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

[Kones]

Provider: Sophia 
Course: Principles of Management
Course content: Text. Easy. Many of the questions were common sense. I did not thoroughly read the content. I was able to get by with skimming and ctrl+f
Final exam format: Touchstone PowerPoint project
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Medium. The basics of the content are there so that you have the framework for your project, but there is no guidance for how to conduct the research needed.
Time taken on course: Roughly 12 hours
Familiarity with subject before course: I’ve worked in corporate jobs for 20 years. Familiar, but not necessarily with all of the concepts.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: The touchstone made the course harder than the content, challenges and milestones. It wasn’t terrible and I was still able to complete it in several hours, but it did require quite a bit of research and there was additional time taken to build an APA style references page. The course itself I probably got through in about 5 hours while the touchstone tacked on an additional 6-7 hours. I was able to complete all the work in a day and a half over a weekend. I stressed over this project because I had been purposefully avoiding Sophia classes with assignments, but I needed an upper level class for my business core (TESU), so I sucked it up. In the end I stressed over it for nothing because I got 100.
1-10 Difficulty level: 4. I would give it a 2 if there was no touchstone

[eminor7]

Provider: Coopersmith

Course: HIS-304 History of Food Trucks

Course content: How is the material presented? Videos? Text? External content? Do you have to buy/have other materials?
Videos and 2 sets of powerpoint slides. Be sure to watch the videos during meals as they will make you hungry.

Final exam format: How many questions? Multiple choice? Essay? Both? Something else?
66 Multiple Choice

Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Have you seen the information before in the course, or was it a total curve ball?
Whatever is on the last set of slides is on the test.

Time taken on course: Hours? Weeks? Days?
A week or less

Familiarity with subject before course: Never heard of it before taking the course, Low, medium, high, I do this every day. How would you have scored on the final with no preparation?
Not much, but it is very interesting and easy.

Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Transfers to TESU as HIS-399. This is one of the easiest and fun UL course. As we all know, ProctorU is a struggle and this time was no exception.

1-10 Difficulty level: 1

[jsh1138]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Health 101: Principles of Health
Course content: The usual Study.com set-up
Final exam format: 100 multiple-choice questions.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: It matches exactly
Time taken on course: A few days
Familiarity with subject before course: I'm in my 40's so most of this was just common knowledge
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: There are some oddball things in here, like keeping guns in the house is always wrong or the difference between burglary and robbery, but most of the course deals with cancer, heart disease, and vitamins. It's pretty straight forward
1-10 Difficulty level: 1

[eminor7]

Provider: Coopersmith 
Course: The Music of the Orthodox Jew From Antiquity Through the 20th Century (MUS-301)
Course content: How is the material presented? Videos? Text? External content? Do you have to buy/have other materials? PDF Study Guide, PowerPoint Slide Crash Review, some practice questions. A few textbooks are recommended on the syllabus, but not required. 
Final exam format: How many questions? Multiple choice? Essay? Both? Something else? 20 multiple choice, 10 open ended, and 2 essay
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Have you seen the information before in the course, or was it a total curve ball? As long as you study the given material, it will be fine. 
Time taken on course: Hours? Weeks? Days? 3-4 weeks
Familiarity with subject before course: Never heard of it before taking the course, Low, medium, high, I do this every day. How would you have scored on the final with no preparation? Very unfamiliar
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: There are many terms to memorize which makes this course so difficult. For someone familiar with Jewish Music, it may be easier. TESU will not honor the 6 credits that NCCRS evaluated it for, it transfers as MUS-391 for 3 UL credits.
1-10 Difficulty level: 7-8

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Provider: Coopersmith 
Course: HIS-417 Ice Cream: History, Culture, and Economics
Course content: How is the material presented? Videos? Text? External content? Do you have to buy/have other materials? PDF Study Guide, PowerPoint Slide Crash Review, some practice questions. A few textbooks are recommended on the syllabus, but not required. 
Final exam format: How many questions? Multiple choice? Essay? Both? Something else? 20 multiple choice and 10 open ended
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Have you seen the information before in the course, or was it a total curve ball? As long as you study the given material, it will be fine especially since this course is easy. 
Time taken on course: Hours? Weeks? Days? 1 week
Familiarity with subject before course: Never heard of it before taking the course, Low, medium, high, I do this every day. How would you have scored on the final with no preparation? Not very familiar, but the course is easy to learn
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Nothing tricky in this course. TESU accepts this as HIS-499.
1-10 Difficulty level: 3

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Provider: Coopersmith 
Course: HIS-302 Jewish Participation in the Garment History
Course content: How is the material presented? Videos? Text? External content? Do you have to buy/have other materials? PDF Study Guide, PowerPoint Slide Crash Review, some practice questions. A few textbooks are recommended on the syllabus, but not required. 
Final exam format: How many questions? Multiple choice? Essay? Both? Something else? 40 multiple choice and 8 open ended
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Have you seen the information before in the course, or was it a total curve ball? As long as you study the given material, it will be fine especially since this course is easy. 
Time taken on course: Hours? Weeks? Days? 1 week
Familiarity with subject before course: Never heard of it before taking the course, Low, medium, high, I do this every day. How would you have scored on the final with no preparation? Not very familiar, but the course is easy to learn and to memorize important places and names. 
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Nothing tricky in this course. Transfer to TESU as HIS-399.
1-10 Difficulty level: 3

