Took 6 Sophia Learning Courses in 2 months and passed them all, listing my thoughts

[TwinMom]

I know with 100% certainty that there are 25 Study.com courses that are ACE-recommended that EC does not take.

Can you give me a couple of examples?

EC doesn't take ANY of the Study computer courses, Library Science, Forensic Science for examples.

[terryd5150]

It's foolish to think that the Big 3 aren't reviewing the feedback on this, and other forums, regarding course providers and course content.

ACE recommendations aren't a guarantee of credit; those decisions are left to the schools themselves to make.

There are numerous examples at each of the Big 3 where specific ACE-recommended courses, or providers, aren't accepted for credit.

Threads like this are a strong contributor to the reason why.

Essentially, these types of threads are just ego driven diatribes: "Look at me! Look at how SMART I am! "

No one cares what some random person on the internet thinks of their own intellectual prowess; particularly when the net impact will be that the specific course, or providers, will no longer be accepted towards degree plan credit.

[jsh1138]

You guys who don't believe the credit for this stuff can and will get pulled just weren't here at other times it was pulled for other providers. Some of us were and we're trying to tell you. Shmoop is still ACE accredited RIGHT NOW. No one will take it. You can't force a college to take any credit they don't want to take. They can put a course on your transcript and pull it before they award you a degree if they change their minds about it. That happened to me with one course at TESU. It can happen to you too.

Sophia is already on thin ice because them making their courses free makes them look like they aren't worth having. No proctoring is an issue too. Keep laughing about how you did 20 Sophia courses in a weekend and see what it gets you though.

[Clepking100]

You guys who don't believe the credit for this stuff can and will get pulled just weren't here at other times it was pulled for other providers. Some of us were and we're trying to tell you. Shmoop is still ACE accredited RIGHT NOW. No one will take it. You can't force a college to take any credit they don't want to take. They can put a course on your transcript and pull it before they award you a degree if they change their minds about it. That happened to me with one course at TESU. It can happen to you too.

Sophia is already on thin ice because them making their courses free makes them look like they aren't worth having. No proctoring is an issue too. Keep laughing about how you did 20 Sophia courses in a weekend and see what it gets you though.

Hahaha shmoop

[indigoshuffle]

To clarify, I really did 5 of the courses within only a week, so it is relatively easy to do if you have the time. It was a serious grind, but all the credits transferred as I passed all the courses. The one that took me the longest was Fundamentals of English Composition, I started it in March but didn't get around to it until late April/May. Fundamentals of English Composition is a relatively easy elective to take, and I recommend it. It's a solid English review and only has 2 touchstones; an essay and the other is to write two paragraphs. Mind you, I had already completed all the normal English courses I needed in college (4 in total) so this class was basically a nice little review for me. Easy credit if you are good at writing papers, essay did not take long at all.

In terms of the classes that were easy I would say the Design course or Religion course are pretty easy. They only took me a few hours to do and the content is pretty simple to understand. The religion course requires a lot of reading in between the lines and the "find" function on Google Chrome is a saving grace. I would say the harder/hardest classes I took were Intro to Business and US History 2. I did not like the milestones much at all for those courses, they were not very clear and even reading the text didn't help me much. US History 2 I would say is the hardest, but due to the milestone questions. I felt like a lot of them were ridiculous, and example is like: "Below are statements that could have been said by this group, which one is unlikely", however, some of the statements could easily have been said by the group in question. Just not my type of questions I guess, but also the reading had so much content. Also, I felt like the US History 2 course did not look at things at an objective way, but rather in a political way. It was sort of weird, almost feels like it takes away credibility.

Tl;dr

List of hardest to easiest classes (for me)

1. US History 2
2. Intro to Business
3. Information Technology Course
4. Fundamentals in English Composition
5. Comparative Religion
6. Visual Communications

Jackass

---

Omg, I'm also going through US History II and I'm finding the questions to be ridiculous. Ugh. I flew through Ethics and Sociology in just a few hours and I'm speeding along in Human Bio, Project Management and Intro to Business.

