Academic Prospectus For Cohort-Based & Facilitated Online Education

Our approach to student success.

At GFP, we believe that online education should be more than just digital course delivery—it should be an immersive, interactive, and supportive experience that ensures students not only complete their studies but thrive academically and personally. Our cohort-based, facilitated online education model sets us apart from conventional online programs by fostering collaboration, providing structured guidance, and ensuring consistent academic support. Unlike traditional self-paced online learning, where students often struggle with isolation and lack of engagement, our approach integrates a dedicated facilitator who works closely with student cohorts, ensuring they stay on track, receive timely feedback, and actively participate in structured peer learning activities.

One of the most critical challenges in online education is maintaining engagement and delivering the necessary academic and institutional support that students need to succeed. Research has consistently shown that students in fully online programs often experience lower completion rates due to a lack of real-time interaction and structured academic guidance. Our facilitated model directly addresses these issues by ensuring students are supported every step of the way. By leveraging group discussions, peer reviews, and a structured curriculum supported by facilitators, we replicate the benefits of in-person education in an online setting. This dynamic approach creates a vibrant learning community where students gain not just knowledge, but also essential skills in collaboration, communication, and critical thinking.

GFP’s Academic Prospectus is built around this transformative learning model, making it an ideal pathway for students seeking a high-quality online education with meaningful support. Our cohort-based structure ensures students are not left to navigate their studies alone but instead move forward with a group of peers, guided by a dedicated facilitator who provides academic oversight, encouragement, and mentorship. This combination of structured learning, personalised support, and collaborative engagement enhances student retention, improves academic outcomes, and ultimately increases the success rates of those undertaking our programs. GFP’s approach ensures that every student benefits from an online education model designed for real success.

Introduction

The Global Freshman Program has been created and developed by ISP-EduWorld (ISP-ED). ISP-ED is a strategic content education marketing company based in Australia and operating on a global basis. The brand is “Global Freshman”. Its target market is prospective international students seeking to study face-to-face and/online in the nine major destinations.

The courses for the GFP are provided by Sophia Learning, a subsidiary of Strategic
Education, Inc. (NASDAQ: STRA), a leader in enabling economic mobility through
education.

The current academic programs for the Global Freshman Program are in Business,
Computing and General Education.

The purpose of the academic program is to provide the opportunity for students to
undertake the first year of study of undergraduate courses online and transfer credit points
to a degree granting university.

The teaching and learning model for the GFP is a blended approach based on a “cohort-
model” which provides students in class groups with access online to the Sophia Learning
courses with educational partners providing in-class tutorial support. This model provides a
high level of engagement with enrolled students and processes for monitoring student
progress that is pivotal to successful student outcomes.

Academic Programs

Global Freshman Program is a course consisting of ten (10) courses made up of five (5) core
and five (5) discipline modules with articulation into second year courses at Member
Universities subject to their internal academic evaluation processes. The program of study
can be completed in less than 12 months. A summary of the program and the streams are
set out below: 

Courses

The courses of study for the Global Freshman Program are owned and distributed by Sophia
Learning, a subsidiary of Strategic Education, Inc. (NASDAQ: STRA).

Sophia Learning’s educational content experts and learning designers have developed the
courses to ensure that they can be accepted for credit at hundreds of colleges and
universities in the United States.

The Global Freshman Program works in conjunction with high-quality education partners to
provide opportunities for students to access these courses and be successful in their studies.
The courses are packaged into discrete programs of study in Business, Computing and
General Education for the GFP in a supported learning environment with Sophia Learning
responsible for content delivery and assessment and the educational partner providing in-
class support.

ACE Evaluation

The American College on Education (ACE) is the major coordinating body for two- and four-
year degree-granting colleges and universities in the United States. Courses and programs
that receive an ACE recommendation have been evaluated by a team of subject matter
experts and determined to provide a learning outcome at the collegiate level.

ACE have conducted an evaluation of Sophia Learning’s courses and determined a
recommendation for credit points based on the content, level of learning and number of
credit hours for acceptance of transfer credits by universities and colleges.

In addition to receiving ACE recommendation, the courses are all also recommended by the
Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC), an organization that evaluates distance-learning programs.

Admissions

The following are the admission requirements for the Global Freshman Program.

It is expected that students will be a minimum of 17 years of age to commence the program;
and will turn 18 prior to completion of the program. 

Documentation

All documents that are provided as evidence of English and Academic Studies must be
certified by either the awarding institution or a notary who has sighted the originals.

Global Freshman Program will accept copies that are electronically produced.
Note: All applicants will need to provide the original documents for visa purposes.

Certificates & Transcripts

Students that successfully complete the Global Freshman Program will be issued with a
transcript that shows all the details of the study in the program including name, student
number, courses completed, grades, and ACE evaluation for credit points, along with
information about the issuers.

Course Design

Sophia Learning’s course design process uses the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation (ADDIE) model, a variation of the Wiggins and McTighe Backward Design process, as well as Bloom’s taxonomy to develop each course.

This process includes the following:

Benchmark: Identify equivalent courses from higher education institutions and other providers to establish common curriculum expectations to ensure courses are transferable to a wide range of institutions.

 

Assessment: Design a combination of expert-graded written assessments and automatically graded assessments appropriate to the course curriculum.

Instruction: Create course materials and formative assessment designed to prepare students for success on summative assessments.

Production: Complete quality assurance and technical course build.

Review: Submit to ACE for credit recommendation review, revising until the credit recommendations are approved.

Courses are designed using a problem-based learning model that incorporates theoretical and practical scenarios with the following assessments:

Challenges: Formative assessments with five to 10 multiple-choice questions focused on the real-world application of concepts.

Milestones: Summative assessments with 20 to 30 questions to test mastery of the course
concepts.

Touchstones: Project-based or written assessments that help students apply the mastery of concepts to a real-world problem. Each Touchstone has a project-based deliverable that is evaluated by expert graders. All other grading is automated.

Credit Points USA

All of the Sophia Learning courses offered by ISP-Eduworld for the Global Freshman Program
have been evaluated by ACE to receive three (3) credit-points for each course. This means
that the universities and colleges in the USA that recognize the GFP will provide the
equivalent of up to a full year’s study upon successful completion of the program based on
their evaluation.