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

[runningtherace2]

I've paused my membership several times

Okay. Thanks for your feedback!

[BrighterFuture88]

I'm about to start US History II, and I'm totally doing this for the credit and not the knowledge, if we're just being honest. So, do I need to read the book and take notes for the test even though the test are open book, or could I just take the test, and look up the answers in the book as I go? THANKS, EVERYONE! 

Following. I’m sure it won’t be easy unless you know exactly where certain things are in the book, but within that time limit I’m sure it’s possible.

[suzycupcake]

I'm about to start US History II, and I'm totally doing this for the credit and not the knowledge, if we're just being honest. So, do I need to read the book and take notes for the test even though the test are open book, or could I just take the test, and look up the answers in the book as I go? THANKS, EVERYONE! 

Following. I’m sure it won’t be easy unless you know exactly where certain things are in the book, but within that time limit I’m sure it’s possible.

There’s a search function within the book so yes, you can look up the answers as you go.

[jsh1138]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Business 105: Labor Relations
Course content: standard study.com quizzes
Final exam format: 100 multiple choice
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The final is based on the course work
Time taken on course: about 8 days while working full time
Familiarity with subject before course: I run a business so I am relatively familiar
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Whoever wrote this course wrote it from the perspective of "there is never a reason not to have a union and nothing a union does is ever bad" so be ready for that. Gets a little eye-rolly when they're trying to tell you how having to pay everyone more money for less work is actually a good thing for business owners. Other than that it's fine. The case law section might trip a few people up. There is a ton of focus on arbitration, which fortunately I already knew about but if that's new to you then you might be in for a slog.
1-10 Difficulty level: 1-2 for me. If you just repeat "unions are the only path to salvation" in your head over and over while you take the final, all the answers are clear enough. The case law bit is just memorization.

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Provider: Study.com
Course: Business 325: Union & Labor Relations
Course content: standard study.com quizzes & 2 written assignments
Final exam format: 70 multiple choice
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The final is based on the course work
Time taken on course: 1 day
Familiarity with subject before course: I run a business and had just finished Business 105
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: After you finish Business 105 it fills in all but 20 quizzes of this one, so you might as well go ahead and take it. It's written from more of a pro-business slant than the LL course is (this is common with Study.com LL/UL combos) so this one focuses more on the defects of unions and illegal things they've done, etc
1-10 Difficulty level: 2. If you just did the LL one the day before this is simple

[BrighterFuture88]

Provider: TEEX
Course: Basic Property Technician
Course content: The content is provided in a video game-type style (For reference, search: “Habbo Hotel”).  
Final exam format: 40 multiple choice, no time limit and only 3 attempts allowed.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The information was present in some of the dialogue from the modules, but they put a ton of emphasis on you reading through tons & tons of Texas/Federal law for so many situations & topics.  
Time taken on course: 1 day.
Familiarity with subject before course: None whatsoever.  I only did this for the credits.  
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know:  There isn’t a pre-exam.  Also, you HAVE to look through the source material & Texas law (all provided in different virtual books) to knock out the final exam, as they will quiz you on questions that pertain to different situations.  Also, make sure you write down the definitions of all the words and different meanings to cover your butt (like any course).  
1-10 Difficulty level: 4, but only due to the resource material being a massive clutter to search through.

[Salamander]

Provider: TEEX
Course: Basic Property Technician
Course content: The content is provided in a video game-type style (For reference, search: “Habbo Hotel”).  
Final exam format: 40 multiple choice, no time limit and only 3 attempts allowed.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The information was present in some of the dialogue from the modules, but they put a ton of emphasis on you reading through tons & tons of Texas/Federal law for so many situations & topics.  
Time taken on course: 1 day.
Familiarity with subject before course: None whatsoever.  I only did this for the credits.  
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know:  There isn’t a pre-exam.  Also, you HAVE to look through the source material & Texas law (all provided in different virtual books) to knock out the final exam, as they will quiz you on questions that pertain to different situations.  Also, make sure you write down the definitions of all the words and different meanings to cover your butt (like any course).  
1-10 Difficulty level: 4, but only due to the resource material being a massive clutter to search through.

