Lame Threats

[TINASAM]

over 50 courses in 27 or so days at sophia and complaining about "slowness" is just insane behavior. Like dude, you got your money's worth, seriously.

[animuscerebri]

over 50 courses in 27 or so days at sophia and complaining about "slowness" is just insane behavior. Like dude, you got your money's worth, seriously.

I respect your opinion, and I believe many forum users probably think the same. I agree that we're talking about - using statistical terminology - an outlier in the ocean of Sophia students.

Nonetheless, after having done more research, it may surprise you, but I think that - in hindsight - he actually did have a point regarding the "slowness" issue (I'll get to that later); however, the way he tackled issues with people and his communication style didn't help him.

I think more context and how he actually tried to approach his journey to a degree will - hopefully - shed more light on this topic.

Hence, I encourage anybody interested in this matter to read up on his thread, see https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...lan-help-I , because he created a de facto "how-to-get-a-degree-fast-and-inexpensively-journal." He basically chronicled his questions, answers, approaches, and strategies almost on a daily basis with the help of other forum members.

I personally think that this journal is a wealth of pretty good information of how to go about getting a degree in Tech, especially a BS in Information Technology. He did come up with very valuable information about new ACE-based certifications, Pima CC courses previously not known to be free, and how to finish a degree relatively quickly. He compared different schools in terms of pros and cons. He created many Excel files and lists about which courses to take and which ones should be tackled in what order just to finish as many courses as possible in the shortest amount of time. In short, he did contribute to this community by providing new and valuable information. Furthermore, he was a doer and he was totally motivated. And, everybody will benefit from that. That's why I think it's a pity how this matter concluded.

Sure, many students wouldn't choose this speed run approach, because they prefer to take their time to acquire new knowledge less quickly; yet, that doesn't mean that his approach is right or wrong. It is simply another way of how to get to the finish line (more quickly). I think that this approach is valid, if you have already amassed a lot of knowledge and acquired skills due to work experience and just having been exposed to different types of information over the years. I hope that many people will realize that each individual has a different background and different world / work experience and based off that, a student can progress more or less quickly regarding his or her marathon to a degree. That said, he basically tried to turn the marathon into a sprint, which is possible for some students depending on the prerequisites mentioned before.

Let me point out some key findings:

- He strategized for weeks (see, Post #83 from 04-23-2025 https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...p-I?page=9) how to get the maximum amount of Sophia courses in a month, see Post #108 from 05-06-2025 https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...-I?page=11

- He got help from multiple forum members telling him which courses could be done more swiftly, see example https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...-in-1-Week

- He himself self-acknowledged that he has communication issues (which is rare nowadays), see Post #1 ("my English skills are good, but I have an eccentric writing style."), Post #3 ("I just dont want to attend classes, speak with others, be proctored, be spoken to, or need to interact more than HYPER minimally with people.. Why: I am shy, eccentric and abrasive to others (I can do the work, I cant do "others"), and ("also... I am "bright", but have poor social communication uptake (this is a me issue, I tend to be "ignorant/dismissive" in an initial look, more focused of "my thoughts/reply"), please forgive me"), Post #54 from 04-20-2025, see https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...p-I?page=6

As a result and from his point of view, he was totally committed to finish as many courses as possible in May, 2025 (He wrote that he started on May 1). Therefore, as he was in a rush to finish as much, any "slowdown" would hinder this plan. I hope you understand that he had / has a totally different goal in mind, and he had strategized to finish everything in May.

Additionally, based on his research in combination with his skills in tech and all other things included, he could actually pull it off. Bear in mind that Sophia did grant him up to yesterday credits (I guess May 31 was his last day of his subscription). Moreover, he finished quite a significant number of courses that included several touchstones, such as English Comp 1 (5) + 2 (7), Approaches to studying religion (3), Workplace Communication (2), Ancient Greek Philosophers (2), and many others with touchstones.
These papers went through all paper and plagiarism checkers. He seemed to have passed all. If not, they wouldn't have granted him any credits for them.

And now my point about "slowness." Take a look at Sophia's official FAQs. They say:

- "With Sophia, you determine your own level of time commitment. You can move through course work quickly or slow down your pace."
- "You can take as many courses as you'd like each month [...]"

They advertise specifically that anybody can take as many courses as you want - depending on one's pace. If a grader slows you down, he / she interferes with your pace in terms of finishing courses. He does have a point here.

Additionally, Sophia also states that you can take as many courses as you like. That's why it may seem to be a lot to do so many courses in a month, but Sophia specifically says that they officially don't care. On the contrary, it's their marketing strategy to attract customers!

