I'm surprised SL hasn't added new courses

[dfrecore]

With all of the alternatives that have come about in the past few years, I'm really surprised that SL hasn't added more courses.  Study.com has 170 courses at this point, MANY of them UL.  SL only has 56!  They have gotten rid of courses, but haven't seemed to add new ones.  They are the most "mainstream" alternative course provider (I think), with partnerships that they post on their website so you can see who will take their courses and how they'll come into your degree, so they really should have a leg up.

Just something I've been thinking about for a while now.  Any ideas on why they're not at 200+ courses by now??

[Cheeseburrito]

My guess is they found their bread and butter courses that bring a great ROI and don't want to deviate. Investing in a new course may not be worth it based on the numbers they've crunched.

[22gunsonfire]

I find it more shameful that they had more difficult to find courses like Physics and Chem 2 and labs but dont pursue them anymore. They had lock down on market parts and gave it up. Poo

[cookderosa]

With all of the alternatives that have come about in the past few years, I'm really surprised that SL hasn't added more courses.  Study.com has 170 courses at this point, MANY of them UL.  SL only has 56!  They have gotten rid of courses, but haven't seemed to add new ones.  They are the most "mainstream" alternative course provider (I think), with partnerships that they post on their website so you can see who will take their courses and how they'll come into your degree, so they really should have a leg up.

Just something I've been thinking about for a while now.  Any ideas on why they're not at 200+ courses by now??

I've reached out to them about this in the past. They told me they were working on some type of fine arts product (music/art appreciation type) but so far, nothing yet.

[eriehiker]

I find it more shameful that they had more difficult to find courses like Physics and Chem 2 and labs but dont pursue them anymore. They had lock down on market parts and gave it up. Poo

Well, it has been interesting to watch the interplay between the for-profit providers and the non-profit schools.  The for-profits were really squeezed with the crackdown at the end of the Obama Admin. and had to find non-profit partners.  That's why we see companies like Sophia with so many cross-branded sites.  We also see it from the other side.  Study.com and TESU were partners in the DOE demonstration project.  There were lots of pairings like this.  So the for-profits have to please the non-profits and it has been clear that the non-profits want the last two years of college, advanced classes, technical classes and graduate work.  So the SL strategy is probably a good one.

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BTW, what I see in the future are several of these for-profit/non-profit partnerships attempting to dominate market share with walled gardens. It'll be like Apple vs. Microsoft vs. Android. The goal will be to preserve a cost-effective alternative education pathway, but not at zero cost, while maintaining the higher end courses for the colleges and universities. This is, I think, why shmoop is getting squeezed. It was just too cheap and was a race to the bottom for the colleges.

[jsd]

If Shmoop found a cheap way to offer courses while protecting their product they wouldn’t have a problem. Saylor is cheaper than Shmoop and does just fine. But when you have a good chunk of people on our forums (which is not a small percentage of their ACE user base) openly bragging about skipping course content and just opening multiple tabs to more effectively cheat on their exams then we shouldn’t be surprised when they come under scrutiny.

I’m not endorsing cheating. But if you’re going to do it, don’t be so stupid and flagrant about it or you risk this happening.

[teacher2]

I second jsd.

[dfrecore]

Well, it has been interesting to watch the interplay between the for-profit providers and the non-profit schools.  The for-profits were really squeezed with the crackdown at the end of the Obama Admin. and had to find non-profit partners.  That's why we see companies like Sophia with so many cross-branded sites.  We also see it from the other side.  Study.com and TESU were partners in the DOE demonstration project.  There were lots of pairings like this.  So the for-profits have to please the non-profits and it has been clear that the non-profits want the last two years of college, advanced classes, technical classes and graduate work.  So the SL strategy is probably a good one.

---

BTW, what I see in the future are several of these for-profit/non-profit partnerships attempting to dominate market share with walled gardens.  It'll be like Apple vs. Microsoft vs. Android.  The goal will be to preserve a cost-effective alternative education pathway, but not at zero cost, while maintaining the higher end courses for the colleges and universities.  This is, I think, why shmoop is getting squeezed.  It was just too cheap and was a race to the bottom for the colleges.

The ACE providers aren't getting so many schools accepting their courses that this is going to be a problem.  They are already few and far between.

Shmoop wasn't getting squeezed because it was cheap, and it only got squeezed by TESU (and maybe WGU).  COSC and EC still accept them, and they are still ACE-recommended.  So there is no squeezing going on, just a single school that said they wouldn't accept their courses.  I imagine TESU will come out with a new policy that says they'll only accept proctored exams, so there will be some falloff from Shmoop, ALEKS, Sophia free courses, TEEX, etc.  But it won't amount to much because there aren't that many providers that use unproctored finals - everyone else has proctored courses, so it won't be an issue.

[a2jc4life]

I wish they'd do logic/critical reasoning. There's ridiculously little by way of alternative options for that, given how many alternative providers there are and that this is a required gen ed at most schools.

[jsh1138]

If Shmoop found a cheap way to offer courses while protecting their product they wouldn’t have a problem. Saylor is cheaper than Shmoop and does just fine. But when you have a good chunk of people on our forums (which is not a small percentage of their ACE user base) openly bragging about skipping course content and just opening multiple tabs to more effectively cheat on their exams then we shouldn’t be surprised when they come under scrutiny.

I’m not endorsing cheating. But if you’re going to do it, don’t be so stupid and flagrant about it or you risk this happening.

exactly. anyone who comes here and does a simple search could find 30 degrees to revoke if they were inclined to do it

the cheaters ruin it for the rest of us, i've done every SL and Shmoop test closed book and they're easily passable if you just study for them