[TopHatWombat]

Provider: OnlineDegree.com
Course: Introduction to Marketing & Strategy
Course content: 19 lessons each consisting of one to four main lecture videos and two or three related YouTube videos, an engagement exercise, and a 5 to 7 question quiz that covers the main lecture only. There are supplemental readings, but I did not use them.
Final exam format: Proctored by RPNow. $9. Multiple choice. 50 questions.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Verbatim. Many of the final test questions were also quiz questions. Save each quiz to PDF and review it before the final. No feedback is provided on quizzes, so you don't know what you got wrong on quizzes, though.
Time taken on course: About 16 hours over a single weekend. You are forced to watch every video in order to proceed through the course.
Familiarity with subject before course: Over 20 years experience with sales and marketing for small business. So I was familiar with some of the concepts, maybe a quarter of the course. However, all the strategy, branding, and other "corporate" stuff was brand new to me.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: The main video lectures contain the material you are quizzed and tested on. The YouTube videos repeat concepts from the main lectures. The main lecture slide presentations are pretty good, but the narrator speaks incredibly slow and monotone. I watched all the lecture videos on 2x speed, and then did something else while waiting for the timer function to let me move on. The course would have been great if it used the Davar/Coopersmith format and simply gave you a PDF of all the slides. Quite a few of the quiz questions are in the format of "What company was mentioned in the lecture as an example of XYZ?". That felt somewhat obnoxious. But all in all, it was a good course. I did learn some things, and you can't complain about the price. 
1-10 Difficulty level: 1

[TopHatWombat]

Provider: Sophia.org
Course: Principles of Management
Course content: Standard Sophia format. Written text. No external materials required. One touchstone assignment consisting of a PowerPoint presentation where you do a SWOT, Porter's Five Forces, etc. analysis and make recommendations to management of a company of your choice. Followed the rubric to a "T", got a 100 on the touchstone.
Final exam format: No final, just the touchstone.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Milestone exams match lesson quizzes quite well. No gotchas.
Time taken on course: About 4 hours for the course, and 3 hours for the touchstone.
Familiarity with subject before course: Many years running small businesses, but zero experience managing large teams and zero experience in the MegaCorp world.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: The course was pretty easy. All the concepts are explained well. The only pitfall for me is that I find subjects like ethics and philosophy to be the absolute most boring stuff in the world, and I have less than zero interest in it. So the first 1/3 of the course was painstakingly wretched to plow through. After that, some of the strategy analysis stuff was bearable.
1-10 Difficulty level: 3, just because of the boring parts

[TopHatWombat]

Provider: Sophia.org
Course: Principles of Finance
Course content: Text
Final exam format: Multiple choice
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Very well aligned. Most of the final milestone questions came directly from the challenge milestones. There were, however, two questions on the final exam that I believe included two correct answers. I split the difference on both those questions, one was marked wrong. Only question I missed on the final.
Time taken on course: Total of about 8 hours spread over the course of a week.
Familiarity with subject before course: I took this class 20 years ago, and also worked in the business world for the past 20 years. This was a review more than anything, to prep me for upcoming accounting courses. Some of the financial analysis ratios and a few formulas were things I had long forgotten about, so it was nice to get reacquainted with them. 
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: As other reviews pointed out, this is a pretty dense class, so take your time with it if it's totally new to you. Meaning, expect it to take longer than other Sophia courses you've taken. The math is all basic arithmetic, so don't get scared by some of the complex formulas they show you, because you only end up using the simplified versions. There are also some accounting concepts presented that are a bit difficult. Definitely the hardest course I've taken on Sophia so far, but I don't think an average person would have any real difficulty in getting through it as long as they follow the tutorials.
1-10 Difficulty level: 6

[TopHatWombat]

Provider: Sophia.org
Course: Introduction to Information Technology
Course Content: Text.
Final Exam Content: Multiple choice, 25 questions.   
Final Exam Content vs Course Content/Practice Exams: No gotchas. Final exam questions were very much in line with milestones.
Time Taken On Course: 49 minutes. I knew this was going to be an easy class, so intentionally chose to do a speed run. Didn't even skim the tutorials, and only answered one of the three lesson questions throughout, whereas I normally do them all.
Familiarity With Subject Before Course: I've been using computers since elementary school, have built my own PCs, and am about 1/3 of the way through the Google IT Support certificate on Coursera.
Pitfalls, High Points, Things Others Should Know: I've just sort of been on a roll the past few days, and wanted to get another TESU business core requirement out of the way. Check box has been checked. This is probably the easiest for-credit class most people could possibly take, unless you were raised in the woods by a herd of elk.
1-10 Difficulty Level: 1

[PrettyFlyforaChiGuy]

Provider: Study.com
Course: History 108: History of the Vietnam War
Course content: 62 lessons
Final exam format: 100 multiple-choice questions
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Mostly the same wording as the quizzes. Nothing felt unfair.
Time taken on course: Two days, done at the same time as History 308: Causes and Effects of the Vietnam War.

