Udacity credits?

[hoffdeb]

Any experience with the Udacity courses? How is credit earned?

ACE CREDIT | The National Guide to College Credit for Workforce Training

Thanks.
Debbie

[KayV]

The short answer is, don't bother.

When ALEKS was temporarily unaccredited from ACE, I thought I would see how hard it would be to get the 2-hour Intro to Stats credit from Udacity, as listed on the ACE website. The class itself was fine- easier than ALEKS once you looked at their wiki for updates and revisions- but all I got at the end was a certificate. I sent repeated emails to ask how to get the credit on my ACE transcript, and after many days, they finally wrote back to say that they had no way of verifying my credit and thus could not offer anyone ACE credit at this time. So frustrating and disappointing. When I called ACE, they gave me the phone number they had on file from Udacity, which appears to be a nonworking number.

All that being said, the Intro to Stats class would be a good intro/ study resource for people who are prepping for ALEKS, SL, or DSST Stats, because it has a very friendly format. Just don't expect to get credit from it.

[sanantone]

I didn't realize Udacity got more courses ACE evaluated. This could be an excellent source of computer science credits. There has to be a way to receive ACE credits. I'm sure they had to identify the process when gaining ACE approval. The ACE National Guide usually explains the process of receiving credits such as what percentage you need to pass and if there is a proctored exam. I didn't see any of that for Udacity's courses.

[KayV]

I thought so too, but here is the answer I got from Udacity:

I followed up on another email you'd sent, but wanted to make sure we closed the loop on the various emails you sent. As I mentioned -- its really great to hear that you took our Intro to Statistics class and did so well on the assessments.

While that Stats course has been approved by ACE for credit recommendation, we unfortunately cannot approve this for the purposes of an ACE transcript at this time. Approving this course for your ACE transcript requires that you take a proctored final examination for credit and we are still in the process of implementing a proctored final exam for this course.

The reason a proctored exam is required by ACE for credit recommendation is two-fold: (1) It verifies your identity, and (2) it ensures the academic integrity of the final exam we give for credit.

Once we have a process in place to provide you with a proctored final assessment, I will personally email you to let you know. Until then, we unfortunately cannot approve this class to be added to your ACE transcript. Thank you for understanding and thanks for learning with Udacity.

Best Regards,
(Udacity rep)






This email is a service from Udacity Support. Delivered by Zendesk.

[KayV]

Just to add, I re-re-re-verified this and got an answer back a couple of days ago that says the same thing. They still have no way in place to verify ACE credits. I don't see how they could have been approved for ACE credit when they have no such mechanism in place, but there it is. I just took the class to see how feasible it would be for someone to complete instead of ALEKS, but if I actually needed those credits, I would be up a creek.

[sanantone]

This is a tech-focused organization. How hard would it be for them to set up something with ProctorU?

[KayV]

Indeed. And when I called ACE to ask them what I should do, the lady there gave me a phone number that immediately answers, then goes silent. No options for anything. Very, very odd.

Udacity generates a "Certificate of Accomplishment" for the class if you get half the questions on the final right, but you have to get at least a "With Accomplishment" designation to be eligible for ACE credit. I was hoping ACE would tell me I could just send in a notarized copy of my Udacity certificate, but no such luck. At this point, I think I've spent more time trying to get the class to ACE than I spent actually taking it. Ridiculous.