For nearly a decade, Modern States has helped learners prepare for CLEP exams and earn college credit by providing free online courses. As hundreds of thousands of learners have used our courses, we’ve gained valuable insight into what helps students stay engaged, build confidence, and successfully prepare for an exam.

Now we’re applying those lessons to a new generation of Modern States courses.

The first redesigned course, Spanish Language, is now live as a beta. It represents a new approach to course development that combines Modern States’ experience serving learners with the instructional design expertise of D2L Brightspace, a global learning technology company that helps organizations create engaging online learning experiences.

The goal is to better help learners pass CLEP exams by making courses clearer to navigate, more engaging to complete, and more supportive for learners as they build knowledge and skills over time.

For years, Modern States has provided learners with free access to high-quality college-level content. The redesigned Spanish Language course builds on that foundation with new learning activities, additional opportunities for practice, and a course structure designed to help students steadily prepare for the corresponding CLEP exam.

Language learning, in particular, benefits from repetition, context, and active participation. The redesigned Spanish course was built around that reality. Grammar is taught in context rather than in isolation. Vocabulary is organized into curated thematic lists, many with accompanying audio to support pronunciation. Lessons end with real-world reading and “realia” activities that mirror the kinds of comprehension learners will need for the CLEP exam and everyday speaking situations.

Matt Murphy, an instructional designer with D2L who worked on the project, highlighted several features that distinguish the redesigned course. Learners encounter a wider variety of activities, including listening exercises, reading comprehension tasks, dialogues, and interactive assessments that encourage them to use Spanish in meaningful ways.

The assessment experience has also been redesigned. The new course embeds practice activities, quizzes, and knowledge checks throughout, ensuring that learners regularly receive opportunities to assess their understanding and identify areas for improvement prior to taking the final exam.

Spanish Language also reflects a new development process for Modern States. The redesign was created through close collaboration between our organization and D2L, bringing together instructional designers, subject-matter experts, and new technology tools.

AI helped accelerate first drafts and supported the generation of much of the audio and visual development, while college professors shaped the instruction, reviewed the content and ensured the final experience met the standard learners deserve.

As the first of a new generation of courses, Modern States will learn from course feedback and results and will add and iterate to improve it over time. That is part of the larger goal: building courses that can evolve based on learner experience, educator feedback, and what we learn through implementation.

Spanish is the first of several major course redesigns currently underway. As additional courses are rebuilt, Modern States will continue applying lessons learned from this process to create learning experiences that are engaging, effective, and accessible to students everywhere. For learners preparing to earn college credit through CLEP, that’s what matters most: courses that help them reach their goals with confidence.

Explore the Spanish Language course