Alzee's TESC degree plan for ASBA

Introduction
This is my current degree plan for an ASBA @ TESC for the 2015-2016 curriculum. This is not an exhaustive list of courses or tests that will work for this degree, it's just what I've personally done, with the goal to be as fast as possible. I've used StraighterLine for a lot of the courses, since it can be just as inexpensive as taking CLEPs but requires far less study and is nearly a "guaranteed" pass.

While I cannot guarantee that these courses will be accepted in the future, or even for you at present, unless otherwise noted they were all accepted with no issues for me.

I focus on StraighterLine because all of their non-final exams are open book, as are some of the proctored finals and the first test in each course can be retaken as many times as you like. This makes these courses much more like traditional school, with 70-80% of your grade coming from open book "homework" exams.

Current Status and Courses
Starting in June 2016, there is a required 1cr Cornerstone course. Also, since June of 2016, the Penn Foster BUS-425 "Strategic Business Management" course, while still ACE approved and accepted by TESU, no longer counts as the BSBA Capstone so there is no point in taking it. Take the TECEP instead, sanantone reports that it is fairly easy to pass with a little study of IC & quizlet flashcards.

Course Notes
(1) The most time consuming SL course for us "shy" types. Requires you to create and submit a few unlisted youtube videos. You can delete them after they are graded. Once you work up the nerve, you'll pass, no problem.

(2) ALEKS courses are almost painfully easy. As soon as you've passed an assessment at 70% or higher, login to your ACE account and request a transcript from ALEKS. You do not have to complete the ALEKS course. Be careful about what course you take since not all of them are credit granting. Do not switch from one course to another before the previous one shows up on your ACE transcript.

(3) This is an online, free ethics course from the American Institute for Chartered Property(... long name ...) that is very easy. It only counts as two credits, but it satisfies the ethics requirement. In my evaluation, TESC added the missing credit to the "Knowledge of human cultures" category, requiring me to get 10 credits in that area instead of the usual 9; for some, it's moved to general education electives instead.

(4) An easy but absolutely TERRIBLE course for anyone who is in IT. If you're not in IT, it'll be easier, since the truth won't be getting in the way of answering the quiz questions. I'd say about 1/3 of the quiz questions are ok, 1/3 are blatantly wrong but covered in the material, and 1/3 are blatantly wrong and not covered in the material. Another big issue is that many of them are "select all that apply" questions rather than "select one", and there is no partial credit -- Picking 3 of the 4 right things doesn't give you 3/4 of the points for that question, you score 0.

(5) Saylor courses are free, you just have to pay for the proctoring. I took this course because, by trade, I am a programmer and sysadmin with over 20 years experience. Was easy, given that. Only specifics you really have to know are related to Java file I/O like BufferedReader, as there are a half-dozen or so questions on that topic.

(6) I took and passed this one before looking to see if StraighterLine had a class that would satisfy the requirement. Wasn't bad, though it is Saylor -- so things are a bit of a mess. Everything on the exam is covered by the course.

(7) I took this course before the Accounting I/II courses, because I didn't read carefully. It is counted by TESU as "Intermediate Accounting I" (ACC-201), which is a requirement for the BSBA in Accounting, for those who may be moving on to that. I also completed Managerial Accounting, which comes over as "Intermediate Accounting II" (ACC-202), also required for the accounting BSBA. These two courses are definitely tougher than the 100 level courses.

Costs and Time
This is the mind blowing part of all this, for me anyway. So far, this has cost me next to nothing, and I am almost done with this degree. I have not had to leave the house, since I have not yet taken the College Comp CLEP. The rough cost breakdown so far is this:


 * $40 for two months of ALEKS access. Honestly you only need one, I took the wrong course there initially, then kept pushing on well past 80% in one of them because I thought it would prompt me for a "final." It doesn't.  When you get to over 70%, request credit via ACE, and once you have it, switch to the other course.
 * $600 for six months of access to StraighterLine.
 * $1000 for the ~15 StraighterLine courses I've taken. This is a guess, these courses are usually $45-75 each.  Textbook is included for some, proctoring is included for all.
 * $100 for proctorU to proctor the two Saylor courses. I think the proctoring was $50/shot but I can't remember for sure.
 * $70 to enroll at TESC under the per-credit tuition plan.
 * $50 to transfer credits from ACE to TESC. I've done this more than once, as i like to have a concrete indication of progress.  I believe the first transfer is $50, each subsequent one is $15.
 * $2000 for the TESU "residency waiver" fee.

When all is said and done, I am looking at about $4500 for this degree, if I decide to actually graduate with it. I am not making that decision until TESU can tell me definitively if paying the waiver once will mean it is waived for all time or not. If not, then I will not bother actually getting this ASBA and will just continue on to a BSBA.