Excelsior: DANTES test info

Does anyone know where Excelsior college posts a list of DANTES tests that are accepted for Upper Division credit? I'm broke, and would prefer to take a DANTES test over an ECE test wherever possible.

Gina

 

Hi Gina,

You have to log into the MyEC portal then go to the link below on page 26.

https://www.excelsior.edu/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/EXCELSIOR_COLLEGE/MY_EXCELSIOR_COLLEGE/PUBLICATIONS/STUDENT_GUIDE_AND_ASSESSMENT_CATALOG.PDF

 

Thank you, I will look this up ASAP! I tried logging in on and off today but was unable to sign into the registered area. I think there must be problems with the server today.

Gina

 

Hi Gina,

You have to log into the MyEC portal then go to the link below on page 26.

https://www.excelsior.edu/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/EXCELSIOR_COLLEGE/MY_EXCELSIOR_COLLEGE/PUBLICATIONS/STUDENT_GUIDE_AND_ASSESSMENT_CATALOG.PDF

 

I've been trying to avoid writing about this, but I've personally just had it up to here (try to envision me pointing at my eyebrows as I say that) with Excelsior's new web site.

It's devastatingly slow, in part because it's employing the encrypted SSL (secure socket layer) for its entire site rather than just on pages where potentially confidential information is exchanged or displayed. This is evidenced by the fact that no matter what page one is on, whether logged-in or not, the little yellow padlock down in the lower right area of the Internet Explorer window (or the little blue one down in the lower left area of the Netscape Navigator window, if that's what one is using) is always "on."

A web page employing SSL is quite literally three to maybe seven times slower, on average, than one that doesn't. Use of SSL on every single page of a site -- including non-secure pages -- is a misapplication and I would argue a misuse of the technology.

Additionally, the new Excelsior site, if one examines the "source" code of almost any page, is utilizing a ton of unnecessary extra, non-HTML code and script that is just bogging it down. A most visible (but by no means the most egregious) example of such script is that which paints the expanding/collapsing tree structure on the sitemap page.

People with a broadband connection (DSL, cable modem or T1) will not notice the problem as much as 56Kbps modem users. Sadly, despite what broadband providers tell us in their marketing campaigns, the vast majority of Internet users (and I mean still up around 70%) access the Internet using a good, old-fashioned 56Kbps dial-up modem which, for most users, is lucky to achieve speeds of 40Kbps to maybe 48Kbps at the most. Many dialup modem users can't get their modems to train-up faster than maybe 33Kbps no matter what settings they make. On such connections, the Excelsior site is unusable -- and I don't mean just in my opinion... I mean objectively unusable.

I have written to the school and begged them to please re-do the site so that all pages which do not require SSL do not, in fact, utilize it; to optimize those that do so they paint on the screen much faster than they currently are; and to strip-out all fancy and functionally unnecessary code that, for the most part, was used more to impress than to enhance.

I have thought about coming to this forum and asking everyone to write to Excelsior and make that same request, but I just figured it would be a big waste of time.

If anyone knows how to get Excelsior's attention on this matter, I sure would appreciate it.

Sorry to have shifted the focus of the thread a little, Gina, but your last remark made me feel like maybe this was the perfect moment to bring it up and ask others what they think should be done.

 

Hi Gregg,
First of all, I can't agree more on the frustration brought on by Excelsior's new site. If it wasn't such an amazingly shortsighted strategy, I would suspect that they were trying to make it harder for potential students to find information before enrolling, but that couldn't be it.
As far as the speed (or lack of) the site currently loads up at, Excelsior has stated (on their site and in personal correspondence) that they are aware of the problem and are taking steps to remedy it.

Tony