Auditing a class?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by bazonkers, Mar 21, 2010.

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  1. bazonkers

    bazonkers New Member

    Anyone here ever audit a course? I'm wondering what the advantage or disadvantage is short of cheaper costs and no credit. There are two classes I'd like to take at AMU that I don't need for my degree and I'm wondering if I should take them for credit or audit. One concerns historic preservation and the other is about archive/manuscripts. Neither are required for my degree and my electives are already full.

    I'm leaning towards taking them for a grade because doing the work will force me to learn the material better but I'm curious to hear what others think.
     
  2. ITJD

    ITJD Active Member

    Only benefit I can think of is knowledge without accountability.

    Best thing to do is (if possible) add the course, get the syllabus and the reading list. Drop the course, get a refund and read the books if so interested.
     
  3. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Genius. Pure genius.
     
  4. emmzee

    emmzee New Member

    If you can't use the credits towards your degree, I'd say audit. It's cheaper, and hopefully if you're taking extra courses purely for interest, you will already be motivated to complete them. :)

    Or you can do what ITJD suggested above :p

    A third option could be to just read some/all of the required books for the class, it seems like most AMU classes list the required textbooks on the course info pages.
     
  5. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Would it be possible to audit classes and then take a CLEP to get the credit? Wouldn't that be really cheap? I may be way off base because I admittedly know very little about the CLEP process.
     
  6. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Well, he is going for a graduate degree and CLEPs are lower-level undergraduate credits, so there wouldn't be a content fit for any of the exams.

    However, there is quite an interesting practice that some people have undertaken. Some university classes are so large that the professors have no clue who is really a student and who isn't. There are those who have blogged about sitting in on these classes and even :eek: submitting papers and exams and getting grades back.

    After the course is over, they take a CLEP and get credit for their learning. This is ingenious, and a phenomenal way to get a great education at an extremely cheap price (some people sit it at Ivy League colleges. Their degrees say Charter Oak and Excelsior, but they are really Yale and Harvard educated.)
     
  7. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Now that's a cheap way to get an education! Hmmmm, my daughter is planning on going to UCI next year at 35K a year. Hmmmmm.

     
  8. bazonkers

    bazonkers New Member

    The one advantage to auditing the course as opposed to just reading the books is that you get some sort of official record that you studied the material. You don't get a grade but they do put AUD on your transcript. I wasn't sure how beneficial that was down the road if I'm ever somewhere that asks if I had any coursework in archives, etc. I wonder if they'd take an audited course or would they really want to see a grade.
     

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