SOPHIA Learning

[rachel83az]

Pricing is definitely a huge factor with Sophia. It's cheaper by far than most RA credits, which makes it look like a good deal to many, but it's still quite expensive in comparison to other alt credit providers. Without the current promo, I probably would've gone to Davar for (most of) my gen. ed. credits.

[inf]

Sophia has one of the better interfaces and environments. As well as its structure, non monthly fee doesnt have you rush. Its normal pricing is too high imo. Sophia is truly amazing because its free for the time being. Wish they would start doing UL.

[ctcarl]

Pricing is definitely a huge factor with Sophia. It's cheaper by far than most RA credits, which makes it look like a good deal to many, but it's still quite expensive in comparison to other alt credit providers. Without the current promo, I probably would've gone to Davar for (most of) my gen. ed. credits.

I took quite a few Sophia classes before the promo started, and I didn't pay $329 for any of them.  I used a 5 for $495 promo, a 3 for $295, and a number of 50% off promos.  I also managed to find two 3-credit Sophia courses for free.  The most I paid for any one course was $114.50.

While Davar is an excellent value and I am pleased with the courses I took from them, they don't compare favorably to Sophia in any way except for course selection and cost, and if you are willing to track down promotions, the cost difference isn't nearly as great.  In fact, my costs for paid Sophia credits fell roughly between Davar and Coopersmith, but if you factor in free courses (before the current promo) and proctoring costs, Davar and Sophia were just about tied.  And in terms of support, provided materials and quality, the Sophia student experience, as all of us in this thread know, is one of the best in the business.

[scorpion]

Pricing is definitely a huge factor with Sophia. It's cheaper by far than most RA credits, which makes it look like a good deal to many, but it's still quite expensive in comparison to other alt credit providers. Without the current promo, I probably would've gone to Davar for (most of) my gen. ed. credits.

I took quite a few Sophia classes before the promo started, and I didn't pay $329 for any of them.  I used a 5 for $495 promo, a 3 for $295, and a number of 50% off promos.  I also managed to find two 3-credit Sophia courses for free.  The most I paid for any one course was $114.50.

While Davar is an excellent value and I am pleased with the courses I took from them, they don't compare favorably to Sophia in any way except for course selection and cost, and if you are willing to track down promotions, the cost difference isn't nearly as great.  In fact, my costs for paid Sophia credits fell roughly between Davar and Coopersmith, but if you factor in free courses (before the current promo) and proctoring costs, Davar and Sophia were just about tied.  And in terms of support, provided materials and quality, the Sophia student experience, as all of us in this thread know, is one of the best in the business.

That's great to hear, since Sophia has a great learning environment compared to most other alt credit providers. Where were you finding promos to make them competitive on cost?

[ctcarl]

That's great to hear, since Sophia has a great learning environment compared to most other alt credit providers. Where were you finding promos to make them competitive on cost?

After a number of exhaustive online searches, I realized that most Sophia promos are offered through schools such as Ashford or Capella.  But they have definitely been courting homeschool students, so I was always sure to check Jennifer Cook-Derosa's website for updates.

But you never know where a Sophia discount will pop up, and that's where solid Google-fu skills come in handy.  One example that surprised me was the Airline Owners and Pilots Association.

[alab21]

Agreed. Sophia courses are great. Cohesive (not choppy like Study’s classes can be). I like having multiple teachers to choose from. And I really appreciate not being pressured to cram as many classes as I can bear in 1 month. They’re unique and it gives them an edge. Where they fall behind is definitely rack rate. I agree - I think they’d see an increase in usage overall, if they dropped their rack rates. The coupons are great, but it seems whenever I’m ready to buy, there’s no coupon. I’m trying to knock out what I can while they’re free. They’ve generated a ton of great reviews from this free promo. Let’s hope they can lower the price and keep themselves in the market.

UL courses would be amazing. There’s so little competition in that space too. Also labs for their sciences, and add more. Somebody out there has to get a quality Physics 1 and 2 with Lab or Chem 1-2 w/lab.


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[eminor7]

American Government
Astronomy
Business Law
Managerial Accounting
Principles of Management
Principles of Marketing
Technical Writing

Some music theory, music history, and foreign language courses would be nice.

[PrettyFlyforaChiGuy]

I feel like a Cultural Anthro 101 and Human Origins/Physical Anthro course would be easy to implement in the Sophia format, but not sure how much demand there would be.

Nutrition or Health could be done similarly to the NFHSLearn format, which is still eligible for graduate credit through some participating university. Sophia would handle this material better than the generic videos that NFHSLearn relies upon.

I really wonder how they would handle a language course. I didn't try out InstantCert's Spanish course, but maybe Sophia could just include recorded spoken presentations like their Public Speaking course.

[rachel83az]

I really wonder how they would handle a language course. I didn't try out InstantCert's Spanish course, but maybe Sophia could just include recorded spoken presentations like their Public Speaking course.

That's more or less how SDC handles it. You have to do the test, write a brief paragraph about yourself, and send in a file of you speaking Spanish (I forget if it's supposed to be audio or video). I have not done this myself, but I am thinking about doing it in the future.

[P226mem]

Looks like they have are about to add a Business Law course. On the ACE National Guide for Sophia, the course is showing approved as of June 1. I'm guessing sophia will launch it soon (in similar way that college readiness showed up on ACE guide and then a few weeks later in the course options).