Straighterline New Proctor Policy Change

[scorched]

Thank you for intervening dcan!
I hope karma bites SL in the pocketbook!

[dcan]

Thanks guys.

I hope karma bites SL in the pocketbook!

Well, since I don't know who actually made the edits I'll refrain from saying anything other than the page can now reflect this community's free speech opinion. Whether that is favorable or unfavorable to any given company, well, that's how free speech rolls.

[Publius]

What I find interesting, is that as active as StraighterLine is on here, they're silent on the DF wiki issue. If they were innocent, why wouldn't they try to clear their name? Try and take some mud off their faces?

StraighterLine... why?

[scorched]

All I know is that whoever Heitah was, they are in real close proximity to me.
Their IP is in the same county as mine.

[IrishJohn]

Recently I noticed there was increased activity on the Straighterline page (I get an e-mail for every edit) but didn't have time to keep up with what was going on or to monitor the forum here. In my defense, early on in the process I saw what appeared to be criticism still on the page and only glanced at the page without fully reading it, so I didn't realize it was spam. I saw the notice about the policy change at the top of the page and assumed we had a sudden overzealous forum member upset at the policy change making a lot of edits. In this I appear to have been naive, and for that I apologize.

While I don't know exactly who was making the edits, or why, I can take action to protect the site for the good of the community here.

I'm not "Heitah", whom I believe is from SL, but I was the other person editing that page. If you look at the history of edits all I did at first was add an update briefly stating SL's policy change and giving alternatives to SL courses, which you left posted. I didn't really mind much of what Heitah posted on that page, it was her/his removing my comments while continually tweaking an obvious sales pitch that started the "editing fight". I kept trying to just leave my comments while toning down their sales pitch, they kept deleting my comments while improving their pitch. It was after a few times that they did this when I started completely deleting their comments in return. I was very unhappy with what appeared to be an underhanded and deceitful action by a private company trying to take over a resource for DF forum members.
My apologies, in hindsight I probably should have taken a different approach to avoid the subsequent "tit-for-tat" that resulted. I'm glad that it has now been resolved. I would say again though that much of what Heitah posted I was fine with, such as listing the courses they offer and schools which accept their credits.

The Straighterline page is locked for admin edits only

That sounds good, thank you.

Finally, I want to say thank you to everyone who has contributed content to the wiki. I have seen several "thank you" notes over the past year from people who were helped along in their journey, but the wiki is only a collection of the information each of you has meticulously investigated and put together. You deserve all the credit. Thanks for what you do!

Thank you for starting the DF Wiki, dcan. It has indeed been a great resource. Now that I know what happened with the SL page and everything is cleared up, I've gone ahead and restored my own entries.

[IrishJohn]

Thanks guys.

Well, since I don't know who actually made the edits I'll refrain from saying anything other than the page can now reflect this community's free speech opinion. Whether that is favorable or unfavorable to any given company, well, that's how free speech rolls.

Exactly. Instead of deleting my comments this Heitah person should have just added their own explaining why they thought I was wrong and making a suggestions they thought would be better for students instead of deleting my remarks and posting a sales pitch. Heck, if they had contacted me and explained I might have edited my own commentary to take their concerns in mind.

[dcan]

Hi all,

Another update. After spending some time reviewing what happened, as well as fielding a request from Straighterline, I have completely rewritten the page to reflect a more neutral and balanced view of the issue. I think they did have some valid concerns, and I wanted to balance that with the concerns of the community.

Approximately three paragraphs of text that was submitted by "Heitah" were restored because, upon review, it was generally neutral, factual information. I did however include a writeup of the proctor policy, linking to this thread and another that discussed ProctorU concerns. I also retained the prior discussion about using CLEP as an alternative, rewritten from a more neutral POV.

I think the new page is now an accurate and neutral representation of both sides of the issue, but if you feel something is missing please let me know.

Thanks.

[scorched]

I don't get why you/we should consider anything that SL has to say.
They have shown underhanded tactics to manipulate the system to their advantage for profit, and continue to prove they are not interested doing the right thing.
So why should it be allowed, that they get any concessions in their favor?

[IrishJohn]

I don't get why you/we should consider anything that SL has to say.
They have shown underhanded tactics to manipulate the system to their advantage for profit, and continue to prove they are not interested doing the right thing.
So why should it be allowed, that they get any concessions in their favor?

I obviously have disagreements with SL, but I see no reason why DF Wiki shouldn't give information about the services this company does offer. There's no harm in listing SL's courses or partner colleges. After all, some students may prefer SL's format regardless of the new proctoring requirements or slight increased costs and DF Wiki is there to provide advice to them on their best options. For myself that is all I wanted on SL's entry page and am mostly satisfied with what dcan has posted, with a couple of minor points I'll state in my next post.

[IrishJohn]

Hi all,

Another update. After spending some time reviewing what happened, as well as fielding a request from Straighterline, I have completely rewritten the page to reflect a more neutral and balanced view of the issue. I think they did have some valid concerns, and I wanted to balance that with the concerns of the community.

Approximately three paragraphs of text that was submitted by "Heitah" were restored because, upon review, it was generally neutral, factual information. I did however include a writeup of the proctor policy, linking to this thread and another that discussed ProctorU concerns. I also retained the prior discussion about using CLEP as an alternative, rewritten from a more neutral POV.

I think the new page is now an accurate and neutral representation of both sides of the issue, but if you feel something is missing please let me know.

Thanks.

Good job, dcan. A couple of recommendations for this page:

1. In the first paragraph of the Overview I'd add a statement that not all schools will accept SL's credits, let alone those from an ACE transcript, and that students should check with their school before enrolling in any course with SL.

2. In the 4th paragraph of the Proctor Policy section I'd add to the suggested alternative of taking a CLEP or DSST exam that these are accepted at hundreds of more colleges and universities than SL courses currently are. If this is to give future students good advice, they might want to consider that not only for their bachelor's but also for any possible master's degree they might pursue.

All in all though I'm satisfied with the changes to the SL page at DF Wiki.