Good credit granting independent study online classes?

[creationstory]

University of Madison - Wisconsin has an extension
UCLA - https://www.uclaextension.edu/r/BrowseCourses.aspx
U of Wyoming - Courses | Correspondence Study | Outreach Credit Programs | Outreach School | University of Wyoming
West Texas A&M - http://www.wtamu.edu/academics/continuin...study.aspx
U of North Dakota - The University of North Dakota - Online & Distance Education
Central Texas College - Central Texas College | Distance Education

There are quite literally a ton of course you can take out there. There are hundreds of schools offering distance courses, heck, St. Mary of the Woods offers them, they're a tiny female only (on campus) liberal arts school in the middle of western Indiana. Sorta pricey, however.

The trick quickly becomes these variables -
Course Offerings - Many schools offer classes, few schools offer anything beyond some basic coursework (ie no upper level stuff at most)
Cost - You can find online coursework for most non-hard sciences upper level courses, but cost quickly skyrockets.
Flexibility & Structure - Many options here, but some are quite restrictive, annoying, or have other issues such as enrollment or forum response requirements.
Other issues - Don't forget to watch out for quarter-based systems, and realize that naming of courses, course content, course level, and a bunch of other things (plus transferring) are very hard to sift through.

For those reasons, several options appear much more frequently on these forums.

Those are -
Penn Foster
LSU
BYU
The Big 3

Those schools, by far, are the bulk of courses taken.

Most other schools you barely see mentioned except in these sort of threads, there are a few exceptions you see sometimes, those are -
Arkansas, Wyoming - (usually for cheapness)
Ohio U - Sometimes mention of their testing out

When you're dealing with a bit more applied technical or hard sciences degree, you almost have to end up enrolled somewhere taking classes. Sometimes this can be online and sometimes RL. As an example, I couldn't find a way to piece together a credible (ie non-fluffy) or non-edu-aimed Math major through these options or testing out. Well, I suppose I may have been able to (try finding Real Analysis or other senior-level math courses online - most cap out at soph/junior level), but cost then became a major factor. The easiest option then became enrolling somewhere, and SUNY ESU is by far the best option there (96 credits transfer in, only have to take 32 on-site (8 courses/1 year, plus its cheap).

nice.. very nice

[Merlin]

I agree! Having taken both in-class and online courses, online courses are generally more difficult.

That doesn't bother me... I'm not worried about the difficulty of classes, more in their cost and how flexible they are in going through the material at my own pace. I'm fairly sure that as long as I have the freedom to study on my own schedule that I can do well in any class I'm interested in.

Unfortunately, most of the online classes I'm finding are tied to specific schedules for both attendance and examinations, which is going to be problematic as my schedule is inconsistent. I'm also trying to focus on classes that don't require proctored exams (which usually means more essay based classwork, which I'm fine with) for the same reason.

Thanks!

[dcan]

It may seem indirect, but the FEMA PDS certificate series is structured specifically around leadership of a county emergency management agency. All of the courses are free, and I believe they are transferrable into the Big 3 for credit. COSC I believe requires credit banking through Frederick Community College for $70 per course, but you should confirm that in triplicate through the forums here since I'm not going through COSC. You should also confirm that each of these is in fact accepted by COSC.

Here's the courses for the PDS:

IS139 Exercise Design
IS230.a Fundamentals of Emergency Management
IS235.a Emergency Planning
IS-240.a - Leadership & Influence
IS-241.a - Decision Making and Problem Solving
IS242.a Effective Communication
IS-244.a - Developing and Managing Volunteers

Bonus: You get a nice certificate mailed from FEMA when you complete the series. And it can't hurt to add the line on your resume:

Certificate, Emergency Management Professional Development Series, FEMA <-- the smiley makes the resume stand out more

Emergency Mangagement Institute | Professional Development Series (PDS)

[Merlin]

It may seem indirect, but the FEMA PDS certificate series is structured specifically around leadership of a county emergency management agency. All of the courses are free, and I believe they are transferrable into the Big 3 for credit. COSC I believe requires credit banking through Frederick Community College for $70 per course, but you should confirm that in triplicate through the forums here since I'm not going through COSC. You should also confirm that each of these is in fact accepted by COSC.

Yes, I've already looked into the FEMA stuff, and have verified that they are accepted by COSC (no upper limit in fact, but as you mention they have to be transferred from FCC @ $77 each) however they are only usable as elective credits so don't count towards any degree plan (other than Emergency Management perhaps, and then you'd still need 15-18 upper division credits to balance out the plan.)

I have considered taking some of them to fill in for electives though, and most of the PDS courses are the ones I'd want to take anyway as they are closest to my degree interests. I'm planning to take them anyway since the cert does seem rather nice and the credits won't go to waste either way.

[rebel100]

I love my FEMA's, and recommend the PDS all the time. That said however, there just isn't much bang for your buck unless your at TESC. Plenty of easy ways to get LL credit cheaper. No denying that they don't serve a special niche. Too bad Straighterline or someone doesn't offer a way to turn the FEMA into credits...that would be awesome! Or if FEMA would just play nice with ACE, cough up a few bucks and get them onto the ACE transcript...an even better idea.

Merlin, you might look at the NFA course for 3 credits, it's about supervision and gets sent to your ACE transcript....so I belive that would be 3 credits for $40 (ACE transcript fee). ALEKS could maybe be added here for a few credits also. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

[Merlin]

I love my FEMA's, and recommend the PDS all the time. That said however, there just isn't much bang for your buck unless your at TESC. Plenty of easy ways to get LL credit cheaper. No denying that they don't serve a special niche.

Yeah I'm still a bit surprised that COSC and EC haven't decided to follow TESC's lead and accept the FEMA credits directly. I wasn't really looking at the FEMA classes as a means just to fill credits, I'd be looking for them to also be a beneficial part of my transcript, and hopefully I'd also learn something along the way.

Too bad Straighterline or someone doesn't offer a way to turn the FEMA into credits...that would be awesome! Or if FEMA would just play nice with ACE, cough up a few bucks and get them onto the ACE transcript...an even better idea.

Yeah ACE would be the better choice... I originally assumed they were covered by ACE but later found out that they were not.

Merlin, you might look at the NFA course for 3 credits, it's about supervision and gets sent to your ACE transcript....so I belive that would be 3 credits for $40 (ACE transcript fee). ALEKS could maybe be added here for a few credits also. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

I already have credits from ALEKS on my transcript (via ACE) so that works fine. I've looked at the NFA classes but didn't realize they were transferable via ACE. Which specific NFA course were you referring to? They have a ton. The only one on the NFA web site that seems business related is the Fire Service Supervison course (which only transfers as 1 credit via ACE), though ACE also shows a lot more classes. I suspect the rest are not available via distance learning.

[rebel100]

they are listed here..... http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...re+academy it's three 1 credit courses, definantly worth the trouble if your applying ALEKS anyway, it's like free credits. CHeck it through the ACE site to confirm. If used at COSC thats about an $825 savings! It's as if the National Fire Academy gave you a little scholarship!