TESU for a BALS with no concentration

[javabeanstudio]

After some dithering I have settled on attending TESU for a BALS with no concentration.
After transferring my AAS credits and completing a number of Sophia courses this is what I have left to complete.

SOS-110 Critical Information Literacy will take at Thomas Edison State University
LIB-495 Liberal Arts Capstone Course will take at Thomas Edison State University
3 credits Civic Engagement and Awareness 
15 credits Liberal Studies (UL)
5 credits Electives (LL)

My goal is to take 16 credits at TESU. 
I would appreciate suggestions on how best to handle the remaining credits.
What would make sense to take at TESU and what would be better taken at Sophia/SDC/etc.?

My advisor suggested SDC Political Science 103: Comparative Politics for the Civic Engagement and Awareness 3 credits. Is this the best choice?

My advisor also suggested SDC Business 324: Managerial Communication and Business 313: Organizational Communication. However, I think she only suggested these because she said she knew off the top of her head that these would transfer in as UL credits. I would love some suggestions on what SDC/SL/etc. UL credits would be easiest/fastest to fulfill at least 6SH for UL classes.

I would like suggestions on UL classes would be easiest/fastest to take at TESU? I have seen people talking about classes like BIO 310: Biology and Behavior of Dogs and English 393: One Writer's Vision: Jane Austen and LIB-320 The Music of War & Peace and COM-339 The Story of Human Language as being pretty easy/fast to get through. Any first hand experience or other suggestions?

Not sure what to do about the 5 LL credits I need. Do I take 2 more Sophia LL classes which would more than cover the 5 LL elective credits? Would that screw up my 16 TESU credits?

Also, I am considering the Google UX Design professional certificate. It is something I am interested in learning as an artist. Has anyone completed this? Level of difficulty and time to completion? How does that transfer processes to TESU work and what does this transfer as (UL vs LL)? 


AAS = 58 credits transferred
Sophia classes completed = 27 credits completed (not yet transferred to TESU)
Public Speaking
Conflict Resolution
Environmental Science
Financial Accounting
Introduction to Ethics
Introduction to Statistics
Macroeconomics
Microeconomics
U.S. History I

[rachel83az]

It sounds like you actually have a competent advisor! Congrats!

Does that mean you're fully enrolled? If so, I would transfer in the current Sophia credits ASAP to make sure they're going where you expect.

I think that the comparative politics course at SDC is the only one there currently that will meet the civic engagement requirement. You could also try POLSC201: Intro to Western Political Thought or POLSC221: Introduction to Comparative Politics from Saylor. Any of these should work. I would take the practice exam for both Saylor courses. If you can get a grade of 80-90% or more without studying, I'd say go with that one. Otherwise, SDC may well be easier. Definitely check out the wiki page here if you haven't already: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ts_Roadmap

Sophia is a good option for LL credit, but you need to be mindful of the limit of 100-level courses allowed in the AOS (6 credits, I believe). Assuming you still have a subscription, I would suggest Visual Communication and maybe Ancient Greek Philosophers as 200-level courses that would apply to Liberal Studies. https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/So...lency_List

There is no penalty for going over the required number of credits. It's not uncommon to graduate with 121 or 122 credits because of how things shake themselves out. So, no, getting 2 more Sophia courses won't have any effect on the 16 credits from TESU. All TESU cares about is whether or not you have taken 16 or more credits from them. PLA-100 may go to the unused portion of your credits, but that doesn't matter at all.

For UL courses, easiest/fastest is going to depend on you. For instance, if you like History, you could give CIS Testing a try. They have 2 UL History courses. I think these are just exams, no assignments. You'd need to get them pre-planned to confirm that they'll come in as UL courses at TESU. https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/CIS_Testing Otherwise, check out this page on the wiki for UL suggestions: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...egree_Plan

For suggested courses to take at TESU, check out https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Th...University There is a link to a review of COM-339 there.

[javabeanstudio]

It sounds like you actually have a competent advisor! Congrats!

Does that mean you're fully enrolled? If so, I would transfer in the current Sophia credits ASAP to make sure they're going where you expect.

I think that the comparative politics course at SDC is the only one there currently that will meet the civic engagement requirement. You could also try POLSC201: Intro to Western Political Thought or POLSC221: Introduction to Comparative Politics from Saylor. Any of these should work. I would take the practice exam for both Saylor courses. If you can get a grade of 80-90% or more without studying, I'd say go with that one. Otherwise, SDC may well be easier. Definitely check out the wiki page here if you haven't already: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ts_Roadmap

Sophia is a good option for LL credit, but you need to be mindful of the limit of 100-level courses allowed in the AOS (6 credits, I believe). Assuming you still have a subscription, I would suggest Visual Communication and maybe Ancient Greek Philosophers as 200-level courses that would apply to Liberal Studies. https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/So...lency_List

There is no penalty for going over the required number of credits. It's not uncommon to graduate with 121 or 122 credits because of how things shake themselves out. So, no, getting 2 more Sophia courses won't have any effect on the 16 credits from TESU. All TESU cares about is whether or not you have taken 16 or more credits from them. PLA-100 may go to the unused portion of your credits, but that doesn't matter at all.

