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+--- Thread: The official guide to self-study RA courses from ASU, BYU, UIdaho, etc. (/Thread-The-official-guide-to-self-study-RA-courses-from-ASU-BYU-UIdaho-etc)
RE: The official guide to self-study RA courses from ASU, BYU, UIdaho, etc. - MNomadic - 12-01-2021
Nice! I agree with your review haha. And yeah, come to think of it, I actually did have a question or 2 on my final that were duplicates from the midterm. The quality control on some of the questions leaves room to be desired but it's not too bad.
RE: The official guide to self-study RA courses from ASU, BYU, UIdaho, etc. - jch - 12-12-2021
(09-08-2021, 04:21 PM)jch Wrote: I finally had time to write my reviews on the new science courses. I combined my writeups due to the related nature of the courses.
Provider: ASU Universal Learner Courses
Course: BIO 100: The Living World / BioBeyond
Course: SES 106: Habitable Worlds / HabWorlds
Course content: These are science courses for people who despise traditional science courses. There are zero lectures, quizzes, or exams. Everything is structured as experiential learning activities on the Inspark Smart Sparrow platform. There are many interactive simulations, with some larger virtual projects.
BIO 100 has minimal math, mostly just understanding graphs and doing arithmetic.
SES 106, on the other hand, heavily uses scientific notation. You'll need to be comfortable working with that. I strongly recommend prior completion of College Algebra.
SES 106 has you do all of your calculations using spreadsheets. You will need to know how to write and use spreadsheet formulas. Take CIS 105 before this course if you aren't experienced with excel or alternatives.
Time taken on course: As with most of the ASU ULC courses, the time requirements provided in the syllabi are grossly exaggerated. It's possible to grind out BIO 100 in two weeks or less given sufficient time and stamina. A handful of my peers did it in less than one week. SES 106 could probably be finished in 2-3 weeks.
I strongly suggest trying to finish each module in a single sitting, and each unit in a single day. Otherwise, you'll have to backtrack and get lost.
Familiarity with subject before course: I completed the Sophia Human Biology and ASU Human Origins courses last year, which had some relevance to BIO 100. Near-zero familiarity with any of the SES 106 subject material, though.
I've previously completed College Algebra at Sophia and Computer Apps at ASU and Sophia.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: The first week of both courses is an introduction to related science fundamentals. Much of the content is duplicated across BIO 100 and SES 106. If it's straightforward, you're ready to take on the courses. If not, brush up on your core skills first.
Both courses allow attempting items multiple times for better scores, although there is sometimes a penalty.
The digital content is very computer-intensive. When running the simulations, quit everything else running on your computer. I've never heard my laptop fans spin as intensely as they did during the BIO 100 inside the cell simulation.
Have the help site up in another tab or window as you work through these courses. It often provides critical instructions or information not included in the main window.
Often, some of the simulations will misbehave or get into a bad state. When this happens, perform a hard reload of the page with Ctrl+Shift+R. This refreshes the page without using the browser cache, which usually fixes wonky behavior. If some content isn't visible, try zooming in or out.
BIO 100: Unit 2 is extremely tedious. Try to take good field notes covering everything in the text box and images during the observations. You'll figure out the tags when organizing the classification later. Focus on things like where the organism lives, if/how it moves, and how it gets energy. Unit 6 is very challenging. I often felt completely lost and had to redo a few modules
Take ASM 246 Human Origins after BIO 100. The education on species classification, evolution, and fossils will make that course substantially easier.
SES 106: do not try to handle the calculations by hand! Properly set up and organize your formulas in spreadsheets as the course prompts you to do. You'll need to refer back to your formulas and results later. Google sheets is fine, you don't need excel.
Difficulty: 2-3. These courses are really a test of your diligence as a student, not scientific prowress. If you invest the effort and patience, an A is very attainable in BIO 100. SES 106 is a bit more challenging but still doable.
