#11 Sophia
Limited Transfer
www.sophia.org
Sophia is a business (not a college) that sells courses you can take at home for college credit. These courses transfer to colleges that accept ACE credit. (What is ACE?)
Sophia’s courses are video-lesson based, and a little more expensive than some of their other ACE competitors, however, they offer 2 courses completely free that are each worth 1 college credit. Be sure to grab them even if you don’t take anything else from this company.
There are a couple things I really like about Sophia.
(1) You pay 1 price. This is an advantage over the subscription products (Straighterline, Studycom, etc.) that charge a monthly fee, because once you’ve bought the course, you’re not under a time crunch to complete it quickly. This allows all of us to let our kids complete the course over a full semester if we want.
(2) No photo ID required. For teens that have a driver’s license or passport, this might not be a big deal, but if your teen doesn’t have an official identification card of some kind, getting past the ID checkpoint can be a pain. Sophia doesn’t require a photo ID, so no worries.
(3) No web proctoring. If you’ve taken other ACE courses, you know that web proctoring is an expected part of the final exam process. There are always concerns regarding privacy as well as providing a space that meets the proctor’s specifications (nothing on the walls, no one else in the room, etc.) so by using new technology, they’ve eliminated web proctoring entirely. They are using a product called “keyboard biometrics” that identifies a person by their typing style. I haven’t used it yet, but I’ve seen a demonstration, and I’d choose it over web proctoring any day.
Sophia Course List
Accounting
Approaches to Studying
College Algebra
Conflict Resolution (free $0)
Developing Effective Teams (free $0)
English Composition I
Environmental Science
Human Biology
Introduction to Art History
Introduction to Business
Introduction to Psychology
Introduction to Sociology
Introduction to Statistics
Macroeconomics
Microeconomics
Project Management
Visual Communications
This content is reprinted from Chapter 2 of Homeschooling for College Credit 2nd Edition.
Pages you may also like:
Sources of FREE College Credit
Creating an ACE Account for your Homeschooled Teen
Forms of ID when Homeschooling for College Credit
