sanantone Wrote:I'll just say what I basically said in the other thread. Study.com is popular. I, personally, find it tedious and too slow. Their courses seem to be designed for those in high school because they aren't taught at the college level. While taking one of their courses, I felt like a gifted and talented child in a remedial course.

The courses would be more tolerable if they put a little effort into the videos. Their videos have cheap animation and look like PowerPoint slides. They consist of nothing but an instructor reading the few basic paragraphs under the video.

I'm an independent learner, so I don't need to be spoon-fed information. SL is just fine for me because I only need someone to verify that I know the material.

Ancapman Wrote:You are correct.

It is terribly slow. But for my particular degree I have gone as far as I can with SL. I am basically left with options of Study.com - I got the scholarship so 18 free credits some of which are UL, Coopersmith, DSST or taking the courses via online universities.

If SL expanded into more Psychology classes I'd be on it like white on rice. But their catalog is heavily focused on gen Ed and Business.

My psych degree is a strategic decision for step 2 and ultimately step 3 in my 10 year plan of education. I wanted a degree that was tangential to science. Looked at well by Medical Schools who see hundreds of thousands of Bio majors. And would gain acceptance into a Post Baccalaureate program at University of Pittsburgh in their program of 39 credits over 3 semesters for a BS in Natural Science and Pre Medicine. So I get to be a non tradition liberal arts major that they love for diversity, while still knowing the required science and having a leg up on others on the psychology. While demonstrating with my first degree that I can handle the rigors of med school because I will have completed my first BA other than 14 credits in 7 months, 21 of those credits being done in online or traditional setting.

Again I wish SL had some more of the psych classes. But study while seemingly childish is amazing at teaching information you need to know for a major you have to write a very large paper on. I don't recall much of a SL course once I am finished with it. The Study.com courses are very sticky for me. Aggravatingly tedious but sticky.

sanantone Wrote:I don't think it matters how much information sticks if it's inadequate. Maybe I have a bias since I've been through graduate programs at traditional schools. Or, maybe that's a good perspective to have since people often don't know what they don't know until they get there. When you go to graduate school, you will not be spoon-fed information at the high school level in small bites. You're going to have to learn how to retain large amounts of information from textbooks.

sanantone Wrote:I don't think it matters how much information sticks if it's inadequate. Maybe I have a bias since I've been through graduate programs at traditional schools. Or, maybe that's a good perspective to have since people often don't know what they don't know until they get there. When you go to graduate school, you will not be spoon-fed information at the high school level in small bites. You're going to have to learn how to retain large amounts of information from textbooks.

Clodyneseidel Wrote:in the case of my daughters, since they are still young, I feel like they learn the material, get High School credit and College Credit. As a homeschooling mom, my job is to make sure they learn and not simply pass a test.Study.com actually teaches.

Ancapman Wrote:Absolutely and I was generalizing a bit and I apologize for that. Obviously with my now 54 credits via SL I am happy with them. It's just I didn't learn much more than I already knew. I suppose since some of the upper level psych courses I have begun at study are partially new to me, I am surprised at what I can retain from what you and I agree is pretty basic graphics. Would I like something more of a blend between study/Kahn/Straighterline? Absolutely! I would love a truly self paced course with testing like SL and textbooks like SL, with some of the short videos for breaking certain topics down to the very elemental basics like Study and a lecture series like Kahn all under one roof.

I think that SL is extremely easy. For example in my intro to comms I did all the speeches in one sitting, in my living room in under 40 minutes. Of course as a former business guy whose last position was as CEO of a company that had a factory and sales team in China as well as clients all across the globe for both the factory and the US brand name, I have given a lot of persuasive and introduction speeches. And my previous position before that as a B2B sales manager for Apple before the current idiot became CEO and ruined it, I also did a lot of presentations.

My goals were not to become one with the general ed and electives from SL, but to merely get as many credits as quickly and cheaply as possible. I suppose if I were to have any interest in going back to a business job that was more operational I would probably have slowed down and taken the business courses seriously and retained more. YMMV.

I was able to bag out a lot of the history courses quickly because I have an interest in it and have had such since I was a kid. I know medical terminology because I helped my wife study when she was in nursing school 15 years ago. Nutrition I knew because I am a type 1 diabetic who has to know about my food and what it does and how it gets converted to glucose and when so that I can properly bolus insulin for it. So many of the classes were already in my head and I would skim the chapters for info I didn't know and read that, absorb it and supplement it with online tools.

I don't think Study is a bad product. It's just to slow. Would be nice if they would just give a 20 question quiz at the end of each chapter so you could read the transcripts or a text and skip the 20 5 question quizzes and get to the final faster. But they have heavily invested in their way.

sanantone Wrote:Yes, they teach at a low level. That is my point. You learn, but you aren't learning college-level material.



I have the opposite problem. I retain more information when I read because I am actively taking in the information. If I'm listening to someone speak, I zone out if the presentation is boring. I know you can read the transcripts to Study.com videos, but those are not good substitutes for textbooks. The information is very disjointed as if you're reading flashcards. I'd rather just read through the InstantCert flashcards, take one test, and be done with it. I also feel that Study.com wastes an inordinate amount of time on quizzing. Really, you're learning to answer quiz questions and not getting the full breadth and context of a subject.

Clodyneseidel Wrote:One of my daughters (14) is taking a STRAIGHTERLINE course and is doing well. She just gets stressed with so many timed quizzes. Study.com has only one timed closed book proctored exam that proves your knowledge. Sometimes open book finals are more stressful too.