I'm taking this course now, I'm up to Thursday currently ( about 2.5 hours in ). Is the final based on the little game course or is there a need to look beyond at the virtual books? Some of those references seem like a total nightmare to dig through.

[Salamander]

Provider: TEEX
Course: Basic Property Technician
Course content: The content is provided in a video game-type style (For reference, search: “Habbo Hotel”).  
Final exam format: 40 multiple choice, no time limit and only 3 attempts allowed.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The information was present in some of the dialogue from the modules, but they put a ton of emphasis on you reading through tons & tons of Texas/Federal law for so many situations & topics.  
Time taken on course: 1 day.
Familiarity with subject before course: None whatsoever.  I only did this for the credits.  
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know:  There isn’t a pre-exam.  Also, you HAVE to look through the source material & Texas law (all provided in different virtual books) to knock out the final exam, as they will quiz you on questions that pertain to different situations.  Also, make sure you write down the definitions of all the words and different meanings to cover your butt (like any course).  
1-10 Difficulty level: 4, but only due to the resource material being a massive clutter to search through.

I'm taking this course now, I'm up to Thursday currently ( about 2.5 hours in ). Is the final based on the little game course or is there a need to look beyond at the virtual books? Some of those references seem like a total nightmare to dig through.

I just completed this course with 90/100 on the first try. The test seems to have been changed a bit and now all the questions asked can be found in the "game" prior to the test. I would rate difficulty 2/10, requires a bit of thinking but all the questions share a similar pattern.

[cecilgambe7]

Provider: Saylor.org
Course: ECON101: Principles of Microeconomics
Course content: 7 units, 136 total elements, texts, book chapters, videos and other resourses; plus some quizes that have no influence in grade but help to practice
Final exam format: Proctored final exam is 50 multiple choice questions (also include similar practice final exam)
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Similarity = 80%-90%. Some questions makes you feel that this issue was not totally covered on course content but just a few; most of questions are so related; unrelated questions to course content are worst on course quizes.
Time taken on course: 18 days, studing between 2-4 hours per day. But you should consider that english is not my first language and this makes everything slower, specially the reading part.
Familiarity with subject before course: I had never studied anything related to economics but I have a very solid background in math.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Too much to read. Pay close attention to the first 2 units, the concepts that are seen later are somehow derived from those that you saw in the first two units. Some of the final exam question are very confusing.
1-10 Difficulty level: 6

Aditional Information: This is my first proctored exam course, so i have no point of comparison. The course, beyond the credits, is very interesting and I think I have learned valuable information. I first take the practice exam and get 68%, i take one more day to learn from my mistakes and study a little more in my weak points and after one day i take the proctored final and gets 82%

[BrighterFuture88]

Provider: TEEX
Course: Death Investigation Online
Course content: How is the material presented? All with photos & text (Some modules feature graphic images)
Final exam format: How many questions? Multiple Choice.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: They were exactly the same.
Time taken on course: Technically 1 day if you factored in me not being able to do this at work due to the graphic material presented.
Familiarity with subject before course: None, but I was able to score a 67% on the pre-test.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Make sure you pay attention to the questions from the pre-test. Also, the images of the different types of dead bodies was a little uncomfortable for me, but I made it through. If you don’t have a strong stomach, I would avoid this, as they show dead bodies from many different types of incidents (Electrocution, vehicle, falling from a height, hanging, explosion, drowning, etc.)
1-10 Difficulty level: 1. This was incredibly easy.

[suzycupcake]

Provider: Coopersmith
Course: Foundations of Stress Management (UL at TESU, Comes in as SOS-320)
Course content: There are 2 variations of materials - a 770+ page document and a "crash course" powerpoint deck. As with other Coopersmith courses I've taken, you do not need to purchase any addtl materials.
Final exam format: 50 questions, all multiple choice
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Everything single question was answered in the powerpoint deck. 
Time taken on course: Couple days casually looking over powerpoint but spent about 3 hours today hard core on it 
Familiarity with subject before course: Medium familiarity with materials.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: I finished all 50 questions in 4 minutes because I studied the slides. 
1-10 Difficulty level: Based on what I noted above about having all info in slides, I'd say a 1 because it's being handed to you.