Study.com's Personal Finance course - terrible!

[dfrecore]

I just finished, and it was torture.  Very repetitive, but also didn't include things they should, or included things they shouldn't.  And it was like they took all of the things they wanted to teach, wrote them on a piece of paper, put them in a hat, and then pulled out 10 things and made a chapter out of it - there was zero flow to the course.  It was odd.  I took the DSST exam for this and thought it covered things you actually needed to know.

Then there's the whole "quiz" thing, which in no way reflects the material you're actually tested on.  The quizzes are totally useless.  The chapter exams were much more along the lines of the exam, so I'm really not sure why quizzes are required (they shouldn't be) but chapter tests aren't (and they should be).  Just a weird way to set up this course.

I have 5 more to take, and I sincerely hope they are better than this one.  A terrible introduction to the study.com universe if there ever was one!

[eriehiker]

So you didn't like it?

[Ideas]

They seem to repeat the main concepts to make sure you know and remember those. Some people like how they "drill it into your head". Especially if think it's a harder concept, they might have multiple lessons with the same topic, each with one new piece of information to build upon the concept. However, especially for an LL course, sometimes they are pretty simple concepts. This is part of why people say it's high school level material. They teach it like you're in HS and need all the hand holding, at least for some concepts of some courses.

[dfrecore]

They seem to repeat the main concepts to make sure you know and remember those. Some people like how they "drill it into your head". Especially if think it's a harder concept, they might have multiple lessons with the same topic, each with one new piece of information to build upon the concept. However, especially for an LL course, sometimes they are pretty simple concepts. This is part of why people say it's high school level material. They teach it like you're in HS and need all the hand holding, at least for some concepts of some courses.

Naw, if it was just that, I wouldn't complain.  It's truly terrible in their being all over the place with the different concepts.  Just random.  I would expect a chapter on credit to go over what's credit, what's a credit score, different things that affect it, how you can improve it, how it can get ruined, etc.  For whatever reason, credit scores don't come in until Chapter 3/Lesson 4, and FICO isn't until Ch3/Lesson 6.  Then they throw in Present & Future Value of Money and Maturity Dates of Loans, neither of which have anything at all to do with Credit.  Oh, and they only present debt as a good thing, a tool, without really going over all of the problems you may have.  Never discuss defaulting on a loan.  Getting in over your head.  Having too many credit cards (also can be a problem for your FICO score).

Things are just really presented in a kooky, random order.  It's like no one spent time trying to organize it into logical chapters.

I would NOT suggest my child go through this course at all.

[sanantone]

I just finished, and it was torture.  Very repetitive, but also didn't include things they should, or included things they shouldn't.  And it was like they took all of the things they wanted to teach, wrote them on a piece of paper, put them in a hat, and then pulled out 10 things and made a chapter out of it - there was zero flow to the course.  It was odd.  I took the DSST exam for this and thought it covered things you actually needed to know.

Then there's the whole "quiz" thing, which in no way reflects the material you're actually tested on.  The quizzes are totally useless.  The chapter exams were much more along the lines of the exam, so I'm really not sure why quizzes are required (they shouldn't be) but chapter tests aren't (and they should be).  Just a weird way to set up this course.

I have 5 more to take, and I sincerely hope they are better than this one.  A terrible introduction to the study.com universe if there ever was one!

I told you that Study.com's course designers are downright terrible. Does anyone ever wonder how Study.com pumps out all these new courses so quickly? They put just enough effort to get ACE approval, and now they're favoring NCCRS approval because NCCRS hands out UL recommendations like candy.

[dfrecore]

I told you that Study.com's course designers are downright terrible. Does anyone ever wonder how Study.com pumps out all these new courses so quickly? They put just enough effort to get ACE approval, and now they're favoring NCCRS approval because NCCRS hands out UL recommendations like candy.

Ugh.  Not looking forward to taking more, even though they're free.  But, I am really hoping that the rest are better...

