Thomas Edison State University suspended indefinitely Shmoop courses

[jsh1138]

I got this from Shmoop today:

"Thanks for reaching out! We're working with Thomas Edison State University and the team at ACE to get this resolved as quickly as possible.

To give you a quick background on the issue: TESU identified a student who transferred an unusually high number of credits from Shmoop in a short amount of time, and they made the decision to pause their acceptance of Shmoop coursework while they look into the situation further. Please note that this temporary pause in accepting our courses only applies to TESU; no other institutions should be affected by this. "

in other words, one of you jerks doing 20 courses a week with all the tabs open during the tests has ruined it for everyone

[MSK9]

I got this from Shmoop today:

"Thanks for reaching out! We're working with Thomas Edison State University and the team at ACE to get this resolved as quickly as possible.

To give you a quick background on the issue: TESU identified a student who transferred an unusually high number of credits from Shmoop in a short amount of time, and they made the decision to pause their acceptance of Shmoop coursework while they look into the situation further. Please note that this temporary pause in accepting our courses only applies to TESU; no other institutions should be affected by this. "

in other words, one of you jerks doing 20 courses a week with all the tabs open during the tests has ruined it for everyone

I'll be the first one to admit I've done many Shmoop courses in a relatively short time, not that I feel any blame, because I don't, nor have I had any problems or notifications from TESU. All of my credits were accepted and my academic evaluation was completed.

I completed my first Shmoop course on 1/26 and completed my twentieth on 3/11. That said, I did not test with open tabs or word documents (though I'm not sure how much that would have helped given the "Shmoopiness" of some of the courses).

I was able to complete so many classes through hard work, sacrificing all of my free time to make it happen.

[Life Long Learning]

I got this from Shmoop today:

"Thanks for reaching out! We're working with Thomas Edison State University and the team at ACE to get this resolved as quickly as possible.

To give you a quick background on the issue: TESU identified a student who transferred an unusually high number of credits from Shmoop in a short amount of time, and they made the decision to pause their acceptance of Shmoop coursework while they look into the situation further. Please note that this temporary pause in accepting our courses only applies to TESU; no other institutions should be affected by this. "

in other words, one of you jerks doing 20 courses a week with all the tabs open during the tests has ruined it for everyone

I have never done a Shmoop.  Euro History does sound neat.

Is there no time limit on exams?  I would think searching would still take time?  Are the Shmoop exam questions the same exact word for word out of the text?  

One 3 SH course every two days for a total of 20 straight courses does seem UNIQUE!

[burbuja0512]

I will admit that I didn't read all of this thread, but I WAS TOO BUSY FREAKING OUT!!!!   Is it worth it to have DS and DH reconsider studying with TESU?  We didn't want to have them register w/TESU until the last minute to avoid paying extra, so they're not enrolled.  We were considering using quite a few of these credits to save money, but now who knows?   Should they go with COSC?

No idea on switching to COSC, but commenting on the other part.  There are no per-term fees for TESU, so you don't save money by waiting to enroll there.  As a matter of fact, you're much better off enrolling sooner rather than later - you need to lock in your catalog ASAP.  So if you decide to go with TESU, apply NOW and set yourself up to take a TECEP sooner rather than later.

WOW... I had no idea that I didn't know this after so many years here.   I remember needing to time out my COSC enrollment carefully to not overspend, but that was 2011, just barely after they implemented a capstone, but before the cornerstone, so I don't remember much!

Thanks!!!

[MSK9]

I have never done a Shmoop.  Euro History does sound neat.

Is there no time limit on exams?  I would think searching would still take time?  Are the Shmoop exam questions the same exact word for word out of the text?  

One 3 SH course every two days for a total of 20 straight courses does seem UNIQUE!

Regular quizzes have 60 minute timers and final exams have 120 minutes. Some of the questions on the final are the same as the quizzes but I think it pulls from a large test bank and there's no guarantee. Each exam has comes with one retake opportunity, including the final. I had a few problems with Shmoop: 1.) Sometimes questions were not proofread and you would end up with questions that were either a copy of one of the answer choices, or had no question at all. 2.) Occasionally test questions would repeat in the same test. 3.) Some questions would reference outside-source articles which could not be accessed due to dead links. 4.) Some questions were worded unclearly, all problems I informed Shmoop about through their feedback form.

If I had to guess, I'd say I averaged eight to ten hours of Shmoop per day to complete that many courses in that short of time. On weekends (I'm off every weekend but have four days off bi-weekly), I spent all day and all night doing Shmoop work.

