How Can I Complete My Bachelor’s Degree Fast?

As a provider of gen ed courses, Sophia can be useful for learners who want to finish their bachelor’s degrees fast. The platform offers flexible, self-paced content, and because courses are designed to transfer to many colleges and universities, Sophia can help students earn their degrees fast while potentially saving money.

Nick White, chief learning officer at Sophia, offers an inside look at the advantages of learning through Sophia, some user experiences, and what kinds of offerings the Sophia team is developing for the future.

What are some general advantages for learners who use Sophia?

Sophia is set up for people who want to pursue an alternative path to education. It’s self-paced and learners can choose which courses work best for them. Sophia was designed for adults and college students – people who have busy lives and tend to fit learning in during breaks in other coursework, while traveling, working, etc.

We’ve found that Sophia can also give people confidence in their studies, especially if they’ve been out of school for a little while, or they’re not used to online learning. Sophia can be a great introduction to this kind of flexible, on-demand content, letting students give it a try for the first time. A lot of our students take what they learned through Sophia and go into their college or university with more momentum.

How can Sophia augment a degree program? 

We hear lots of different stories from our students. Historically, the most typical way people use Sophia is to take care of their general education requirements. They can also use Sophia courses for elective requirements. When students are doing an internship or studying abroad, Sophia can help them continue their progress with their studies.

Sophia also helps with remediation (i.e., when a student needs to brush up or get additional support with a specific area of learning). For instance, when taking a course such as statistics, students can use Sophia to either prepare for it or take Sophia at the same time. This approach helps them sharpen their skills – since Sophia is a subscription, it’s always available to students, whenever they’d like the platform’s help.

Can Sophia help learners complete their degrees fast? If so, how?

Sophia can fill gaps in a traditional degree program. Students can accrue credits or, in some cases, use Sophia to test out of certain courses, depending on the college or university and the courses themselves. 

"Sophia coursework can be done as quickly as students want and they’ll be evaluated by Sophia instructors along the way. Through this model, Sophia can help students accrue credits fast."

It’s worth noting that some colleges and universities differ in their policies. It’s helpful for students who want to accelerate through a degree program using Sophia to choose a school that accepts Sophia courses for transfer credit.

What are some of Sophia students’ favorite things about the platform?

There are some common themes in the conversations we’ve had with our students. One is that they’ve learned a lot through Sophia. They find it rigorous, helpful, and easy to navigate. They also appreciate how, because we use an interactive textbook, the user experience is not fragmented – it’s all in one place.

We’re proud to offer a strong curriculum and custom-built platform that makes learning intuitive and relatively simple. It’s also a success/mastery model. We want everyone to succeed in their courses, so there’s lots of practice and assessment as they go along. There’s also a learning coach to help if a student is struggling. Sophia allows multiple attempts, and if a student wants to succeed, they can. Unlike a lot of college courses, Sophia lets students proceed only when they’re ready.

How is Sophia evolving? What can users expect in the coming months/years?

We’re always exploring new options and tools to help students succeed. We analyze user data and see where students might be struggling and then adjust our approach accordingly. This includes providing new interactive content and ways for students to engage with it.

We’re also continually adding new courses: over the past few years, we’ve launched lab courses, language courses, and IT courses. Our science options now include nursing courses to help those interested in entering that profession.

When we create courses for Sophia, we look at existing options at other schools to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Sophia is designed to be useful, credible, and very much in line with similar content at other institutions. Because of this, we’re confident that Sophia will continue to support students and their goals as our offerings evolve.

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