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The official guide to courses by Straighterline, Study, et al: We want YOUR input!
#21
Provider: Study.com
Course: Business 101: Principles of Management
Course content: 16 Chapters with 119 lessons (video and text), and 119 5 question quizzes. Quiz score determines passing score for final (minimum final grade is 55% assuming all quizzes are 100% but you only get 3(?) attempts per quiz to get the max score on the quiz.) Each chapter has a practice test and a 50 question practice final is available.
Final exam format: 100 multiple choice questions.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: It was probably 25% new material that had been presented in the lessons but not drilled.
Time taken on course: Approximately 8 hours.
Familiarity with subject before course: There was some overlap from other courses, a lot of common sense stuff. I probably would have scored 50% on the final with no practice.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: You can take placement tests to work through many of the lessons (meaning you don't have to take the quiz for the lesson) and this greatly increases productivity. Between this and having some carry over (some topics were covered in other courses I had worked on) I probably eliminated 50% of the content right off the bat. A lot of questions on all of the tests can be whittled down through common test taking methods - context clues, process of elimination, etc. Pro tip: Study.com loves them some philosophers and theorists - knowing all of the names and theories in the course is an easy, low effort grade booster for the final. Should you retain this information it will also allow you to name drop and exert your intellectual dominance in petty arguments for years to come.
1-10 Difficulty level: 3
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#22
Provider: Study.com
Course: Geography 101: Human & Cultural Geography
Course content: 140 Lessons over 15 chapters, with 140 quizzes. Some lessons/quizzes can be fulfilled by other study.com courses, but there is no placement test option.
Final exam format: 100 multiple choice questions.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: I'd say about 85% was drilled with very few identical questions
Time taken on course: A little over 10 hours over the course of the week.
Familiarity with subject before course: This course pulls from sociology, biology and economics, all courses I have previously completed. Some of the material (industry/energy) is close to my line of work.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: This is a very broad-spectrum course. It's pretty low on what most people would consider geography, but focuses more on social geography and goes into a lot of other topics like energy, agriculture, human evolution and economics. Various insecticides were covered; map projections were not. Just a heads up on what to expect. Oh yeah - much to my surprise (not) Study.com managed to slip a couple of philosophers/theorists/inventors in as well.
1-10 Difficulty level: Due to recent discussions elsewhere on the site, I will no longer offer a 1-10 difficulty level. I will however attempt to put it in relative terms the best I can, and offer any opinions on what I will call "ancillary difficulties" in terms of technical difficulty, ease of navigation, quality of materials provided etc. With that said - As I mentioned above, this course has a wide variety of content that you may have encountered in other courses, so there's a high probability some of the material will be old hat. Technically speaking, there are a LOT of quizzes so it's a bit of a time consumer, but prior exposure allowed me to roll through faster than I'd imagine someone without similar coursework would be able to.
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#23
This will be a review of Straighterline's Accounting I AND Accounting II. The formats are the same, my thoughts on both are the same, the only difference is the content.


Provider: Straighterline
Course: Accounting I and Accounting II
Course content: Both have 14 topics with powerpoint style slide shows. The textbook is "Fundamental Accounting Principles" and is the same for both courses, except Accounting I uses the first volume and accounting II uses volume 2. There isn't much in the way of practice tests or anything like that, but there are topic study sheets. Videos are available but they were made in the late 1990s and are potato quality. They are somewhat helpful, but in many cases you can't make out the numbers, rendering them mostly pointless. Both courses have 4 x 25 question quizzes, one 40 question mid term and one 40 question proctored final exam.
Final exam format: 40 questions, multiple choice and true/false.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Very close, no curve balls.
Time taken on course: 2 full days for both courses, so about a full day per course.
Familiarity with subject before course: I started studying accounting about a year ago. I was also familiar with many of the concepts through my work experience.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: The good news is that these courses are heavy into theory and a little lighter into the math. The bad news is that I think the textbook does a poor job of explaining the math. Fortunately and unfortunately for me, the math was something I studied well before starting the course... the theory not so much. My suggestion: before attempting these, try to learn basic accounting math first, then once in the course hunt down all bold terms in the textbook and understand them. For the basics, I really like this guy. He's a bit of a "gym bro" but he seems to cover the basics in an attention getting manner.
1-10 Difficulty level: The difficult part about the math is figuring out what to do with what, not the math itself. The theory is fairly straightforward, no real brain teasers or anything but there is a lot of theory to learn. I thought accounting II was the more difficult of the two, but as I mentioned I had previously studied the topic and most of what I studied aligned with the material in accounting I.
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#24
Nice, I like this thread. Reviews are great, informative and detailed...
unfortunately none of the courses I require for my degree were mentioned.
Keep up the good work....
In Progress: Walden MBA | TESU BA Biology & Computer Science
Graduate Certificate: Global Management & Entrepreneurship, ASU (Freebie)