For UL courses, easiest/fastest is going to depend on you. For instance, if you like History, you could give CIS Testing a try. They have 2 UL History courses. I think these are just exams, no assignments. You'd need to get them pre-planned to confirm that they'll come in as UL courses at TESU. https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/CIS_Testing Otherwise, check out this page on the wiki for UL suggestions: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...egree_Plan

For suggested courses to take at TESU, check out https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Th...University There is a link to a review of COM-339 there.

I haven't enrolled yet but I'm planning on doing so in the next week. I will have my Sophia stuff transfer as soon as I enroll and see where I pan out. 

I'll take a look at the Saylor course for the politics Gen Ed.

For the UL courses I wish some of these had reviews - I would love to know what people felt about the work load and the structure of the courses. I will keep looking though.

To be clear...
Under Liberal Studies Part A I still need 15 UL credits.
Under Liberal Studies Part B I am completely done (my AAS credits transferred to fill all spaces). That is the section that you can only have 6 credits of 100 level classes.
Under Electives I still need 17 credits and I believe these can be anything at any level including 100 level. This is where I was hoping to use all Sophia courses to complete this. I already have 4 Sophia courses that are not used anywhere else that I hope will work as these open electives.

[AllThose299s]

Also, I am considering the Google UX Design professional certificate. It is something I am interested in learning as an artist. Has anyone completed this? Level of difficulty and time to completion? How does that transfer processes to TESU work and what does this transfer as (UL vs LL)? 

I thought I saw where someone completed all the Google certs really quick, but I can't remember who. I was about 1/4 done with the Google UX Design professional certificate but then found out that TESU transferred it as LL (see https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Coursera) so I'm focusing on other things right now.

As far as the amount of time it might take, I think it really depends on how much effort you put into some of the assignments.

I second the suggestion of Sophia's Visual Communication.

[bjcheung77]

You have so many options for UL through ACE/NCCRS providers, for the electives, stick with the Sophia.org option as the ones you're thinking of should work just fine there. I suggest looking at some other ACE/NCCRS options such as Coopersmith, Davar, LawShelf, Saylor.org as you don't have to stick with Study.com unless you really wanted to.

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Oh, another thing is you may want to copy/paste or screenshot your evaluation so we know what courses have been taken so we don't recommend the same ones for the lower level requirements. The UL should be fine, so if you want to take an easy UL English 305 at Study.com, you really need to do so before the end of the month as right now it only has 1 "easy" assignment, after this month, they'll add two extra "harder" ones.

[javabeanstudio]

Posting the evaluation.
Note: the advisor added some classes I haven't taken yet/haven't transferred yet - marked as PL.
I could swap these out for other ACE/NCCRS options.

I am looking for UL classes that will be fast/easy. I know that this depends on what I am familiar with/interested in but I'm an artist, so not sure what would be easy for me.  

I am open to any suggestions of things at TESU or ACE/NCCRS options that people felt were easy.

Also, I might as well take 2 more Sophia classes as I have the rest of this month. Any suggestions on easy ones I could do quickly and use as LL electives?

Sophia classes completed = 27 credits completed (not yet transferred to TESU)
Public Speaking
Conflict Resolution
Environmental Science
Financial Accounting
Introduction to Ethics
Introduction to Statistics
Macroeconomics
Microeconomics
U.S. History I

[carrythenothing]

Posting the evaluation.
Note: the advisor added some classes I haven't taken yet/haven't transferred yet - marked as PL.
I could swap these out for other ACE/NCCRS options.

I am looking for UL classes that will be fast/easy. I know that this depends on what I am familiar with/interested in but I'm an artist, so not sure what would be easy for me.  

I am open to any suggestions of things at TESU or ACE/NCCRS options that people felt were easy.

Also, I might as well take 2 more Sophia classes as I have the rest of this month. Any suggestions on easy ones I could do quickly and use as LL electives?

Sophia classes completed = 27 credits completed (not yet transferred to TESU)
Public Speaking
Conflict Resolution
Environmental Science
Financial Accounting
Introduction to Ethics
Introduction to Statistics
Macroeconomics
Microeconomics
U.S. History I

You didn't post your evaluation, so look at the Sophia equivalency list linked earlier and choose a few classes without touchstones that transfer into TESU without duplicating any credits from the AAS.

