10-17-2025, 11:03 AM
Alright, @Duneranger, here we go...
What would these transfer to?
Believe it or not, these courses often transfer to many schools. The very existence of these programs depends on it.
No serious programs would accept these as prerequisites.
Thousands of programs have accepted these credits for many years now.
It's a waste of their time.
Learning something new is never a waste of time.
Radiology? What would this class entail? You can't seriously think you'd learn anything meaningful from this without a significant background in medicine.
If that were the case, then a person going into radiology at any school wouldn't learn anything meaningful since at that point they wouldn't have a significant background in medicine. Radiology courses have been offered online for quite some time now. People are learning from them.
Even rad techs really cant diagnose what they are seeing aside from pattern recognition.. It also requires extensive background clinical knowledge and a patient story to piece things together..hence why radiologists have to go to med school and do an intern year.
I don't think anyone goes into what are normally undergraduate courses expecting to come out with the knowledge of a Medical Doctor. The idea of these courses is to at least gain some basic knowledge of these things (which will put them far ahead of the majority of humans, let's face it), not to be able to diagnose conditions and start performing surgeries...
Histology, Immunology...Pharmacology are all the same. Literally almost every class you listed would... not transfer to anything other than a generic science credit for places like SNHU or UMPI.
That's kind of the point. Almost all of these courses are for general undergraduate credit. Thousands more programs besides SNHU and UMPI have accepted them.
They require significant background and concurrent knowledge bases to be useful.
I disagree that the courses are not useful on their own. Have you ever taken one of these courses online before? If not, you might be surprised by the level of depth many of them have. These courses are usually written by medical doctors and doctoral-level educators in the healthcare field. A person is sure to encounter new knowledge in them.
I have taken doctoral level classes in many of these subjects by the way...the fact that they would be on Sophia is sort of unserious.
I don't see that sort at all. And a lot depends on the student. A person gets out of it what they put into it.
They create these classes for a PURPOSE and if no schools recognize them, there is zero point.
And many schools recognize them.
Just for funsies doesnt cut it.
If that were the case, the entire system of non-required continuing education would've crumbled generations ago.
The rigor between a sophia offering and a medical school is equivalent is lightyears apart... let's get real. Go sit in on a med school class and get back to me. Take Step 1 and get back to me.
I haven't compared rigor between a course on Sophia/Straighterline/Study.Com/etc. to medical school. I'm simply saying that those same courses with those same titles are offered outside of medical school, that is a fact. I think everyone is aware that the courses you take outside of medical school won't have the same depth and rigor as the ones taken inside medical school, that's the reason why anything taken outside could only be considered a prereq at best.
Besides, health literacy in the general public is dangerously low. The events early in this decade proved that. The more people who are exposed to these things, the better. Encountering new knowledge in and of itself is always useful. Everyone is not interested in becoming a medical doctor. However, people might take these courses and become interested in furthering their education after that to become a nurse, medical doctor, nutritionist and so on. Happens all the time.
There are plenty of books and youtube videos someone could look into if they want a basic introduction, no need for an ACE credit class that will go nowhere and cost thousands to create. Its not even worth CME....
The courses already exist and have already gone somewhere for countless students. I don't understand what your argument against it is when they already exist. Literally every course I listed is already available somewhere. Some at Straighterline, some at Study.Com, some from Harvard Medical School online (which can be worth CMEs), all of them at various colleges and universities in the United States and across the globe.
Also, I wouldn't agree that watching a YouTube video (while useful) is as useful as taking an actual course and a student having skin in the game to succeed in it.
I teach BLS/ACLS, this is honestly ridiculous. If it's not from the AHA, it's useless. There is a reason why skill checkoffs are almost ALWAYS in person.
Then you overlooked the part where they require students to get a real-world certification in order to get credit for the course. This means one would go through an entire course online and acquire new knowledge they didn't have before, demonstrate their knowledge in a video, then get hands-on training in-person and get certified. It encourages more people to be first-responders which is immensely useful for society. This is actually a great concept, it's also not new. This model has been done in a number of other courses, and there are entire EMT programs that have followed a similar format for years.