Based on this information, I'm pretty sure Sophia realized that they are in hot legal waters with him, and this is the reason why they granted him his credits.

In conclusion, you may think that he exaggerated, but legally, he had a point to complain.

BTW, other forum members have been complaining about the grading style and the grading time at Sophia for many years now. He wasn't the first one, see https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...ans?page=2

Fyi: I still think Sophia is a great platform, but I wanted to highlight certain points that are important in this case.

[Ares]

Your reply reads like his sock puppet account defending him. I noticed similar writing styles.

[Hotdogman1]

You're missing some context about the situation. This is from memory. On the initial thread, he posted one email from a Sophia Learning Coach Manager. Email contained these points:

• The first time the student contacted them was on a Saturday. He already completed 45 courses within several weeks at that point.
  
• The manager stated Sophia normally had a 2-3 day wait time for grading touchstones and they were not deliberately trying to slow the student down.
  
• Apologized for how the student lost trust in Sophia. It looks like his first email was confrontational judging by the tone of the reply.
  

Outside of the email, he was dissatisfied with getting touchstone grades of ~70% as he was getting ~95% in the beginning. He stated this most recent grader had a bias against Western politics/culture (western something). He got banned after arguing about a grade. Title of his first deleted thread: "Sophia "Lost it" when I complained - Banned me"

I personally think he violated rule 4 of the Sophia's Student Honor code: https://www.sophia.org/content/dam/sophi...-guide.pdf
"You will not engage in any other activities that could dishonestly improve your results or improve/hinder the results of others.
Failure to comply with the Student Honor Code will result in removal from the course, removal of courses from your transcript, and/or disqualification to enroll in future courses."

It's like arguing with a professor about a grade. Asking some questions and requesting additional feedback is fine, but constantly arguing to improve a 70 on a touchstone could be considered an activity that could dishonestly improve his results. It's especially ridiculous considering he would have passed the course regardless.

[animuscerebri]

You're missing some context about the situation. This is from memory. On the initial thread, he posted one email from a Sophia Learning Coach Manager. Email contained these points:

• The first time the student contacted them was on a Saturday. He already completed 45 courses within several weeks at that point.
  
• The manager stated Sophia normally had a 2-3 day wait time for grading touchstones and they were not deliberately trying to slow the student down.
  
• Apologized for how the student lost trust in Sophia. It looks like his first email was confrontational judging by the tone of the reply.
  

Outside of the email, he was dissatisfied with getting touchstone grades of ~70% as he was getting ~95% in the beginning. He stated this most recent grader had a bias against Western politics/culture (western something). He got banned after arguing about a grade. Title of his first deleted thread: "Sophia "Lost it" when I complained - Banned me"

I personally think he violated rule 4 of the Sophia's Student Honor code: https://www.sophia.org/content/dam/sophi...-guide.pdf
"You will not engage in any other activities that could dishonestly improve your results or improve/hinder the results of others.
Failure to comply with the Student Honor Code will result in removal from the course, removal of courses from your transcript, and/or disqualification to enroll in future courses."

It's like arguing with a professor about a grade. Asking some questions and requesting additional feedback is fine, but constantly arguing to improve a 70 on a touchstone could be considered an activity that could dishonestly improve his results. It's especially ridiculous considering he would have passed the course regardless.

Thanks for the extra information. Yeah, sounds kinda weird why he insisted so much on that grade if it is irrelevant for transfer purposes. Btw, when did that specific email exchange take place? Can you remember?

[Hotdogman1]

He didn't have a date on it. He started 5/2, banned 5/29. His first email to them was on a Saturday after a couple weeks of progress, so he probably sent it either on 5/17 or 5/24. With the progress he was making, 5/24 seems more likely.

I don't think he got reinstated as the credly badges award dates doesn't align with his progress. His 45th Sophia Credly badge was awarded 5/28, which wouldn't make sense. When he got banned, he said he had completed ~51 courses with 4 courses waiting final touchstones grades. One was English 2 (awarded 5/30). Ancient Greek Philosophers (awarded 5/30) would explain the "Western politics/culture" bias argument.

I highly doubt Sophia is scared about any "hot legal waters." The second thread happened the next day 5/30 where he said he would "skip trace" the CEO and VP and posted their LinkedIn pages. He said he was going to open a human rights violation complaint via the Canadian government for 'denied access to education' and had an appointment with the Office of the Governor General. He made a bunch of other threats. In actuality, he would probably have to file a civil lawsuit and even if he wins, it's like $180 in actual damages and reinstatement of his grades, but owe thousands of dollars in lawyer fees. (It seems like Canadian human rights violation complaints are mostly for discrimination within Canada. It looks like for International human rights complaints, he would have to file a complaint with either the UN or the Organization of American States. https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-herita...laint.html.)

