SOPHIA.ORG inaccuracy?incompetence? dishonesty?

[cookderosa]

Only the free courses and ancient greek are not proctored. The rest are.

This is not what Sophia.org said on this website and in private emails. Check out this thread https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...c+keyboard

And I quote:

"If you create an account on sophia.org, NONE of the courses are proctored (using biometric keyboard verification instead).  Also, if you register for 3 courses, you can use HALFOFF promo code for 50% all courses (AGP is $149 full retail, so this course ends up being $74.50 and transfers to TESU as PHI-226)."

I remember them saying that- it caught my attention too.

[MNomadic]

Hmmmm, the biometric thing seems to be a newly implemented feature for them. I'm sure it may have just been an error. Sophia tech support should be able to correct that issue if you contact them.

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"[i]If you create an account on sophia.org, NONE of the courses are proctored

Note is says "courses", not finals....a little slimy if that's the way they meant it

I don't think that's the way they meant it.

[AwardTour]

UPDATE:

Sophia.org has made things right.

They quickly resolved the issue and they switched my account over. 

I did sign up with a portal site phoenix.sophia.org to take advantage of the discount. Keyboard Biometric testing is only available on Sophia's main website http://sophia.org

I did not know this. When I emailed them asking about this in the past I was under the impression that this was available on all of their websites. This is not the case. I was never told in any emails that it was limited to their main site and none of their portals.

Thank you SOPHIA.ORG for quickly taking care of this and responding to me. Your quick response and problem solving of my issue has earned you a loyal customer for the majority of my classes.  

Thank you.

[MNomadic]

"If you create an account on sophia.org,..." That's from Sophia's original post so I don't think they miscommunicated it.

I'm glad it all got resolved for you, though!

[shadowgem]

UPDATE:

Sophia.org has made things right.

They quickly resolved the issue and they switched my account over. 

I did sign up with a portal site phoenix.sophia.org to take advantage of the discount. Keyboard Biometric testing is only available on Sophia's main website http://sophia.org

I did not know this. When I emailed them asking about this in the past I was under the impression that this was available on all of their websites. This is not the case. I was never told in any emails that it was limited to their main site and none of their portals.

Thank you SOPHIA.ORG for quickly taking care of this and responding to me. Your quick response and problem solving of my issue has earned you a loyal customer for the majority of my classes.  

Thank you.

That's great to hear 

Biometric proctoring sounds awesome and to my knowledge Sophia is the only alternative provider offering this. I wonder if this will become a new "norm" in the future of online learning.

I would love to hear an update on how this works and your experience with it. I know we have patterns with our speech and language, but I would never think of this with my typing (other than its horribly slow) so this is beyond fascinating to me.

[Merlin]

UPDATE:

Sophia.org has made things right.

They quickly resolved the issue and they switched my account over. 

I did sign up with a portal site phoenix.sophia.org to take advantage of the discount. Keyboard Biometric testing is only available on Sophia's main website http://sophia.org

I did not know this. When I emailed them asking about this in the past I was under the impression that this was available on all of their websites. This is not the case. I was never told in any emails that it was limited to their main site and none of their portals.

Thank you SOPHIA.ORG for quickly taking care of this and responding to me. Your quick response and problem solving of my issue has earned you a loyal customer for the majority of my classes.  

Thank you.

Ahh, I was wondering if this was the case. I recall them mentioning that the keyboard biometrics system was in beta and not available on all their sites yet when they posted the announcement. They also indicated that the beta was only available to people who signed up using the main sophia.org portal. That's why I mentioned it above as well.

In any case, I'm glad to see they got everything worked out for you. Let us know how the new system works!

[AwardTour]

UPDATE:

Sophia.org has made things right.

They quickly resolved the issue and they switched my account over. 

I did sign up with a portal site phoenix.sophia.org to take advantage of the discount. Keyboard Biometric testing is only available on Sophia's main website http://sophia.org

I did not know this. When I emailed them asking about this in the past I was under the impression that this was available on all of their websites. This is not the case. I was never told in any emails that it was limited to their main site and none of their portals.

Thank you SOPHIA.ORG for quickly taking care of this and responding to me. Your quick response and problem solving of my issue has earned you a loyal customer for the majority of my classes.  

Thank you.

Ahh, I was wondering if this was the case. I recall them mentioning that the keyboard biometrics system was in beta and not available on all their sites yet when they posted the announcement. They also indicated that the beta was only available to people who signed up using the main sophia.org portal. That's why I mentioned it above as well.

In any case, I'm glad to see they got everything worked out for you. Let us know how the new system works!

I emailed them and they never mentioned anything about it being in beta or being restricted to one website. They may have said that at the very beginning publicly during their beta phase, but none of this was mentioned when I emailed them recently. All I had to do was show the support team my past email conversations and they quickly made things right. I am glad it got worked out.

One other thing to note (at least with phoenix.sophia.org), the final exam is proctored HOWEVER, you only need to get 50% correct to pass AND the grade does not count towards your overall score derived from Challenges and Milestones. It kind of makes me wonder why you even have to take it? They do call it an "I.D. Milestone" which means they want you to prove you are who you say you are. This would make Sophia.org classes attractive for those reasons alone. 

Taking a final proctored exam that has a passing core of 50 and that does not count towards your overall grade is attractive for obvious reasons. But, I don't have to concern myself with that, I am on the keyboard biometric route now! Proctored Exams on a webcam are old school! lol.....

[katelynn]

I'm taking Sophia's Intro to Sociology right now and I'm definitely enjoying the biometric keyboard verification route. Before the milestones you're prompted to type out a single sentence, "We record your typing patterns to confirm your identity." or something very close to that. I don't really see how it works because sometimes I make a typo and other times I type it faster and more accurately. I don't know how they figure that it's the same person. Anyway, I enjoy it a lot and it's very easy.


Also, I made my account months ago (while they were still using webcam proctoring) using the main Sophia account. I logged back into that account and the three new courses I purchased were automatically set up with the biometric keyboard verification option.

[homeschoolmom1]

I still don't have any idea how this works. Even if you have to type in a standard sentence and your typing pattern gets recorded, how would they know that you are taking the test yourself, if there is no actual typing involved during the test, just multiple choice? Is it just me who finds this a tad creepy?

[dfrecore]

I still don't have any idea how this works. Even if you have to type in a standard sentence and your typing pattern gets recorded, how would they know that you are taking the test yourself, if there is no actual typing involved during the test, just multiple choice? Is it just me who finds this a tad creepy?

I don't find it creepy, but I do find it odd.  You're right, once you log in, there's no way for them to be able to tell if it's you during a multiple choice test.  Or see that you don't have a computer next to you looking up the answers.  Or have someone in the room with you giving you the answers.

And, when I did the biometric thing, it didn't work at all.  Like 3 different times it wouldn't work, even though it was me all 3 times.  Seems ridiculous to me.