[jsh1138]

I got this from Shmoop today:

"Thanks for reaching out! We're working with Thomas Edison State University and the team at ACE to get this resolved as quickly as possible.

To give you a quick background on the issue: TESU identified a student who transferred an unusually high number of credits from Shmoop in a short amount of time, and they made the decision to pause their acceptance of Shmoop coursework while they look into the situation further. Please note that this temporary pause in accepting our courses only applies to TESU; no other institutions should be affected by this. "

in other words, one of you jerks doing 20 courses a week with all the tabs open during the tests has ruined it for everyone

I'll be the first one to admit I've done many Shmoop courses in a relatively short time, not that I feel any blame, because I don't, nor have I had any problems or notifications from TESU. All of my credits were accepted and my academic evaluation was completed.

I completed my first Shmoop course on 1/26 and completed my twentieth on 3/11. That said, I did not test with open tabs or word documents (though I'm not sure how much that would have helped given the "Shmoopiness" of some of the courses).

I was able to complete so many classes through hard work, sacrificing all of my free time to make it happen.

Nothing wrong with grinding them out but we had a discussion here awhile back where multiple people were suggesting that students just do all the tests with every course tab open so you could basically complete them without reading any of it at all

I bet money that someone did something absurd like 60 credits in a week and TESU is calling them on it

[High_Order1]

I honestly wasn’t even aware that you could pre-approve non tesu courses to be pending on your eval. That’s an awesome tool though. I’ll deff let people know in the future to get a whole eval pre-approved to make life easier. I just used this forum to guess what classes would transfer into tesu as which worked well for me but this is a great example of what can go wrong.

I make that recommendation every opportunity I get. I always got my external credits preapproved. For that matter, I even got future TESU courses and TECEPs planned in, just for the extra peace of mind.

I got burned not once, but I think... twice. I know one was a course for doing credit by portfolio; I forget what the other was. There are a dozen courses I could take towards a Masters right now; but I'm not (potentially) wasting a second until they lock in whereever I land. If it means I miss an excellent opportunity... o well

[Life Long Learning]

I have never done a Shmoop.  Euro History does sound neat.

Is there no time limit on exams?  I would think searching would still take time?  Are the Shmoop exam questions the same exact word for word out of the text?  

One 3 SH course every two days for a total of 20 straight courses does seem UNIQUE!

Regular quizzes have 60 minute timers and final exams have 120 minutes. Some of the questions on the final are the same as the quizzes but I think it pulls from a large test bank and there's no guarantee. Each exam has comes with one retake opportunity, including the final. I had a few problems with Shmoop: 1.) Sometimes questions were not proofread and you would end up with questions that were either a copy of one of the answer choices, or had no question at all. 2.) Occasionally test questions would repeat in the same test. 3.) Some questions would reference outside-source articles which could not be accessed due to dead links. 4.) Some questions were worded unclearly, all problems I informed Shmoop about through their feedback form.

If I had to guess, I'd say I averaged eight to ten hours of Shmoop per day to complete that many courses in that short of time. On weekends (I'm off every weekend but have four days off bi-weekly), I spent all day and all night doing Shmoop work.

Thanks for the feedback.

If one worked Shooph 12 hours a day (3 SH = 48-hours minimum) it would take 80+ straight days.  8-10 hours a day would be 96-120 days with no days off.  I have done 16-hour days, but never for 80+ days.   I did the Excelsior College (1 SH = 16 hours) INL102 course in two days. I work so no way could I do 80-120+ days straight.

[MSK9]

Thanks for the feedback.

If one worked Shooph 12 hours a day (3 SH = 48-hours minimum) it would take 80+ straight days.  8-10 hours a day would be 96-120 days with no days off.  I have done 16-hour days, but never for 80+ days.   I did the Excelsior College (1 SH = 16 hours) INL102 course in two days. I work so no way could I do 80-120+ days straight.

The only problem I see is that your math doesn't factor in variables such as learning / material interpretation speeds (which have no standard of measurement that I'm aware of) and reading rates.

[Life Long Learning]

Thanks for the feedback.

If one worked Shooph 12 hours a day (3 SH = 48-hours minimum) it would take 80+ straight days.  8-10 hours a day would be 96-120 days with no days off.  I have done 16-hour days, but never for 80+ days.   I did the Excelsior College (1 SH = 16 hours) INL102 course in two days. I work so no way could I do 80-120+ days straight.

The only problem I see is that your math doesn't factor in variables such as learning / material interpretation speeds (which have no standard of measurement that I'm aware of) and reading rates.

I agree, but over 20 courses some will be fast and some slow and they will average out, unless cheating or just a rocket scientist. Maybe Shooph might need to have better QC.