(10-08-2025, 09:04 PM)SophiaPrincess Wrote: 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.”