Sophia Quality... Questionable?

[Pats20]

I think it's worth mentioning that plenty of actual colleges offer both online and in-person classes without proctoring. I've attended three colleges online and three in-person:

1. Online college #1: I've taken six classes so far with no proctoring. Most exams were multiple choice and open book.
   
2. Online college #2: I took one class, no proctoring. Exams were open book and multiple choice.
   
3. Online college #3: Two classes, both proctored. All quizzes and exams were closed boo, including the proctored ones.
   
4. Brick & mortar college #1: ~20 classes; exams were proctored in ~3. Most exams were closed book.
   
5. Brick & mortar college #2: 3 classes, no proctoring. All exams were closed book.
   
6. Brick & mortar college #3: ~10 classes, most proctored. Most exams were closed book.
   

In college 4 & 5, I remember exactly zero incidents of cheating. A lecture hall would be full of students taking the same test, no professor or proctor would be around, and students reacted by ... continuing their tests without talking to each other or taking out their textbooks (this was back in the day before laptops, smartphones, and all that). Did a few people have well-hidden cheat sheets? It's possible. I never noticed or heard rumors of one though.

In college #6, I remember several incidents of cheating. Maybe the professor left the room for a minute—time to turn around and ask your neighbor for the answer to a tough question! Or you knew someone taking a different section of the same class; they had their test at 10 a.m. and yours was at 2 p.m. They might pass the questions on to you if you ask nicely.

I have trouble understanding why ACE courses are held to a higher standard than ones at traditional colleges. (Or rather, I get it, but I don't.)

I haven't taken the Sophia Sociology course, but my guess is that there are always people who can do well in any course based solely on life experience. That's one of the points of ACE—to give people a way to earn college credit based on what they already know so they don't have to sit through/pay for a college class that will be too easy for them anyway.

That's really interesting. I remember people talking so openly about how they were trying to cheat when I went to community college too. And they were right outside the classroom where the professor was during our break! It almost seems like people try to cheat more when they aren't on the honor system. 

I wasn't aware that traditional colleges often have unproctored exams. That's really helpful to know because it helps support the argument of why alternative forms of learning aren't "lesser". 

My concern was that the Sophia courses are much easier than other ACE courses but after hearing about everyone else's experiences it seems like that isn't the case. I know a lot of people can take the Sociology CLEP cold so it might just be one of those subjects that some people are able to guess on more easily.

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... The Ancient Greek Philosophers course also surprised me because it's only one unit and worth 3 credit hours. 

... I do love their materials. I was very impressed with the material in the Psychology course. They actually make useful comparisons and organize the material so you can understand things in context. They're also concise but provide enough information. I went through the Psychology material very slowly but never got to the end. I had a friend who needed to take the Psychology CLEP and I suggested she use the free Sophia course to prep. She passed using only the free Sophia resources and an REA practice test to prepare. So I definitely think their resources are adequate to be comparable to the other providers. ...

Did you take Ancient Greek Philosophers? I did not find it easy at all. I found the material fairly comparable to what they have in other courses, but organized differently. Each Challenge covered a lot of material and could have been split up into several challenges followed by a milestone. I don't know why they organized it the way they did, but I was nervous that so much of the grade depI expect when it goes up for reaccreditation, they will change the format to be more in line with the other courses.

For the benefit of any Big 3 decision makers reading this forum, it might have been helpful to include your praise for the psychology course in your initial post.   Even if it is the case that the sociology course is objectively too easy, one weak course shouldn't be used to condemn all the others. But I'm glad to read you liked the materials and so did your friend. I haven't taken it yet but am planning too.

Nope, didn't really take Ancient Greek Philosophers. I had like 20 minutes till midnight when I started Ancient Greek Philosophers and I wanted to get a look at the final so I randomly clicked through the quiz sections to unlock the final without reading any of them. Entirely by luck, I scored high enough to unlock the final but the questions on that one were a lot harder for me to guess on than Sociology. Didn't get through the whole 25 question final before midnight.

Yeah that's a good point! I suppose I assumed the final on Psychology is similar to the one on Sociology. The materials are great but it didn't seem like you're really tested on the meat of the materials. But again, maybe that was just the course I took, or I got lucky.

You didn’t have to complete the final by midnight. You just had to be enrolled by midnight. Unless You had other courses in mind.