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

[Sapientes]

Provider: Straighterline
Course: Intro to Sociology
Course content: The course consists of 13 units with 10 quizzes, a graded midterm exam, and a final exam. Each unit has assigned reading from the textbook (eBook is included with the purchase of the course) that consists of about 35 to 40 pages each (usually.)  Also, each unit has an accompanying slide presentation, but I didn't watch any of those and I still passed (A-95%) without any issues. All of that said, I found some parts of the course interesting and hated others. Anything with dripping praise, adulation, uncritical and dishonest examination of Marx, Marxism, or conflict theory ….. yuck! 
Final exam format: 60 questions, all multiple choice, 2 hours, and it's closed book. 
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Good overlap between the questions on the unit quizzes and the final. All quizzes and the midterm are open book. Some quiz questions are looking for obscure or relatively unimportant information from the textbook (ex: statistics) that have little to do measuring whether or not you really understand the subject matter.
Time taken on course: About 3 weeks, 10 - 15 hours of reading a week plus quizzes.
Familiarity with subject before course: Low. I would have failed miserably without carefully reading the textbook and taking notes.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: I highly recommend taking notes throughout the course to get a good understanding of the big picture, but you’ll still need the book for the quizzes and midterm. Also, at the end of each chapter is a section that gives you a good overview of what’s contained in the chapter. I suggest reading that first as it helped me to better understand how the information in the chapter was laid out.
1-10 Difficulty level: 5

[Tripletmom]

Thank you for the great thread.  It's very helpful when selecting courses.  It seems like most of these courses are completed in record time.  I must be doing something wrong because it's taking longer.  I'm using Study.com at the moment. How do you complete these courses?  Are you taking notes, doing a quick review, using the chapter practice exams?  Your input is valuable.  

Thanks so much!

[jsh1138]

I think most of us just skip the videos and read the summaries. Beyond that, I know that so far I have tended to stick to subjects that I already know alot about, so it goes faster

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Provider: Study.com
Course: English 103: Analyzing and Interpreting Literature
Course content: standard Study.com stuff. Very small number of quizzes, maybe 60, and 2 short essays
Final exam format: 100 multiple choice and the 2 essays
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: the quizzes will prepare you for the final. I got a 94
Time taken on course: a couple of weeks while I was doing other things. I have no doubt you could do it in a day if you wanted
Familiarity with subject before course: I read alot, so I would say pretty high
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: none really
1-10 Difficulty level: 2 on the final, maybe 3 for the essays. not much to this one

[aviator guy]

It seems like most of these courses are completed in record time.  I must be doing something wrong because it's taking longer.  I'm using Study.com at the moment. How do you complete these courses?  Are you taking notes, doing a quick review, using the chapter practice exams?  Your input is valuable.  

Thanks so much!

I think most of us just skip the videos and read the summaries. Beyond that, I know that so far I have tended to stick to subjects that I already know alot about, so it goes faster

All of this is true for me, at least.  I'm fairly well read and to be honest I didn't come across much in any of my coursework that I hadn't at least heard of... that was a huge help.  Otherwise, if I said a course took "a weekend" it meant I started on Friday (yay for four day work weeks) and didn't stop until Sunday night, literally not leaving the house.  So while "a weekend" might not sound like a long time, it was probably realistically 30-40 hours worth of non stop work.  If I sad "over the course of a week" that probably meant a full weekend and a half plus 20 more hours during the week, or 50-80 hours total.

I do better when I can dig in, focus and roll.  One of the reasons "traditional" courses never appealed to me was because screwing around over the course of a few months sounded horrible (hated it in high school, with a few exceptions I though most of the courses could be condensed down in to a few weeks).  Let's do this, and do it now.  Even then, I have my own weaknesses and some subjects just bounce off of my head - math and chemistry come to mind.  Those are the only subjects where "immersing" myself bred more frustration than progress and felt more like drudgery than learning.

That being said, everyone is different and learns differently.  If you do better sipping as opposed to chugging, there's no shame in that.  Even I have some subjects that I need to "sip."

[jsh1138]

Provider: Study.com
Course: History 101: Western Civ 1
Course content: standard Study.com stuff but this one is very long compared to other courses there
Final exam format: 100 multiple choice
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: There are something like 160 chapters in this course and only 100 questions on the final so the quizzes get you ready for the final but some parts are on there and some aren't
Time taken on course: About a month, in between doing other things
Familiarity with subject before course: Moderate
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: This course could be laid out better. Some things are barely explained at all, and some are explained in several lessons in a row
1-10 Difficulty level: 3 maybe 4

[Tripletmom]

It seems like most of these courses are completed in record time.  I must be doing something wrong because it's taking longer.  I'm using Study.com at the moment. How do you complete these courses?  Are you taking notes, doing a quick review, using the chapter practice exams?  Your input is valuable.  

Thanks so much!

I think most of us just skip the videos and read the summaries. Beyond that, I know that so far I have tended to stick to subjects that I already know alot about, so it goes faster

All of this is true for me, at least.  I'm fairly well read and to be honest I didn't come across much in any of my coursework that I hadn't at least heard of... that was a huge help.  Otherwise, if I said a course took "a weekend" it meant I started on Friday (yay for four day work weeks) and didn't stop until Sunday night, literally not leaving the house.  So while "a weekend" might not sound like a long time, it was probably realistically 30-40 hours worth of non stop work.  If I sad "over the course of a week" that probably meant a full weekend and a half plus 20 more hours during the week, or 50-80 hours total.

