Is Study.com college level?

[blithe]

Hello everyone,


I would like to know if the resources from Study.com is college level, as I have heard that the resources there tend to be more high school level.


I would like to subscribe to Study.com to get college-equivalent knowledge and not for credit.

Thank you.

[Merlin]

Hello everyone,

I would like to know if the resources from Study.com is college level, as I have heard that the resources there tend to be more high school level.

I would like to subscribe to Study.com to get college-equivalent knowledge and not for credit.

Thank you.

If you're just looking at the content itself, I'd say that some of the Study.com material feels like high school level. Particularly when compared to a comparable 4-year university course. But at the same time, some of their courses are much more challenging. It will also depend on the type of college you're comparing to. For example, a community college is generally considered less rigorous in how they instruct than an Ivy League university. If you compare the Study.com lessons to both, it will likely be closer to the community college level.

So it depends on what course you're taking and your basis for comparison.

Also keep in mind that the format that Study.com uses is designed to present information in smaller blocks and doesn't spend a lot of time on unnecessary background material that isn't relevant to what you need to understand to pass the course. So the lack of fluff may make it feel like its easier (or at least feel like there is less material to learn) when that isn't necessarily the case. Study.com just focuses on the core lessons of the material. In comparison, when looking at a college textbook, to me it always feels like at least 50% of each textbook is just extra fluff material that is mainly there to pad out the word count and will be of limited benefit to learning the core lessons of the subject. That isn't always the case, but it definitely can be.

In any case, this is all just opinion based on my own personal observations though, so YMMV. I think Study.com is a great way to learn and earn college credit along the way. However, if you're just interested in gaining the knowledge, you'd be better off taking free online courses, like Open University or MOOC classes which are taught by big universities. You won't get college credits but you will have the opportunity to learn the same material being taught in those colleges. You really only want to to use Study.com if you're interested in college credit.

[cookderosa]

Hello everyone,


I would like to know if the resources from Study.com is college level, as I have heard that the resources there tend to be more high school level.


I would like to subscribe to Study.com to get college-equivalent knowledge and not for credit.

Thank you.

They have different levels, filter by "college level" in the education tab.

[dfrecore]

I personally have taken college courses and Study.com courses, and I wouldn't pay for Study.com for the material itself without the college credit. There is just too much free stuff out there to pay for it.

KhanAcademy, all kinds of videos on YouTube, iTunesU college courses you can download and listen to on your phone, MOOC's, just tons and tons of free materials out there of great quality that are FREE!

[blithe]

Hello everyone,

I would like to know if the resources from Study.com is college level, as I have heard that the resources there tend to be more high school level.

I would like to subscribe to Study.com to get college-equivalent knowledge and not for credit.

Thank you.

If you're just looking at the content itself, I'd say that some of the Study.com material feels like high school level. Particularly when compared to a comparable 4-year university course. But at the same time, some of their courses are much more challenging. It will also depend on the type of college you're comparing to. For example, a community college is generally considered less rigorous in how they instruct than an Ivy League university. If you compare the Study.com lessons to both, it will likely be closer to the community college level.

So it depends on what course you're taking and your basis for comparison.

Also keep in mind that the format that Study.com uses is designed to present information in smaller blocks and doesn't spend a lot of time on unnecessary background material that isn't relevant to what you need to understand to pass the course. So the lack of fluff may make it feel like its easier (or at least feel like there is less material to learn) when that isn't necessarily the case. Study.com just focuses on the core lessons of the material. In comparison, when looking at a college textbook, to me it always feels like at least 50% of each textbook is just extra fluff material that is mainly there to pad out the word count and will be of limited benefit to learning the core lessons of the subject. That isn't always the case, but it definitely can be.

In any case, this is all just opinion based on my own personal observations though, so YMMV. I think Study.com is a great way to learn and earn college credit along the way. However, if you're just interested in gaining the knowledge, you'd be better off taking free online courses, like Open University or MOOC classes which are taught by big universities. You won't get college credits but you will have the opportunity to learn the same material being taught in those colleges. You really only want to to use Study.com if you're interested in college credit.

Hello Merlin,

Thank you very much for your helpful and detailed response.

I would kindly ask for your opinion. I am a high school dropout with a GED. I have worked afterwards and am grateful to have a stable income (I'm based in Asia).

I believe I lack knowledge in many areas in comparison to those with a Bachelor's degree. Hence why I would like to enrol in college courses without needing the credit.

I have enrolled for Coursera & edX courses and feel that a lot of the courses are rather Masters level courses. The courses are great indeed but I can't help to feel that there are more basic informations that I have missed.

I have figured out that Study.com offers all the courses that would be needed for a BSBA Management, but I fear it would be more high school level that I would waste my time.

If you were in my position, what would you do and which courses would you take? 

Thank you very much, Merlin.

[sanantone]

I personally have taken college courses and Study.com courses, and I wouldn't pay for Study.com for the material itself without the college credit.  There is just too much free stuff out there to pay for it.

