Sophia

Sophia, run by SOPHIA Learning, LLC, is an online catalog of self-paced, college-level courses built to earn transfer credit at a learner's own college or university. It is for students who need general education or introductory major courses and want to take them cheaply and on their own schedule, then send the credit to the school that grants their degree. The homepage headline is "Online college-level courses for $99 a month". The site counts "80+ online college-level courses", says courses are designed to transfer to 115+ partner colleges and have been reviewed for credit at more than 2,900 other colleges and universities, and reports "1.6 million+ courses completed and $1.7B+ in tuition saved". Sophia also lists higher education partnerships, corporate partnerships and a K12 section in its footer.

The catalog

The course menu is organized by subject, and almost every course carries 3.0 semester credits.

• Business: Business Communication, Business Data Analytics, Business Ethics, Business Law, Financial and Managerial Accounting, Healthcare Management, Human Resource Management, Introduction to Business, Operations Management, Organizational Behavior, Personal Finance, Principles of Finance, Leadership, Management and Marketing, and Project Management.
• Career Success: career and college readiness, conflict resolution, effective teams, healthcare and IT career exploration, and Workplace Writing I and II.
• Computer Science and IT: computer applications, data and digital literacy, introductions to IT, Java, Python, networking, relational databases and web development.
• English and Communication: English Composition I and II, Foundations of English Composition, Public Speaking, Visual Communications and Workplace Communication.
• Humanities: ancient Greek philosophers, religious studies, Art History I and II, critical thinking and ethics.
• Language: French I and Spanish I and II.
• Math: Calculus I, College Algebra, two statistics courses, Introduction to College Mathematics and Precalculus.
• Science: Anatomy and Physiology I and II, human biology, chemistry and microbiology, each with a separate lab course, plus environmental science, nutrition, physics, medical terminology and public health.
• Social Science: criminology, criminal justice, education, psychology, sociology, lifespan development, macro and microeconomics, social psychology, U.S. Government and U.S. History I and II.

Two course pathways, a Nursing Pathway and a Business Pathway, group courses toward a degree. The business FAQ describes the Business Pathway as "our nine-course sequence designed to support progress toward a business degree".

Course pages show real usage. Personal Finance lists a 4.81/5 rating from 19137 student reviews, 28940 students who completed it and 74 partners that accept its credit. Public Speaking shows 4.73/5 from 17865 reviews, 33939 completions and 103 accepting partners. The most enrolled business courses are Introduction to Business, with 114919 enrolled, and Project Management, with 114368.

How a course works

Every course is online and self-paced, with no start or end dates. The FAQ says a learner sets their own time commitment and can move quickly or slow down. Courses are pass/fail and graded through a fixed set of assessments. Personal Finance requires 19 Challenges (formative assessments), 5 Milestones (summative assessments), a Touchstone Task and a Touchstone, with an overall score of 70% or better. Public Speaking requires 14 Challenges, 5 Milestones and 5 Touchstones, which are project-based or written. The English FAQ says writing and reading assignments are core, assignments may include readings, written responses, essays and projects, and speaking or communication activities vary by course. A student testimonial describes doing lab experiments virtually in the science lab courses.

Two course cards give running times, three hours for Business Communication and five weeks for Business Data Analytics. Most courses work on nearly any device. Each course page offers a downloadable syllabus and learning outcomes. Prerequisites are light: the English FAQ says none are required, and the business FAQ says no business course requires them, though Sophia may recommend prior coursework for some upper-division courses and "anyone can enroll in any course at any time".

Support comes from Learning Coaches, who the site says are available "by phone, email or online chat from the start of your course to ordering your final transcript".

Credit and transfer

Sophia's case rests on credit recommendation. The homepage says the American Council on Education's recommendation service "has evaluated and recommended college credit for over 80 of Sophia's online courses", and the course pages label them "ACE & DEAC recommended". The site separates two groups of colleges. Partners have formal agreements to accept Sophia courses for credit transfer, and the partner search lists them by name and state. Transcript recipients are schools Sophia has sent transcripts to for review; for those, Sophia says to contact a registrar or advisor to see whether a course will transfer. The homepage says students have sent transcripts to nearly 3,000 colleges and universities. When the course is done, a learner requests an official Sophia transcript for delivery to the college of their choice, partner or not. Sophia's FAQs recommend checking with the receiving school before starting, since transfer policies vary by institution.

Membership and pricing

Sophia does not sell single courses. As the FAQ puts it, a member does not pay for individual courses and can take as many as they like during the membership period, with up to two active at once. There are three plans, all auto-renewing:

• 1 month: $99 per month, renews monthly.
• 4 months: $299, renews every four months, listed as 25% savings from the monthly plan.
• 12 months: $799 for the 12 month membership, renews annually, listed as 33% savings.

Prices exclude tax, which is calculated at checkout. The FAQ says there are no course registration fees and no extra charges for materials, textbooks or eBooks. The free trial covers any course "through the first challenge of a unit", needs no credit card, and the trial work counts toward course credit after joining. The 30-day money back guarantee applies when a member is not satisfied within 30 days of payment and has not completed and certified any course in that time; cancellation is done in the profile's membership settings and the refund is requested through a Learning Coach by email, phone or chat.

Who it suits

Sophia suits an adult student working toward a degree who needs general education or introductory business, IT, science or social science credit and wants it for a flat monthly fee rather than per-credit tuition. A fast, disciplined learner gets the most from the monthly plan by finishing several courses in a month; a slower one can take the 12 month plan. The partner list and the course pages make it easy to check credit before paying, and the free trial lets a student test the course format first. It suits less a learner whose college does not accept Sophia credit, or someone who wants live classes and a fixed timetable, since every course is self-paced.