SL Calc I review/concerns

[adavis84]

Hi all!

I've been taking SL Calc I for just under a month now and will finish in the next week or so. In total, the course will take me appx 6 weeks. I thought I might share my experience on here to help other people who might be considering it as an option.

Course Structure:
SL uses Thinkwell videos as the lectures. There is no book, simply pdf notes/slides corresponding to the videos (for those who prefer/require reading over videos, there are also pdf transcripts of the vids).
Otherwise, it's SL as usual: ungraded practice quizzes, graded tests, a midterm and a final (via ProctorU).

My Experience:
First, let me say that the Thinkwell videos are great! At first I found Professor Burger a little over the top, but he grew on me quickly.

I'm interested to see, however, what order the videos are in on Thinkwell vs the order they're in on SL. I say this because there were frequent discontinuities in the lessons. A prime example is in Lesson 10. The first video in Lesson 10.2, titled "An Introduction to Integration by Parts" begins with evaluating a straight-forward integration problem. The first step required is to identify that the problem under consideration is not a candidate for u-substitution, or partial fraction techniques....the only thing is...NEITHER of these concepts had been introduced at this point! They don't show up until several lessons later. There are some visual clues in the videos (such as title headings/symbols) to indicate that the videos aren't presented in sequential order.

This seemed to be the case throughout the course: videos a bit out of order. This could really derail someone who's new to the subject matter. Thankfully, I elected to finish the Khan Academy differential calc track (and part of the integral calc track) before I set out to tackle SL, so I was able to identify what was being skipped over and revisit it on KA or hunt for it in the SL videos. Without using KA as a primer, I'd have been lost and frustrated with SL for certain.
Overall, the SL course is much more in depth/difficult than KA. I'm very glad that I'm taking the SL compared to just the KA as it's pushing me to learn the same topics, but at a deeper level.

I'm interested in hearing from anyone who's taken SL calc if they thought this was the case as well, or if I'm alone one this. Also, is there anyone with experience with both the SL version and the actual Thinkwell course? I'd be VERY interested in knowing if SL has jumbled it up or if that's just how Thinkwell presents it (I suspect the former).

Long story short: if you're interested in SL calc, you may need to be prepared to hunt for outside sources to help make sense of their structure.

On another, somewhat related, note: I think I might not actually transfer the SL to TESC after all and may attempt the CLEP instead. There are a few local B&M courses I want to take that I plan to transfer to TESC which require Calc I as a prereq. The school doesn't recognize SL and I'd have to petition to have it accepted as satisfying the prereq (yes, I know there's an ACE evaluation/recommendation, but the CLEP is readily accepted without question). Plus, I think SL is 3sh, whereas CLEP is 4sh at TESC. It will be interesting to see how well the SL course works as a CLEP prep.

[lavagirl]

I'm interested to see, however, what order the videos are in on Thinkwell vs the order they're in on SL. I say this because there were frequent discontinuities in the lessons.
I'm interested in hearing from anyone who's taken SL calc if they thought this was the case as well, or if I'm alone one this.

Totally agree with you. I took SL Calculus I and II probably 8 months ago and had the same issue. I even wrote to Straighterline about it, and they as if sent my complain to the "knowledgeable" person , and "knowledgeable person" answered that everything in their videos is in correct order. :roflol:

[adavis84]

Just to wrap up this review if anyone is on the fence about SL Calc:

I asked around at my current B&M school and found someone who had the Thinkwell calc course. They allowed me to take a look at the playlists so I was able to compare to SL. I have confirmed my previous suspicion that the integration techniques are out of order on SL compared to TW. I still can't see what possible advantage there may be to this. I'd be interested in hearing any input on possible advantages to SL's approach. Until then, I guess I'm left assuming lack of attention to detail on the part of SL. Combining my findings with the response lavagirl received from SL, I must say this course is, at best, disorganized and could be detrimental to someone who is new to the subject. This is a real shame/missed opportunity because TW clearly has all the content SL needs to rework this course into something excellent.

The closest thing I can give to a recommendation for this course is this: if you already know what you're doing and just need the credits, go nuts (but why not just take the CLEP?). Otherwise, either find some other way to learn this material first, or take this course elsewhere.

[fjr_wlb]

Can you CLEP Calc II?

[adavis84]

Not to my knowledge.

CLEP Exams

My reference to CLEP for calculus was for calc I.

[adavis84]

I wanted to add one more thing to this thread that I think might be helpful: https://mooculus.osu.edu/. It's been mentioned here before, but I figure it's nice to have everything in one place.

This is Calc I offered free from The Ohio State University through coursera. This is another excellent resource (along with KA) for teaching yourself Calc I before using SL or CLEP to get the credits.

[lavagirl]

....but I figure it's nice to have everything in one place.

That reminds me that Saylor offers Calculus I that is NCCRS approved and can be taken for 3 college credits just for $25 (need to pay for ProctorU).