Sophia Learning, LLC

Overview
Sophia.org is an alternate credit provider with mainly general education credits. Unlike other credit providers, the tests/exams (called milestones) are not proctored with a webcam. Instead, they use your typing pattern to verify who you are. Alternatively, you may identify via a text message - if the typing verification fails.

As of August 2020, Sophia charges $79 per month for all the classes you can take during that period. You can only have two courses active at one time, however. This makes Sophia one of the cheapest ways to complete your general education requirements. Sophia is also an ideal credit source for people who have slow connections, who currently lack a webcam, or who do not have access to a quiet testing space at this time. Their 1-credit courses are no longer free at this time.

Course-Taking Strategy
Some Sophia courses have things called "Touchstones" which are assignments that you must turn in to receive a grade. At times, these can take the full 60 days to complete as a result of the delays in grading times. There are currently 6 courses with touchstones at Sophia. Because you may only have 2 courses active at any one time, a good strategy is to have only one course with touchstones at any one time. This will allow you to work on the other courses while waiting for your grades/feedback to be posted so that you may continue on with the work. For instance, you might choose to work on the history courses while waiting to get your essays for English Composition I returned.

''Please note that the following times are not guaranteed. Your experience may include longer or shorter periods between submitting your touchstone and receiving a grade. Some people have submitted their lengthy touchstones and received a grade back almost immediately while others had to wait several weeks. It is always a good idea to budget for the worst-case scenario just in case.''

College Readiness and Foundations of English Composition have very short and easy assignments so that with these classes you can generally expect to have your touchstones returned with a grade within 1-2 business days. The others have more involved assignments that may take upwards of 5-10 business days each to get a grade, depending on how busy they are. If you are hoping to take English Composition I & II as well as Public Speaking in order to fill requirements at The Big 3, you should be ready to spend 4-6 months on those courses (currently $316-$474 total); during this time, you may be taking any/all of their other offerings while you wait for the touchstones to be graded.

Tuition Discounts
Excelsior students who take 2 Sophia courses get their application fee waived and a discounted rate on tuition; tuition discount only available when the student takes 12 credits from Excelsior itself.

Course Structure
Courses at Sophia generally consist of units that are divided into sections called challenges. As you progress through the challenges, you must answer questions based on the material presented in that section. The material may be in the form of text, videos, or audio depending on the course in question. Once you have successfully completed all of the challenges in a unit, you may take the "milestone" or chapter/unit quiz. The English Composition, College Readiness, and Public Speaking courses also have additional assignments - called Touchstones - that you must turn in to receive a grade.

Some courses have a different layout than other courses. These can be divided into the old style and the new style. With the old style, you get three chances to answer one question correctly. With the new style, you get one chance to answer one of three questions correctly. The new style layout is often both easier and more conducive to learning because you're given an extra opportunity to retain and digest the material if you didn't understand the initial question.

In order to get credit for a given course, you must have an overall grade of 70% or more.

Additional resources

 * Compiled list of courses - Links to equivalencies for COSC and Excelsior
 * Sophia.org equivalency list - Equivalencies for TESU