Final grade: High A in BIO 100. Unfortunately, due to a sudden medical issue and the impending start of my TESU courses, I only made it about halfway through SES 106 this time. Might try it again in the future.
Related opportunities: there are some double-dipping possibilities here. Together, BIO 100 and SES 106 cover much of the content on the Natural Sciences CLEP.
Related to SES 106, both ASU and InstantCert offer astronomy courses. I haven't taken them, so I don't know if they would make sense to take before or after SES 106.
Suggested Plan: In a preceding term, take Computer Apps and College Algebra
Sign up for BIO 100 and SES 106 together. Complete the first unit of both courses during the first week, then pay the credit eligibility upgrade fee.
Do BIO 100 over the next 2 weeks, then SES 106 over the next 3 weeks. Meanwhile, register for the CLEP natural sciences course on modernstates. Later, fill in any remaining gaps and take the exam. In the next term, take ASM 246 Human Origins at ASU.
Other new ASU courses: I see that Inspark lists several other smart courses on their website, including Critical Chemistry and Anatomy & Physiology Basics. Both of these courses appear to be in use at regular ASU and/or ASU digital prep already, so hopefully, they'll come to ULC eventually. I really want to avoid that cursed chemistry for engineers course.
In other news, the new ASU ULC Psychology course debuted in August. Another term starts in October, which I may pursue.
I did manage to get through HabWorlds this time around with a high A. It took me about a week working around 8 hours per day, although my notes and spreadsheets from last time sped up the first third of the course. Completing SES 106 in 2-3 weeks is definitely doable.
I'd like to re-iterate that effectively utilizing spreadsheets is critical for success and efficiency in this course. Every time you encounter a formula, be sure to set it up in your spreadsheet. As appropriate, combine formulas to make a master spreadsheet for each unit which automatically performs multi-step calculations. The later units have less hand-holding regarding the formulas, so pay attention to avoid missing one. When you reach the final project, the quality of your spreadsheets will determine whether you spend a few hours plugging and chugging or several days performing error-prone manual calculations.
The habitable hunt project is separated into sections corresponding with stars, planets, and habitability units. I'd recommend doing the related project component after completing each of these three units. If you select about 100 stars, you should have enough variability to find all scavenger hunt items. Although this seems like a lot of work, using your spreadsheets, the assessments, sorting the columns, and dual monitors means it will only take a matter of hours to get through them all. I collected 105 stars, completed the scavenger hunt, and found three 'habitable' worlds in about 5 hours.
The final two units on life and survival copy significant portions of their content from BioBeyond and have no relevance to the final project. There are no new formulas introduced and no assessments to pass. Thus, I'd recommend doing them after finishing the project.
As I predicted, BioBeyond + HabWorlds + ModernStates is good enough to pass the Natural Sciences CLEP. I scored in the 70s and picked up six more 'free' credits. This is a good plan to knock out all of your science/natural world learning in eight weeks.
RE: The official guide to self-study RA courses from ASU, BYU, UIdaho, etc. - rachel83az - 01-17-2022
Provider: ASU
Course: CIS 194: Business Technology Fundamentals
Course content: Mostly videos. Some reading, but not a lot. It's literally the first part of the Google IT Support Professional certificate on Google.
Final exam format: There is no final exam. There are only quizzes and labs. The labs are super easy (like creating a folder on a remote computer), so long as you read and follow the instructions. The quizzes can be taken multiple times, until you get a passing grade.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: There's no final exam. But, yes, everything in the quizzes is covered in one or more of the videos.
Time taken on course: 5-ish hours.
Familiarity with subject before course: I'd already done the Google IT Support Professional certificate on Coursera, so I was able to complete everything without rewatching most of the videos. If you need to watch the videos, it will take you longer.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: For some bizarre reason, the quizzes in the main portion would sometimes submit themselves while I was in the middle of clicking on an answer (and the submit button shouldn't have even been active). While you get unlimited attempts at these quizzes, you only get 3 attempts per 24 hours, so the auto-submission was quite frustrating. Still, I managed to pass everything easily enough. The quizzes that are on ASU (and that weren't originally part of the Coursera course) don't always have fully accurate answers. For instance, I noticed that the answer to the meaning of BIOS wasn't the truth. Fortunately, you can also take these quizzes an unlimited amount of times, so this isn't a big deal. Just retake until you get a good score. The "final project" (describing how to make a PB&J sandwich) takes about a week to grade, so be prepared to wait for this.
