Thomas Edison (TESC) Announcement on FEMA Courses

I received this today from TESC and thought the membership may be interested.

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Student Advisory on Earning Credit for FEMA Independent Study Courses

Thomas Edison State College Kelsey Clock Effective immediately, the acceptance of FEMA Independent Study courses for credit at Thomas Edison State College is indefinitely suspended pending further review of those courses.

Students with documented approval to use FEMA Independent Study courses as part of their degree program prior to March 5, 2014 will have those approvals honored but must submit their official FEMA transcript with all approved courses listed as complete to Thomas Edison State College by June 30, 2014.

Students with previously evaluated transfer credit from FEMA Independent Study courses accepted and applied to their academic record at Thomas Edison State College are not affected by this change. Those evaluated credits remain part of their permanent record and may, where appropriate, be used in fulfillment of degree requirements.

Students with questions concerning how this policy change may impact their program of study should schedule an appointment with an academic advisor via the myEdison® student portal or contact the Office of Advisement at [email protected]. Please include "ATTN: Dr. Keel-FEMA" in the subject line.

 

At least my plan to make TESC's BSBA cheaper than University of the People still works.

 

thank you, I just shared this.

 

Ha! Try completing 24 of 'em and then you'll experience a level of tedium you never thought was possible! Hey, they were free and saved me a lot of time and money while trying to finish up my BS at Bellevue. The only thing I remember from the courses is that disasters are bad and that they like to use the word "mitigate" a lot.

 

Which is precisely why colleges should not be granting credit for FEMA IS courses.

At one point, I had completed every one of the FEMA IS courses. They provide an introduction to the material, but no where near the level required to make them worth credit as a stand-alone item in my view. I work in the field of emergency management and they are considered to be a basic level of training, not education.

If they were up to the level of credit-worthy, why has ACE not granted them credit when almost every other resident and in-class course conducted by FEMA EMI is ACE evaluated? FEMA could solve this problem for a lot of people by going through the ACE process for IS courses, but they have not because they are well-versed in the process and they know that the IS courses would not meet the ACE threshold without some significant alterations.

I would be in favor of grating limited lower-level elective credit for them, but only with some sort of verifiable demonstration that there is a level of competence gained in the material before granting credit. They should not be directly transcripted in my view.

 

I have to partially echo the sentiments of the previous poster. I cannot begin to understand why someone would even want a degree that is constituted in part by such "courses," if they are of such marginal value? A degree should mean something. Such courses greatly devalue degrees that have them. Why waste an education with such nonsense? It sounds like Thomas Edison is doing a great favor to its students by compelling them to take coursework that is more substantial.

 

This does ruin one of my plans- to get a side Associate's in Emergency Services. Yes, the courses are tedious and hard to get much out of that would be useful, but it does provide some links to useful things. (A few of the courses might even provide good information for ordinary jobs.) I've gotten eight courses accepted so far, and still plan to take a few more just in case- and if TESC doesn't accept them, I could save a bit and funnel them through Frederick Community College.

 

This thread is the reason (or rather the occasion) for me to register an account here. I was hoping to be able to do a lot of those FEMA courses, even though that seems to be a bit of a problem for international students (but there also seem to be ways around that), but that seems to be a moot point now. (A lot of seems in one sentence, huh?) Anyway, the courses also seemed (again!) rather easy, so TESC's decision probably makes sense in order to preserve the credibility of their degrees.

 

Charter Oak still takes them free of charge, Excelsior accepts them if cycled through Frederick CC first ($77/credit).

 

FCC now charges $79 per credit hour. I usually only recommend Excelsior for degrees that aren't offered at the other two. The school doesn't offer any other advantages. I would go with COSC or use TESC's Per Credit Tuition Plan. I detailed how one can complete a TESC degree cheaply (probably cheaper than any other RA option) without FEMAs.

Even without FEMA, you can still complete the BSBA at TESC for less than $3,000!
Even without FEMA, a BA in Liberal Studies at TESC is still cheap!

 

Does anyone one know if TESC will accept FEMA courses if they are processed through FCC first?