Thread Rating:
  • 10 Vote(s) - 4.6 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
The official guide to courses by Straighterline, Study, et al: We want YOUR input!
#11
I prefer it broken down even more than by provider. By subject or by exam.

Reply
#12
I'll play ball:

Provider: StraighterLine
Course: BUS 120 (Organizational Behavior)
Course content: Text, Audio+Powerpoint Presentations. Provided with course.
Final exam format: 50Q, Multiple-Choice Single Answer
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Examinations were tied to the material. Quizzes, Midterm, and Final are all open-book, so you can easily score 85-95% on everything just by using your VitalSource/Adobe Reader-Fu.
Time taken on course: 24 hours plus ~45 minutes on the final.
Familiarity with subject before course: If you've ever taken an Into to Communications class from a huge provider (like McGraw Hill), then 80% of the information is probably in your head somewhere. I'd probably have scored a 50% with no preparation + closed book. With open book and no prep, much easier.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: The book is from McGraw-Hill and is LONG. I honestly just glanced at the index for topics I didn't already have a grasp on, skim those pages, then take the unit quizzes. It's possible to reach the minimum 70% required without even doing the final, so the final is just a formality. Expect to spend 2-3 minutes per question if you're looking them up in the book. Total of four quizzes (25q/125pts each), a midterm (50q, 250pts), and a final (50q, 250pts).
1-10 Difficulty level: 3/10. Not hard at all, but not a complete breeze.
Master of Business Administration, Universidad Isabel I, 2021
Master in Management & Team Management, Universidad Isabel I, 2021
Master in International Trade, Universidad Isabel I, 2021
Master in Supply Chain Management, Universidad Isabel I, 2021
Master in Project Management, Universidad Isabel I, 2023

BS Information Technology, Western Governors University, 2017
AAS Cybersecurity, Community College, 2017
FEMA Emergency Management Certificate, 2017
Fundraising Specialization Certificate, Berkeley/Haas, 2020

Undergraduate Credits: 165 Semester Credits
Graduate Credits: 105 ECTS (52.5 Semester Credits)
[-] The following 4 users Like Thorne's post:
  • CircleT7, GoodYellowDogs, MooSaysCow, tinyham
Reply
#13
I like the standardized formatting. It makes it easier to directly compare course information -- an advantage of the one big thread.
[-] The following 1 user Likes bghill's post:
  • a2jc4life
Reply
#14
Provider: Saylor
Course: Intro to Chemistry
Course content: Like a big pile of crap. A few modules with practice quizzes as well as a practice final.
Final exam format: 50 questions, all multiple choice.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: A lot of new stuff in the exam that was NOT covered in practice. Also, a formula sheet is provided but I do not believe it provided all of the necessary formulas. I can't say if this was by design, but if it is - that's pretty stupid. The practice final and the formula sheet were much more coincident.
Time taken on course: Probably 20 total hours of study.
Familiarity with subject before course: Some repeats from high school chemistry. Although it's been some time since those days, my burning hatred for this subject must have been smoldering inside me all of these years and re-lit immediately.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: It's no big secret that Saylor has a thing for errors, but here it is again... there are errors in both practice and graded exam questions. I counted three total that were stupidly obvious to me; I wonder how many I didn't notice...
1-10 Difficulty level: 6-7
Extra opinion: I failed this, and there was a fairly large delta (20% or so) between my practice exam scores (on both the saylor tests as well as other practice tests I dug up on the internet) and the final. I appreciate what Saylor is trying to do and all, but I'm pretty tired of their shtick. I get it, you get what you pay for... but would it really take that much more effort to make the experience suck less?
[-] The following 2 users Like aviator guy's post:
  • sarg123, suzycupcake
Reply
#15
Provider: Straighterline
Course: Intro to Biology
Course content: The version I took was the "Acrobatiq" format. This is 70 modules over 14 topics, so about 5 modules per topic. Each module has a practice test, and each topic has an unproctored practice test.
Final exam format: How many questions? 60 question multiple choice
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: It was a bit different. Some stuff was out of left field, but a lot of it was similar. Completely different questions (wording/format) than the practice/graded topic tests.
Time taken on course: About 30 hours over 2 weeks.
Familiarity with subject before course: Biology was one of my favorite subjects in school, and one of those things I like to study in my own time. Unfortunately, I was all "go go go" on this so I didn't have enough time to thoroughly study the material. It would have been fun if I hadn't been trying to rush through it.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: I didn't really care for the way the course material was presented, pages loaded slow, hard to navigate, just generally bulky in my opinion. Some of the excercises (optional) have you download some java applet from a third party site, that was a little sketchy to me from a security standpoint. I liked the graded topic tests, most of them were almost like a storyline format. Each topic has a graded exam; graded exams are worth 70% of your grade so do well here so you don't have to sweat the final. This is pretty easy to do since a lot of them have the answers within the test. Example: Question 1. What color is the sky? Question 2. Sometimes, whitish blobs obscure the normal blue. What are those blobs? Question 3. What are clouds made of?
1-10 Difficulty level: 6
Reply
#16
Provider: StraighterLine
Course: MAT 150 (Business Statistics)
Course content: Text, Audio+Powerpoint Presentations. Provided with course.
Final exam format: 50Q, Multiple-Choice Single Answer
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: All graded examinations are MCSA, five or ten repeated questions from those to the final, all repeated material. Course material covers 90% of what is on the final.
Time taken on course: 32 hours over 4 days
Familiarity with subject before course: Only rudiments.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Some of the answers in the curriculum are wrong. On some questions, you may calculate a standard deviation of 12.9 (using the correct formula, even double-checked using Excel a few times) whilst the answers are 9.7, 14.4, 19.2, and 10.9. The "right" answer was off by one digit (2 changed to 0) from the correct answer.
1-10 Difficulty level: 4/10
Master of Business Administration, Universidad Isabel I, 2021
Master in Management & Team Management, Universidad Isabel I, 2021
Master in International Trade, Universidad Isabel I, 2021
Master in Supply Chain Management, Universidad Isabel I, 2021
Master in Project Management, Universidad Isabel I, 2023

