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

[jsh1138]

I forgot to mention that American History 2 from Study.com has a couple of other problems. In the section on the 1930's, the author seems murky on what "The Dustbowl" was, doesn't know what a sharecropper is, and seems to think that during the Depression Mexicans who were here illegally were forced to leave the US simply because people didn't like Mexicans 

I don't know what this guy's deal is but someone should have proof read this before it was published. I'm reporting mistakes as I see them so hopefully someone is doing something about it now

[a2jc4life]

I forgot to mention that American History 2 from Study.com has a couple of other problems. In the section on the 1930's, the author seems murky on what "The Dustbowl" was, doesn't know what a sharecropper is, and seems to think that during the Depression Mexicans who were here illegally were forced to leave the US simply because people didn't like Mexicans 

I don't know what this guy's deal is but someone should have proof read this before it was published. I'm reporting mistakes as I see them so hopefully someone is doing something about it now

It sounds like somebody's trying to right the imbalance of all history classes everywhere by tipping the scale in completely the opposite direction.  Some of these emphases seem like they could be really good -- for a whole different class.

[jsh1138]

that same guy is in love with FDR too, he uses all kinds of crazy adjectives about FDR, like "magisterial" but I just let that go.

[a2jc4life]

Provider: StraighterLine
Course: Survey of World History
Course content: I. hate. this. course.  Really, it's horrible.  It's an Acrobatiq course.  The content is good; the presentation is bad, and the test setup is awful.  The navigation is several layers deep and not very linear, so it's hard to find your place.  It's also very slow (slow load times).  Search works well, though.  Tests are in a format unique to Acrobatiq (not like other SL tests).  There's no way of knowing how many questions are on the test before starting it.  All tests are an hour long, but range from 13 questions (really!) to 63.  There is no retake option for the first exam. All questions load on a single page, and it takes long enough that with the first one I was about to exit out, thinking something was wrong with it because it was blank.  The time the test is due will display on the screen, NOT a countdown.  Don't cut it close; I learned the hard way that it isn't synced with your computer's clock.  And some of the questions were poorly done.  One in particular required that labels be dragged into place on a map, but it wasn't clear what the labels went to.  Oh, and the syllabus and actual course don't match -- there's one more module/test in the actual course than is listed in the syllabus.  (Final really is still 30% of the grade, though.)
Final exam format: 60 questions, 2 hours, multiple choice, closed book.  The final is formatted like other SL exams, not like other Acrobatiq exams. (In other words, the format does not match the format of earlier exams in the same course.) 
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The information wasn't new, per se, but I felt like this pretty much didn't resemble the module exams at all. 
Time taken on course: Several weeks (and probably should've spent more time reading -- I was basically guessing on the final; I really, really don't find this format easy to read through, though, even though the content was well-written and interesting.)
Familiarity with subject before course: Pretty unfamiliar with most of the ancient history stuff, moderately familiar with some of the newer history stuff.  The vast majority of this was approached very unlike any of my previous history class experience, though.  (It felt almost all-new, even in areas I thought I was somewhat familiar with.)  Ancient history felt like it focused more on China than any other civilization.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: 
1-10 Difficulty level: 8 (not necessarily for knowing the material, but for passing the class, taking technical factors into consideration)

[jsh1138]

Provider: Study.com
Course: History 104: US History 2
Course content: standard study.com stuff
Final exam format: 100 multiple choice
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The final is based on the course work pretty closely
Time taken on course: about 3 days while working full time
Familiarity with subject before course: I know more about American history than most people
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Alot of this stuff is pretty questionable and is more a matter of opinion than fact. Calling Israel "a creation of the United States" was a real low point for me. Implying that Communism never actually posed any threat to the West at all was another one. Saying that 1968 was the worst year in US history was a third. I did the course, and its better than Straighterline's version of this same course, but I did not enjoy it
1-10 Difficulty level: 3ish. I got an A on the final & on the course but this one had more factual mistakes on it than any other Study.com course i've taken so far. I know I reported over 10. Also, there was a question on the final that was actually unanswerable because of the way it was worded, which I've never seen from study.com before either. Probably this course needs to be reviewed and maybe say 10 or 15 sections revised. If you are the type of person who is bothered by nonsense masquerading as authoritative fact (me), this entire thing will be unenjoyable. If you can just mindlessly repeat back what they want you to say then this is easy and as a bonus all of us lived through at least part of the time period discussed so you ought to be able to burn through those sections pretty quickly

