The official guide to courses by Straighterline, Study, et al: We want YOUR input!

[TopHatWombat]

Provider:  Study.com
Course: CS-302 Systems Analysis & Design
Score: 87%
Course content: Videos and text lessons. 74 quizzes of 5 questions each. One paper of 2000 words minimum. Final exam of 70 multiple choice questions.
Final exam format: Final exam of 70 multiple choice questions.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Unlike the first two Study.com courses I took, this final had a fair number of questions that were not taken directly from the end of lesson quizzes. I got a 90% on the practice final, but only 74% on the proctored final. In a thread elsewhere on the forum, another user pointed out something similar regarding this course, and they suggested taking the practice final two or three times, in order to see more of the test bank questions. I should have followed that advice.
Time taken on course: About 14 hours over the course of 7 days.
Familiarity with subject before course: Zero previous familiarity with any of the subject matter.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: See above regarding final exam. This was was a somewhat difficult course, instead of the breeze that I thought it would be. I read all the lessons before doing the quizzes, and still missed quite a bit on the final. The assignment for this course initially also felt quite ambiguous. What I ultimately did was treated the paper as if I were the owner of a custom software development company, and I formatted the whole thing as a service proposal. I'd also suggest copying and pasting the verbiage they provide for steps 1-7 of the systems analysis design process underneath the "Writing the Report" heading, and following that guide to a "T". Be sure to cover the exact questions and prompts covered in that verbiage. This results in a longer and more detailed paper than what you'd do if you followed the grading rubric, but you'll wind up with a better score.
1-10 Difficulty level: 6 - definitely more difficult than I went into it thinking it would be. Probably easier if you have project management experience our coursework. These management planning topics are very nebulous to my brain, compared to something like a finance, accounting, science, or engineering type of course.

[Kones]

Provider:  Study.com
Course: CS-302 Systems Analysis & Design
Score: 87%
Course content: Videos and text lessons. 74 quizzes of 5 questions each. One paper of 2000 words minimum. Final exam of 70 multiple choice questions.
Final exam format: Final exam of 70 multiple choice questions.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Unlike the first two Study.com courses I took, this final had a fair number of questions that were not taken directly from the end of lesson quizzes. I got a 90% on the practice final, but only 74% on the proctored final. In a thread elsewhere on the forum, another user pointed out something similar regarding this course, and they suggested taking the practice final two or three times, in order to see more of the test bank questions. I should have followed that advice.
Time taken on course: About 14 hours over the course of 7 days.
Familiarity with subject before course: Zero previous familiarity with any of the subject matter.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: See above regarding final exam. This was was a somewhat difficult course, instead of the breeze that I thought it would be. I read all the lessons before doing the quizzes, and still missed quite a bit on the final. The assignment for this course initially also felt quite ambiguous. What I ultimately did was treated the paper as if I were the owner of a custom software development company, and I formatted the whole thing as a service proposal. I'd also suggest copying and pasting the verbiage they provide for steps 1-7 of the systems analysis design process underneath the "Writing the Report" heading, and following that guide to a "T". Be sure to cover the exact questions and prompts covered in that verbiage. This results in a longer and more detailed paper than what you'd do if you followed the grading rubric, but you'll wind up with a better score.
1-10 Difficulty level: 6 - definitely more difficult than I went into it thinking it would be. Probably easier if you have project management experience our coursework. These management planning topics are very nebulous to my brain, compared to something like a finance, accounting, science, or engineering type of course.

I just finished this course and had the exact same experience. The final felt like a curve ball and I barely passed despite getting in the 80's on multiple practice exams. I also agree on how vague the assignment was. I truly had no idea if I was giving them what they were looking for. I did something similar to what you did and first copied and pasted all 7 of the steps and descriptions from the assignment, answered the questions to fill out my report (while also referencing the rubric) from the perspective of a consultant, and then deleted the descriptions. I think formatting also went a long way as it was commented on by my grader, so I would recommend brushing up on APA. I used Purdue's OWL APA format guide and was very strict, using appropriate headings and levels to organize the 7 steps. I also added a simple flowchart, which I don't think was necessary, but was commented on by my grader, so it was nice touch that I'm sure helped my grade a bit. The assignment has a 2,000 minimum word requirement which I found tough to meet and I felt like I just kept adding fluff. In the end I scored a 94 out of 100 on the report, which I'm sure saved my butt since I did so poorly on the final exam.

