Low cost ACE reviewed history courses from Shmoop.com

[Mamasaphire]

While this is absolutely true, it's much less of a risk for The Big 3. It's all but guaranteed that they'll at least take the credit as a free elective, but it's more likely they'll accept it as recommended by ACE (as in, as history credit), give or take it's upper/lower level designation.

We don't know how it will come in yet, but it's not like this is a high risk/high cost gamble.

Very true... in fact it should cost less than a typically required college textbook even if it takes two months and an ACE transcript. I'm tempted to try one for the fun of it. And when I feel less pressured to succeed I tend to learn more, so it'll be good for my brain hilarious

I just started a profile on shmoop for the fun of it.

[jsd]

Very true... in fact it should cost less than a typically required college textbook even if it takes two months and an ACE transcript. I'm tempted to try one for the fun of it. And when I feel less pressured to succeed I tend to learn more, so it'll be good for my brain hilarious

I just started a profile on shmoop for the fun of it.

i literally only need to finish the last (approximately) 40% of my current course at TESU to get my BA, but would be willing to give this a try for fun.

Thankfully my job keeps me too busy and prevents me from throwing away money for no reason.

[kskoog]

Hello! I am just starting my research for completing my bachelor's degree and have found the exam resources on degreeforum and the degreeforum wikia to be really, really useful! After reading the post on the low-cost ACE exams at Shmoop (I figured that would be a cost-effective place to start), I contacted them for more info as there isn't much available on their site. It looks like they are planning on raising their prices soon, so I will most likely get started sooner rather than later, and I thought I should post that info in case anyone is planning on signing up with them:

Thanks for reaching out! You caught us early on in our ACE CREDIT® tenure, and we're really excited to hear from you.

To answer your questions:

1. Yes, we do have courses for ACE CREDIT. If you subscribe as a student, you will have access to all three (and hundreds of other courses along with them).

U.S. History: 1492-1877 (College) - Shmoop Online Courses
U.S. History: 1877-Present (College) - Shmoop Online Courses
Modern European History (College) - Shmoop Online Courses

2. If you pass the course with a 70% or higher grade, you'll be eligible to receive credit. You will request the transcript through the ACE site as you would normally.

One other thing we want to mention (and which you will see on the buy pages for the three courses!): now that we have ACE CREDIT recommended courses, we are going to be changing our subscription plan and the subscription price for the ACE package will likely be higher than it is now. It will still be lower than our competitors, for sure, but we want to give you complete transparency so that you know what to expect. You can expect to see that price change within the next month or so, along with more ACE CREDIT courses being added; if you upgrade, you won't lose any of your progress.

Please let us know if you have any other questions!

Team Shmoop

[edwardfurlong]

I signed up for the one month subscription and completed one of the classes. I had been studying for the DSST the civil war and reconstruction, so I knew some of the material already.

They have the 24 hour trial, so there probably is no need to go into much detail about the class. I noticed a few spelling mistakes in the tests (factor when I think it should have read factory for example.) There was one question where the answers seemed completely out of place, I think they had the wrong answers for the question. Many of the questions seemed like they could have two correct answers. You can retake a test once so I was not overly concerned. The final was 2 hours and 50 questions, I would say half the questions came directly from the chapter tests.

When I go to the ACE transcript I get the message "This organization does not participate in online registration. This organization submits student and course data to ACE. Please contact the organization and request that your course data be submitted." I have contacted them to see how to get it added.

I am hoping COSC will accept the class for the US history requirement, I know it is not a guarantee.

[bjcheung77]

I signed up for the one month subscription and completed one of the classes. I had been studying for the DSST the civil war and reconstruction, so I knew some of the material already.

What! That's amazing! When did you sign up and get that completed? I'm amazed, if you finished that class in a day, two, or three... I'm signing up!
That will be easier than a Penn Foster or Straighterline course which I finished in 3 days or less... Or match that ALEKS/Saylor for cost. Hmm, I'll do it!
I want to finish my subscription from Straighterline first and then focus on Shmoop, so I can get 3 History courses for 9 easy credits hopefully.

[Wingz]

I signed up to take the Shmoop course in Modern European History. It is a solid course and more engaging than SL for sure. It too has chapter tests (10 of them, each worth 8% of the grade), and one final worth 20%. The quizzes are quite challenging unless you know the topics cold. Thus, it does require reading all the material, clicking all the links and watching all the videos.

I would say that it is about 3-4 hours per module to read, and an hour per chapter test. While the tests aren't proctored, it doesn't matter, the material is so specific to the course, that referring to other sites (googling, etc) wouldn't be of help. Best I can tell, you are allowed to review their own material - so tests are effectively open book. Even then - it is still not a cakewalk. About half the questions are so specific to the material, that it would be hard to pass the course if it wasn't open book (and in which case, I would steer clear). I would say it is harder than both Study.com and SL, but more engaging than both - and I'm learning more. As one of the other folks said, there are a few typos here and there, but otherwise seems good.

This is what they say about using other materials (and note the general tone of the course - which is funny). I highlighted the "except us" part, which is what I infer to mean it is open book.

"Can I access other information while taking a test?"

"Yes, you're sitting in front of a computer and could very easily open up Google and search away to answer the questions. But there are a few problems with that:

Anyone can edit Wikipedia.
Ditto Yahoo! Answers.
Oh, and it's considered cheating.
Seriously, don't trust those bozos on the internet (except us) and don't cheat. Not only is it uncool and preventing you from learning awesome stuff, but it's also against our honor code."

[edwardfurlong]

It took about 6 days, there were 12 modules, so I did 1 - 3 modules a day. I used a text to speech program and use headphones while at work to get through most of the material. There is quite a but of material but it is pretty easy reading. I had been studying the civil war so that helped some. Being able to retake a test is a big confidence booster, I wasn't worried about getting everything perfect, just enough to pass.

What! That's amazing! When did you sign up and get that completed? I'm amazed, if you finished that class in a day, two, or three... I'm signing up!
That will be easier than a Penn Foster or Straighterline course which I finished in 3 days or less... Or match that ALEKS/Saylor for cost. Hmm, I'll do it!
I want to finish my subscription from Straighterline first and then focus on Shmoop, so I can get 3 History courses for 9 easy credits hopefully.

[Armor611]

Below is the reply I received from TESU. Just to clarify the note on history 1492-1877, I already have a CC U.S History course that transferred as HIS-113.


Modern European History (College) - Shmoop Online Courses Will transfer in as HIS-221 European History II

U.S. History: 1492-1877 (College) - Shmoop Online Courses will transfer in as HIS-113 and will duplicate.

U.S. History: 1877-Present (College) - Shmoop Online Courses Will transfer in as HIS-114. US History II . It will not duplicate HIS-113

[mickey20]

I'm wondering if "Modern European History" will fulfill the TESU Info literacy.

[mednat]

I'm wondering if "Modern European History" will fulfill the TESU Info literacy.

I would be shocked if it fulfills this requirement. Why do you think it may?