Comparative analysis of Study.Com & Straighterline

[Supermind]

Hi everyone. 
Those of you who have earned credits on Straighterline and/or Study.com, which one do you feel offers more quality content and more options to choose from? Also, from a price perspective, which one proves cheaper? Study.com has a 199 $/mo. College accelerator package that allows you to access unlimited courses and take 2 ACE approved exams during that period. Straighterline has a membership fee of 99 $/mo. and an additional fee of 59$ for every exam you take. So, it almost sums up to the same as Study.com. I would appreciate your inputs as I need to make a decision soon and settle for either of the two.

[MNomadic]

Some sl courses cost quite a bit more than $59. Some are $69, $99 or more(plus lab courses require you to spend another$100+). But SL offers discount promos on a regular basis if you keep up to date with it. SDC does offer more choices. Last I checked they had ~177 courses and seem to add a few more every several months.

[Merlin]

Hi everyone. 
Those of you who have earned credits on Straighterline and/or Study.com, which one do you feel offers more quality content and more options to choose from? Also, from a price perspective, which one proves cheaper? Study.com has a 199 $/mo. College accelerator package that allows you to access unlimited courses and take 2 ACE approved exams during that period. Straighterline has a membership fee of 99 $/mo. and an additional fee of 59$ for every exam you take. So, it almost sums up to the same as Study.com. I would appreciate your inputs as I need to make a decision soon and settle for either of the two.

As with most things on this forum, the best option typically comes down to what is best for you based on your learning style.

Straighterline courses are mostly textbook driven, and more than half are open book and open notes on the final exam. Plus the final exam for most courses only represents 20-30% of the final grade. This allows some people to get through SL course material fairly quickly. Some people even disregard the assigned reading and just take the open book tests and look up answers as they go. But that risks not having enough time to complete exams since it takes time to look up answers in real-time during a test.

Study.com, on the other hand, doesn't offer open book exams, but they provide their own instructional material (video and text lessons) that is much less than what a traditional textbook would encompass and is tailored closely to what will be tested on in the final. Depending on the format of the course (whether it requires written papers or projects) the final exam represents either 33% of 67% of the final grade.

It is common to hear people say that you can get through courses quicker on Straighterline but you learn more on Study.com. Whether that is true or not depends a lot on how you move through a course.

Cost wise, it depends on how many courses you can get through in a month. If you're able to take 2-3 courses a month, Study.com is slightly cheaper (assuming no discounts). However, Straighterline is slightly less expensive overall. 

• Assuming you're taking the $59 courses at Straighterline, the price runs from $158 per course if you can only complete 1 course per month, to $78.80 per course, if you can complete 5 courses in a month. There are also discounts codes that can drop both the per course and first month subscription price quite a bit.
  
• At Study.com, the price runs from $199 per course if you can only complete 1 course per month, to $81.80 per course if you can complete 5 per month. Study.com used to have the Guardian scholarship which offered 6 free courses over 3 months, and there used to be a pre-paid discount plan as well which could drop the price down to $150/mo, but neither of those options are available any longer.
  

I took courses from both providers depending on the specific course, but I am taking the bulk of my courses from Study.com since I'm one of the of last few who got in on the $150/mo plan, and I prefer the format of the courses on Study.com.

[Supermind]

Hi everyone. 
Those of you who have earned credits on Straighterline and/or Study.com, which one do you feel offers more quality content and more options to choose from? Also, from a price perspective, which one proves cheaper? Study.com has a 199 $/mo. College accelerator package that allows you to access unlimited courses and take 2 ACE approved exams during that period. Straighterline has a membership fee of 99 $/mo. and an additional fee of 59$ for every exam you take. So, it almost sums up to the same as Study.com. I would appreciate your inputs as I need to make a decision soon and settle for either of the two.

As with most things on this forum, the best option typically comes down to what is best for you based on your learning style.

Straighterline courses are mostly textbook driven, and more than half are open book and open notes on the final exam. Plus the final exam for most courses only represents 20-30% of the final grade. This allows some people to get through SL course material fairly quickly. Some people even disregard the assigned reading and just take the open book tests and look up answers as they go. But that risks not having enough time to complete exams since it takes time to look up answers in real-time during a test.