[turbotortuga]

Provider: Saylor Academy
Course: BUS 200 Business Ethics
Course content: 7 Units, with 6-7 sections per unit. Usual Saylor mix of dry readings/videos.
Final exam format: 40 Questions. Multiple choice with 4 answers.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Definitely covered the same material but questions were slightly reworded and more questions on particular theorists.
Time taken on course: About 6-7 hours total.
Familiarity with subject before course: Previously took Business Law at a community college and numerous Accounting/Business coursework.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: I took the Certificate Exam after reading Unit 1 and passed with an 80%. Then I throughly read Units 2 and 3 completely, skimmed through Units 4-6 and skipped 7. Reviewed the Certificate Exam again and took the Direct Credit Exam. Missed 7 questions and scored an 82% on it. Not a super tough course if you read the key points of the material and pay attention to the questions from the Free Certificate Exam. Unfortunately, the individual Unit Exams are essay format, which is useless, and there is no Study Guide for the Direct Credit Exam, so it could be tough for some. 
1-10 Difficulty level: I'd give it a 3, simply due to the only multiple-choice feedback you can get is the Free Certificate Exam, which you can only take once per 7 days.

[TopHatWombat]

Provider: Smilabs.org (SeeMore Impact Labs)
Course: CSM (Core Skills Mastery) Course
Course content: The course is effectively one long exam. All text.
Final exam format: Hundreds of questions throughout the course of the class.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: N/A
Time taken on course: About 4 hours.
Familiarity with subject before course: There was nothing in this course that I hadn't seen before at some point in life. I'm not sure of the exact grade level equivalent, but most people that have completed somewhere between 8th and 10th grade in the US have most likely seen all the material in this course.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: All in all, I thought this course was terrible. Most of the time when you get something wrong, the system is unable to provide any feedback on why you got it wrong -- in stark contrast to the claims they make about their technology. I did go through some of the lessons just to see what the content was like, and I was not impressed. The lessons I looked at were written in a confusing manner, and didn't appear particularly helpful. If this course wasn't so cheap and accepted by TESU for credit to fill that one requirement in the business core, there's no way I would ever recommend it to anybody.
1-10 Difficulty level: 1 if you're good with basic arithmetic in your head, 3 if you're not.

[jsh1138]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Psychology 102: Educational Psychology
Course content: Standard Study.com stuff
Final exam format: 100 multiple choice questions. I think you need 70% to pass
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Yeah it's exactly the same. Take the practice test and you'll have no issues deciding if you're ready for the final
Time taken on course: A couple of weeks
Familiarity with subject before course: I have taken several psychology and education courses before
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: There is a fair bit of memorizing which psychologist came up with which theory. Other than that, pretty simple
1-10 Difficulty level: 2

[jsh1138]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Nutrition 101: The Science of Nutrition
Course content: Standard Study.com stuff
Final exam format: 100 multiple choice questions.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: It's the same
Time taken on course: A couple of weeks
Familiarity with subject before course: Alot of it is just about a healthy diet but some of the more science-y things were new to me
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: I felt like I learned alot about how your body works from this course. Good general knowledge to have. There is a decent bit of rote memorization on which vitamin does what
1-10 Difficulty level: 2

[jsh1138]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Humanities 201: Critical Thinking and Analysis
Course content: Standard Study.com stuff
Final exam format: 70 multiple choice questions. You also have to do three written assignments
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: It's the same pretty much but I thought the final focused more on the latin names of various argument types than the course did
Time taken on course: A couple of weeks
Familiarity with subject before course: I used to be on my school's debate team so I know a little bit about arguments
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: This is pretty straightforward and you should be a little familiar with things like "red herrings" already
1-10 Difficulty level: 2-3

[rachel83az]

Provider: Sophia.org
Course: Introduction to Nutrition
Course content: All necessary content is contained within the course text/PDFs
Final exam format: Multiple choice
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The questions may be worded slightly differently than in the course materials, but it's all there.
Time taken on course: A few hours over about 2 days. Someone focusing solely on this class could probably get it done in about a day.
Familiarity with subject before course: Some passing interest in nutrition. Trying to eat healthy, etc.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: This course may be even easier than Human Biology. However, it is (perhaps obviously) US-centered. The phrasing of some of the questions/answers assumes that one grew up or is currently living in the US. For instance, one of the things mentioned was potential salmonella contamination of eggs. That's... simply not a concern in other countries. Non-Americans may need to read some of the text more closely in order to avoid answering incorrectly.
1-10 Difficulty level: 1-2; super easy. I missed exactly 2 questions in the whole course. Those were questions that I had misread.