KhanAcademy, all kinds of videos on YouTube, iTunesU college courses you can download and listen to on your phone, MOOC's, just tons and tons of free materials out there of great quality that are FREE!

I also like Learner.org. They have cheesy PBS series, but they're entertaining. I was learning Spanish while watching a telenovela.

[blithe]

I personally have taken college courses and Study.com courses, and I wouldn't pay for Study.com for the material itself without the college credit.  There is just too much free stuff out there to pay for it.

KhanAcademy, all kinds of videos on YouTube, iTunesU college courses you can download and listen to on your phone, MOOC's, just tons and tons of free materials out there of great quality that are FREE!

Thank you so much for the helpful response. I have started enrolling for courses on Coursera and edX. I do feel that the courses are more of an advanced level. 

Which websites do you suggest me viewing? I am very new to this and feel like there might be some resources that I might not be aware of   Thank you very much.

---

I personally have taken college courses and Study.com courses, and I wouldn't pay for Study.com for the material itself without the college credit.  There is just too much free stuff out there to pay for it.

KhanAcademy, all kinds of videos on YouTube, iTunesU college courses you can download and listen to on your phone, MOOC's, just tons and tons of free materials out there of great quality that are FREE!

I also like Learner.org. They have cheesy PBS series, but they're entertaining. I was learning Spanish while watching a telenovela.

Wow, thank you very much sanantone. I have never known about Learner.org

I would really appreciate your opinion. 

As I've stated above, I am a high school dropout with a GED, with a stable income for which I am grateful for. However, I often feel that I have missed out on a great deal of knowledge hence why I would like to learn university-level courses. I am very new to this and I might not be aware of many resources out there. I have completed a few courses on Udacity, Coursera and edX but I feel like I have missed out on some basic informations. If you were in my position, what would you do? Thank you so much.

[Merlin]

I would kindly ask for your opinion. I am a high school dropout with a GED. I have worked afterwards and am grateful to have a stable income (I'm based in Asia).

I believe I lack knowledge in many areas in comparison to those with a Bachelor's degree. Hence why I would like to enrol in college courses without needing the credit.

I have enrolled for Coursera & edX courses and feel that a lot of the courses are rather Masters level courses. The courses are great indeed but I can't help to feel that there are more basic informations that I have missed.

I have figured out that Study.com offers all the courses that would be needed for a BSBA Management, but I fear it would be more high school level that I would waste my time.

If you were in my position, what would you do and which courses would you take? 

Thank you very much, Merlin.

That is a tough question since it sounds like there are multiple factors. You state that you want to learn specific information so you can be more competitive in your career. But considering you only have a GED, it sounds like you may also want to consider getting a college degree as a means to prove to others that you have college-level skills. Then again, I may be misreading the latter, or it not be true today, but it could be true in the future.

If I were in your position, and I wanted to invest the time, energy, and potentially cost to learn a college degree worth of material, I'd want to get the actual degree out of it as well. That is basically what a lot of the people on this forum are here to do. While you don't need a degree to be successful (I've been doing fine for quite a long time), it may be helpful down the road if you're ever in a position where you will be compared to others with the same skill set but who also have a degree (for a job or promotion for example). Plus some positions require advanced degrees (masters or doctorate). You can't even start one of those until you have a bachelor's degree, and you may want to pursue those one day.

For what you need, the material you learn at online sources like Study.com will be reasonably close (or at least comparable) to what you'd learn in a traditional college. They cover all the important bits at least. Yes, their material is less rigorous than some schools but it may be better than others I'm sure, and you may learn more since it is more focused. Of course, a lot of traditional college graduates don't really remember the details of all their college courses once they've graduated anyway. So in many ways it doesn't really matter all that much. If you're taking online courses, a lot of it is up to you and what you want to learn.

If you don't really want to learn everything 120 credits of college courses would teach an average student, then if it were me, I'd identify the specific skills you feel that you need more skill in and focus on mastering those. I can't really make any specific suggestions as I don't know where you lack knowledge, but if you're interested in business, there are a ton of free options to learn in any subject you want to better understand. You mentioned Coursera & EdX which are great MOOC options, and yes some of those are graduate or upper-level courses, but you should be able to find introductory level courses on there too if you look around. Plus, you can also look at Udemy, Saylor, iTunes U, Youtube, and a ton of other options. Googling free online business classes gives a ton of other options as well.

All in all, I think you need to figure out what you really want to learn first. Once you've done that, you can research places to learn it. I'd avoid any paid options unless you are focusing on a degree. Then again, even if you don't think you want it right now, it isn't a bad idea to start accruing credits since you may change your mind someday. I'd recommend that you take a couple courses on Saylor (which is free) to start with. If you like it, you can pay for their optional proctored final exams to earn credits, and then look at places like Study.com or Straighterline once you've developed a full course plan.

Good luck.

[dfrecore]

I'm not quite sure why you'd spend the time doing the Study.com courses but not get credit for them? Why not just go all in and do the courses and get the credit?

[icampy]

Just get a degree. That is nonsense.