Course Introduction
Welcome to Saylor Academy! We are happy you will be part of our growing community of learners, as you embark on a new educational journey!
Here are a few things you need to do to get started, whether you have decided to take one or more of our free online course offerings or you are helping us prepare or update a Saylor Academy course. We are happy to help you learn about Saylor Academy and so glad you are part of our team!
To begin, click on the course syllabus link below.
Unit 1: Creating a Saylor Academy Account
Saylor Academy courses are free! While learners can view most course materials without signing in or creating an account, we hope you will take an extra minute to do both of these things, so we can provide you with a richer and more dynamic learning experience.
In the first unit of this course, you will learn how to create and update your account information. You will move through the learning material in your course by completing each of the units and activities in order. For example, begin by clicking on the link to Unit 1. When you complete the activity in subunit 1.2, move on to Unit 2.
Completing this unit should take approximately 15 minutes.
Unit 2: Enrolling in Courses
Now that you have created an account, you can enroll in any of Saylor Academy's 90+ courses. In this unit, we will show you how to enroll in a course and where you can find lists and descriptions for all of Saylor Academy's courses. We invite you to enroll in Saylor001 and any other Saylor Academy course you would like to take and master!
Remember that all of Saylor Academy's courses are free and self-paced. This means you can get online and complete your coursework at any time that is convenient to you: there are no start or end dates.
Completing this unit should take approximately 45 minutes.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- identify the important elements of Saylor Academy courses;
- enroll in Saylor Academy courses; and
- access your courses from anywhere on learn.saylor.org.
2.1: Exploring the Course Catalog
- This video will introduce you to the Saylor Academy's suite of courses.
Note: The second half of the video describes a "pathways" page that has changed. Please refer to the new certificate programs here.
Click this link to be taken to the Saylor Academy course catalog. Each course has a short description that will give you a general idea of what it contains and how you might use what you learn. Click on the name of a course to see its introduction and syllabus, which will give you more detailed information.
2.2: Exploring a Course
We believe that before learners enroll in a course, they need to know what they are getting into so they can make an informed decision on how to plan their work and personal lives to achieve academic success.
Saylor Academy learners have access to all of our online course materials for free. There is no charge to access any learning materials, to log in, or to register before enrolling in a course. We offer learners, teachers, and anyone else the ability to review the course content, requirements, and activities so you can decide whether it meets your needs and is right for you.
Take a moment to see how easy it is to search for a course to take at Saylor Academy:
- Click on the link to go to the course catalog.
- Use our search feature or list of courses to find a course that sounds interesting.
- Click on the course name to visit its page.
Now you can delve deeper:
- Read the "course introduction" to get a more detailed overview of what is in the course.
- Click the Course Syllabus link to see the learning objectives, how long it should take to complete, its requirements, and how you can get college credit once you pass the final exam (if it is a credit-recommended course).
- Explore the course's units and topics from the main page or via the navigation block on the left side of the page.
After doing this, you should have the information you need to decide if you would like to enroll in the course.
- Click on the link to go to the course catalog.
2.3: Enrolling in a Course
This short video describes how to enroll in a Saylor Academy course from its page.
A great way to practice how to enroll in a course is to enroll in the course you visited earlier.
Click on this link to return to the course catalog. After enrolling in a course that seems interesting, return to this page and enroll in Saylor001.
2.4 Accessing your Courses
Watch this video to learn some tips on how you can access any of the courses you have enrolled in, quickly and easily
Click this link to go back to the homepage. Using what you learned in the last video, navigate to the first course you enrolled in (not Saylor001). Once you are on that course page, use what you learned about navigating to courses to come back to the Saylor001 course page.
Unit 2 Unit Assessments
Now that you are officially enrolled in Saylor001, you can click on the link below to try taking one of our quizzes or unit assessments, which only learners who are enrolled in a course can access.
We encourage you to complete any unit assessments you see in your courses. These allow you to test your knowledge, practice, and make sure you are on track to succeed in the course. We will automatically let you know if you have answered each question correctly, give you the correct answer if you submitted an incorrect response, and offer additional feedback to help you understand the course material.
Your performance on these unit assessments does not factor into your final grade—you can take them as many times as you wish until you feel comfortable with the material. There is no waiting period between each attempt. They will also give you a sense of the kinds of questions you may encounter in your final exam. For questions that require you to write a short answer or an essay, we will give you a scoring rubric that will help you assess your writing.
To pass a Saylor Academy course, you must earn a score of 70 percent or higher on the final exam. Final exams will test you on all of the learning objectives in the course. If you want to receive a higher score, you may retake the final exam as many times as you wish. However, you must wait seven days in between each final exam attempt. For final exams, you will not see the correct answers for questions you got wrong, and the questions you see each time you attempt final exam will be different.
Unit 3: Navigating Your Course
You should now feel pretty comfortable with the structure and formatting of Saylor Academy's courses. In this unit, we will review and then introduce you to some additional navigation tools.
Completing this unit should take approximately 40 minutes.
Unit 4: Completing a Course
Now that you know how to register with Saylor Academy, locate and enroll in courses, navigate through a course, and complete assessments, we now focus on how you can complete a course.
We define success at Saylor Academy as whatever you want it to be.
Saylor Academy's community is composed of learners from all over the world, who have a wide variety of backgrounds, and many reasons for choosing to take a course from us.
For example:
- you may want to apply what you learn at Saylor to your college degree program;
- you may want to revisit a discipline you have studied in the past, brush up on your skills for a new work assignment, learn what you need to know to pass a college entrance exam, or prepare to earn a new credential for your workplace;
- you may simply want to learn about a new topic or subject area you have never explored before; or
- you may simply want to catch up on the latest Saylor Tangent Video.
Saylor Academy hopes to recognize the accomplishments of all of our learners, regardless of your ultimate goals, how many courses you enroll in, even if you are not interested in taking a final exam or earning a Saylor certificate. In this unit, we discuss how Saylor Academy scores its cumulative final exams and how you can earn a Saylor certificate of completion. We will also discuss how you can help us improve our courses by completing a course evaluation survey.
Completing this unit should take approximately 30 minutes.