Straighterline New Proctor Policy Change

[Publius]

Wow, I'm not to enthusiastic about having to REtake finals. I'm glad the SL courses I've taken have already been with transferred to TESC and been awarded credit. I'll just have to finish up the 3 SL courses I'm in and have them sent over to TESC before Nov 1st. That's if I want to save paying for 3 proctoring sessions.

I liked having the SCHOOLS choose whether proctoring was necessary or not.

[Ace_King]

I understand that Straighterline is trying to be much more “trustworthy” to the public. I guess many critics of Straighterline don’t like Straighterlines format. Straighterline wants a good perception in the public, so people don’t think these online course are easy or just an easy source of credit. I understand that implementing these new rules might silence some of the critics in thinking that Straighterline is some sort of fly by credit organization that one can earn credits. But here are a few problems I don’t agree with. First, Straighterline should stick to the old rules. If a partner college requires proctored examinations for a Straighterline course than so be it. If a college like WGU requires proctored examinations than let Straighterline enforce that rule for that college. The student is aware of the rules if he or she picks WGU. Another thing is that, one only has about 28 days to complete the course. Not technically 30 days and if you enroll in a course on a Sunday and never receive an email of your access key it could be 27 days instead of 28. If one is trying to complete as many courses as possible within the last week and is hit with this policy this is going to delay the students progress and be more expensive. It will be an additional $99 for another month if one is hit with this policy on the last week. One would have to schedule a proctor from ProctorU and wait more days and cut off his or hers schedule to find time to take this “proctored” examination. So for instance, if I am trying to cram up College Algebra and Business Communications within the last week and if I don’t finish the course by 10/10 and get hit by this policy the day before, they will bill me another $99 for the next month.

[marianne202]

Has anyone confirmed how far back they are going in flagging accounts? I completed three courses in a week last year, but I have 20+ years of knowledge in the subject areas and actually teach some of the courses, but I had nothing official on my transcript and needed these for post-bacc cert program I was enrolling in. I completed the courses, received my grades and had them transferred to ACE and Excelsior and they are on my EC transcript. This was last December and I have not received anything from SL indicating my account was flagged or will be flagged. If all my grades have already been sent to ACE am I safe from flagging? I just don't want to find out they are invalidating my grades. I'm not sure they can even legally do this after a grade has been posted. If anyone finds out anything I would appreciate it if you would post it here. I no longer have a paid SL account, so I can't get into see "student" area info. Thanks!

[JasonBrown]

A law firm rep contacted me after posting this. We are now in the process of gathering information for a class action and will possibly be filing suit if they decide to get this changed.

[Publius]

Has anyone confirmed how far back they are going in flagging accounts? I completed three courses in a week last year, but I have 20+ years of knowledge in the subject areas and actually teach some of the courses, but I had nothing official on my transcript and needed these for post-bacc cert program I was enrolling in. I completed the courses, received my grades and had them transferred to ACE and Excelsior and they are on my EC transcript. This was last December and I have not received anything from SL indicating my account was flagged or will be flagged. If all my grades have already been sent to ACE am I safe from flagging? I just don't want to find out they are invalidating my grades. I'm not sure they can even legally do this after a grade has been posted. If anyone finds out anything I would appreciate it if you would post it here. I no longer have a paid SL account, so I can't get into see "student" area info. Thanks!

I'm sure that since you've transferred the course, that the course was ACE approved, and since you've been awarded the credit, there's nothing they can really do. Esp since EC (and most other schools) didn't require the proctoring.
It's the schools that award the credit. SL isn't doing this for the schools that are already partner colleges. They're doing this (most likely) as others have stated for marketing reasons and to increase their standing in the academic world. That's my thought on the matter.

[bldclot2]

This move is more about making money than academic integrity. Even the community college courses I have taken in the past have never required proctors, and yes I understand that they are trying to validate their service and be more appealing to future institutions, but why make proctoring mandatory if not all current partner schools require it.

[bldclot2]

This is just a bad move (Netflix Status) on Straighterlines part, they have hundreds if not thousands of loyal customers that are currently taking courses and you are telling them you have to pay additional fees for proctoring even though proctoring wasn't required when you signed up. How about folks that are overseas that are not online at the same hours as people stateside, how will proctoring work for them? Is Proctor U available 24/7? Found the answer to this: Proctoring 20 hours a day / 7 days a week.
How about folks that don't have the minimum required software to run Proctor U? or They don't have a camera on their CPU? Also, will the student have to create an additional account with Proctor U? I hope someone else starts a business like Straighterline, because I'm switching.

[Publius]

This move is more about making money than academic integrity. Even the community college courses I have taken in the past have never required proctors, and yes I understand that they are trying to validate their service and be more appealing to future institutions, but why make proctoring mandatory if not all current partner schools require it.

Agreed 100%.

The academic integrity was already an option beforehand.

[bldclot2]

All you Business Majors, Here's a perfect opportunity to start a business. Or Maybe InstantCert can start a new educational non-profit LLC, that will offer college level credit for courses.

[JasonBrown]

This is just a bad move (Netflix Status) on Straighterlines part, they have hundreds if not thousands of loyal customers that are currently taking courses and you are telling them you have to pay additional fees for proctoring even though proctoring wasn't required when you signed up. How about folks that are overseas that are not online at the same hours as people stateside, how will proctoring work for them? Is Proctor U available 24/7? Found the answer to this: Proctoring 20 hours a day / 7 days a week.
How about folks that don't have the minimum required software to run Proctor U? or They don't have a camera on their CPU? Also, will the student have to create an additional account with Proctor U? I hope someone else starts a business like Straighterline, because I'm switching.

I agree completely. I recommend them to military friend who are overseas and now they are going to be screwed because they can't use proctor U because of the camera and bandwidth requirements.