The official guide to courses by Straighterline, Study, et al: We want YOUR input!

[jsh1138]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Business 321: Small Business Management
Course content: standard study.com stuff
Final exam format: 70 multiple choice and you have to write a business plan
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The coursework prepares you for the final
Time taken on course: a couple of weeks in between other things
Familiarity with subject before course: I manage a small business, so pretty familiar
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: This course pairs well with the LL Entrepreneurship one, but bizarrely completing the LL one doesn't fill in much of this one even though they cover alot of the same ground. Other than that, its pretty straightforward and nothing I saw should trip you up very much
1-10 Difficulty level: 3-4 I guess. the business plan is easy, but time consuming. Microsoft Word has a template for it to get you started, if you need some help

[a2jc4life]

Provider: Straighterline
Course: English Composition II
Course content: Online text modules (no outside materials required except a copy of Frankenstein, and you can grab a free copy online)
Final exam format: no final exam; no proctoring required
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: n/a
Time taken on course: Roughly two weeks, but I'm taking a full course load of regular college classes concurrently, and fit this in around those.
Familiarity with subject before course: high
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Grading consists of a handful of quizzes -- mostly short (5-10 questions), with one or two longer ones -- plus 8 papers ranging from 350-750 words minimum.  Do note that one of the assignments requires interviewing an expert, and the following assignment relies on that interview, so if you're time-crunched, plan ahead for that.  Grading was a bit hit-or-miss, although the SL team has responded to my concerns.
1-10 Difficulty level: 2

[indigoshuffle]

Provider: Straighterline
Course: English Composition II
Course content: Online text modules (no outside materials required except a copy of Frankenstein, and you can grab a free copy online)
Final exam format: no final exam; no proctoring required
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: n/a
Time taken on course: Roughly two weeks, but I'm taking a full course load of regular college classes concurrently, and fit this in around those.
Familiarity with subject before course: high
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Grading consists of a handful of quizzes -- mostly short (5-10 questions), with one or two longer ones -- plus 8 papers ranging from 350-750 words minimum.  Do note that one of the assignments requires interviewing an expert, and the following assignment relies on that interview, so if you're time-crunched, plan ahead for that.  Grading was a bit hit-or-miss, although the SL team has responded to my concerns.
1-10 Difficulty level: 2

How did you find ALEKS Intro to Stats?
For me, I found it a bit "clunky" and more difficult to learn from than simply using a textbook or Khan Academy.
I'm going to take a guess and say you already took stats, are really good with math, or followed a textbook and then used ALEKS to test out and grab your credit for $20

[GoodYellowDogs]

Love, love, love this thread!  My granddaughter is a junior in highschool and gathering credits for her first year in college.  This is so helpful!

[mudball]

Provider: OnlineDegree.com
Course: Turning points in modern history
Course content: 24 lessons. Main Video for each lesson is about 30min, one or two short additional videos per lesson.
Final exam format: 70 questions, Multiple choice
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Same info covered in final as class, no curveballs.  
Time taken on course: Each lesson took about an hour to complete including the quiz.  A couple hours studying for final.
Familiarity with subject before course: Familiarity Low, I definitely needed to watch videos and take notes to pass
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Seemed torturously long, mostly because I don't like history. A few lessons were very interesting though.
1-10 Difficulty level: 4

[mudball]

Provider: ED4Credit
Course: PSY 375 Aging and Society
Course content: How is the material presented? online text & optional audio that reads the text. It was an interesting class.
Final exam format:  50 Multiple choice unlimited notes - were a big help
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Yes, have seen the information before in the course, but some worded differently
Time taken on course: 12 lessons with quizzes (30 Q ea-worth 100pts ea) about 2 hrs each lesson: 2 essays (500-800 words worth 50 points) & (1000-1500 words worth 100 points) Essays were well explained which made them not bad: 3 hr preparing notes & studying for final (must score at least 50% worth 100 points)
Familiarity with subject before course:  Low - medium.  How would you have scored on the final with no preparation? I would not have passed.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: UL on ACE
1-10 Difficulty level: 4

[mudball]

Provider: OnlineDegree.com
Course: Public Health
Course content: 15 lessons. Main Video for each lesson is about 60min, one or two short additional videos per lesson.
Final exam format: 40 questions, Multiple choice
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Same info covered in final as class, no curveballs.  
Time taken on course: Each lesson took about a 1 1/2 - 2 hours to complete including the quiz (5-7 questions each) I took notes on every slide the professor put up which provided almost all of the answers.  A couple hours studying for final.
Familiarity with subject before course: Familiarity medium
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know:  Very interesting class because I like the subject. Watching the 60 min video of a class lecture was hard and the instructor was not very entertaining. It would have been way better had I know about the Chrome extension to speed up the videos and pause at the slides.
1-10 Difficulty level: 4

[jsh1138]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Education 105: Special Education
Course content: standard study.com stuff
Final exam format: 100 multiple choice and you have to write a business plan
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The coursework prepares you for the final
Time taken on course: a couple of weeks in between other things
Familiarity with subject before course: none
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: The quizzes spend most of their time, I would say even too much time, on IEPs, and I found that the final spent much less time on that and a ton of time on specific cases and what they were about, which is a relatively small part of the quiz topics
1-10 Difficulty level: 3ish. Its nothing difficult but it is super boring. This should not have been 100 questions on the final, maybe more like 50. There just isn't enough ground to cover without repeating questions, I think I had 3 or 4 questions on the final about the same legal case and what it was about, for instance

Also, the material refers to illegal immigrants simply as "immigrants" in more than one place, and I find that incredibly annoying. IE, "such and such a law forced the government to stop refusing to provide a free education to immigrants" means 2 completely different things depending on the immigrants' legal status. But no, Study.com thinks it doesn't matter.

[jsh1138]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Education 101: Foundations of Education
Course content: standard study.com stuff
Final exam format: 100 multiple choice
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The coursework prepares you for the final
Time taken on course: a couple of weeks in between other things
Familiarity with subject before course: none
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: There quite a few basic factual errors here (that I reported) such as the assertion that the Cherokee had a written language in the 1600's. There are more errors of ideology, such as comparing the plight of illegals looking for a free education in the USA to the plight of slaves, which is absurd. Other than that, this is pretty straightforward.
1-10 Difficulty level: 2ish. Its nothing difficult but there are numerous psychological theories of education to memorize and they all run together after awhile. Ditto with the dozen or so educators who you have to memorize. If you can handle that, this is a breeze. It's also one of the shorter Study.com courses, if that appeals to you.

[jsh1138]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Computer Science 105: Intro to Operating Systems
Course content: standard study.com stuff
Final exam format: 100 multiple choice
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The coursework prepares you for the final
Time taken on course: 2 days
Familiarity with subject before course: I have taken other computer courses from Study.com, and obviously I have used computers
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: This course complements some of the other Study.com computer courses and you can run through it pretty quick if you are decently familiar with how OS works. Probably the hardest part is the 7 layers of the OSI
1-10 Difficulty level: 3ish.