Completed: TESU ASNSM Biology, BSBA (ACBSP Accredited 2017)
Universidad Isabel I: ENEB MBA, Big Data & BI, Digital Marketing & E-Commerce
Certs: 6Sigma/Lean/Scrum, ITIL | Cisco/CompTIA/MTA | Coursera/Edx/Udacity

The Basic Approach | Plans | DegreeForum Community Supported Wiki
~Note~ Read/Review forum posts & Wiki Links to Sample Degree Plans
Degree Planning Advice | New To DegreeForum? How This Area Works

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#25
Provider: Ed4Credit
Course: BIO 102L General Biology Lab
Course content: A total of 9 learning modules, each with several (some are 2-3, some 6-7) lab activities and a 10 question multiple choice quiz for each module. Each module has a short powerpoint with basic info about the lab, but you'll end up doing some outside research. The lab kit was about $120 shipped for me, in addition to the course cost.
Final exam format: No final. Grade is from lab activities and quizzes. Quiz grades are best out of 3.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: N/A
Time taken on course: Difficult to say, but I'd say probably 30-40 hours over five weeks. Most lab activities can be completed in an afternoon, but the longest one took a week (seed germination).
Familiarity with subject before course: I completed a non-lab biology before this (with StraighterLine) and there was a good bit of overlap.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Hands-on activities were a relatively small portion of the work done. Only 6 or 7 of the 9 modules had hands on labs and the balance of the work was doing things like manipulating data, mini research assignments and answering a LOT of short answer questions. Without counting, I'd say there were probably 200 or so short answer questions. Lab kit thoughts: The lab kit contained a bunch of stuff that wasn't used, so I'd imagine that eliminating the excess crap might have knocked a few bucks off the cost but that's just me. The lab kit comes from a third party vendor (eScience Labs), but all of the worksheets come from Ed4Credit, with the vendor logo on them... so who knows how this relationship works. A few household items are required for the kit, but it pretty well covers what you need. Speaking of household items, they seem to give you extras of commonly available stuff (Anyone need extra vinegar? Aluminum foil?) but when it comes to the stuff you can't find at the store, you get what you need and nothing more. Spill your bottle of Dichlorophenolindophenol? You're screwed. I'd imagine that you could order replacements from the vendor, but I don't know for sure.
1-10 Difficulty level: My biggest gripe was that the instructions and questions contained within the lab activities had a tendency to be as clear as mud. The directions weren't the greatest, and a lot of the questions were a bit abstract.
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#26
Provider: Sophia.org
Course: Introduction to Sociology
Course content: Course is delivered in a combination of text and/or video. You can choose from 2-4 different instructors who deliver the same content is a slightly different way via video lessons. You can "favorite" an instructor to have their lessons show up by default. Select the "Sophia Tutorial" as your favorite instructor if you want the text to show up by default. The course has 5 units. Each unit has three quizzes (called challenges with 7-15 questions) and a unit test (called a milestone, timed with 25 questions). Each unit must be passed with 70%. The quizzes and exams are open book. There is a hyperlinked glossary that is very useful when answering the open book quizzes/exams.
Final exam format: The final exam is proctored by ProctorU. This timed exam is for ID purposes only, and you only need to score 50%, but the score does not count towards your final grade. Proctor fee is included, but you must schedule 72 hours in advance. You can pay $5 or $8 to schedule in a few hours of immediately if a proctor is available.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Final exam is open book but is a little tricky because the questions are worded differently than the course making it very difficult to do text searches. Final ID exam is supposed to be restated questions taken from the milestone questions you have previously answered correctly.
Time taken on course: 2 days
Familiarity with subject before course: I very recently completed Organizational Behavior and Information Literacy exams and there was some crossover.
How would you have scored on the final with no preparation? 50%
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: You are allowed 1 page of handwritten or typed notes. However, the notes can not contain questions or answers from milestones/quizzes. I use my notes page to write down the outline of where things were in the course to save time clicking back and forth between the units. The interface is pretty but there are some annoying flaws- the neverending scrolling back to the top to click to the next page and the bouncing back and forth to different units gets tiresome.
1-10 Difficulty level: 3 for content, 7 for exam wording trickery

