A Shmoop Review

[KAnn]

Below is the feedback I gave Shmoop as I was canceling my subscription.

I had originally planned to take all 3 history courses with them, but Modern European History was so stressful that I will not be using them for US History 1 and 2. I read a post on the forum that indicated US History 1 and 2 are harder than the course I just finished, so that's that.

I work 40-50 hours a week and spent about 14-17 hours a week on this course. There is a LOT of required reading, and it was important to me to read everything I could access. Someone commented in the past that they completed a Shmoop course in a 24 hour trial, which (for this course at least) is only possible if you do not do all the reading.

If one of life's little messes had happened to crop up during the time I had my Shmoop subscription, I would not have been able to complete the course in one month, and the only reason it was worth trying in the first place was to get the 3 credits for $87.

So fwiw (I picked up that little gem on Shmoop!), here is my review:

A few of the more important reasons for canceling my subscription include distracting and needlessly trendy wording throughout, dozens of typos, numerous broken links, and an over dependence on outside sources.

Regarding the trendy word choices, phrases, and references, I realize Shmoop is geared toward Gen Z but 1) sometimes enough is enough and 2) there is money to be made from older distance learning students who don't care to waste time constantly trying to figure out what Shmoop is talking about. I understand the desire to seem relevant to your target audience, but I think it is unacceptable for an education company to fall so far below the standards of acceptable grammar and diction. I grew more irritated with this style every day, what with having to figure out what all the (tldr, atm, fwiw, etc.) acronyms mean, and spending 10 minutes learning who Regina is just to understand the metaphorical relationship Shmoop is attempting to describe.

I don't think the content of an education company's efforts should sound like it was written by a 16 year old. On that topic, I also found the small handful of older pop culture references very confusing; my 16 and 18 year old daughters are not familiar with Lassie and Timmy, have never seen the Brady Bunch, and are only vaguely aware that Elton John is a musician, so these references (while familiar to me) only contributed to my dissatisfaction with Shmoop. Somewhere out there is a parent or teacher wasting time and getting completely off topic trying to explain the frustration that "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!" implies, and the story behind who Baby is and why someone wanted to put her in a corner.

The anxiety produced once a student figures out that test answers may well be based on information that could not be accessed because links to the required outside reading are broken, moved, or out of date, is overwhelming.

I did learn a lot in this course, and I can appreciate the selective use of outside sources (especially to access primary source material) but overall this course had too many issues to be worth the irritation and stress of trying to fight my way through another. The number of typos in Modern European History would never have made it past a professional textbook editor and they should not be acceptable here. The broken links are akin to pages of a textbook being ripped out, and no educator would hold a student responsible for information he was never given and could not access. I think this mode of education is valuable and necessary in the 21st century, but Shmoop is going to have to up its standards and its efforts if it is going to compete with other (and at this point, better) options.

[dfrecore]

Love the review!

[Synicaal]

Not sure if it was my review that you read but I am the one who said Modern European History was easiest but that was because I took them in order. I did US History I then II then the European one. Doing it in that order you get a sense of what is going on and learn what they are looking for. And NOOOOO, I would never do all the reading from shmoop it is horrible how they lay it out.

[NonTrad]

If you don't know the History, Shmoop sucks. The way it's written, their take on things, the things they want you to know to pass the tests/quizzes, etc. If you're a history buff or just have a strong knowledge of US History, you can pretty much just bulldoze through them w/o reading the material.

Also, if you were raised in a traditional Jewish household, you can bulldoze through Biblical Literature too

[Old Guy]

Also, if you were raised in a traditional Jewish household, you can bulldoze through Biblical Literature too

I bulled my way through the course without reading. I've already read the Bible many times. Jews might find it a bit more difficult. They leave out the best part (in my biased opinion)

[NonTrad]

I bulled my way through the course without reading. I've already read the Bible many times. Jews might find it a bit more difficult. They leave out the best part (in my biased opinion)

Oh definitely. I guessed for most of the New Testament stuff.. But acing the old testament and jewish related stuff got me over 70%

[cookderosa]

Loved your review- and good thing I didn't take the class. I have no idea what most of those references you mentioned were. I guess I could google them....but blahhh.......which makes your point perfectly lol.

[bellbaby]

I was trying to get some info on Shmoop's pricing, so I emailed them. This was in relation to teacher/student packge and add-on for ACE credit. I just wanted to put in a good word for the salesperson who emailed and then called me. Obviously as a salesperson, she talked up her product But the nice thing was that she was quite responsive to my questions, and the needs for the students I was calling about. I would recommend that you email Shmoop if you have issues, for sure! KAnn, you gave such detailed feedback - awesome. I think they will take that into consideration, just based off the call I had with the sales lady.