Study.com a serious disappointment

[Study.com]

We wanted to address a problem we introduced to our site today. As we posted here we are changing our grading policy on how we incorporate quiz scores into your overall score for a course. These changes are being mandated by the American Council on Education in order to keep our credit recommendation for courses on our site.

Any quiz taken before 1/9/2017 will be subject to the old grading policy, the highest quiz score counts regardless of the number of quiz attempts. Any quiz taken after 1/9/2017 will be subject to our new grading policy, the highest quiz score counts within the first 3 quiz attempts. You can read more about that here.

To be clear, we will not be changing anyone's grade if you've already taken a quiz. This policy only affects quiz scores going forward. If you have any additional questions about this policy I would encourage you to talk with customer support to resolve any issues.

[Study.com]

This should solve your problem strawberryxfuzz since you took all your quizzes before the switch over. If you have any problems getting credit for those courses customer support will be able to help you, but everything should just work. I just talked to the employee who is implementing the fix and they are staying in the office until the change goes out!

Sorry for all the confusion

[cookderosa]

"I filed for Ace approval, and all three were approved last week even though I never received any email from study.com. A few days ago, I checked Study.com and all my exams were with a status of Retake, with a note that I needed at least 70% to pas"

This sounds to me like ACE did a naughty and lazily approved your courses BEFORE contacting Study.com for verification.
Somewhere you need to know what your scores for your final as well as your full courses - how can they not give you a score??

We did Study in our homeschool for one of my sons earlier this year - dumped them like a hot potato. We have used Straighterline on and off here for a long time, using it currently - I was completely unimpressed with Study in every way. I don't even care that SL is more expensive, to me, aggravation is expensive.

[KayV]

Is Straighterline really more expensive? I thought Study was more expensive.

[Synicaal]

Is Straighterline really more expensive? I thought Study was more expensive.

Study.com could be cheaper now because they offer additional courses for $70 each. Also you don't have to buy any additional materials (books). So It can be cheaper if you can manage 3 or more courses per month. I do have to say with this recent change I have been waiting my lonest so far to have a ACE request reviewed. I hate the change that they made but I understand them.

I really hope strawberryxfuzz can get their issue resolved from study.com, From the grades posted I don't see how those courses where anywhere near fails. Also if for some reason you need more points strawberryxfuzz redo the project and not the final. The final will eat up an exam where you can resubmit the project and not use up anything. If they are anything like mine they told me if and what I did wrong so that would have been a quick fix for a bunch more points.

To Add on to this say you can get 4 Study.com courses done in a Month Membership that comes to $340 total.
Straighterline would run you about 330 for four courses and that is not counting any books you may need. So they come pretty close. Much closer then it used to be. If you just take the 2 exams a month at Study its $200 and SL would be about $200 for a month membership and 2 courses without cost of books. So Study.com does come out very slightly ahead.

[gremlinbrawler]

If there was an issue with the proctoring - which I can't see why there would be as I've used the same space for proctoring with ProctorU and had no issues, then I should have been notified about it. I have received NOTHING from Study.com, about my final grade, about proctoring issues, nothing! That's why I'm so livid right now, there is absolutely NO communication on their side at all. I shouldn't have to go to my dashboard and see RETAKE on all my exams, telling me I need 70% to pass, without the final results even given to me after waiting this long.

It shouldn't have been put ON my ACE transcript, only to be taken off a week later.

Since I started, it's been nothing but inconsistent. From the changes on the dashboard confusing everyone and being left unexplained until people start hounding them, and this... I'm just overwhelmed and fed up. I've had it with e-mailing them, I want to speak directly on the phone with someone in charge at this point because this is unfair.

In another thread Study.com made a comment about how they changed the grading policy, and if I failed because of that reason then that's ALSO unacceptable because they didn't notify us! I completed my finals before this policy change obviously, so just because they took too long to grade it doesn't mean I should be penalized for something I was unaware of.

This is terrible! I would suggest that you call them directly. I have always had somewhat poor answers to my questions and response time when I send in the stupid messages but when I have called them directly I have been pretty satisfied with the customer service. It doesn't take long to get to a real person and they are pretty helpful. Good luck

[cookderosa]

Is Straighterline really more expensive? I thought Study was more expensive.

Study has a Guardian Scholarship many members here have enjoyed (free) as well as the deal through Homeschool Buyers Coop. I don't even know if thta discount is still a thing.
For our family SL is probably more expensive because we are not doing classes as quickly as others (1-2 per month), we buy books, and now that we are not new, there are few discount codes... but I don't care lol. Cost is only one factor for me, and in the case of what I needed to do with my oldest, cost wasn't part of the option. We have FREE community college here for 11th grade-12th grade, so if cost were my only factor, he'd be at the community college.

[dfrecore]

Study has a Guardian Scholarship many members here have enjoyed (free) as well as the deal through Homeschool Buyers Coop. I don't even know if thta discount is still a thing.
For our family SL is probably more expensive because we are not doing classes as quickly as others (1-2 per month), we buy books, and now that we are not new, there are few discount codes... but I don't care lol. Cost is only one factor for me, and in the case of what I needed to do with my oldest, cost wasn't part of the option. We have FREE community college here for 11th grade-12th grade, so if cost were my only factor, he'd be at the community college.

Homeschool Buyers Co-Op no longer has a deal for the College Accelerator option, unfortunately.

[rowan555]

Homeschool Buyers Co-Op no longer has a deal for the College Accelerator option, unfortunately.

I missed that deal literally by 12 hours, but then my son got the guardian scholarship. Talk about a relief!!!

Study.com is currently working on creating an accredited high school program. I'm going to find out tomorrow if they are accepting applicants, in case anyone here might benefit.

[strawberryxfuzz]

Update:

So a rep at Study.com got back to me. They admitted they made a mistake, and apparently they approved my ACE request before reviewing my proctored video. According to the rep, there were issues with my webcam that I was not aware of, which is why they revoked my credits and reset my exams to Retake "at no additional cost to me."

However, that was over a week ago I had gotten the "Retake" status update and I was never notified about there being an issue with my proctored exam, no e-mail, nothing to explain the status on my dashboard which I argued. Also, I got through the ID-ing and area scan with the Proctor software just fine, and I had no indication at all that there was an issue with my webcam (which apparently was facing the wrong direction suddenly?) I've used ProctorU for many, many courses through Saylor and never had an issue. The problem with Study.com's software is (at least for me), it doesn't give you any indication or give you a webcam view so you can ensure it's working. I brought this up to them.

On Study.com's part for this issue, they were very accommodating. The rep spoke with her supervisor regarding my situation - and the lack of communication throughout it beforehand - and she had said that given my situation was indeed bizarre they changed my exams to 'Pass" and granted me back my ACE approval credits for the 3 courses. Super relieved, and super lucky. I'm very happy they were willing to grant them back to me.

Given it happened for all 3, I'm worried going into my next exams with this webcam issue. It's connected to my laptop but again, never had this issue with ProctorU. Guess I'll have to contact the support team next time I open the program to make sure about it.