4th - since there is no real reason to use this school, I wouldn't do it.

[innen_oda]

One of the questions I had was whether different courses can be transcripted at different partners. So if I wanted to take Latin at MACU, and Lit & Comp at OCU (for whatever reason) - could I do it? Or is it a one-time option?

In others words - is the transcription selection done course-by-course, or per account/student?

[dfrecore]

One of the questions I had was whether different courses can be transcripted at different partners. So if I wanted to take Latin at MACU, and Lit & Comp at OCU (for whatever reason) - could I do it? Or is it a one-time option?

In others words - is the transcription selection done course-by-course, or per account/student?

Course-by-course - you choose who you're going to get the transcript from when you register for a course.

The main reason I would see that you'd want to do this: Latin at MACU comes in at 5cr, Chinese at OCU comes in at 5cr.  Physical Science comes in as Environmental Science at MACU, if you've already taken EnviroSci somewhere else, you'll want it to come in as Physical Science at Lane.

Otherwise I'd do MACU for everything.

[rachel83az]

Thanks for writing this up. I guess now we'll have more people testing TEL Learning so we can know which courses are easiest and which are most difficult.

[Johann]

I
Mid-American Christian University (MACU)
PROS: It looks like you get 5cr for Latin - a bonus there!  Every course is named something that's an easy transfer to most schools, so it's probably going to be the best option for everyone.

Where do you see that 5 credits at MACU for Latin? On the course page, they only show 3 receiving schools for Latin. MACU isn't one. And also, everywhere I looked, they say 3 credits. Couldn't find any reference to 5 - anywhere. What am I missing?

https://www.tellearning.org/product/latn-2105-latin-i/

[ROYISAGIRL]

I
Mid-American Christian University (MACU)
PROS: It looks like you get 5cr for Latin - a bonus there!  Every course is named something that's an easy transfer to most schools, so it's probably going to be the best option for everyone.

Where do you see that 5 credits at MACU for Latin? On the course page, they only show 3 receiving schools for Latin. MACU isn't one. And also, everywhere I looked, they say 3 credits. Couldn't find any reference to 5 - anywhere. What am I missing?

https://www.tellearning.org/product/latn-2105-latin-i/

This may help if you click on a partner name and then equivalency you'll see the information dfrecore posted.

https://www.tellearning.org/partners/

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[LevelUP]

Someone should post a breakdown of how the grading is done at TEL Learning such as what percentages of the grade for quizzes, papers, midterm, final.

Nevermind, found it.

[SweetSecret]

Is TEL already on the DF wiki page? If not, it sounds like it needs to be.

[innen_oda]

Someone should post a breakdown of how the grading is done at TEL Learning such as what percentages of the grade for quizzes, peppers, midterm, final.

This is provided by TEL itself, in the syllabus for each course, directly on their website.

[LevelUP]

Someone should post a breakdown of how the grading is done at TEL Learning such as what percentages of the grade for quizzes, peppers, midterm, final.

This is provided by TEL itself, in the syllabus for each course, directly on their website.

ok, i found it.