New Excelsior College Cornerstone Initiative; starting January 2020

[natshar]

...  What is a cornerstone course from an overall collegiate perspective?  I can't find much about it on google.  Is such an initiative realistically better for student learning/completion or school revenue?

It's basically a course on how to study and find information online. It used to be called "Student success" or some such, and was often not even given college credit in the "old days". I'm sure it's helpful with a bunch of incoming freshmen who only have HS experience. I would think it's almost useless for transfer students who have already been taking and passing college courses.

EC already has Information Literacy as a required course. It highlights how to write a paper basically.   Is the Cornerstone different than that?

The current Info Lit course and certain courses can be transferred in to meet that requirment. Also it is self-paced and only 1 credit. If I had to guess I'm thinking the new cornerstone will be an actual course that is not self-paced.

[bjcheung77]

**ding ding ding** Money grab situation here. Everyone of the Big 3 is changing to a two course requirement model. A cornerstone and capstone. Excelsior most likely is changing their Info Lit to the Cornerstone by Jan 2020 as the requirement/replacement.

[dfrecore]

This is 100% about money. These cornerstone and capstone courses serve no other purpose.

I agree about the cornerstone, but not the capstone.  That definitely serves a purpose.

[sanantone]

From the perspective of a cheap student who hates writing and already took college-level English in high school, I wouldn't want to take these courses. From the perspective of a former college instructor, I can understand why the courses exist.

Non-traditional, open-entry schools often require an introductory course that is basically information literacy. From what I've heard, COSC's cornerstone is more involved that the introductory courses I've encountered at other online colleges. Since these schools accept almost everyone, I think the purpose of the cornerstone is to prepare students for future courses and to give them an idea of whether they can handle college-level work.

Capstones are more for quality control. When students could CLEP out of 100% of the credits, I did notice that many of them could not write well. These are the people going out into the workforce representing these colleges. Remember that most Big 3 students are not trying to transfer in over 90% of the required credits. If they weren't taking a cornerstone, they would be taking another general education course. If they weren't taking a capstone, they would be taking another area of study elective.

[mysonx3]

My question is, why isn't the basic information literacy stuff considered part of English Composition?

[sanantone]

My question is, why isn't the basic information literacy stuff considered part of English Composition?

It should be a part of English Comp II. If I were running a school, I wouldn't allow credits for English Comp that didn't come from an accredited college.

[natshar]

My question is, why isn't the basic information literacy stuff considered part of English Composition?

It should be a part of English Comp II. If I were running a school, I wouldn't allow credits for English Comp that didn't come from an accredited college.

This actually makes sense! 

Or make it an option. Make the info lit course an option for any and all students who wish to take it. But it is only a requirement for students who transfer in a bad grade in English Comp (say "C" or lower) or meet the comp. requirement through alternative means. Any student who completes English Comp I and II from an accredited college with a C or higher will be not forced to take info lit.


A local school near me is generous with CLEP/DSST but the composition ones don't grant credit, it just places you out of remedial and puts you right into to college level comp.

[dfrecore]

My question is, why isn't the basic information literacy stuff considered part of English Composition?

It should be a part of English Comp II. If I were running a school, I wouldn't allow credits for English Comp that didn't come from an accredited college.

Here in CA, where all of the CC's and CSU schools will accept most CLEP exams, they will not take English Comp.  They just actually require students to be able to write decently, and feel that they can't do that without taking a course.

They will accept AP exams, but those are different - they require a year of rigorous writing, followed by a very hard exam that is mostly written.  To score even a 3 is hard - only 57% pass.

[sanantone]

My question is, why isn't the basic information literacy stuff considered part of English Composition?

It should be a part of English Comp II. If I were running a school, I wouldn't allow credits for English Comp that didn't come from an accredited college.

Here in CA, where all of the CC's and CSU schools will accept most CLEP exams, they will not take English Comp.  They just actually require students to be able to write decently, and feel that they can't do that without taking a course.

They will accept AP exams, but those are different - they require a year of rigorous writing, followed by a very hard exam that is mostly written.  To score even a 3 is hard - only 57% pass.

Accepting AP makes sense since the vast majority of AP test takers went through a corresponding AP course in high school.

[SweetsugarNL]

Do you need to enroll before Jan 2020 to avoid this?