1-10 Difficulty level: 1 or 2
Final grade: A
RE: The official guide to self-study RA courses from ASU, BYU, UIdaho, etc. - jch - 03-09-2022
Provider: ASU
Course: SST 220: Intro to Social Transformation
Course content: ASU's classic edX format. Every week, there are several readings and videos, cerego content mastery flashcards, yellowdig reflection board postings, and a quiz. Like Western Civ, a self-graded open-ended 'design project' at the end of the course is worth 5% of the final grade.
Exam format: There are two non-proctored multiple-choice exams, covering content from weeks 1-3 and 4-7.
Exam content vs course content/practice exams: Shared same question pool with weekly quizzes, mainly asking for key facts or people from the course content.
Time taken on course: 1-3 hours per week. This course is relatively light on readings and videos compared to similar ASU courses.
Familiarity with subject before course: Past courses, news articles, my internship, and my personal life previously exposed me to many of the course themes. In particular, definitely take sociology before this course.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: This course heavily advocates for social justice measures addressing current and past issues in our society. The main readings and lectures generally have an objective viewpoint appropriate for academic settings, but many other assigned materials do not. This is one of those college courses that some politicians complain about; it goes after our history of systemic and structural discrimination.
I enjoyed how this course presented the material through many primary sources and personal accounts. That provided context and recognized the people involved in various movements.
1-10 Difficulty level: 2
Final grade: High A
RE: The official guide to self-study RA courses from ASU, BYU, UIdaho, etc. - jch - 03-10-2022
Provider: ASU ULC
Course: CIS 308: Advanced Excel in Business
Course content: The course contains exercises introducing skills and features, quizzes testing your knowledge about excel, and non-proctored exams applying that understanding on your own. Beyond lookups and pivot tables, the course also touched on goal seek, solver, macros, visual basic, and file I/O. The course forces you to attempt everything in order; you cannot skip ahead to view later content.
Each exercise is a PDF document outlining dozens or hundreds of steps illustrating several Excel tasks. Some start from a blank file, while others begin with an example workbook. Most exercises also include short videos demonstrating related concepts. Then, there's a set of ten questions verifying your resulting workbook or asking about the experience.
Knowledge is validated further in the module quizzes. Then, the exams present a scenario in a downloadable Excel file that you need to complete according to provided guidelines. Like the exercises, students then answer questions from the finished workbook.
All questions throughout the course are multiple-choice or true/false. Students must score at least 90% on the module quizzes and 85% on the exams to proceed in the class. You always see incorrect answers, but only exercises reveal the correct ones. There is a sizeable question pool, and only a few of the same questions will show up again on subsequent attempts.
Unlike the edX ASU ULC courses, the modules and assignments are not time-restricted. You can access and submit anything anytime during the eight-week course period. I did almost the entire course during week two. Despite the syllabus, there are no restrictions or penalties on late work. The due dates are only suggestions to stay on track.
Unlike earlier ASU EA/ULC offerings, which use edX, this course runs on Canvas. You still log in at welcome.ea.asu.edu just like before. Note that you won't be redirected to the proper ASU login portal if your session expires. Instead, you need to go back to the ULC dashboard. Access to the Canvas Student mobile app is enabled; use the QR code generator on the account page to set it up.
Exam format: Three non-proctored exams, providing scenarios and questions similar to the quizzes but more involved.
Exam content vs course content/practice exams: The course content is poorly aligned with the assessments, and doesn't prepare students well for the exams. I was often asked to demonstrate a detailed understanding of complex features that the lectures only demonstrated briefly.
