Study.com vs. Straighterline Microbiology +

[adavis84]

Just to touch back on the OP's question of how SL and study.com compare, I decide to slam through one of study.com's shorter courses in an area I needed little study/review. I chose the Principles of Marketing course and completed it over the last two days. I did this mostly because I wanted to see what the final exam procedure was like (I'm only about a quarter of the way through microbio and progressing steadily, but slowly).

The final for study.com is structured similarly to SL in that the final is essentially a composite of the prior quizzes. Some questions are directly from prior quizzes while some are reworked but still similar. This course had a closed book, no notes final (I'm under the impression that this is the case for all of their courses, no?).

The stark contrast, however, is the final grade turnaround. SL uses a live proctoring service by a person with whom you interact. Study.com, however, uses a fully automated proctor. Both use a very similar authentication/validation process (photo ID, room pan, computer scan for unauthorized programs running, etc). What this translates to is instant grading from SL with your transcripts available in 72 hours, but a one to two week waiting period for study.com final exam results.

This is likely not a concern for most people, but I'm glad I found this out. I'm scheduling when I need to complete microbio by to get transcripts sent to TESU for my graduation deadline and a potential two week waiting period (on top of TESU's 20+ business day turnaround) is good to know.

For those under a time-crunch, SL or CLEP may be faster than study.com (given all other factors are equal).