[jsh1138]

Provider: Shmoop
Course: History of Technology 
Course content: standard Shmoop stuff
Final exam format: 50 multiple choice
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The final is based on the end of chapter quizzes pretty closely
Time taken on course: a couple of weeks while carrying a full course load at TESU. I'm sure you could do it in 2 days
Familiarity with subject before course: I knew about most of what was covered here before hand
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Shmoop is really bad about pulling their questions from the linked articles vs from their actual course content and it seemed worse in this course than usual. I would say something like 60% of the questions on my final came from the 3rd party articles, so be sure to read those
1-10 Difficulty level: 1. If you just read the material you will pass easily. There is no thinking or trickery involved

[jsh1138]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Library Science 101: Information Literacy
Course content: standard Study.com stuff
Final exam format: 100 multiple choice
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The final is based on the end of chapter quizzes pretty closely
Time taken on course: less than a day
Familiarity with subject before course: I knew about most of what was covered here before hand
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: There is a ton of overlap here with English Comp 1 & 2. Main topics covered are how to do specialized internet searches to find info for papers, how to tell good sources from bad, etc. Nothing challenging and you should zip right through it. The course is very short, less than 50 quizzes, and should be one of the fastest Study.com offers. I did it for just that reason
1-10 Difficulty level: 1

[CamXoai]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Hospitality Marketing
Course content: 100ish lessons, 2 essays, final exam
Final exam format: 70 multiple choice questions
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: I found that completing the course will set you up to be successful on the exam. I was fairly focused while completing the video lessons but did no extra studying afterwards. If you complete all the exams with 100% you should be able to manage an 80% or so on the final. If you'd like a higher score you can practice the chapter flashcards after finishing the course.
Time taken on course: About 20 hours of total effort.
Familiarity with subject before course: Little familiarity except previous study.com marketing courses, and common sense.
1-10 Difficulty level: 4. The good news is that this course isn't going to have many concepts that go over your head. Put in the time and you'll get it done. The only reason this course has a medium-ish level of difficulty is that it has two 2,000+ word essays you'll need to complete in order to get credit.

[jsh1138]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Finance 102: Personal Finance
Course content: standard Study.com stuff
Final exam format: 100 multiple choice
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Weirdly for Study.com I saw quite a few questions on my final that I didn't see on the chapter quizzes
Time taken on course: less than a day
Familiarity with subject before course: I knew about most of what was covered here before hand
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: This might be difficult material for an 18 year old but for older learners mortgages and 401ks etc is pretty familiar stuff. If you're 40ish and have ever bought a stock or bond before, and have ever owned a house before, this should be pretty simple
1-10 Difficulty level: 1

[jsh1138]

Provider: Study.com
Course: History 308: Causes & Effects of the Vietnam War
Course content: standard Study.com stuff
Final exam format: 100 multiple choice, 3 essays
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: mostly matches up but some of the final questions were phrased weirdly, in a way that made it seem more than 1 answer was right
Time taken on course: 2 days on the quizzes bc the LL Vietnam course from Study.com fills in about half of them for you. The essays took longer
Familiarity with subject before course: I knew about most of what was covered here before hand
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: This version of Vietnam is more sympathetic to Ho Chi Minh than the LL one, and you get more questions about him than you do about the leaders of South Vietnam or US forces. Probably more than all those people put together, tbh
1-10 Difficulty level: 5ish bc of the essays. the final is maybe a 2 or 3