Review of Study.com for those who are ADHD - Predominantly Inattentive

[sanantone]

Everyone with ADHD is different. Some might appreciate the short videos offered by Study.com. However, a lot of people with ADHD suffer from procrastination when it comes to long projects, and having over 80 quizzes to do can be daunting. In my opinion, making anyone answer over 400 quiz questions on top of taking a lengthy final is excessive and poor instructional design. I have never taken a course that has included that much in the way of assessment. With Study.com, about as much time is spent on answering questions as it is on learning the material. Imagine spending almost half of your time in a classroom taking quizzes and tests.

Study.com says that you aren't supposed to use any external materials, but the only way I could get through a Study.com course is by preparing for the proficiency exam at the beginning with the hopes of waiving most of the quizzes. Sophia has a similar format to Study.com, but their videos are of higher quality. Study.com courses come off as being very rushed in design. Each lesson consists of a transcript of a few paragraphs. The video is a very cheap one that is nothing but a narration of the few paragraphs with 1990s graphics. You're pretty much watching a PowerPoint presentation. I saw someone say that the quizzes and lessons didn't really prepare him or her for the final. I could see that because the lessons and quiz questions seemed very basic for something that's supposed to be a college-level course.

Straighterline used to be cheaper than Study.com until they recently raised their course prices to include the cost of books. However, Straighterline is still cheaper for one course or 4 or more courses in a month. It's only slightly more expensive ($6) for three courses in a month . You'll save $17 with Study.com if you take two courses in a month. I'd rather pay more for Straighterline, but I still prefer credit-by-exam.

[TESUAbroad]

I personally have ADHD and study.com's format was good for me (other than their assignments, BUS 308 was torture).

The quizzes helped fulfill the need for instant gratification that we yearn for. So after reading a lesson/watching a video, you get rewarded by progressing further towards the final. It makes you actually learn the material, as with ADHD it's sometimes easy to get lost if something is too big. It needs to be broken down for people with ADHD, and I think study.com does just that, they break it down into a hundred something lessons. Also, the small lessons are good with the quiz, as you can learn using your phone or tablet if you are sick of sitting behind a PC.
However, ADHD is a spectrum and we are all different no matter how much we try to classify everyone.

[Synicaal]

I personally have ADHD and study.com's format was good for me (other than their assignments, BUS 308 was torture).

The quizzes helped fulfill the need for instant gratification that we yearn for. So after reading a lesson/watching a video, you get rewarded by progressing further towards the final. It makes you actually learn the material, as with ADHD it's sometimes easy to get lost if something is too big. It needs to be broken down for people with ADHD, and I think study.com does just that, they break it down into a hundred something lessons. Also, the small lessons are good with the quiz, as you can learn using your phone or tablet if you are sick of sitting behind a PC.
However, ADHD is a spectrum and we are all different no matter how much we try to classify everyone.

I don't have ADHD and Business 308 was torture for me too so kudos to you for getting through it!

[cookderosa]

I don't talk much about my oldest son's learning issues, however, let me say that if Study.com were offering him a million dollars to pass one of their courses, I don't think he'd be able to do it. (yes, he did fail a Study.com course) The speed of info being thrown at you without "meat" reminded me of someone reading bullets to me on a 2x speed youtube video. Taking notes is impossible, the instructors have no pauses in their cadence, there are no critical thinking angles- just memorizing facts for a game of Trivial Pursuit at the end of the course.
I totally get that a huge chunk of people love that, I just don't happen to be one of them. SL does a much better job of providing instruction by mixing a combination of reading with watching and listening. In addition, you can use ebooks or paper books to read the content away from a computer. Study.com (and Sophia) don't offer that option, so it's 100% screen time. My kids share one computer in our schoolroom, but like to read in their rooms. They have the textbooks for their SL classes, so it's pretty simple to find a quiet corner.
(My son passed a Sophia course, but only barely, and in a subject he ALREADY took a full semester of- it was pretty much torture)

[Mamasaphire]

The speed of info being thrown at you without "meat" reminded me of someone reading bullets to me on a 2x speed youtube video. Taking notes is impossible, the instructors have no pauses in their cadence, there are no critical thinking angles- just memorizing facts for a game of Trivial Pursuit at the end of the course.

