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| Our Mission, Vision and Values |
In 2016 a group of college faculty go together to discuss the issue of college costs and the growing levels of student debt. Listening to the politicians and their ideas of how to "fix" it one thing was clear; No one was addressing the actual problem of how to reduce tuition costs without affecting the quality of their education or passing the cost onto tax payers. With the push to online course formats and shifting the learning approach from face to face instructor presence to a "teach themselves" type approach an alternative was needed to reduce cost and prepare students for the online approach.
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The strange thing about this was that there was already a solution that could do this called "Credit by Examination". It had been around for over half a century in one form or another but most students didn’t know about it and even fewer used it. The best known "Credit by Examination" program is the College Level Examination Program (CLEP). This program has been around for over 40 years and
is operated by the College Board, which also handles the SAT and the Advanced Placement (AP) programs. CLEP tests are offered in most subjects taught in the first two years of an undergraduate degree program. There are more than 2,900 colleges grant credit for one or more CLEP examinations, making it the most widely recognized college credit by examination program. However, less than 10% of college student know about it and only 2% make use of it.
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The problem with CLEP and other test-out programs was two-fold, most students didn’t know such programs were available and those that do are under the impression that it is only for students who already had a good understanding of the subjects. We at Avatar Virtual Learning want to correct this by publicize the availability of a test-out option or course credit and to encourage students to develop a self-directed approach to learning to better aid them when taking online college courses. |
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