At the end of 2016, I decided to change career paths. I was soon to be engaged, ready to start a family, and needed a steady income. So I thought I’d like to be a psychiatric nurse. Since I already had my Liberal Arts degree, which I completed through testing out, I was hoping to be admitted to a 12-month accelerated bachelor of science in nursing.
Some schools, I found, required more re reqs for nursing than others. Thankfully I’d already CLEPed out of Intro. Psychology, Intro Sociology, Human Growth and Development, and Educational Psychology, so I didn’t have to worry about those. Mostly, I just needed these prerequisites for nursing: Anatomy and Physiology I & II, and Microbiology.
Since I was living abroad, I needed to complete them online. Many online classes, however, can only be begun at certain periods of the year. I wanted to begin now. Not wait. I also wanted the courses to be accelerated so I could fly through them and hurry up and get enrolled in a nursing program as soon as possible. Another difficulty was, I needed to complete labs with the science courses. My options were limited. I found some schools that would send you a lab kit in the mail, but I didn’t think they’d send them overseas. Plus, I was looking to do the least work possible. Therefore, online labs were preferred.
After much research, I found Portage Learning, which I talked about briefly in the past after I’d completed my first course with them: Introduction to Statistics. Well, in 2017, I completed 3 more courses with them: A&P 1 and 2, Microbiology, and Chemistry. Each of these is worth 4 credits. In January 2018, I could begin nursing school. Now I will discuss the good and the bad.
How it Works
You can begin Portage courses anytime you want. As soon as you pay for a course, you pretty much have instant access. You take a practice test, then the instructor will grant you access to the rest of the course after he grades it, usually the following weekday.
The study materials consist of reading modules, usually with accompanying videos which might be animated or feature an instructor. You can print out the reading material if you choose, which I sometimes did to make highlights and scribble notes. At the end of each chapter are open-ended questions, many of them asking you to define key terms – which were often bolded in the text – in your own words. Once you submit your answers, you can’t go back and change them. They’re not graded, however. I believe the instructor just checks to make sure you completed them and that you did not copy and paste your answers.
Once you complete each module, you have to complete an exam on the material you just learned before you can advance to the next module. These exams are worth 100 points. You’re not supposed to use any material to help you. However, you are not being watched. No need to turn on your webcam.
If taking a science course, there are labs. Anatomy and Physiology I, for example, had six modules and eight labs. Labs consist of watching an instructor do an experiment, whether it be a dissection or simply showing you the proper way to add a culture to a petri dish. The videos may be as short as 30 minutes or as long as 120. After each lab, there is a quiz worth 30 points.
After completing all modules and labs, you can take the final exam. A&P’s was worth 120 points. Again, it is a closed book exam, but you are not monitored. After completing the final exam and it is graded, you receive your final grade and the course is marked complete.
The Good
Since tests aren’t monitored you can get away with using study materials are searching the web for answers. I’d print out the material. Or save it on my computer, that way I could use ‘control +f’ to quickly search terms.
While watching the lab videos, you can pause them at any time to take notes. What I ended up doing because I got tired of pausing the video every 5 seconds to write down every little thing that I thought might be on the quiz, was to simply let the video play all the way through without stopping while taking a screen recording with Quick Time Player on my Mac. I’d also scribble down at what times in the video certain key terms were discussed. Because the tests and quizzes are timed, by the way. For module exams, you’ll have plenty of time. For lab quizzes, you’ll have less.
Doing what I did above will score you easy A’s. Except for chemistry since a lot of those questions are of the type you can’t simply Google search the answers.
Another good thing: at no cost, you can easily have your Portage transcripts mailed to any school you choose.
The Bad
Some modules can be very time-consuming, especially if you’re actually reading through everything, watching all the videos, and using substitute materials for better understanding. It took me about four weeks to complete each course. But you could skip through it faster depending on how much time you have and how little you care to absorb.
It’s not hands-on learning. One of my classmates in nursing school said they had to identify all the bones of the body while blindfolded.
Compared to community college courses, Portage Learning can be expensive. Anatomy & Physiology I & II are $792 each, for example.
Many schools do not accept online science nursing pre-requisites, especially if the labs were online too. I wasted some money on application fees because one school did not explicitly state this on their admission requirements page. Even an expensive private school did not accept me because of this. So make sure you find out beforehand.
In Conclusion
If you’re in a hurry, have the cash and want some easier A’s, and you have confirmed your school will accept online courses, then Portage Learning is a good solution. Just try to have a school or two in mind that you’ll have a good chance of getting into beforehand. That way you won’t waste money on unnecessary courses like I did on Chemistry and Statistics.