:roflol: I love your perspective!!!

It sounds much better than how I gave mine, which was that it's basically a quick review for adults who already know the subject matter.

[Mamasaphire]

Everyone with ADHD is different. Some might appreciate the short videos offered by Study.com. However, a lot of people with ADHD suffer from procrastination when it comes to long projects, and having over 80 quizzes to do can be daunting. In my opinion, making anyone answer over 400 quiz questions on top of taking a lengthy final is excessive and poor instructional design. I have never taken a course that has included that much in the way of assessment. With Study.com, about as much time is spent on answering questions as it is on learning the material. Imagine spending almost half of your time in a classroom taking quizzes and tests.

Or the 130 quizzes/650+ questions in the Stats 101 course.

I keep telling my ADHD-adult-self I should just get plugging, knock the remaining 100 out, and try the final, but got so bored after the first 30 quizzes (which I had completed in conjunction with the Research Methods in Psych), that I just haven't been able to make myself do it yet. It doesn't help that I don't need it to graduate, and am not at all interested in the topic. Lol.

[keepsingin]

The speed of info being thrown at you without "meat" reminded me of someone reading bullets to me on a 2x speed youtube video. Taking notes is impossible, the instructors have no pauses in their cadence, there are no critical thinking angles- just memorizing facts for a game of Trivial Pursuit at the end of the course.

I don't like the setup/delivery of the vids either. All the important things that you actually need to know are in bold in the lesson transcript. For that reason, I usually skip the "Susie has a problem at work, and Tom tells her this n that..." and just read the facts.

[dfrecore]

I totally get that a huge chunk of people love that, I just don't happen to be one of them. SL does a much better job of providing instruction by mixing a combination of reading with watching and listening. In addition, you can use ebooks or paper books to read the content away from a computer. Study.com (and Sophia) don't offer that option, so it's 100% screen time. My kids share one computer in our schoolroom, but like to read in their rooms. They have the textbooks for their SL classes, so it's pretty simple to find a quiet corner.

I know I'm old-school, but I just really don't love reading in front of a computer screen. I MUCH prefer having a textbook that I can read at the table while my daughter does her schoolwork.

My kids also like having "real" books and textbooks. My daughter is reading a novel for school, and I offered to get it as a Kindle download for her, but she declined. She likes curling up on the couch with the novel. My son has told me that he hates his 2 classes where everyone is sitting in front of the computer to do their work - he much prefers his other classes where they sit in traditional rows/columns and look at the teacher and interact, and have a textbook open to look at. And he's gone from homeschooling to traditional school this year, so he has no experience with any "real" schooling at all - and still prefers traditional.

I can see where some people would want to have a mixture of videos and reading, but all video-based would drive me nuts. I did Sophia, and read transcripts more than I watched the videos.

[davewill]

Ugh! I'm ADHD, and to me, there's nothing worse than having to labor through a "read the slides" type presentation. Even staring at the wall draws my attention over that. Small bite-sized chunks wouldn't be bad, though.

P.S. I'm always a bit mystified by folks who tell me they prefer "real" books...for instance my whole family. I can just as easily "curl up" with my 7" tablet as I can with a paper book... Plus I can control text style and size and have access to instant dictionaries and the like. I can also read any book I like whenever I have down time.

[dfrecore]

Ugh! I'm ADHD, and to me, there's nothing worse than having to labor through a "read the slides" type presentation. Even staring at the wall draws my attention over that. Small bite-sized chunks wouldn't be bad, though.

P.S. I'm always a bit mystified by folks who tell me they prefer "real" books...for instance my whole family. I can just as easily "curl up" with my 7" tablet as I can with a paper book... Plus I can control text style and size and have access to instant dictionaries and the like. I can also read any book I like whenever I have down time.

I prefer my Kindle for novels - my Paperwhite, which I can read in the dark while my husband sleeps, if the best gift I ever got. And now, if I'm ever reading a real book, sometimes I forget and touch a word - expecting to get a definition! Lol!

But I don't like textbooks on a screen. My Kindle is too small for it (I need a large font to read), and I hate sitting in front of my computer screen reading.

My son says he likes the smell of real books. You can't duplicate that with a screen. My daughter likes the feel of the paper, and actually turning the pages.