TESU PLA Process

[homeschoolmom1]

The way I understand it, to go through the PLA process at TESU, one has to complete a substantial amount of writing within the 3 credit course PLA-2000.

(PLA-100 does not exist any more).

Is that correct? Does anyone have any recent information on this?

I am especially interested in how many courses can a student obtain while taking this PLA course. Our son wants to PLA out of 4 courses (=12 credit hours). Would he have to take PLA-2000 4 times, at substantial cost? Or do you take the PLA course only once for all 4 courses?

Thank you.

[Jonathan Whatley]

TESU currently lists one PLA course, PLA-1010, and it has starts every month. I do not see a PLA-2000.

“Within PLA 1010, students may earn up to 12 credits of portfolio assessment at no additional cost,” TESU notes here. That’s a lot of writing, so he may want to prepare some material in advance. He can use the sample portfolios TESU provides here as a guide.

After those up to 12 credits applied for within PLA-1010, additional PLA credits for a matriculated student are $186 per credit applied for.

[SteveFoerster]

As an aside, if there's anything he's considering PLAing out of where there happens to be a similar enough CLEP or DSST, testing out is by far the easier and cheaper way.

[Mint Berry Crunch]

As an aside, if there's anything he's considering PLAing out of where there happens to be a similar enough CLEP or DSST, testing out is by far the easier and cheaper way.

PLAs were talked about a lot more back in the day, but I feel as though options such as the 4 S's have effectively removed them and CLEPs as viable options due to speed, access, and associated costs. Are PLAs really worth the work anymore?

[SteveFoerster]

As an aside, if there's anything he's considering PLAing out of where there happens to be a similar enough CLEP or DSST, testing out is by far the easier and cheaper way.

PLAs were talked about a lot more back in the day, but I feel as though options such as the 4 S's have effectively removed them and CLEPs as viable options due to speed, access, and associated costs. Are PLAs really worth the work anymore?

Maybe this just means I've always been lazy, but I didn't think PLA was worth it twenty-odd years ago when I was at Charter Oak.

And I agree that most people around here don't think about CLEP and DSST anymore, which is odd to me, because they're free through Modern States and cheap otherwise, and can lead to same-day credit. A well-read person can pass an awful lot of them with just cursory review, and that's made pretty easy thanks to services like our own InstantCert here.

[ROYISAGIRL]

lol unpopular opinion. I really enjoyed the PLA process when I did it a few years ago. I think it is only worth it if the courses you are trying to do aren't common ones that can be completed at places like Sophia.org or through test-taking like CLEPs, etc.  I did their Environmental Studies Degree, for which there are not a lot of alternative courses. For me the process was really smooth, but I do like writing and believe me there is a lot of it. When I decided I wanted to do PLA you had to do two courses PLA-100 and PLA-200, but they have condensed it into one course now.

[davewill]

I used PLA because other choices didn't exist for my BACS area of study courses. Now it's much easier to get them via online courses. If you have something that you can't fulfill in an easier way, go for it, otherwise don't.