Time taken on course: As with most ASU ULC courses, the provided time requirements are a gross exaggeration. Students in this course are told to expect 18 hours per week. Nevertheless, I completed the entire course in just over 18 hours! In some of the other ASU courses, I could see how students could take that much time if they wanted to; reviewing the readings, watching all lectures, and maintaining comprehensive notes require many hours. However, this course has very little substance to it. There isn't nearly enough material to occupy that much time. Even if you wanted to do more learning or reviewing, there isn't any material for that.
Familiarity with subject before course: Going into this course, I was a bit intimidated by the course description. I've used Excel less than any other office application by far. Before college, I hadn't worked with it much at all. Last year, I gained some experience through the formulas and formatting in CIS105 Computer Apps at ASU and the data structures in CIS111 Intro to Relational Databases at Strayer. Then, I gained more comfort performing mathematical operations with spreadsheet formulas in SES106 Habitable Worlds at ASU. I think students should definitely have some Excel exposure before taking CIS308. ASU's CIS105 may be enough if you follow along with all of the optional challenges. Thanks to my prior orientation, the first few modules of this course felt very basic.
About at the midway point, things take a turn. The course jumps right into complex macro programming. Completing CIS110 Computer Programming Design last year at Strayer was critical to my success. Knowing basic programming concepts is essential to survive the final modules in CIS308. This includes variables, functions, conditionals, and loops. The course does offer some explanations and demos, but students new to programming are likely to find themselves totally lost.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know:
Microsoft Excel is required for this course and not provided by ASU. Alternative office suites or online versions will not suffice. Some other institutions, including Clackamas and Strayer, furnish their students with free Office 365 subscriptions, including the full Microsoft Office suite. Go to office.com and log in with your student email address to access this. Then, click the install office button near the upper right of the screen. You need to have the full application running on a Windows PC or Mac Computer. This course's videos and main instructions all pertain to Windows PCs, but there are usually also alternate keystrokes for Macs.
Dual monitors (or a tablet for the readings) are absolutely imperative for this course. You'll need one screen for Excel itself and one for the exercise instructions and questions. Without multiple displays, you'd likely switch between windows at least 5,000 times and drive yourself crazy trying to remember the input data while correctly following the instructions.
Despite this course being new to ULC, the content appears somewhat outdated. The videos and instructions were recorded on an older version of Windows and Microsoft Office, resulting in numerous interface changes. I was often flustered trying to find a menu or option now in a different place or under a changed heading.
It appears that ASU hastily adapted this course for the ULC program, starting with a copy of their traditional course material. They left many issues in the wake. The course information and syllabus contain incorrect details, referencing file submissions you won't do and due dates that don't apply. Exercises each have a handful of errors, such as leaving out a crucial keystroke or listing the wrong sheet. More broadly, there are significant issues with content coverage and assessment alignment. Exercises typically instruct you to simply click or type something without explaining what, why, or how. Then, later activities and assessments expect a thorough understanding of those topics. Several steps in the learning process were missed; the brief concept exposure fell fall short of actual competency. Also, I found major issues with quiz and exam questions not addressed by the course material. I alerted the course team to some of the most egregious examples, but there were many more things with poor or no coverage. Ultimately, I would recommend staying away from this course until ASU addresses the quality.
Be sure to save your files, as some of the later exercises will use your previous work as a starting point. You may also want to refer back to prior work from time to time. Unlike the standard version of this course, students do not submit their work for grading. Ignore any stray references to this in the course material. Note that you don't necessarily have to do everything entirely or precisely because you're not uploading or turning in your Excel files. However, this could come back to bite you later. The course automatically drops your worst exercise. I strongly suggest saving this for the final activity, as number 21 is challenging.
I feel the course is high on doing but light on learning. It exposes students to a good range of functions and situations but often fails to build an understanding of them. The exercises merely instruct students to click on or type things, without explaining what is actually going on.