Familiarity with subject before course: No awareness with regards to specific battles, but the Cold War lead-in and the post-war fade-out were very familiar. Plenty of details within the course to fill in the gaps in between. Been to some of the locations and relevant museums in Vietnam a few times, but that doesn't help much.

Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Take care to note the Geneva Conference outcomes and the tactics that epitomize the major battles. Since History 308 has significant overlap, taking both courses at the same time can help you better retain material and go more in-depth to ferret out new understandings. Both currently transfer as separate UL HTY courses at UMPI.

1-10 Difficulty level: 3? As always, I'd recommend doing the placement tests several times to test out of content, do most of the quizzes and watch some videos anyway, and finally complete all the chapter practice tests and a full practice test right before the real exam. I scored 290/300 doing this, and that sounds about right to me.

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Provider: Study.com
Course: Communications 120: Presentation Skills in the Workplace
Course content: 44 lessons
Final exam format: 70 multiple-choice questions
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Similar wording as the quizzes, but different.
Time taken on course: Two days.

Familiarity with subject before course: Did you know you can use PowerPoint to help you present? If you can answer yes, you're probably just about ready for the final exam. I've taught Pre-K to Uni, spoken to large groups, and presented at conferences, but I'm no gifted orator. A lot of the content feels really basic even to an introvert like me, but I'd say there are helpful tips to people who may feel some level of anxiety. 

Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: You can think of this as a "theoretically practical" course, since you're not actually doing any presenting.

1-10 Difficulty level: I don't see how it's not a 1 for anyone who's ever even given a presentation in a classroom. There's no actual speaking or presenting involved, so this is a good fit for someone who wants to take baby steps into public speaking.

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Provider: Study.com
Course: Criminal Justice 107: Criminal Law
Course content: 108 lessons
Final exam format: 100 multiple-choice questions
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: Generally close to quizzes, but some new hypothetical situations are presented.
Time taken on course: Two days, taken alongside Criminal Justice 101, but generally focused exclusively on this course.

Familiarity with subject before course: I've watched crime shows and podcasts. Also studied some forensic anthropology concepts in undergrad like mock crime scene analysis, human osteology to identify remains, and encountered some concepts of federalism and landmark cases in AP Government/U.S. History; only the last one came up here. Legal concepts of liability, concurrence, and the specific definitions and nuances of different crimes were all entirely new.

Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: I'd suggest doing the quizzes and chapter exams, even after taking placement tests to test out of many lessons. The videos and scripts were very useful. I didn't zoom through this one as much as the other courses; it required more attention, but it was also pretty engaging to me. Be able to distinguish between the landmark juvenile cases and their impacts. You can dip into Study.com's UL Criminal Justice courses like The Juvenile Justice System or Introduction to Criminology if you want to dive deeper and help remember some relevant concepts. I noticed that I have 60/123 quizzes complete in the latter course after completing this one and Criminal Justice 101, so there is some clear overlap that can make the material stick.

1-10 Difficulty level: 6? Ended up with a so-so 282/300 through the usual practice quiz+test method, and I definitely worked to conceptualize a lot of the material. Really makes me interested in Pre-Law.

[PrettyFlyforaChiGuy]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Criminal Justice 101: Introduction to Criminal Justice
Course content: 135 lessons
Final exam format: 100 multiple-choice questions
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The questions felt mostly close to quizzes, but they were re-worded or presented new situations. Unfortunately, the final exam had multiple errors that interrupted question text. For instance, ~6 questions were variations of "What is the theory of crime that refePLUGIN NOT INSTALLED PLUGIN NOT FOUND ///?" Good thing I studied up on that topic before the exam.
Time taken on course: Four days from start to finish, but I was focusing much more on Criminal Law for those first two days.

Familiarity with subject before course: There was significant overlap from Criminal Law, but roughly 1/3 of this course focuses on specific law enforcement agencies and their roles. That's mostly new to me, and personally not super engaging. See my review of Criminal Law.

Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Maybe I'm the only one who encountered the errors during the final exam (see above), but that was pretty obnoxious and required guesswork. I wrapped up the course with a 94% but worked out that these errors caused all but a couple of the missed questions, so if this is a recurring error for this class, be aware. Make sure you can distinguish between the theories of criminal behavior and the domains of different LEO. You can dip into Study.com's UL Criminal Justice courses like The Juvenile Justice System, Victimization, or Introduction to Criminology if you want to dive deeper and help remember some relevant concepts. I am at ~20-50% of quizzes completed in those courses after taking 101 and 107.

1-10 Difficulty level: 5, or a 4 if you can successfully guess the theory of crime that positsPLUGIN NOT INSTALLED///? Glad I did Criminal Law before this one, because this course tastes like a saltine cracker.