So what are the benefits of auditing a course? What have your experiences with auditing been? Do you have any recommendations re: auditing courses?
Advantages: It's voluntary, both attendance and continuance. It's about the learning. It's not about measuring the learning. It's also about being around others interested in your topic. Sometimes it's free (or cheap). Check with community colleges and state colleges to see about auditing options.
Another reason: sometimes you're not sure if you want to study the subject seriously, so you audit a free/cheap course to confirm interest before shelling out big money for a "real" one.
I audited Russian. I was just curious about the language and didn't need any more foreign language credits. I got the fun of learning and didn't have to take any tests.
Sometimes there's a legendary teacher from whom you want to learn. Auditing allows you to learn from that teacher without having to cough up thousands of dollars to do so, or risk getting graded. I've audited courses for this reason. As an auditor you are a real student (usually) with access to the library and other neat things.
I've audited a class because I needed to pass my comprehensive exam for a course I took 3 semesters before. It helps because you just pay the audit fee which was like $150
All great reasons. At Athabasca, I considered auditing a math class where it wasn't part of my degree plan and I didn't want to pay for it, but I did want the knowledge for personal reasons. I find the structure of official courses and syllabi much, much more effective than just working through a textbook or other materials on my own.
Not quite auditing, but may be of interest. When I was teaching AF ROTC, our classes were for credit. Thus, they were open to other students outside of ROTC to take. I had this happen twice in my 8 semesters there. The first person was just interested in the class subject, stayed, and got a good grade, despite not being an ROTC student. The second one, however, had an agenda to be disruptive. He had weird ideas of what actually happens in both ROTC and in the military in general. I was really worried about what to do about him because he was being very difficult in class. But I should not have been worried. When the add/drop date came, he went. Apparently, he either didn't want to pay the tuition for the course or he didn't want the grade that was going to result. Frankly, I would have moved to have him removed if he persisted. And even with the first student, it was strange having an odd duck in the class. Which brings me around to auditing. I've never had an auditing student in my class. Do they get to participate in discussions, ask questions, do in-class exercises, work on team projects, etc.? Or do they just sit quietly in the class and do nothing else? Somewhere in-between?
At Durham College (where I attended face to face), auditing students could participate in discussions and ask questions. They could participate in in-class exercises but were not assigned homework or a letter grade. At Athabasca and Eastern's remote courses, you would have access to the whole course and could work through the material including exercises, but again no submitting assignments or being graded. There are no synchronous lectures so functionally equivalent to the Durham College experience. I'd be interested to find out if this is different at other schools.
When I audited classes, the auditors were treated the same as other students in the course, except we were not required to do (but encouraged to do) the exercises, homework, etc. Those items were not graded for auditors. So discussion, field work, etc. were encouraged. Except for the professor, no one in the course knew who the auditors were, unless they announced themselves. Most universities I've attended make sure that grade-seeking, paying students get to enroll first (especially those majoring in the subject), and if there is space left in the course, auditors and other noncredit students are allowed to sign up. You may not know if you have a space in the course until the deadline for enrolling, which may be after the class actually begins. BTW, noncredit students were people, usually not enrolled at that university for a degree, who have a reason they want to take a course for credit and/or grade. They may be enrolled at a different university, they may be people who had to leave college before graduation and need a few courses to finally get their degree from their previous university. They may need continuing ed credits to maintain a license, etc etc etc.
If you think about it, Coursera is a free resource for auditing a class. You can go through all the material, but you won't have the tests/grade/certificate. When I audited in person (a long time ago), I was a fully participating student. I simply did not get grades and didn't have to take tests.
If someone audits a course at a college, can they get that on a transcript? And if so, could they have that transferred to another college in which they are enrolled? Not for credit, but for a single record? Do people do this?
Athabasca places a notation on your transcript that you audited but since it's not for credit there's no grade attached. You may not be able to prove you even completed the assignments.
