Straighterline New Proctor Policy Change

[IrishJohn]

I added the following update to the Degree Forum Wiki page for Straighterline:


UPDATE 10/10/12: Straighterline has announced a new requirement "for all final exams to be proctored takes effect for courses purchased on or after November 1, 2012". This will add $30 to the cost for courses at present, with plans to lower that to $10 after November 1st. Proctored finals taken for each course will have new "requirements" your computer will have to meet in order to take them and the outside company ProctorU that is used by Straighterline for these finals will have access to your personal computer. Many people are disturbed by granting such access to an outside source, despite their guarantee of privacy, and therefore should consider another approach to finishing these courses. One idea is to take a FREE course at Saylor.org (or other similar site), use InstantCert and other online resources and then just take the CLEP or DSST exams which are accepted at hundreds of more colleges/universities than Straighterline courses are. This approach is even cheaper than Straighterline without the nonsense. After all, you have to take a proctored exam whether you use Straighterline or take the CLEP/DSST exams so it seems to make more sense to do the latter now. That would be $100 max (including proctor fee) in most cases for each CLEP/DSST exam vs. at least $139 for Straighterline's less transferrable ACE-approved course. Another idea is to take courses online via your local community college or KCTCS, which again are far more easily transferred than Straighterline courses. Others may still prefer Straighterline's format despite these changes which is something that each individual student will have to decide for themselves.