[RachelB]

Provider: Sophia
Course: Visual Communications
Course content: Text and pictures. Standard Sophia format.
Final exam format: Multiple Choice. 25 questions.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: It's all virtually the same, iirc.
Time taken on course: About 3 hours total.
Familiarity with subject before course: My hobbies include interior decorating, scrapbooking and other paper crafts, and photography, so I already knew most everything here from prior light reading. 
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: This is a super easy, basic class, even if you have little experience with visual arts.
1-10 Difficulty level: 1

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Provider: Sophia
Course: Environmental Science
Course content: Text and pictures. Standard Sophia format.
Final exam format: Multiple Choice. 25 questions.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: It's all virtually the same, iirc.
Time taken on course: About 5-8 hours total? I didn't think to track my time.
Familiarity with subject before course: I've done some light reading on plastic pollution and caring for the environment, but nothing intense.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Some of the answers were worded in a difficult way, so that multiple answers appeared to be correct. It seemed like the writer of the class really wanted to trip students up, moreso than teach them, lol. It's easy enough, though.
1-10 Difficulty level: 3

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Provider: Sophia
Course: Spanish I
Course content: Text, pictures, audio files. Standard Sophia format.
Final exam format: Multiple Choice. 25 questions.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: It's all virtually the same, iirc. 
Time taken on course: 5 days total, due to Touchstone grading. If I was brand-new to the language, it definitely would have taken longer.
Familiarity with subject before course: I've taken higher level Spanish classes, but didn't receive credit for the LL knowledge, so I took this for easy credit. 
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: There is way too much cultural content here on all 20-some countries where Spanish is a majority language. It covers huge lists of slang, foods, holidays, "famous" people from these places (most I've not heard of), etc. for each and every country. While this information is on the challenge questions and exams, you can use the search function for those questions, and just focus on learning the actual language. I promise you will not need to know 20+ different ways to say "boy" and "girl" in real life. My native Spanish-speaking friends didn't know half of these.
--
About the touchstones: There are 5 touchstones. The first two are essentially the same assignment, one in written format, the other in oral format. The next is a written assignment, and the last two are, again, the same assignment in both written and oral formats. They're very easy and straightforward, and only a couple paragraphs each.

1-10 Difficulty level: For me, 2. For someone learning Spanish for the first time through this course, maybe 6 or 7?

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Provider: Sophia
Course: Conflict Resolution
Course content: All text. For these challenge questions, you are only given two attempts to correctly answer.
Final exam format: Multiple Choice. 25 questions.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: It's all in the same format, but the exact scenarios are different. 
Time taken on course: Several hours, over the course of a week and a half. 
Familiarity with subject before course: I've read a lot of nonfiction and feel like all the material is pretty common sense stuff that you come across in life, generally. I didn't know all the specific jargon, but it wasn't terribly difficult to follow.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: It's not necessary to read the actual course material. You should read through each scenario carefully before answering the questions, and just search the course content when specific jargon is used.
1-10 Difficulty level: 2-3. It's not difficult, but it's very repetitive and tedious. I was mind-numbingly bored throughout this course, so I kept putting off working on it, which is why it took me awhile.

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Provider: Sophia
Course: Art History I
Course content: Text and photos.
Final exam format: Multiple Choice. 25 questions.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: It's all the same.
Time taken on course: Several hours. 
Familiarity with subject before course: I knew a little about Christian and Islamic art  but not much else.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: There's a surprising amount of content related to architecture, when I thought it was going to focus more on "traditional" art.
1-10 Difficulty level: 2. Easy peasy. 

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[RachelB]

Provider: Sophia
Course: U.S. History I
Course content: Text.
Final exam format: Multiple Choice. 25 questions.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: It's all the same.
Time taken on course: Too long, lol. Maybe 20-25 hours total? There's one touchstone, which took me a few hours by itself. 
Familiarity with subject before course: I took U.S. History in high school 15ish years ago. I retained very little, lol.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: If you read the material, or just search well, you should be fine. Read the guidelines for the touchstone and be sure you have all the requirements. It's very straightforward. 
1-10 Difficulty level: 5ish