[panda02]

I saw a couple of his posts, and while we all encourage people to get a degree here, some people need to see a therapist first

[animuscerebri]

Your reply reads like his sock puppet account defending him. I noticed similar writing styles.

Sorry to disappoint you, but nope. When I restated his position, I was just trying to unpack his logic so that we can better understand what happened. I think this whole discussion actually brought up some interesting issues about Sophia's policy on how to handle disputes.

---

He didn't have a date on it. He started 5/2, banned 5/29. His first email to them was on a Saturday after a couple weeks of progress, so he probably sent it either on 5/17 or 5/24. With the progress he was making, 5/24 seems more likely.

I don't think he got reinstated as the credly badges award dates doesn't align with his progress. His 45th Sophia Credly badge was awarded 5/28, which wouldn't make sense. When he got banned, he said he had completed ~51 courses with 4 courses waiting final touchstones grades. One was English 2 (awarded 5/30). Ancient Greek Philosophers (awarded 5/30) would explain the "Western politics/culture" bias argument.

I highly doubt Sophia is scared about any "hot legal waters." The second thread happened the next day 5/30 where he said he would "skip trace" the CEO and VP and posted their LinkedIn pages. He said he was going to open a human rights violation complaint via the Canadian government for 'denied access to education' and had an appointment with the Office of the Governor General. He made a bunch of other threats. In actuality, he would probably have to file a civil lawsuit and even if he wins, it's like $180 in actual damages and reinstatement of his grades, but owe thousands of dollars in lawyer fees. (It seems like Canadian human rights violation complaints are mostly for discrimination within Canada. It looks like for International human rights complaints, he would have to file a complaint with either the UN or the Organization of American States. https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-herita...laint.html.)

Hi @Hotdogman1,

thank you very much for the context. I think we now have a better understanding of how most of the events went down. I really appreciate it.

I understand your thesis, and I may be wrong, but I'd like to point out some aspects that simply don't add up:

- If he got banned (presumably on 05/29), why did he still receive credits for 7 courses (I exclude the duplicates) on and after 05/29? In particular, he got credits for the courses with the allegedly disputed papers. Usually, a ban means you don't get any credits for courses if you're found to have violated policy.
- How can he have 4 courses waiting for final touchstone grades, if Sophia allows only 3 courses at the same time under the exception rule?
- When he wrote "approx. 51 courses with 4 waiting," maybe he already included those 4 in the "already done 51 courses." Or maybe he was just typing in a rage and didn't focus on the exact numbers.

In general, I agree that Sophia isn't afraid (did I say that?), but a potential lawsuit is a nuisance you should avoid if you can. Otherwise, you need to allocate resources to deal with it - resources you could use for other things.

OK, he really screwed up with the last part of the story.

[sarahmac]

Your reply reads like his sock puppet account defending him. I noticed similar writing styles.

Sorry to disappoint you, but nope. When I restated his position, I was just trying to unpack his logic so that we can better understand what happened. I think this whole discussion actually brought up some interesting issues about Sophia's policy on how to handle disputes.

---

He didn't have a date on it. He started 5/2, banned 5/29. His first email to them was on a Saturday after a couple weeks of progress, so he probably sent it either on 5/17 or 5/24. With the progress he was making, 5/24 seems more likely.

I don't think he got reinstated as the credly badges award dates doesn't align with his progress. His 45th Sophia Credly badge was awarded 5/28, which wouldn't make sense. When he got banned, he said he had completed ~51 courses with 4 courses waiting final touchstones grades. One was English 2 (awarded 5/30). Ancient Greek Philosophers (awarded 5/30) would explain the "Western politics/culture" bias argument.

I highly doubt Sophia is scared about any "hot legal waters." The second thread happened the next day 5/30 where he said he would "skip trace" the CEO and VP and posted their LinkedIn pages. He said he was going to open a human rights violation complaint via the Canadian government for 'denied access to education' and had an appointment with the Office of the Governor General. He made a bunch of other threats. In actuality, he would probably have to file a civil lawsuit and even if he wins, it's like $180 in actual damages and reinstatement of his grades, but owe thousands of dollars in lawyer fees. (It seems like Canadian human rights violation complaints are mostly for discrimination within Canada. It looks like for International human rights complaints, he would have to file a complaint with either the UN or the Organization of American States. https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-herita...laint.html.)