[javabeanstudio]

  TESU BA Javabeanstudio.pdf (Size: 1,006.53 KB / Downloads: 8)

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Posting the evaluation.
Note: the advisor added some classes I haven't taken yet/haven't transferred yet - marked as PL.
I could swap these out for other ACE/NCCRS options.

I am looking for UL classes that will be fast/easy. I know that this depends on what I am familiar with/interested in but I'm an artist, so not sure what would be easy for me.  

I am open to any suggestions of things at TESU or ACE/NCCRS options that people felt were easy.

Also, I might as well take 2 more Sophia classes as I have the rest of this month. Any suggestions on easy ones I could do quickly and use as LL electives?

Sophia classes completed = 27 credits completed (not yet transferred to TESU)
Public Speaking
Conflict Resolution
Environmental Science
Financial Accounting
Introduction to Ethics
Introduction to Statistics
Macroeconomics
Microeconomics
U.S. History I

You didn't post your evaluation, so look at the Sophia equivalency list linked earlier and choose a few classes without touchstones that transfer into TESU without duplicating any credits from the AAS.

Sorry screwed up uploading - the transfer info is up now.

[dfrecore]

If you have time on Sophia, you want to do the following:
ETHICS requirement - Ethics course obviously
SOCSCI requirement, I'd choose one of the Econ's (no touchstones)
ORAL COMM requirement - I'd prob not do Public Speaking although you can
FREE ELECTIVES:
1) Intro to IT is short and doesn't duplicate the computer course you already have
2) Developing Effective Teams (1cr)
3) The Essentials of Managing Conflict (1cr)
4) 4 course with no touchstones (Accounting, Principles of Finance, Project Management, Conflict Resolution, Ancient Greek Philosophers, Human Biology, Intro to Chemistry, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, US History I, US History II, Intro to Relational Databases, Intro to Web Development from what I can tell))
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For UL from Study.com, my advice is to choose based on 3 things:
1) length of course (number of quizzes) and number of assignments, which are available to look at once you are signed up
*and example is ENGL 305: Advanced Technical Writing which has 116 quizzes and 1 assignment, and ENG 301: Non-Western Literature which has 90 quizzes and 3 assignments - which one you might choose is entirely up to you as to which you prefer
2) interest (for instance, I have no interest in the UL computer courses, so even if they were shorter, I'd probably not choose them)
3) overlap. If you choose BUS 305: Leadership Communication, BUS 313: Organizational Communication, and BUS 324: Managerial Communication, there will probably be some overlap you can take advantage of. Same with BUS 310: Advanced Business Ethics and BUS 318: Management Ethics.

[rachel83az]

I'm not sure if I miscounted or what, but I think you should be able to take just 1 class of any kind from anywhere to fill the remaining free electives. If you don't have a current Sophia membership, I would recommend taking Turning Points in Modern History 15th Century to Present from OnlineDegree for $9. I found this one to be pretty quick, easy, and interesting. I can't speak for any of the other classes, but go ahead and take a look to see if anything else there catches your eye: https://www.onlinedegree.com/wp-content/...apping.pdf

For UL classes, Coopersmith courses are just a single exam. If you can deal with ProctorU (not everyone can), I would say those are going to be the easiest for you.

Davar has UL for the following: Managerial Communications, Business Ethics, Management Information Systems. Business Ethics comes in as a Philosophy class. MIS is a CIS class that can be used in Liberal Studies. All of them are just a single exam and Davar exams are reported to be relatively easy. You can choose ProctorU, like Coopersmith, or RPNow as a proctor. You can even get a local proctor approved with Davar. https://www.davaracademy.com/business.html

If you are fluent in any languages, taking an ACTFL (or two) would probably be the easiest way to earn UL credits. You haven't mentioned this, but I throw it out there just in case.

For Study.com options, this is going to depend on you. All UL SDC classes accepted by TESU have at least one assignment. Sometimes, multiple assignments. I would recommend considering the classes you took for your Associate degree. Are there any classes you particularly enjoyed or wouldn't mind learning more about? For example, I see you took a History course on The Holocaust. SDC has "History 311: The Holocaust & World War II" that you might be able to get through quickly because of your previous class. Did you like the writing in English Comp or did you hate it? You might like SDC's Non-Western Literature or Advanced Technical Writing.

Finally, we come to Saylor. Saylor is free, with the exam being $5. If you don't want to take the OnlineDegree course, they have a LL Art Appreciation course that you might like/find easy. Unfortunately, I don't think that any of the UL courses will work with a BALS degree. https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Saylor_Academy They're also not always the easiest, though they can be if you are already somewhat familiar with the material. If you do take anything without a known transfer equivalency, please let us know what TESU brings it in as.