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

[jsh1138]

There's no real difference in the BA/BS for this degree that I can see (not usually a ton of difference anyway), so that won't be your issue.

I have a plan, based on the little I know about COSC - it may or may not work (I think the Gen Ed will be fine), but I've heard it is MUCH easier to work with COSC on getting advising than TESU.  So, if you go this route, you need to find out which courses will work ahead of time.  There are notes in bright yellow at the end of the plan.

Also, just an FYI, COSC accepting Shmoop may or may not be to your benefit - because if you end up having to take more expensive courses in the major, it may cancel out the cost of taking those Shmoop credits.  I don't think it will happen in this instance, but just make sure that the overall degree at COSC is going to be cheaper/easier/quicker than TESU before you make the decision.  Sometimes, it can be a matter or robbing Peter to pay Paul.  Don't let the Shmoop courses throw you off of a good plan.

Thank you for the course plan and for the thought about robbing Peter to pay Paul.  It seems that overall the TESU course is more certain and possibly cheaper than COSC.  That being said, several on this thread have decided to go with COSU over TESU.  Could you share your reasons?

Provider:  Study.com
Course:  Business 101: Principles of Management
Course content:  16 Chapters with 119 lessons (video and text), and 119 5 question quizzes.  Quiz score determines passing score for final (minimum final grade is 55% assuming all quizzes are 100% but you only get 3(?) attempts per quiz to get the max score on the quiz.)  Each chapter has a practice test and a 50 question practice final is available.  
Final exam format: 100 multiple choice questions.
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: It was probably 25% new material that had been presented in the lessons but not drilled.
Time taken on course:  Approximately 8 hours.
Familiarity with subject before course: There was some overlap from other courses, a lot of common sense stuff.  I probably would have scored 50% on the final with no practice.
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know:  You can take placement tests to work through many of the lessons (meaning you don't have to take the quiz for the lesson) and this greatly increases productivity.  Between this and having some carry over (some topics were covered in other courses I had worked on) I probably eliminated 50% of the content right off the bat.  A lot of questions on all of the tests can be whittled down through common test taking methods - context clues, process of elimination, etc.  Pro tip:  Study.com loves them some philosophers and theorists - knowing all of the names and theories in the course is an easy, low effort grade booster for the final.  Should you retain this information it will also allow you to name drop and exert your intellectual dominance in petty arguments for years to come.
1-10 Difficulty level: 3

Every time I come on these boards, I feel slightly inferior (lol), only because I'm currently taking this course, and I'm certain I've spent at least 20 hours on it and I'm currently doing the Final Practice Exam (you can take this at least 8 times if you like - I know I did it on another Study.com course). The videos are 119, averaging 8 minutes each. The quiz after each video takes about 2 to 3 minutes, there's flashcards that took me 1 hour to review, and I plan on taking a good 6 practice exams (3 hours): 16 hours videos, 4 hours quizzes, 4 hours flashcards + practice exams = 24 hours.   Still, the content is like a 3, as you said.  If you don't have old eyes, you can get through this in a very focused weekend session.

It's faster to read the courses than watch the videos, and I don't use the flashcards. Of course, I'm mainly taking courses on material I'm already familiar with too. It would take alot longer to learn something you had no knowledge of, and I would probably re-watch or re-read several sections.

[AMRH94]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Business 120: International Business
Course content: 105 video lessons followed by short graded quizzes. 
Final exam format: 70 question multiple choice final to be completed in 2 hrs. 
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The final aligned very well with the course material with some repeat questions from the graded quizzes. 
Time taken on course: Approx. 20 hrs. About halfway through I stopped watching the videos and simply read the available transcripts of the video lessons. If the material is somewhat familiar or very simple this speeds things up. 
Familiarity with subject before course: If you've taken Micro/Macroeconomics, Intro to Business or other similar business courses you'll notice many familiar concepts. 
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Very straightforward for a business major. Currency exchange rates can be confusing.
1-10 Difficulty level: 5.