My grasp of Excel definitely improved, but I wouldn't recommend this course to anyone seriously wanting to learn Excel. Students with past spreadsheet instruction may find the earlier modules too basic and the later content too complex. People without some programming experience and computer intuition are likely to get stuck in the last three units.
1-10 Difficulty level: 2-3
Final grade: Despite my fast pace, I ended up with a high A of 99.4% as my final grade. I typically got 1-2 wrong on my first attempt at the exercises and quizzes, then did a second attempt with a perfect score. I bombed the final excercise - that's why I suggest leaving that as the drop one. On the final exam I found myself very lost but managed to correctly deduce all but one of the answers anyway.
RE: The official guide to self-study RA courses from ASU, BYU, UIdaho, etc. - doom - 04-20-2022
Provider: ASU ULC
Course: CIS 309 - Business Process Management
Course content: The course is delivered through Canvas and consists of videos and slides. There are 7 homework (2 short essays and 5 sets of multiple choice questions) and 3 main quizzes. Quizzes can be multiple choice or math problems that require you to type in the numeric answer. Minimum score on main quizzes to proceed to next module is 80%.
Exam format: Midterm: non-proctored, 100 minutes, 25 questions, unlimited attempts, quizzes and math problems, multiple choice. Final: same as midterm, 22 questions. Minimum score to get credit: 85%.
Exam content vs course content/practice exams: The course content covers all you need to pass the exam with a decent grade.
Time taken on course: Although the course is instructor paced it can be completed much earlier than the end date. I took it easy, but I think a full time student can finish it in one week or so.
Familiarity with subject before course: vague.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: In a couple of cases quiz answers were wrong, so I had to choose a wrong answer on purpose to get a full score. That said, only basic math is required. Math reasoning is more important.
1-10 Difficulty level: 5
Final grade: Took the final today (due date May 11), after being inactive for 1 month and scored 44 out of 50 on my first attempt. My overall score is currently 95.69%
RE: The official guide to self-study RA courses from ASU, BYU, UIdaho, etc. - jch - 05-10-2022
I just received TESU's latest evaluation of my ASU transcript. Here are the notable details (some of these were previously unknown):
- CIS 199 Technical support fundamentals: CIS-199 Special Topics Comp Info Sytms 1CR
- CIS 308 Advanced Excel in Business: CIS-399 CIS-399 Special Topics Comp Info Syst 3CR (Works in BSBA-CIS AoS)
- SST 220 Intro to Social Transformation: SOC-299 Special Topics in Sociology 3CR
- SES 106 Habitable Worlds: AST-199 Special Topics in Astronomy 4CR
- CEE 181 Tech, Social, & Sustain System: CET-199 Special Topics Civil Eng Tech 3CR
- BIO 100 The Living World: BIO-101 Introductory Biology 4CR
- ACC 231 Uses of Accounting Info I: ACC-299 Special Topics in Accounting 3CR (This was NOT the presumed credit from the wiki. It did NOT go in to the BSBA accounting section. Fortunately, I already had Sophia's financial accounting)
- Macro & Micro Econ still come in as ECO 111 & 112
- EXW 100 Intro to Health and Wellness: HEA-106 Personal Health 3CR (course name differs from wiki, credit number is the same)
Mods: feel free to split this off into a new ASU/BYU/Outlier transfer equivalency thread if you want.
RE: The official guide to self-study RA courses from ASU, BYU, UIdaho, etc. - doom - 05-13-2022
Provider: ASU ULC
Course: CIS 310 - Business Data Visualization
Course content: The course is about data visualization and storytelling with Tableau and Excel. It is delivered through Canvas and consists of videos and slides. The required textbook is “Storytelling with data: a data visualization guide for business professionals by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic” . There are 7 modules, each consisting of 2-3 assignments, 1 Knowledge Quiz and 1 Reflective question. Modules 3, 5 and 7 have an Application Test (exam). Assignments are graded by either the professor or the assistant. Basically you have to create a chart in Excel or Tableau by following step by step instructions. Reflective questions require to post reflections on the discussion board and provide feedback to others. Knowledge Quizzes are timed (30 min), 25 questions with unlimited attempts. Questions may change between attempts but are always related to topics covered in the textbook. You can get extra bonus points if you are proactive in the discussion forum.