I know you had a thing for spoon-feeding tiny bites, and I get that complaint as it's not really college-level learning.  Mine is more along the lines of requiring the quizzes which have NOTHING to do with the final exam.  I mean, what is the point of that?  Why wouldn't they require the chapter tests instead, which are much closer to preparing you for the final?

And why isn't SL putting out more courses??  I can't figure that one out either.

[jsd]

I never did the optional chapter tests, but the three Study.com courses I did seemed to mostly take final exam questions from the quizzes. Not identical wording but similar concepts. So hopefully it will get better for you.

But the spoon-feeding complaint that Sanantone has won't get any better for you, they're all like that. I get the complaint, but it worked well for me because I have a terrible attention span so I liked the small chunks of info at a time and the instant gratification of getting the quiz questions right.

The presentation could be a little more "adult," but I get the impression their target audience was initially high school kids looking to get a jump on ACE credit.

[Ideas]

Yep, a lot of people like the bite-sized quizzes. Also, for someone who is struggling with the material, if you end up getting questions wrong, and redoing the quiz 2 or 3 times, then it takes longer. Still short enough with retakes to be done in between other activities.

[Doodlebabe]

My personal favorite: talking about off-shore bank accounts to avoid taxes. Really? Is that truly something we're encouraging young, impressionable adults to look into?
I'm doing Hist 108, one of the Vietnam war options, and oooof. It's a quick class, I only started it on Monday and I could've been done by now if I wanted but I was just tired of listening to the same concepts over and over again so I'm spacing it out over the week (honestly, even spacing it out I'll likely still be done and just do my final on tomorrow instead of the weekend to be done with it). The quizzes seem unnecessary given the actual final questions are completely different and it gets just plain boring to read/listen/watch the same thing over and over again.
I know people aren't fans of Schmoop but I think I'm looking forward to the challenge compared to Study!

[sanantone]

I told you that Study.com's course designers are downright terrible. Does anyone ever wonder how Study.com pumps out all these new courses so quickly? They put just enough effort to get ACE approval, and now they're favoring NCCRS approval because NCCRS hands out UL recommendations like candy.

Ugh.  Not looking forward to taking more, even though they're free.  But, I am really hoping that the rest are better...

I know you had a thing for spoon-feeding tiny bites, and I get that complaint as it's not really college-level learning.  Mine is more along the lines of requiring the quizzes which have NOTHING to do with the final exam.  I mean, what is the point of that?  Why wouldn't they require the chapter tests instead, which are much closer to preparing you for the final?

And why isn't SL putting out more courses??  I can't figure that one out either.

That wasn't my only complaint. The courses don't fail to be at the college level due to the spoon feeding. They fail to be at the college level because the material and concepts are not at the college level. It's similar to the difference between social studies in elementary school and history in college or Algebra I in high school and college algebra. What you learn in college is more advanced.

My other complaint is that they require an astronomical number of quizzes that are nothing but time wasters.

---

My personal favorite: talking about off-shore bank accounts to avoid taxes. Really? Is that truly something we're encouraging young, impressionable adults to look into?
I'm doing Hist 108, one of the Vietnam war options, and oooof. It's a quick class, I only started it on Monday and I could've been done by now if I wanted but I was just tired of listening to the same concepts over and over again so I'm spacing it out over the week (honestly, even spacing it out I'll likely still be done and just do my final on tomorrow instead of the weekend to be done with it). The quizzes seem unnecessary given the actual final questions are completely different and it gets just plain boring to read/listen/watch the same thing over and over again.
I know people aren't fans of Schmoop but I think I'm looking forward to the challenge compared to Study!

I find it hard to believe that Study.com hires subject matter experts. They definitely don't hire people who are competent in instructional design and pedagogy.

What's the point of grasping the information if it's

1. Wrong
2. Doesn't even come close to covering the full breadth of material
3. At the high school level?

I don't understand pretending to care about learning a subject, but not caring to learn it at the college level. In the end, you're just checking the box, so don't pretend you care about learning. If you actually cared about learning, you would be opting for better classes.