Study.com, on the other hand, doesn't offer open book exams, but they provide their own instructional material (video and text lessons) that is much less than what a traditional textbook would encompass and is tailored closely to what will be tested on in the final. Depending on the format of the course (whether it requires written papers or projects) the final exam represents either 33% of 67% of the final grade.

It is common to hear people say that you can get through courses quicker on Straighterline but you learn more on Study.com. Whether that is true or not depends a lot on how you move through a course.

Cost wise, it depends on how many courses you can get through in a month. If you're able to take 2-3 courses a month, Study.com is slightly cheaper (assuming no discounts). However, Straighterline is slightly less expensive overall. 

• Assuming you're taking the $59 courses at Straighterline, the price runs from $158 per course if you can only complete 1 course per month, to $78.80 per course, if you can complete 5 courses in a month. There are also discounts codes that can drop both the per course and first month subscription price quite a bit.
  
• At Study.com, the price runs from $199 per course if you can only complete 1 course per month, to $81.80 per course if you can complete 5 per month. Study.com used to have the Guardian scholarship which offered 6 free courses over 3 months, and there used to be a pre-paid discount plan as well which could drop the price down to $150/mo, but neither of those options are available any longer.
  

I took courses from both providers depending on the specific course, but I am taking the bulk of my courses from Study.com since I'm one of the of last few who got in on the $150/mo plan, and I prefer the format of the courses on Study.com.

Thank you so much for such a detailed reply. I think I might go with Study.com as well.

[Nodaclu]

The point regarding matching your learning style to the proper platform is well taken. I can say with complete confidence that there is no way on earth I would be in a position to complete my degree without Study.com. Their format was a perfect (and frankly, the only) match for the way I learn best. It made all the difference.

[allvia]

Study.com has many UL credit courses that are needed for the AOS for most of the degrees talked about here.  Straighterline (SL) has only 1 course left (a Business course) that comes in UL.   I think you'd find that the majority of people here take a mix of both SL & Study.com - with more at Study.com due to the large number of courses they offer and their proctoring does not require advanced scheduling.

[zzzz24]

I like SL and if it wasn't for the lack of UL courses, I would probably complete everything with them.

[dfrecore]

SL doesn't have nearly the number of courses that Study.com has (50+ vs 170+). Also, Study.com has a TON of UL courses that SL doesn't have (I think they have 1 at this point).

I personally prefer the shorter lessons/quiz style of Study.com over the chapter/exam style of SL. It kind of fits into my life better, where I can take some courses here and there rather than a big chunk of time to do a whole chapter at once.

Although I didn't watch the videos, I also think that many more people benefit from those; SL doesn't really have that option.

Also, I've heard (no firsthand experience) that you can do Study.com on the go - there's an app. No such luck for SL.

Last but not least, if you're going to do a lot of courses, then Study.com is THE way to go. Many courses overlap each other in some way, making subsequent courses shorter. They also have pretests available for many courses, so you can shorten the path that way as well.

Just some of the way Study.com is superior in my opinion (and yes I work there now, but I haven't for long, and I was a fan before I started there - and wasn't a huge fan of SL back then either).

[Nodaclu]

Also, I've heard (no firsthand experience) that you can do Study.com on the go - there's an app. No such luck for SL.

Great call out. The app is surprisingly well done, and I did a healthy amount of work on my phone when I had 5 minutes here and there. I'd highly recommend adding it to one's study arsenal.

[MNomadic]

Also, I've heard (no firsthand experience) that you can do Study.com on the go - there's an app.  No such luck for SL.

Great call out. The app is surprisingly well done, and I did a healthy amount of work on my phone when I had 5 minutes here and there. I'd highly recommend adding it to one's study arsenal.

I agree, I've completed a few of my entire SDC classes in those "in between" moments of life using the app. Only setting 30+ minutes aside in the end for practice tests on my computer and then of course taking the final.