Take the free "Organizing Teams" course and you will get a $50 coupon towards any other course.
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#27
Provider: Sophia.org
Course: Introduction to Psychology
Course content: Course is delivered in a combination of text and/or video. You can choose from 2-4 different instructors who deliver the same content is a slightly different way via video lessons. You can "favorite" an instructor to have their lessons show up by default. Select the "Sophia Tutorial" as your favorite instructor if you want the text to show up by default. There are 6 units, each unit has a three quizzes (called challenges) and 1 unit test (called a milestone). The combined score of these 4 items must be 70%. I’m not sure what happens if your score falls below 70%. There is one final exam at the end that is proctored only for identification. You do have to score at least 50% on this 25 question exam. This exam is MUCH more difficult than the unit tests (milestones). The 25 question milestones only took me 25 minutes to complete, the 25 question final exam took almost the entire 90 minutes to complete.
Final exam format: The final exam is proctored by ProctorU. This timed exam is for ID purposes only and you only need to score 50% but the score does not count towards your final grade. Proctor fee is included but you must schedule 72 hours in advance. You can pay $5 or $8 to schedule in a few hours of immediately if a proctor is available.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Being open book the questions are very specific to the reading but they use different language that does not appear anywhere in the text which means you can’t search the text lessons for the answer. The questions could be in any of the 6 units so there is lots of clicking back and forth and scrolling to search for an answer. Final ID exam is made up of restated questions taken from the milestone questions you have previously answered correctly.
Time taken on course: 1 Week
Familiarity with subject before course: There is crossover from biology, information literacy, and sociology.
How would you have scored in the final with no preparation? 40%
Things others should know: You are allowed 1 page of handwritten or typed notes. However, the notes can not contain questions or answers from milestones/quizzes. I use my notes page to write down the outline of where things were in the course to save time clicking back and forth between the units. The interface is pretty but there are some annoying flaws- the neverending scrolling back to the top to click to the next page and the bouncing back and forth to different units gets tiresome.
1-10 Difficulty level: 4 for content, 7 for exam wording trickery

Personal review: This was my favorite Sophia course so far, and maybe even my favorite course/exam of all I have taken. The course content was really interesting and the pacing of the video instructors were just the right speed versus some video lessons on other platforms that I find need to be sped up 50%.

Take the free "Organizing Teams" course (or another Sophia course) and you will get a $50 coupon towards your next course.
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#28
bump to keep alive... more courses coming soon when I get the time to type them up.
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#29
For the record, I like the idea of this thread. I think the issue of changing information is minimal; we can all see the date on posts and know how current it is. However, I also like the suggestion of adding costs information, if possible. I'll come back in a week or two when I have something to contribute.
-Rachel

BS in Interdiscipl. Studies (Health Sci. + Beh. Sci. [Coaching] + Business) at Liberty U

Liberty U: 36 cred finished

LU ICE exam:
4 cred
Christopher Newport U:
2 cred
Amer. Coll. of Healthcare Sciences: 52 cred (+14 non-transferable)
Study.com: Pers Fin, Amer Gov
Shmoop: Bible as Lit, Lit in Media
SL: Bus. Ethics, IT Fundamentals, Intro to Religion, Intro to Comm, Intro to Sociology, Surv of World History, Engl Comp I&II

TECEP: Intro to Critical Reasoning (didn't transfer)
ALEKS: Intro Stats
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#30
Provider: Shmoop
Course: The Bible as Literature
Course content: All material is included.  Content is a mixture of text and video, some on the Shmoop platform itself, and some linked to at external sources.  (I found that some of the external readings were "optional," depending on my degree of familiarity with the material.  It was comprised of 7 units.  The first six each had a 20-question exam.  The 7th is just covered as part of the final.
Final exam format: 50 multiple-choice questions, timed (2 hours)
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Most of the final exam content pretty well mirrored unit exams.  There wasn't complete overlap, but they seem to be drawn from the same question pool.
Time taken on course: I completed the course in less than a week, during which I also homeschooled my children and spent a good bit of time learning Dungeons and Dragons with my family.
Familiarity with subject before course: I know the (Protestant) Bible as well as or better than most American pastors, so I was pretty familiar going in, with everything except unit 6, which deals with apocryphal and pseudoepigraphal books.  I probably could have passed the final without taking the course, but it would be close, because Shmoop's interpretive commentary is also incorporated into many of the questions.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Shmoop has a reputation for having "weird" questions.  This is my first Shmoop course, so it could well be an exception, but I didn't find most of the questions to be weird or quirky; I simply found them to require an actual understanding of the material, rather than being able to repeat the material word-for-word.  
1-10 Difficulty level: If you're already familiar with the Bible and its context, probably 2-3.  If not, perhaps a 6-7.
-Rachel

BS in Interdiscipl. Studies (Health Sci. + Beh. Sci. [Coaching] + Business) at Liberty U

Liberty U: 36 cred finished

LU ICE exam:
4 cred
Christopher Newport U:
2 cred
Amer. Coll. of Healthcare Sciences: 52 cred (+14 non-transferable)
Study.com: Pers Fin, Amer Gov
Shmoop: Bible as Lit, Lit in Media
SL: Bus. Ethics, IT Fundamentals, Intro to Religion, Intro to Comm, Intro to Sociology, Surv of World History, Engl Comp I&II

TECEP: Intro to Critical Reasoning (didn't transfer)
ALEKS: Intro Stats
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