BS Information Technology, Western Governors University, 2017
AAS Cybersecurity, Community College, 2017
FEMA Emergency Management Certificate, 2017
Fundraising Specialization Certificate, Berkeley/Haas, 2020

Undergraduate Credits: 165 Semester Credits
Graduate Credits: 105 ECTS (52.5 Semester Credits)
[-] The following 2 users Like Thorne's post:
  • studiousimp, tinyham
Reply
#17
Provider: Saylor
Course: BUS205, Business Law and Ethics
Course content: 11 topics with 5-10 question practice tests on each topic, plus the 50 question practice final. Most content is featured in the free online text "The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business." I actually liked this text. It's not filled with legalese or anything like that. It does appear to be about 7 years old, which isn't really a problem other than it's kind of funny since there are a lot of examples of "current" events that... well, aren't.
Final exam format: 50 Multiple Choice questions.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: While I only saw one or two duplicate questions, of the Saylor exams I've taken this one seems to be the most closely aligned with the practice tests. Good work, Saylor (I mean that)
Time taken on course: Half a day
Familiarity with subject before course: Based on my conversations with my peers (not including actual legal professionals), above average.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: It's Saylor
1-10 Difficulty level: I thought it was a 3, but I suspect others may not feel that way. A lot of people seem to shut their brain off at the mention of anything "legal"
Reply
#18
I think this is a great idea! Hope it works out as the information is needed!

Could you also add a line for people to list the cost to complete the course? Including books/materials, exam costs?

