Straighterline Removed PROCTORING!

[SophiaPrincess]

As my name implies, I earned most of my undergrad through Sophia. I have two younger sisters about to start college classes. How do StraighterLine courses compare to Sophia? Quality of material? Speed? My parents were planning on subscribing to Sophia's annual plan @ $599 each. Is StraighterLine better?

[Jonathan Whatley]

As my name implies, I earned most of my undergrad through Sophia. I have two younger sisters about to start college classes. How do StraighterLine courses compare to Sophia? Quality of material? Speed? My parents were planning on subscribing to Sophia's annual plan @ $599 each. Is StraighterLine better?

I’ve used both Sophia and StraighterLine recently. StraighterLine has become more competitive now than they used to be. Which is best for you will depend on individual factors, especially if there are specific courses you need or prefer, either as to subject or as to how your destination school will accept it.

StraighterLine Checkpoints are similar to Sophia Challenges: Self-paced review questions. Each small bundle of Checkpoint questions forms an untimed mini-test. You have three attempts at each bundle, and the best attempt is used in your grade, and the re-attempts use the exact same questions in my experience.

StraighterLine Benchmarks are similar to Sophia Milestones: Timed tests. You have three attempts at each, and the best attempt is used in your grade. The re-attempts might not use the same questions in my experience. Some courses may have a final Cumulative Benchmark with one attempt.

StraighterLine Capstones are similar to Sophia Touchstones: Assignments, in a variety of formats including short paper, slides, and video of the student making a simple presentation. If you score under 90% you will have one re-attempt opportunity.

StraighterLine assignment grading is typically faster than Sophia in my recent experience. It’s similarly friendly, maybe somewhat more likely to knock you down a few points here and there for something subjective. Still I got 96.8% in Business Communication, heavy in subjective assignments.

StraighterLine questions are more likely to have wording ambiguities or apparent errors in my experience. However, each time I’ve been able to figure out what the writer meant and give them that answer on a retake.

Unlike Sophia’s maximum of two active courses at one time – now a hard maximum, they’re now no longer letting people add a third course while they’re waiting for any assignment grade, and students have complained that’s a form of throttling – StraighterLine appears to allow unlimited active courses at one time.

StraighterLine seems to have a little more variability of one course design being different from the next than the more standardized Sophia.

StraighterLine courses use the Moodle learning management system commonplace for online courses, unlike Sophia’s and Study.com’s highly customized, gamified front-ends.

StraighterLine courses use good electronic textbooks, and often license a paid commercial textbook unlike Sophia.

StraighterLine science lab courses require lab kits which must be purchased from a third-party company.

StraighterLine Checkpoints and Benchmarks are un-proctored and in my experience open-book. There’s an important caveat in the Academic Integrity and Honesty policy in my experience: They’re not open-Internet. You can look up information in the electronic textbook (which has an easy outline to jump to a section and full-text search to jump to a passage) and course materials. But you agree not to look up information from the Internet, including artificial intelligence services like ChatGPT and review sites like Quizlet, during the assessment.

StraighterLine has some courses that will now meet a requirement at UMPI which the equivalent Sophia course will not, including IIRC Business Communication and Managerial Accounting toward a UMPI Business Administration major. Similarly, StraighterLine Western Civilization I and II IIRC count toward a UMPI History and Political Science major, whereas the equivalent Study.com courses will not, and Sophia has no equivalents.

You can preview the StraighterLine platform: click on “Get Started Free” near the top left of the main page.

You can review the syllabus for each StraighterLine course: On the public-facing page for each course, under the heading “About This Course,” click on “Download Syllabus.”

[wow]

This is an amazing comparison. Jonathan, can I add this to the Straighterline page on the Wiki?

[Jonathan Whatley]

This is an amazing comparison. Jonathan, can I add this to the Straighterline page on the Wiki?

Thank you, and yes!

[PearsonOTHMQualifi7654]

Thanks for this amazing overview!  

What's a really good way to record a presentation if a capstone requires it? 

I am learning that one can record themselves on PowerPoint while giving a presentation, and also on Teams, but what if I just want to record a simple presentation that I am giving?  The way you described, it sounded like there wasn't a PowerPoint required in that example. Maybe the student can record themselves using the Moodle LMS?

[Jonathan Whatley]

What's a really good way to record a presentation if a capstone requires it? 

I am learning that one can record themselves on PowerPoint while giving a presentation, and also on Teams, but what if I just want to record a simple presentation that I am giving?  The way you described, it sounded like there wasn't a PowerPoint required in that example.

In Business Communication, you record a video cover letter. Part of the screen will be you speaking on video, part a simple accompanying slideshow you have composed (on your choice of PowerPoint, Google Slides, Apple Keynote, etc.). StraighterLine sent students to a third-party website that created videos from browser-based screen recording as a free ad-supported web service. I didn’t like how this website worked so I achieved the same result my own way using Camera and Keynote.

In Art Appreciation, there’s a technically similar assignment where you record a video presentation about artwork of your choice. Part of the screen will be you speaking on video, part will meet the requirement “Use visuals of the artwork(s) throughout (screen recordings, image slideshows, or other visual aids).” In this course StraighterLine provides a link to use the browser-based screen recording service Panopto via StraighterLine’s institutional account.