Exam format: All the Application Tests are non-proctored, timed assignments (120-180 minutes) where you have to create charts in Excel or Tableau and answer some questions about the charts. You have one attempt and must score at least 85%. An additional attempt can be requested via email to improve the score, but the Professor will deduct points (don't now how many) for retaking the exam.
Exam content vs course content/practice exams: The course materials are comprehensive and provide all the resources needed to be successful.
Time taken on course: I spent between 16 and 24 hours per week. The course pace is fast and not very flexible. Due dates for assignments are every 1-2 days, and are unlocked just a few days before the deadline. Knowledge Quizzes can be completed beforehand.
Familiarity with subject before course (1-10): Excel: 2, Tableau: 0, Data Visualization and Story telling: 2
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: some students complained about the grading method used. Often times questions account for 2.5 points each. Also, Application Tests’ minimum score is 85%. This means that on a test worth 30 points, with just 3 wrong answers you are out of the game, though you can still ask for an additional attempt. This can be frustrating.
Difficulty level (1-10): 5
Final grade: I think the course workload is pretty high. I do not recommend taking it in parallel with other assignment intensive courses. I thought I failed the final, however to my surprise I scored 49/50. The assignments and the extra bonus for involvement helped, so I ended up getting a 100%.
RE: The official guide to self-study RA courses from ASU, BYU, UIdaho, etc. - bjcheung77 - 09-26-2023
rachel83az Wrote:Provider: ASU
Course: CIS 194: Business Technology Fundamentals
Course content: Mostly videos. Some reading, but not a lot. It's literally the first part of the Google IT Support Professional certificate on Google.
Final exam format: There is no final exam. There are only quizzes and labs. The labs are super easy (like creating a folder on a remote computer), so long as you read and follow the instructions. The quizzes can be taken multiple times, until you get a passing grade.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: There's no final exam. But, yes, everything in the quizzes is covered in one or more of the videos.
Time taken on course: 5-ish hours.
Familiarity with subject before course: I'd already done the Google IT Support Professional certificate on Coursera, so I was able to complete everything without rewatching most of the videos. If you need to watch the videos, it will take you longer.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: For some bizarre reason, the quizzes in the main portion would sometimes submit themselves while I was in the middle of clicking on an answer (and the submit button shouldn't have even been active). While you get unlimited attempts at these quizzes, you only get 3 attempts per 24 hours, so the auto-submission was quite frustrating. Still, I managed to pass everything easily enough. The quizzes that are on ASU (and that weren't originally part of the Coursera course) don't always have fully accurate answers. For instance, I noticed that the answer to the meaning of BIOS wasn't the truth. Fortunately, you can also take these quizzes an unlimited amount of times, so this isn't a big deal. Just retake until you get a good score. The "final project" (describing how to make a PB&J sandwich) takes about a week to grade, so be prepared to wait for this.
1-10 Difficulty level: 1 or 2
Final grade: A
I had nothing to do for the day, took the day off and finished this in about 5 hours or so as well... Dang, I didn't know the wait would be a week for grading that simple thing! BTW, I noticed at the top of my grades, it's missing something (see screenshot)...
Anyone know why the Course Content - Technical Support Fundamentals shows without a score? I've done the entire thing already, each time I click it, I get the "Congratulations!". I guess I'll have to wait for the grading of the assignment to finish...
Grading Screenshot Link: https://i.imgur.com/UTriGgR.jpg
RE: The official guide to self-study RA courses from ASU, BYU, UIdaho, etc. - rachel83az - 09-26-2023
Yeah, without that one final assignment graded, you're going to see the -/100 score. Hopefully it gets graded soon!