What would these transfer to?
Believe it or not, these courses often transfer to many schools. The very existence of these programs depends on it.
No serious programs would accept these as prerequisites.
Thousands of programs have accepted these credits for many years now.
It's a waste of their time.
Learning something new is never a waste of time.
Radiology? What would this class entail? You can't seriously think you'd learn anything meaningful from this without a significant background in medicine.
If that were the case, then a person going into radiology at any school wouldn't learn anything meaningful since at that point they wouldn't have a significant background in medicine. Radiology courses have been offered online for quite some time now. People are learning from them.
Even rad techs really cant diagnose what they are seeing aside from pattern recognition.. It also requires extensive background clinical knowledge and a patient story to piece things together..hence why radiologists have to go to med school and do an intern year.
I don't think anyone goes into what are normally undergraduate courses expecting to come out with the knowledge of a Medical Doctor. The idea of these courses is to at least gain some basic knowledge of these things (which will put them far ahead of the majority of humans, let's face it), not to be able to diagnose conditions and start performing surgeries...
Histology, Immunology...Pharmacology are all the same. Literally almost every class you listed would... not transfer to anything other than a generic science credit for places like SNHU or UMPI.
That's kind of the point. Almost all of these courses are for general undergraduate credit. Thousands more programs besides SNHU and UMPI have accepted them.
They require significant background and concurrent knowledge bases to be useful.
I disagree that the courses are not useful on their own. Have you ever taken one of these courses online before? If not, you might be surprised by the level of depth many of them have. These courses are usually written by medical doctors and doctoral-level educators in the healthcare field. A person is sure to encounter new knowledge in them.
I have taken doctoral level classes in many of these subjects by the way...the fact that they would be on Sophia is sort of unserious.
I don't see that sort at all. And a lot depends on the student. A person gets out of it what they put into it.
They create these classes for a PURPOSE and if no schools recognize them, there is zero point.
And many schools recognize them.
Just for funsies doesnt cut it.
If that were the case, the entire system of non-required continuing education would've crumbled generations ago.
The rigor between a sophia offering and a medical school is equivalent is lightyears apart... let's get real. Go sit in on a med school class and get back to me. Take Step 1 and get back to me.
I haven't compared rigor between a course on Sophia/Straighterline/Study.Com/etc. to medical school. I'm simply saying that those same courses with those same titles are offered outside of medical school, that is a fact. I think everyone is aware that the courses you take outside of medical school won't have the same depth and rigor as the ones taken inside medical school, that's the reason why anything taken outside could only be considered a prereq at best.
Besides, health literacy in the general public is dangerously low. The events early in this decade proved that. The more people who are exposed to these things, the better. Encountering new knowledge in and of itself is always useful. Everyone is not interested in becoming a medical doctor. However, people might take these courses and become interested in furthering their education after that to become a nurse, medical doctor, nutritionist and so on. Happens all the time.
There are plenty of books and youtube videos someone could look into if they want a basic introduction, no need for an ACE credit class that will go nowhere and cost thousands to create. Its not even worth CME....
The courses already exist and have already gone somewhere for countless students. I don't understand what your argument against it is when they already exist. Literally every course I listed is already available somewhere. Some at Straighterline, some at Study.Com, some from Harvard Medical School online (which can be worth CMEs), all of them at various colleges and universities in the United States and across the globe.
Also, I wouldn't agree that watching a YouTube video (while useful) is as useful as taking an actual course and a student having skin in the game to succeed in it.
I teach BLS/ACLS, this is honestly ridiculous. If it's not from the AHA, it's useless. There is a reason why skill checkoffs are almost ALWAYS in person.
Then you overlooked the part where they require students to get a real-world certification in order to get credit for the course. This means one would go through an entire course online and acquire new knowledge they didn't have before, demonstrate their knowledge in a video, then get hands-on training in-person and get certified. It encourages more people to be first-responders which is immensely useful for society. This is actually a great concept, it's also not new. This model has been done in a number of other courses, and there are entire EMT programs that have followed a similar format for years.
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