Sophia Free Course after 7/31?

[jembig]

Will developing effective teams or others will be offered free after 7/31 like how it was offered before?

[lacussucceed]

Probably. We don't know for sure.

[rachel83az]

The one-credit classes are almost certain to be free still. That offer has been going for a long time and it's a good way for Sophia to bring in more students.

[Expert101]

Can you enroll in 5 courses at the same time on Sophia?

[ctcarl]

Can you enroll in 5 courses at the same time on Sophia?

Not at present.  The maximum is 2 right now.  There was no limit in the past, and I'm sure that once the free promotion is over on August 1, you'll be able to take as many courses as you like at the same time.

[Expert101]

Ok thanks, I know a few ppl were taking 5-6 courses at once in May even when they were free or it's always been 2 max when free?

[ctcarl]

Ok thanks, I know a few ppl were taking 5-6 courses at once in May even when they were free or it's always been 2 max when free?

No, it's a fairly recent development.  I suspect it was a reaction to online posts urging others to sign up for many courses and delay the start dates and ask for extensions, thereby pushing their completion dates out until almost the end of the year.  

I don't believe it was Sophia's intent to provide unlimited free courses for six months or more.  I doubt that would be sustainable for them.  In any case, they limited the number of courses one can sign up for at the same time to two, removed the option to push out the start dates, and made extensions somewhat more difficult to obtain.

I've actually seen criticism of this situation in another thread, while I've seen no criticism of any of Sophia's competitors who have offered no relief of any kind to students affected by COVID-19.  Kind of proves the old adage that "no good deed goes unpunished".

[tallpilot]

Ok thanks, I know a few ppl were taking 5-6 courses at once in May even when they were free or it's always been 2 max when free?

No, it's a fairly recent development.  I suspect it was a reaction to online posts urging others to sign up for many courses and delay the start dates and ask for extensions, thereby pushing their completion dates out until almost the end of the year.  

I don't believe it was Sophia's intent to provide unlimited free courses for six months or more.  I doubt that would be sustainable for them.  In any case, they limited the number of courses one can sign up for at the same time to two, removed the option to push out the start dates, and made extensions somewhat more difficult to obtain.

I've actually seen criticism of this situation in another thread, while I've seen no criticism of any of Sophia's competitors who have offered no relief of any kind to students affected by COVID-19.  Kind of proves the old adage that "no good deed goes unpunished".

I agree. I suspect they intially believed it was a good marketing ploy and would result in some additional revenue down the line. I know I appreciated the two courses I did and now recommend Sophia as a great option for lower division credit to anyone who asks.

Some people took advantage of the offer (as always happens) and flooded their infastructure. It wouldn't have taken very long to notice the huge numbers of new accounts which subsequently enrolled in large numbers of courses. Just like some people will take a huge handful out of the 'free' candybowl instead of considering the next person. Hindsight being 20/20 if they had it to do over again they probably would have asked a nominal fee for courses that required manual grading. Besides the server load the non-touchstone courses can easily scale, hiring graders for orders of magnitude more papers without revenue is not very economic.

[Lacedonia4]

Ok thanks, I know a few ppl were taking 5-6 courses at once in May even when they were free or it's always been 2 max when free?

No, it's a fairly recent development.  I suspect it was a reaction to online posts urging others to sign up for many courses and delay the start dates and ask for extensions, thereby pushing their completion dates out until almost the end of the year.  

I don't believe it was Sophia's intent to provide unlimited free courses for six months or more.  I doubt that would be sustainable for them.  In any case, they limited the number of courses one can sign up for at the same time to two, removed the option to push out the start dates, and made extensions somewhat more difficult to obtain.

I've actually seen criticism of this situation in another thread, while I've seen no criticism of any of Sophia's competitors who have offered no relief of any kind to students affected by COVID-19.  Kind of proves the old adage that "no good deed goes unpunished".

I agree. I suspect they intially believed it was a good marketing ploy and would result in some additional revenue down the line. I know I appreciated the two courses I did and now recommend Sophia as a great option for lower division credit to anyone who asks.

Some people took advantage of the offer (as always happens) and flooded their infastructure. It wouldn't have taken very long to notice the huge numbers of new accounts which subsequently enrolled in large numbers of courses. Just like some people will take a huge handful out of the 'free' candybowl instead of considering the next person. Hindsight being 20/20 if they had it to do over again they probably would have asked a nominal fee for courses that required manual grading. Besides the server load the non-touchstone courses can easily scale, hiring graders for orders of magnitude more papers without revenue is not very economic.

I personally disagree a little, as the candy bowl analogy is a little different for digital content made accessible and free for all, as it doesn't take away from others, plus I don't think that they got flooded too much and as a former foreign student that is well aware of college costs between Europe and US, I think we students in the US deserve a little respite from being overcharged for college courses. And I'd like to think most of us students who took advantage of the offer are grateful.
We shouldn't feel bad about it, sophia is a business and they made a choice. They probably restricted it only to make the transition back to payment courses less painful and to restrict the flow of registered students so to speak.

[monchevy]

I did a lot of courses, but never enrolled in more than one at a time. Until someone mentioned it, I didn't even notice the switch to a 2-course limit (I was in the middle of a course when it happened). And I am beyond grateful. Looking forward to seeing more courses added, which I'll gladly pay for.