Hi @Hotdogman1,

thank you very much for the context. I think we now have a better understanding of how most of the events went down. I really appreciate it.

I understand your thesis, and I may be wrong, but I'd like to point out some aspects that simply don't add up:

- If he got banned (presumably on 05/29), why did he still receive credits for 7 courses (I exclude the duplicates) on and after 05/29? In particular, he got credits for the courses with the allegedly disputed papers. Usually, a ban means you don't get any credits for courses if you're found to have violated policy.
- How can he have 4 courses waiting for final touchstone grades, if Sophia allows only 3 courses at the same time under the exception rule?
- When he wrote "approx. 51 courses with 4 waiting," maybe he already included those 4 in the "already done 51 courses." Or maybe he was just typing in a rage and didn't focus on the exact numbers.

In general, I agree that Sophia isn't afraid (did I say that?), but a potential lawsuit is a nuisance you should avoid if you can. Otherwise, you need to allocate resources to deal with it - resources you could use for other things.

OK, he really screwed up with the last part of the story.

I don't often comment in this forum any more but wanted to point out an untrue assumption here: 

"- How can he have 4 courses waiting for final touchstone grades, if Sophia allows only 3 courses at the same time under the exception rule?"

Sophia does not only allow 3 at a time. If all 3 are waiting for grades they will open a 4th. If all 4 are waiting for grades they open a 5th. I once had six open simultaneously, though could only actively work on one as all others were waiting for touchstones to be graded.

[animuscerebri]

Your reply reads like his sock puppet account defending him. I noticed similar writing styles.

Sorry to disappoint you, but nope. When I restated his position, I was just trying to unpack his logic so that we can better understand what happened. I think this whole discussion actually brought up some interesting issues about Sophia's policy on how to handle disputes.

---

He didn't have a date on it. He started 5/2, banned 5/29. His first email to them was on a Saturday after a couple weeks of progress, so he probably sent it either on 5/17 or 5/24. With the progress he was making, 5/24 seems more likely.

I don't think he got reinstated as the credly badges award dates doesn't align with his progress. His 45th Sophia Credly badge was awarded 5/28, which wouldn't make sense. When he got banned, he said he had completed ~51 courses with 4 courses waiting final touchstones grades. One was English 2 (awarded 5/30). Ancient Greek Philosophers (awarded 5/30) would explain the "Western politics/culture" bias argument.

I highly doubt Sophia is scared about any "hot legal waters." The second thread happened the next day 5/30 where he said he would "skip trace" the CEO and VP and posted their LinkedIn pages. He said he was going to open a human rights violation complaint via the Canadian government for 'denied access to education' and had an appointment with the Office of the Governor General. He made a bunch of other threats. In actuality, he would probably have to file a civil lawsuit and even if he wins, it's like $180 in actual damages and reinstatement of his grades, but owe thousands of dollars in lawyer fees. (It seems like Canadian human rights violation complaints are mostly for discrimination within Canada. It looks like for International human rights complaints, he would have to file a complaint with either the UN or the Organization of American States. https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-herita...laint.html.)

Hi @Hotdogman1,

thank you very much for the context. I think we now have a better understanding of how most of the events went down. I really appreciate it.

I understand your thesis, and I may be wrong, but I'd like to point out some aspects that simply don't add up:

- If he got banned (presumably on 05/29), why did he still receive credits for 7 courses (I exclude the duplicates) on and after 05/29? In particular, he got credits for the courses with the allegedly disputed papers. Usually, a ban means you don't get any credits for courses if you're found to have violated policy.
- How can he have 4 courses waiting for final touchstone grades, if Sophia allows only 3 courses at the same time under the exception rule?
- When he wrote "approx. 51 courses with 4 waiting," maybe he already included those 4 in the "already done 51 courses." Or maybe he was just typing in a rage and didn't focus on the exact numbers.

In general, I agree that Sophia isn't afraid (did I say that?), but a potential lawsuit is a nuisance you should avoid if you can. Otherwise, you need to allocate resources to deal with it - resources you could use for other things.

OK, he really screwed up with the last part of the story.

I don't often comment in this forum any more but wanted to point out an untrue assumption here: 

"- How can he have 4 courses waiting for final touchstone grades, if Sophia allows only 3 courses at the same time under the exception rule?"

Sophia does not only allow 3 at a time. If all 3 are waiting for grades they will open a 4th. If all 4 are waiting for grades they open a 5th. I once had six open simultaneously, though could only actively work on one as all others were waiting for touchstones to be graded.

Wow, I didn't know that. Hey, that's pretty cool and new information. Thank you! That makes the scheduling aspect of courses much easier.