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

[rachel83az]

I guess I don't understand at all what your point is. TESU won't have any idea whether students took a given course from TEL Learning or Mid-America Christian University. We know exactly what a given course will transcript as because the partner institutions and TEL have been nice enough to tell us. They transcript as RA credits. Period. The end.

We don't know precisely what course numbers TESU will give them when they are transferred in but that doesn't mean that they won't transfer. There is every reason to assume that, for instance, the English Comp courses will transcript as ENC-101 and ENC-102 just the same as Sophia courses do. The difference is that these will be RA credits and Sophia is not.

[BrianFallon]

I guess I don't understand at all what your point is. TESU won't have any idea whether students took a given course from TEL Learning or Mid-America Christian University. We know exactly what a given course will transcript as because the partner institutions and TEL have been nice enough to tell us. They transcript as RA credits. Period. The end.

We don't know precisely what course numbers TESU will give them when they are transferred in but that doesn't mean that they won't transfer. There is every reason to assume that, for instance, the English Comp courses will transcript as ENC-101 and ENC-102 just the same as Sophia courses do. The difference is that these will be RA credits and Sophia is not.

It’s obscuring the true source of the credit which is credit laundering. TESU does not grant credit for TEL Courses. To me, it is the logical equivalent of taking a Shmoop class, having it transcripted and trying to pass it off as RA because some school somewhere put it on a tranacriptz. The partners are granting credit based on their assessment of an equivalent - the TEL courses have different numbers than their on campus or own online offerings - offerings that are far pricier.

I’d be curious to see how the TEL to partner school to TESU route works out for someone.

I hope I’m wrong but I suspect TESU will catch on quick. But, it’s not my money or time...



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[rachel83az]

I think you're fundamentally misunderstanding just how TEL Learning works and why it works the way it does. It's NOT credit laundering because the schools are granting credit for the EXACT SAME materials that they use for their own students. You're just paying $200 per course instead of $700+ per credit hour.

Arizona State University courses are something like $560-661 per credit hour. But you can take their EA courses using the edX software for $425 each. That's not credit laundering either.

[MNomadic]

I think you're fundamentally misunderstanding just how TEL Learning works and why it works the way it does. It's NOT credit laundering because the schools are granting credit for the EXACT SAME materials that they use for their own students. You're just paying $200 per course instead of $700+ per credit hour.

Arizona State University courses are something like $560-661 per credit hour. But you can take their EA courses using the edX software for $425 each. That's not credit laundering either.

More on the ASU(EA) to aleks comparison: it would be like saying because a college course uses the same textbook as a straighterline course, it's credit laundering. Mcgraw hill creates many textbooks and other course materials for college courses but also uses those materials for some straighterline courses. Just because the same materials or software is used for an alt credit course as an RA college course doesn't mean the RA course isn't legit.

[innen_oda]

But, it’s not my money or time...

Not so sure about that one, mate. You've spent a fair amount of time investigating this and posting here, which - given that I suspect you already have your undergrad and have no need for TEL - seems a bit strange. So I guess it is your time. Not sure what your ROI is, however.

Ultimately, one could use your 'logic' and argue that TESU is in itself degree laundering, because here you're taking courses from SDC, which is just some random outfit that isn't even a qualified degree-granting university or college, and then putting them through TESU to try to pass it off as a TESU degree.

Some people only took 3 or 6 credits at TESU - claiming they have a TESU degree is obscuring the TRUE source of their education!

You should stop this scourge!

[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/

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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So - the fourth (last) digit of the course no. is the number of credits awarded, right? Thanks...

[LevelUP]

Took me 5 min to go through each module of U.S. History 2 so that would be only 2 hours for all the modules. 

If you download the pdfs, read only the bold print and lists, then use the answer key you can speed through these courses if you have some experience.

I would estimate 1-2 hours for each paper, so around 10 hours to do an entire course if you accelerate.

[dfrecore]

So I think I've figured out how the "credit laundering" of TEL works (and it's probably similar at Westcott/Brandman, Outlier/UofPittsburg, etc.): these universities all actually use these exact courses at their schools. So if you take the course at Greenville University for example, you're actually taking the same exact TEL course. Greenville bought/leased it from TEL as is. So there's some sort of agreement between them that TEL can sell the course to students, and Greenville will give credit.

There are schools that are creating online platforms, and it's much easier to go out and buy/lease pre-made, well-done content for their schools than to recreate them from scratch - no reinventing the wheel. So I predict that this will be more prevalent in the years to come. Word will get out that XYZ company has excellent math courses, and boom, a bunch of schools will start to use those courses for their online offerings, thereby making their online presence more robust then they would have been if they'd had to create the math courses themselves.

So, all of this to say that if you take a TEL course for example, you will get a transcript from a partner school, showing the course as having taken it from them directly because once you purchase the course, you switch over to the school itself from that point forward. My daughter just bought a course from TEL, once we purchased it, we then registered her at the school, and all communication going forward is from the school, not TEL. She's subject to the school's policies of grading, drop deadline, etc. (if she drops prior to the W date, it's just gone and she gets a refund; if she drops within the next deadline, she'll have a W on her transcript; if she drops after that, she'll get an F). She is taking this course AT THE COLLEGE SHE CHOSE AS THE PARTNER SCHOOL.

[innen_oda]

So I predict that this will be more prevalent in the years to come. Word will get out that XYZ company has excellent math courses, and boom, a bunch of schools will start to use those courses for their online offerings, thereby making their online presence more robust then they would have been if they'd had to create the math courses themselves.

This makes sense - with the inevitable recession/depression we'll soon be in, AND with many students possibly choosing more distance coursework from now on, schools will be scrambling to find a way to cut costs AND move to having ongoing distance learning - it makes sense to contract out that work to an outfit that already has an online course ready to go, and can offer it for a lower cost.
I'd say your prediction is entirely accurate.

Which TEL course is your daughter taking? Would be great to hear some feedback on how she's finding the TEL setup and structure!

[StoicJ]

dfrecore, thanks for providing such a detailed explanation of TEL!