uIdaho Independent Study Courses (highly recommend!)

[FallingWaters]

I've completed all the CLEPs and DSSTs I can, but needed music credits.
I'm not sure where I first heard about these courses through the University of Idaho- probably here!- but thought I'd share my personal experience with them.

I'm in the middle of one of the Music History Independent Study Courses- Independent Study in Idaho-University of Idaho. That means I have a year to complete one three-credit course. There are 11 lessons, most of which are essay questions (1-5 paragraphs). Two proctored exams. Great professor and excellent communication. The best part? $100/credit.

Check it out!

[KingdomUnshaken12:28]

Seconding this!:iagree: I just found out about it a couple of months ago and am currently taking the Astronomy lab to fulfill COSC's lab requirement. COSC had one of their own on environmental science, but they are over $300 a credit, while this class will cost $132 total ($100 for the credit, $25 fee per class, $7 transcript fee), plus the cost of two textbooks (under $30 together, and I plan to sell them after the class), and I can complete it on my own schedule. You can start anytime and finish anytime within a year.

This particular class (Phys1153: Astronomy Lab) has five lessons, and so far I've been able to complete them in about 5 or 6 hours each, but we're not allowed to submit more than one per week. There is one proctored, open-book test then I will be taking at my local library for a $10 fee, and the professor has been very prompt and helpful in his responses. The lessons use a free software download that you use to calculate various astronomical data, and there hasn't been any assigned reading from the textbook yet.

Definitely recommended!

[Gooberman11]

Interesting! So is this ACE certified or an actual college (so we would just transfer the credits over to the Big 3 when ready)? Is it nationally or regionally accredited?

[FallingWaters]

It's an actual college- the University of Idaho.

"The University of Idaho is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities,"

[rebel100]

Good idea.

[KingdomUnshaken12:28]

Interesting! So is this ACE certified or an actual college (so we would just transfer the credits over to the Big 3 when ready)? Is it nationally or regionally accredited?

Yes and no: Independent Study in Idaho is a cooperative of four regionally accredited state universities, headed by the University of Idaho, and each course in sponsored by one of the colleges and taught by their professors. When you get your transcript, it comes from the college sponsoring your course (in my case, it's an Idaho State University transcript). However, you're not applying to any of the universities and are never enrolled as a student; you just register for the individual courses you want, with no prior approval from the Independent Study program required, so they recommend approving the transfer with your college before registering. They have a form on the website that you can have your academic adviser sign; I e-mailed COSC a couple of times but never got a clear response so I ended up calling the Registar's Office, and he just looked at it and said he didn't foresee any problems with it. (Hoping the transfer will be smooth .)

The program is definitely worth a second look, both for the credit-hour price and the flexibility. The selling point for me was that I could take the lab independent of the actual astronomy class to cover COSC lab requirement and then take a 6-credit CLEP to knock out the 7 science credits for under $250, which was over $100 less than the cost of the lab alone from COSC. I'm enjoying the class, too, for what it's worth .

[Daithi]

If you are pursuing a degree in either History or Psychology then take a look at their site. They have a ton of upper level courses for these majors.