Saylor Proctor U, how does it work?

[bjcheung77]

Wow, so much has changed for Saylor. When I asked last February, I was denied in-Proctor testing for anything ACE but the NCCRS courses were a go. They've since added so many courses, they're a very good option but the speed to finish their courses is lacking. The materials are OK, not really the style of learning that I would like, but for those even more frugal than I, they're awesome.

In fact, I had a plan specifically to use Saylor over Straighterline and Study.com, but ultimately didn't choose them because some courses were brutal (the course materials or resources weren't working). I guess when they get better and better, they'll soon be at a level similar to Straighterline/Study.com, I would choose them then (for a second Bachelors). Thanks for the update!

[rvm]

BJ, I would be interested to hear more details about Saylor's course materials & resources and why you didn't have a positive experience. Did you take non-proctored exams prior to taking the proctored exams? How are they different? Did you use any other study resources? Maybe this would help the OP, as well. TIA!

[davewill]

Saylor courses suffer because all of the course materials are gleaned from free online sources. This causes problems with consistency (different terminology for example) repetitiveness (each author starts with some review), and with broken links. Not all courses suffer, I took sociology, for example, and because it was based on a single online textbook, I found it to be quite good. Of course, Saylor only gives one credit for that one, so I used it as study for the CLEP.

Environmental Ethics, on the other hand, was highly annoying with hours of online video lectures and links that had instructions like, "after clicking the link choose xx, read two sections, then move on to chapter yy and read up to zzz." Plus three or four links that were simply broken. This was another one that I used for study (TECEP) as Saylor did not offer it for credit at that time.

[rvm]

Thank you Dave! I noticed the similar issues with the Computer Science I course. I didn't give it that much thought since I had experience with Java before beginning the course and since Saylor acquires its courses from different sources and of course, different instructors, I just assumed Comp Sci I was a poorly constructed course. I had hoped it was only that course which was inadequate and that the others weren't impacted as negatively.

[teacher2]

I completely agree with you rvm about the internet and ProcturU! I took my last ProcturU test (through WGU) a week ago and I am so grateful to be done with them! (at least for now=). My computer has internet less than 3mbps regularly and it is none existent on rainy days. This has lead to some very anxious moments! I have taken 12 tests through them and each time I had to be transferred from technician to technician to technician and usually it took anywhere from 30-45 minutes just to get started -not exaggerating! But the Pollyanna side of it was I did learn not to freak out and forget everything I knew and to settle down and be patient. =)