Thank you for starting this! I wish I had a course to contribute Sad
[-] The following 1 user Likes TenderMoni's post:
  • a2jc4life
Reply
#19
Provider: Sophia
Course: Project Management
Course content: Four topics, each topic with three 10 question "challenges" and a 25 question milestone. Milestone questions are worth 2x the challenge questions, and you get 3 tries to correctly answer each challenge question. Information is presented within the challenges in the form of tutorials. There are options when it comes to the tutorials; do yourself a favor and use the ones by Sophia because the verbiage/terminology aligns with the questions. There is a 25 question proctored final (they call it an identification verification milestone) that doesn't count toward your grade but you must score at least 50% on it. To break it down, there are 120 challenge questions (1 point each) plus 100 milestone questions divided among 4 topics (2 points each) and you need a total of 224 points to pass PLUS answer 13 of 25 questions correctly on the proctored final.
Final exam format: 25 multiple choice questions, you must score a 50% and it does not count toward your grade (see above.) Also - they use proctor U but it is scheduled through Sophia and NOT proctor U, and will not show up in your scheduled exams if you log into proctor U. Exam is open website (you can use any part of the Sophia website including tutorials but not the previous questions) plus you can have a page of typed or written notes. I really didn't need either.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: it was pretty much the same stuff. I can't recall if there were any duplicate questions, but I do recall it being easier (and I scored higher) than I had anticipated.
Familiarity with subject before course: This is my profession, but I work for a small organization and we're a little more willy nilly than what's covered in the course. The style of project management presented in the course is more big company, spend all of your time in meetings and conference calls as opposed to doing actual work type.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: This course literally drove me to drink - I don't think I would have made it through without downing a couple of beers. It's not the content, but rather that they try to get cute with some of the questions, particularly the fill in the blank questions - those things really started standing on my last nerve. Good content, irritating presentation.
1-10 Difficulty level: content:3 format: 15
[-] The following 2 users Like aviator guy's post:
  • kevie, sarg123
Reply
#20
Provider: Straighterline
Course: Macroeconomics
Course content: 19 units. Each unit has a corresponding section in the E-text and most all units have a "Power Point" style presentation with interactive modules. Each unit has 2 x 10 question practice quizzes and a 20 question graded quiz. There is also a 60 question mid term (not proctored) and a 60 question final (proctored). All questions are worth 2 points each, and you must score 700 out of 1000 points. 880 points are available before taking the final, so it is possible to pass without worrying about the final.
Final exam format: 60 questions, multiple choice, closed book. Be sure to bring paper and a calculator because there are a few instances where you may run into more than mental math (all simple arithmetic, just big numbers or a lot of them)
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Questions are different but there aren't really any curve balls.
Time taken on course: About 15 hours. I'd say at least 10 hours would be required just due to the large number of questions - There are 500 total between the quizzes and exams, so even if you don't study at all and average one minute per question, you're still looking at 8+ hours.
Familiarity with subject before course: I was going to use Saylor for this course, but I elected to do straighterline instead. I had been studying a good bit before I even decided to go this route. By the way, if you're like me and the study of economics sounds like drudgery I found this guy's videos very helpful.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: You can't roll through this one, and you can't rely on regurgitation... you flat out have to understand some of the material. Also, economics is an extreme bore to me, in my mind it's like watching paint dry at a baseball game in Kansas...
1-10 Difficulty level: 6
[-] The following 3 users Like aviator guy's post:
  • gamebradie, indivinefavor, suzycupcake
Reply


Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Missing Straighterline credits on credly yc1981 2 89 Yesterday, 07:53 AM
Last Post: bjcheung77
  New Sophia Courses: Health, Fitness, and Wellness and Anatomy & Physiology II Lab LevelUP 7 376 03-23-2024, 03:16 AM
Last Post: Kab
  Current Study.com Coupon Codes pws 67 39,308 03-22-2024, 05:10 PM
Last Post: GoBroncos95
  calculating grade for study.com course Omece 9 1,476 03-20-2024, 08:49 PM
Last Post: bjcheung77
  Is there a list of which Sophia courses have touchstones? MaMichelle 7 6,793 03-16-2024, 06:45 PM
Last Post: bjcheung77
  Disappointed with Study.com (Discrete Mathematics) legenwait4itdary 6 600 03-08-2024, 08:41 PM
Last Post: bluebooger
  How to get ACE credits such as Sophia on official college transcript Student3452 18 4,864 03-08-2024, 01:34 AM
Last Post: Gumbeaux
Information New Sophia Courses: College Math and Chemistry MNomadic 67 10,391 03-07-2024, 11:22 PM
Last Post: Westslope Cutthroat
  TEEX Cyber Security Courses / non US residents BritStudent 6 546 03-03-2024, 02:15 AM
Last Post: FireMedic_Philosopher
Brick MAT150 - Straighterline - Final Exam riteshvpandya 2 262 02-26-2024, 11:31 PM
Last Post: riteshvpandya

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 2 Guest(s)