I do better when I can dig in, focus and roll.  One of the reasons "traditional" courses never appealed to me was because screwing around over the course of a few months sounded horrible (hated it in high school, with a few exceptions I though most of the courses could be condensed down in to a few weeks).  Let's do this, and do it now.  Even then, I have my own weaknesses and some subjects just bounce off of my head - math and chemistry come to mind.  Those are the only subjects where "immersing" myself bred more frustration than progress and felt more like drudgery than learning.

That being said, everyone is different and learns differently.  If you do better sipping as opposed to chugging, there's no shame in that.  Even I have some subjects that I need to "sip."

Thanks so much!  This puts it in perspective.  I skimmed the vietnam war and bombed the practice exam so I'll need to slow down on unfamiliar subjects.  After finding this forum, I took my butt out of the seat at my local cc and I'm almost at 60 credits.  Chances are when I send my transcript to my school they won't accept the ACE credits and I'll look into the BOG at that point.  The 15 week classes were unbearable and online classes had poor instructors.  Self-study is the key for me.

[armstrongsubero]

Provider: Ed4Credit
Course: Managing Information Systems
Course content: The material is presented with a text and a few videos that don't help much. the format was very structured, and very easy to navigate.
Final exam format: all multiple choice, open book, though I dint need it.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: There are practice exams for every unit, and some of the questions require you type out answers instead of simply select multiple choice. This was very helpful in passing the final exam.
Time taken on course: Probably 4 days total, one day then a two month break before taking three days to finish it off. Total of like 40 hours.
Familiarity with subject before course: High-Medium. With no preparation I would have scored in the high sixties, there were only a few terms I weren't familiar with. 
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Do the practice exams for each module and take notes, it will help a lot.
1-10 Difficulty level: If you have ever worked in an It environment and are tech savvy 3, if you aren't familiar with computing 6-7.

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Provider: Sophia Learning
Course: College Algebra
Course content: The course content was presented very very well, having used a lot of providers Sophia is superior in presentation. There are different tutors you can use for each topic, which helps a lot.
Final exam format: The final exam is multiple choice. All you need to pass is a calculator, your single page of notes and writing paper.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The module exams aligned perfectly wit the final exam.
Time taken on course: Probably a full week, 60 hours total
Familiarity with subject before course: Fairly familiar with some of the topics, was a little rusty so I had to relearn most of the stuff. 
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Study and read the material. practice and do not skip over anything. Yuur single page of notes will help you throughout the course. 
1-10 Difficulty level: 4, this was the best put together math class I have ever done, however I don't entirely hate math. If you are at total war with math, 5-6.

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Provider: Sophia Learning
Course: Introduction to Information Technology
Course content: Usual Sophia format, largely text based.
Final exam format: Multiple choice, drag and drop.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: it aligned very well. Once you go through the material and do the exams, it is very easy to pass the test
Time taken on course: 2 days, one day 10 hours to do the course, 30 mins to do the exam. 
Familiarity with subject before course: I am very familiar with content, anyone who uses computers beyond surfing the internet should pass this course with ease.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: just read through everything, don't skip any material.
1-10 Difficulty level: The first water colors course I've come across if you are familiar with computers and do programming, IT etc definitely 1, otherwise 4.

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Provider: Sophia Learning
Course: Public Speaking
Course content: Sophia format videos and text, the videos help a lot.
Final exam format: You must record yourself giving a speech for this course for the final.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The course helps you prepare your speech, do exactly what they require and you will pass.
Time taken on course: Probably about 4 days in total. Two days to do, the other two day are waiting on them to mark the paper.
Familiarity with subject before course: Well I work in an area that requires public speaking everyday, academically I did workplace communication at a local college before this course.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: good course overall, do not take the course lightly, study. Very good. course
1-10 Difficulty level: 4

[jsh1138]

Provider: Shmoop
Course: Professional Writing
Course content: Shmoop standard. Outside links and reading, etc
Final exam format: 50 multiple choice, iirc
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Its about the same but there are some weird questions
Time taken on course: About 2 hours total. After doing the first module I just did the module tests after that, then the final
Familiarity with subject before course: Pretty familiar
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: If you have recently completed English Comp 1 & 2, and have ever worked in an office, this is a breeze. Lots of questions about properly citing ideas, whether or not its ok to use profanity in a press release, etc. Mostly common sense stuff with the English Comp stuff on top. If you're not familiar with them, you may want to read the sections on research proposals and business reports pretty close, those are both heavily featured on the tests
Difficulty: assuming you have done the prereqs I just mentioned, a 1

[jsh1138]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Business 106: Human Resource Management
Course content: standard Study.com stuff. 
Final exam format: 100 multiple choice 
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: the quizzes will prepare you for the final. 
Time taken on course: a couple of weeks while I was doing other things. You could probably do it in a day or two if you are familiar with HR. 
Familiarity with subject before course: I have managed a small business for 20 years so reasonably familiar
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Some of this is pretty dry. You go over Title 7 of the Civil Rights act something like 10 different times too. Some of it, like what a union is, would be common knowledge for anyone
1-10 Difficulty level: 2 maybe.

[indivinefavor]

I think it would be a good idea to have an individual course review thread.... one long running thread where people review courses from (but not limited to) the sources listed in the title of this sub forum.


Here's a template you can copy and paste

Provider:
Course:
Course content:  How is the material presented?  Videos?  Text?  External content?  Do you have to buy/have other materials?
Final exam format: How many questions?  Multiple choice?  Essay?  Both?  Something else?
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Have you seen the information before in the course, or was it a total curve ball?  
Time taken on course:  Hours?  Weeks? Days?
Familiarity with subject before course: Never heard of it before taking the course, Low, medium, high, I do this every day.  How would you have scored on the final with no preparation?
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know:  
1-10 Difficulty level: From learning the colors to rocket surgery

Absolutely love the thread! I took a break (a couple years break lol) and now I'm back at it. Thanks for starting this!