Self-paced transferable online college courses?

May 21, 2008 4:25 PM

I'm looking for reasonably priced transferable-credit online college courses that I can take at my own pace, or at least on an accelerated schedule. Is anything like this available?

I'm currently seeking an AAS in Emergency Preparedness Technology from Forsyth Tech, to be followed by a BS in Public Safety and Security Management from Western Carolina University. I work full-time and find classroom settings extremely limiting and boring. I also tend to learn new things very quickly, hence my desire to work at my own, faster pace.

posted by eratus to education (3 comments total)

You could enroll in a distance education course that requires 100% written assignments and exams and simply submit everything ahead of schedule. Then you can enroll in another course and do the same thing. Depending on how fast you work, you might be able to compress the course into a matter of weeks. However, you won't have the benefit of feedback on your studies.
posted by acoutu at 7:37 PM on May 21

Other than those offered by the local community colleges, the cheapest distance courses I've come across are Louisiana State University's distance learning program. I recall that you have nine months to finish each class, and each class runs around $300. There's also the University of Alaska, at a higher cost.

I used to work in a college's recruitment office, and we'd try to get the not-so-great students in by getting them coursework elsewhere. My boss and I spent hours and hours of searching, and LSU was the cheapest and had the broadest range of courses, and was an actual university. And offered Calculus. (Disclaimer: the last time we did the search was in 2006, things are probably a little different now. But we still go ahead and recommend Louisiana State to students anyway.)

Your local community college's online classes will probably be much, much cheaper. In California, it's $20/unit.
posted by Xere at 8:53 PM on May 21 [1 favorite]

Thanks, Xere. That helps quite a bit.
posted by eratus at 2:00 PM on May 22