4 free college credits from Empire State University and Saylor.org

Empire State University (New York) and saylor.org are running a pilot program. A person can get up to 4 credits from Empire State University for free, and transcribed on a transcript. You have to sign up for the program and do some type of prior learning experience portfolio, etc. You also have to have taken a saylor.org course and passed it (I believe). This program is only open to the first 100 people that sign up for it so hurry up and give it a try. I signed up for it yesterday. It should be interesting. I put some information in this post for you guys (see below). Good luck.:wave:


Website: The State University of New York (SUNY) Empire State College « Saylor Academy


Learning Gained through Life and Work Assessed for College Credit
Students interested in participating in a pilot program offered by SUNY Empire State College can have their learning assessed for undergraduate college credit. Participants must have completed one of a specifically selected set of courses through the Saylor Academy. As part of the project, which is funded by a Lumina Foundation grant, the college has developed a Global Learning Qualifications Framework to help students document their college-level learning. Once such college-level learning is demonstrated in a specific academic area, undergraduate college credits will be awarded for it by SUNY Empire State College.


Saylor students accepted into the pilot program and who submit an ePortfolio for assessment between March 15 and Aug. 30, 2014 will receive one course assessment for undergraduate college credit (up to 4 credits) at no cost. These credits will be transcribed on an Empire State College transcript. This offer is limited to the first 100 students who apply to the pilot program. Those accepted into this pilot program will be considered non-matriculated students at Empire State College, but may choose to matriculate if they wish to apply the credits toward a degree at the college.
An application to the Empire State College pilot program is available at: http://www.esc.edu/saylor-apply.

 

thanks!! I'm sharing this over on my Homeschooling for College Credit Facebook page!

 

Sounds like a lot of work to get 3-4 credits on a transcript. I would suspect that this isn't much more than a loss leader to get a students name and contact info so they can market the college to them....Not that Empire is the worst choice though.

This transcript will then be required every time you apply to another program, only $5 right now Transcript Request and Form | Registrar | SUNY Empire State College , but still....

To get this "free" course you have to:
Add a layer of work to a completed Saylor Course,
Add your name to a marketing list (I suspect),
Request a $5 transcript every time you apply to another college program,

Seems the utility is too narrow to me...though I get this may help a few people and I applaud that.

 

This was brought up a few weeks ago on the other forum, but I didn't think of this then. I wonder if they will accept Saylor's lab courses. There is no way to prove you finished them because they don't have final exams. I guess I'll send an email.

 

I just applied for one spot, since I hope that this will be an easy way to get some of my prior learning assessed and accredited for free. Oh, and if the 3-digit number at the end of my user name is indicative, then there should be heaps of spaces left.

 

I had signed up for the 4 credits with saylor.org and Empire State College. I quit and told them to give my slot to someone else. It seemed too time consuming and drama filled. I don't even care if it was free. I don't like unnecessary irritation, even for the sake of academia.

 

Hi Steve, I guess you mean Saylor, right? Yes, I completed a few of their courses. I have a pre-existing condition, aka an academic degree, so passing one or the other course was not that hard.

Seems like you were looking for a course for your kid to do. Can your teenager program Java? Then he or she would find "Introduction to Computer Science I" rather easy, since this is mostly Java.

 

This all ended very disappointingly for me. To get credit for my existing degree, I still would have needed to get this degree evaluated first, since it is from a non-american institution (it's from a German university). (Since these are exactly the costs I wanted to avoid, I'm not interested in this option.) The fact that I passed Saylor courses in this area made no difference whatsoever. In one email it was even stated that "Saylor courses are not available to use on academic evaluation".

So, to me it seems that through this Saylor/SUNY connection you can get a free assessment for prior learning, but the proof for your prior learning has to come from somewhere else than Saylor.