Homeschool students who enjoyed unit studies may wish to explore new project-based college credit options, called “competency based,”which offer flexibility and a hands-on approach to achieving an accredited college degree. Find out more through University of Wisconsin (https://flex.wisconsin.edu/faqs/), which has been a trail-blazer in this new education option. Other university systems are also developing and testing new competency based plans. Try Coursera (https://www.coursera.org ) and Edx for a variety of free college online courses from Johns Hopkins, UM, Stanford, UCSan Diego, Duke, MIT, Harvard, U-California-Berkley, U-Texas, and more. Some Coursera classes may require fees to access all material, which may be financial aid eligible; check with your educational institution to see if classes will receive transfer credit or not. Learn how some fee-based courses may be credit-eligible, at https://www.edx.org/credit . HippoCampus offers free videos in a variety of subject areas, including mathematics. Courses range from arithmetic to calculus and advanced math. Also consider options at Carnegie Mellon University's Open Learning Initiative (http://oli.cmu.edu ), Saylor Academy and free economics courses through Marginal Revolution University (George Mason Univ.). Learn about the Alternative Credit Project Ecosystem, which is “a pool of low-cost or no-cost, lower division courses and general education online courses across 20 to 30 subject areas. Participating colleges and universities agree to accept transfer credit for these courses, allowing students to enroll with up to two years of credit toward a four-year degree." (American Council on Education, College Credit Recommendation Service) Straighter Line includes some ACE accredited courses, but requires a relatively inexpensive membership fee (currently $99/monthly), offers free trial lessons (http://www.straighterline.com/landing/take-free-trial-course-cnt). ALEKS, another online course provider, has a free trial course available (https://www.aleks.com/free_trial/consumer). ALEKS has also achieved approval from ACE (American Council on Education, http://www2.acenet.edu/credit/?fuseaction=browse.main) for some of their some of their math courses. To find out more, see http://www.free-clep-prep.com/ALEKS-Math-Courses.html.
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Author/EducatorFrugal and Free Homeschool, Educational, Travel, and Family Resources. Archives
January 2021
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