But that USH course.... ugh.

Jackass

[Tedium]

You guys who don't believe the credit for this stuff can and will get pulled just weren't here at other times it was pulled for other providers. Some of us were and we're trying to tell you. Shmoop is still ACE accredited RIGHT NOW. No one will take it. You can't force a college to take any credit they don't want to take. They can put a course on your transcript and pull it before they award you a degree if they change their minds about it. That happened to me with one course at TESU. It can happen to you too.

Sophia is already on thin ice because them making their courses free makes them look like they aren't worth having. No proctoring is an issue too. Keep laughing about how you did 20 Sophia courses in a weekend and see what it gets you though.

This.

You guys are getting an ego boost at the expense of everyone that comes behind you, including me. Just get your credits and your degree and shut up with OPs like this. It’s insanity and stupid to boot. Pure and simple.

@LongRoad - Subjective vs objective evidence doesn’t matter nearly as much as perception. Posts like this give a very bad perception to schools, employers, and content providers. Frightening or not, that’s the way things are. When people make certain options look bad it doesn’t make a bit of difference if you could objectively say that not everyone had the same experience. 

Why is this so hard for people here to grasp?

[innen_oda]

In terms of the classes that were easy I would say the Design course or Religion course are pretty easy. They only took me a few hours to do and the content is pretty simple to understand.

I've done the Religion course too. Like almost all courses - ACE, RA, non-credit - it's possible to whizz through it in record time, pass the courses, and learn absolutely nothing.

This is a pity, because Sophia has such wonderfully designed courses, great videos and PDFs, with the challenge parts reinforcing the core concepts so you enter the milestones well-prepared. They find a pretty efficient way to pack a lot of information onto your brain in a manner that is remarkably painless (the US History courses excepted). With every Sophia course, I've finished it surprised at just how much I've learnt.

But this might be because my goal is to learn inexpensively, at my own convenience - rather than whizzing through simply for the credit.

I don't think this attitude, where some are focussed only on the credential and not the learning process as well, is unavoidable. Anyone who's done conventional university learning knows that fellow student who barely attended lectures (you see him the first class, and then again during the final) and studied only to get the minimum passing grade, and finishes an entire degree still completely uninformed. In fact, it's not only learning - everywhere, people are trying to take shortcuts and do only the bare minimum to get the credit and accolades. I'm sure we've all worked with people like this, and they're a pain.

Like I said, I too took Sophia's Religion course. I'm glad I spent time on it: I got to learn about a topic I might not have otherwise read about, I got to do so around my work-life and other life obligations, it was affordable - and I got ACE credit for it, which I can use towards a degree.

Learning is what you make of it. If someone wants to do only the bare minimum and then thinks that's something to be proud of, I say go for it. It's a lot easier for me not to hire you or to network with you, if you proudly announce how little you do.

Education should, ultimately, be about the maximum a hard worker can get out of it, not the mimimum a dodgy student can get away with.
I would think less of any institution that said 'these might be great courses, but some people aren't trying hard enough, therefore no one can have it. Here, have some middle-of-the-road options instead.'

These posts reflect badly on the individual poster, not the institution. I would hope any proper university would recognise that.

[Tedium]

That opinion would make a lot more sense if people were only hurting themselves with this nonsense, but they are taking everyone else down with them.

They should not “go for it”. They should not post this ignorant trash in the first place.

[innen_oda]

That opinion would make a lot more sense if people were only hurting themselves with this nonsense, but they are taking everyone else down with them.

They should not “go for it”. They should not post this ignorant trash in the first place.

I guess that will depend what your end goal is. If you simply want the behaviour hidden (because it's still going to happen), then yes, you are right, they should keep their experiences to themselves so as not to prevent other lazy students from doing only the bare minimum.

[NoStudentNoCry]

Why is this so hard for people here to grasp?

because some ppl are just ignorant