New Platform Melds Course Content With College Credit Exam

The Center for Educational Measurement at Excelsior College and Cengage have come up with a new way for adult learners to earn college credit. The institution and ed tech provider partnered to launch CourXam (pronounced korzam), a personalized mobile platform that combines course content with a college credit exam.

"CourXam ... is an innovative educational product developed by Excelsior College and Cengage that addresses the critical concerns of today's higher education students: portability, convenience and affordability," explained Nurit Sonnenschein, general manager of Excelsior's Center for Educational Measurement, in a statement.  "A CourXam is a college option where a student can learn when they want and how they want — on their laptop, their tablet and even their phone." 

The product is launching with five CourXams focused on criminal justice, with MBA CourXams planned for 2018. Each criminal justice CourXam costs $450, which includes learning materials, an e-book, a full-length practice exam and the college credit exam. All learning materials — lessons, activities, readings, videos and graphics — are "built to the exacting specifications of a team of criminal justice professors from several colleges, including Excelsior College," according to a news release. Students have up to six months to complete the CourXam; those who earn a grade of C or better on the college credit exam get three credits that can be used toward earning a degree in criminal justice at Excelsior College.

Features of the platform include:

  • A "Learning Path" that welcomes and guides students through each CourXam;
  • "Show What You Know" quizzes that help students focus only on material they need to learn;
  • Pacing guides to help students make the most of their time;
  • "Check Your Knowledge" quizzes for showing which learning objectives need further study;
  • "Dig In!" sections that provide a deeper dive into each lesson's content;
  • Module quizzes for assessing mastery of all lessons in module; and
  • Proctoring options that allow students to choose their own proctoring solution (for an additional fee, paid directly to the proctor company).

For more information, visit the CourXam site.

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

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