[StraighterLine_Learn]

As my name implies, I earned most of my undergrad through Sophia. I have two younger sisters about to start college classes. How do StraighterLine courses compare to Sophia? Quality of material? Speed? My parents were planning on subscribing to Sophia's annual plan @ $599 each. Is StraighterLine better?

I’ve used both Sophia and StraighterLine recently. StraighterLine has become more competitive now than they used to be. Which is best for you will depend on individual factors, especially if there are specific courses you need or prefer, either as to subject or as to how your destination school will accept it.

StraighterLine Checkpoints are similar to Sophia Challenges: Self-paced review questions. Each small bundle of Checkpoint questions forms an untimed mini-test. You have three attempts at each bundle, and the best attempt is used in your grade, and the re-attempts use the exact same questions in my experience.

StraighterLine Benchmarks are similar to Sophia Milestones: Timed tests. You have three attempts at each, and the best attempt is used in your grade. The re-attempts might not use the same questions in my experience. Some courses may have a final Cumulative Benchmark with one attempt.

StraighterLine Capstones are similar to Sophia Touchstones: Assignments, in a variety of formats including short paper, slides, and video of the student making a simple presentation. If you score under 90% you will have one re-attempt opportunity.

StraighterLine assignment grading is typically faster than Sophia in my recent experience. It’s similarly friendly, maybe somewhat more likely to knock you down a few points here and there for something subjective. Still I got 96.8% in Business Communication, heavy in subjective assignments.

StraighterLine questions are more likely to have wording ambiguities or apparent errors in my experience. However, each time I’ve been able to figure out what the writer meant and give them that answer on a retake.

Unlike Sophia’s maximum of two active courses at one time – now a hard maximum, they’re now no longer letting people add a third course while they’re waiting for any assignment grade, and students have complained that’s a form of throttling – StraighterLine appears to allow unlimited active courses at one time.

StraighterLine seems to have a little more variability of one course design being different from the next than the more standardized Sophia.

StraighterLine courses use the Moodle learning management system commonplace for online courses, unlike Sophia’s and Study.com’s highly customized, gamified front-ends.

StraighterLine courses use good electronic textbooks, and often license a paid commercial textbook unlike Sophia.

StraighterLine science lab courses require lab kits which must be purchased from a third-party company.

StraighterLine Checkpoints and Benchmarks are un-proctored and in my experience open-book. There’s an important caveat in the Academic Integrity and Honesty policy in my experience: They’re not open-Internet. You can look up information in the electronic textbook (which has an easy outline to jump to a section and full-text search to jump to a passage) and course materials. But you agree not to look up information from the Internet, including artificial intelligence services like ChatGPT and review sites like Quizlet, during the assessment.

StraighterLine has some courses that will now meet a requirement at UMPI which the equivalent Sophia course will not, including IIRC Business Communication and Managerial Accounting toward a UMPI Business Administration major. Similarly, StraighterLine Western Civilization I and II IIRC count toward a UMPI History and Political Science major, whereas the equivalent Study.com courses will not, and Sophia has no equivalents.

You can preview the StraighterLine platform: click on “Get Started Free” near the top left of the main page.

You can review the syllabus for each StraighterLine course: On the public-facing page for each course, under the heading “About This Course,” click on “Download Syllabus.”

Thanks for sharing your experience with StraighterLine! We really appreciate you taking the time to dive into all the different aspects and helping others get a real sense of what it’s like to be a StraighterLine student!

[Seeker42]

StraighterLine uses Cloudflare, which is blocking my access in Google Chrome and Edge.

Interestingly, it seems to work fine on the same PC when using Firefox.

StraighterLine itself is built on Moodle, so expect it to look like an old-fashioned website from the early 2000s. At least it should still work on older browsers, provided you can pass Cloudflare’s restrictions.

For some reason, StraighterLine doesn’t use frames, so lectures and quizzes open in pop-ups instead of maximizing the full screen.

You might find yourself dealing with multiple pop-ups,for example, one with instructions on how to write something, which you have to close before accessing the next pop-up to upload your essay.

There are also many unnecessary clicks required, especially in quizzes. After completing a quiz, you see an overview, then have to navigate to another page to submit your answers. Even when only one answer is required, you must check a box and then go to yet another page to submit that single answer.

[bjcheung77]

Their system has changed, it isn't as laggy as when I used them previously... It's a better dashboard as well, I hope everything runs more smoothly than before. I've not run into issues yet with, in any of the browsers I've used so far.

[eLearner]

StraighterLine uses Cloudflare, which is blocking my access in Google Chrome and Edge.

Interestingly, it seems to work fine on the same PC when using Firefox.

StraighterLine itself is built on Moodle, so expect it to look like an old-fashioned website from the early 2000s. At least it should still work on older browsers, provided you can pass Cloudflare’s restrictions.

For some reason, StraighterLine doesn’t use frames, so lectures and quizzes open in pop-ups instead of maximizing the full screen.

You might find yourself dealing with multiple pop-ups,for example, one with instructions on how to write something, which you have to close before accessing the next pop-up to upload your essay.

There are also many unnecessary clicks required, especially in quizzes. After completing a quiz, you see an overview, then have to navigate to another page to submit your answers. Even when only one answer is required, you must check a box and then go to yet another page to submit that single answer.

Cloudfare is ruining the Internet. Too slow, fails too often, and impossible to access some websites because it just doesn't work on some devices. And way too many websites use it now. This has to be stopped.