Starting down the Straighterline Road...

[alzee]

On another note, do you mind sharing your assumption and why you decided to go with SL instead of Saylor? I'm planning on going with Saylor for most of my business core credits, due to pricing, and the fact that I am good at testing.

I can't speak for CG, but many of us who prefer SL over Saylor do so for two reasons.

1. Easier to pass. Every non-proctored SL exam is open book, and counts toward your grade. Often times you can complete all of the course except for the final, with minimal studying, with a high enough score that your score on the final does not actually matter.

2. Saylor in particular has pretty terrible structure to many of their courses. "Go here and read paragraphs 4-6, 9, and 11.. then watch this video from 11min32sec to 21min18sec" is just too much jumping around and disjointedness for me to be able to progress quickly.

[CGaboury]

I've just started this whole process and I assumed that I'd enjoy just tacking a test and being done. I'm learning that I'm more comfortable with incremental goals such as unit tests and class work. While I want to get this done quickly, I like to know that I'm continually making progress. SL will allow me to complete the coursework and I can actually compute that into my grade. That's important for me.

I started a few Saylor classes and there was just so much material. It didn't seem like a big enough payoff to do all the chapters and complete a few quizzes that held no meaning to the rest of the class.

[Flelm]

Good points. I'll probably try one or two through Saylor and if the format doesn't work for me I'll re-evaluate. Thanks.

[TrailRunr]

SL is easy and fast. SL is more expensive, but it's worth the extra cost. There are ways to avoid having to buy the SL textbook (which will jack up your costs considerably), but I won't discuss here to protect the forum owners. You can get 75+ credits through SL very fast. I can't possibly see someone with enough patience to do that many credits with Saylor. Even though Saylor is cheaper, it's like renting a bicycle for $10/day to travel 100 miles when you really need a car for $30/day. Yes you save $20, but it will cost you a lot of time.

[dfrecore]

From what I've read of Saylor, and the short amount of time I've spent looking at it, I now recommend to people that they use them for the tests only, on things they actually think they can pass cold. Like, someone who has taken Principles of Management already might be able to pass Intro to Business without studying. That would be a good use of Saylor.

AND, if you're already using Study.com to take a couple of courses, you might be able to use a Saylor exam for a course you learned through Study. For instance, you're signed up with Study.com and taking HRM and Strategic HRM for credit. Do the Marketing course as well, but take the Saylor exam at the end instead of paying for the Study.com Marketing course.

Take Saylor's Business Stats exam if you're getting credit for Stats through ALEKS. Take the Business Communication exam after taking SL's Business Comm course.

Use ACDC Econ videos to study for the Macro & Microecon exams.

That kind of thing.

There's a way to make Saylor work for you, even if you can't get through their courses easily.