When it comes to traditional education alternatives students today have many choices. The biggest hurdle though is the fact most of them cannot afford to pay for tuition; earn a degree without incurring too much debt and ensure their degree comes from an accredited institution. The surge in the availability of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) has tried to solve some of these problems by offering Free courses. The issue with the MOOCs is that they do not grant credits (yet) accepted at an accredited college or institution of higher learning.
Most of us know about the College-Level Examination Program (CLEP). I have taken some of their tests in the past myself, but what if I told there is now a way students can get ready for most of the 33 subjects tested by the program. That is exactly what Education Portal is doing by offering 31 FREE courses (with a library of over 1,100 video lectures and more in development) to anybody willing to spend the time educating themselves.
I recently sat down with Ben Wilson one of the Co-Founders of Education Portal to talk about the challenges facing many of our students today. He shared with me how Education Portal’s prep courses help students get ready to take CLEP tests and how this credit granting exam program has been overlooked through the rise of the MOOCs. The fact that we already have an existing infrastructure in place to take this kind of exams makes them a logical choice for students looking to save some money or to fast-track their studies.
Education Portal also helps students search for schools, degrees and careers in their field of choice. They have an extensive video library with almost 200 career specific videos describing typical job skills and duties as well as training and education standards for entry into that field. There is no requirement to login into their site so anybody can browse their courses and pick what interests them. All of the courses include a series of video lectures with full transcripts and quizzes that measure students knowledge.
The guys behind this concept Adrian Ridner and Ben Wilson met while taking classes at Cal Poly State University in Califonia. Their company is a true self-funded startup and one they have worked tirelessly at since 2002 to pursue their dream of making education accessible to everyone, everywhere. Their efforts have paid off, and they now run Remilon, a company which employs 50 people and has a team of over 200 instructors, course developer and contributors.
The use of CLEP tests as an alternative to traditional educational outlets is an often overlooked path towards gaining college credits while saving time and money along the way. Education Portal has built a very nice platform that I see gaining momentum as students look for ways to save money while still meeting the demands from higher education institutions. Learn more about Education Portal by visiting their website at http://education-portal.com/