[jsh1138]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Social Science 108: Ethics in the Social Sciences
Course content: 85 quizzes
Final exam format: 70 question multiple choice final
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The quizzes prepare you for the final
Time taken on course: a week while doing other things
Familiarity with subject before course: I've taken Sociology 101 and some Psych courses

Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Pretty straightforward. If you've ever done a Sociology or Psychology class, most of this will be review. Obvious things like "don't hurt your test subjects", "don't leave people's medical records lying around" etc.

The main problem I had with the course is that it's full to the top with PC nonsense. I found myself constantly rolling my eyes as example after example dealt with gay men who are horribly discriminated against "every day", gay men who are beaten for being gay, abortion providers who are threatened constantly, black women who suffer from "cultural oppression" because they choose to straighten their own hair, etc. There was one example where a counselor had to excuse himself from treating a particular client because the counselor is against abortion and homosexuality and for those reasons, plural, he couldn't treat the client. I guess she was a lesbian who wanted an abortion? I dunno, seems unlikely. Obviously there are zero examples of an atheist counselor who has to excuse himself from treating a religious person.

The cherry on top comes in the section about different ethical belief systems where we are told that Judaism and Islam are basically the same thing and have no differences of note anywhere in their ethical framework. Totally ludicrous. Anyway, not spraining a muscle rolling your eyes at all that is the major challenge of the course.

1-10 Difficulty level: 1 with past experience in the social science. Maybe 3 if not.

[AMRH94]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Business 113: Business Communication
Course content: 140 short lessons followed by graded quizzes. Also three written assignments that are graded. 
Final exam format: 100 multiple choice questions to be completed in 2.5 hours
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The final aligned very well with the course material with some repeat questions from the graded quizzes. 
Time taken on course: Approx. 35 hours. 
Familiarity with subject before course: I failed the Saylor Corporate Communication course prior to taking this, so some of the material was familiar. The SDC Presentation Skills course also completes about 7% of this courses quizzes. 
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: I was somewhat nervous about the written assignments since I'm really not a strong writer. I probably spent more time than necessary, but scored well. If you score well on the quizzes and assignments very little is needed to pass the final. Be sure to cite sources that were written within the past ten years. I lost a few points due to citing old sources. 
1-10 Difficulty level: 5.

[AMRH94]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Accounting 201: Intermediate Accounting I
Course content: 121 video lessons followed by short graded quizzes. 
Final exam format: 70 question multiple choice final to be completed in 150 minutes. 
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The final aligned very well with the course material with some repeat questions from the graded quizzes. 
Time taken on course: 18-20 hours over the last week. I was familiar with most of the content so I didn't watch most of the videos.
Familiarity with subject before course: I completed accounting 101 and 102 (intro to financial and managerial) through Lumerit. I've also worked part time as an accountant for the past year.  
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Honestly, I was disappointed with how simplistic this course is. The final was actually FAR easier than the accounting 101 and 102 courses that I've already completed. This course focuses more on the theory (with little depth at that) than the math. If you're wanting to learn accounting, look elsewhere. If you simply need fast accounting credits to enhance your resume, this is it. 
1-10 Difficulty level: 5. Perhaps higher for a non-accounting major.

[jsh1138]

Provider: Study.com
Course: History 311: The Holocaust
Course content: 83 quizzes & 3 essays
Final exam format: 70 question multiple choice final
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: The quizzes prepare you for the final
Time taken on course: a week while doing other things
Familiarity with subject before course: I'm more familiar with the Holocaust than the average person
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: Your main problem is going to be just reading about the worst elements of humanity for several hours. Other than that this is a pretty straightforward course and to Study.com's credit it is actually very well structured and informative. They do tend to gloss over the non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust, which is a shame, but I suppose it's to be expected.
1-10 Difficulty level: 5ish just because it's so depressing. The material is not difficult, although the various camps do tend to blur together after awhile.

[ROYISAGIRL]

Provider:  OnlineDegree.com

Course:  Biology- Organisms and Ecosystems

Course content: The course has a series of videos that can't ( At least it wouldn't let me) be skipped through the main videos are about 45 mins long with shorter 1-12 min longer videos within each step. There are 14 lessons comprised of 85 steps. Each lesson has atleast one long video and 2-4 shorter videos.  At the end of each lesson a quiz (counts toward final grade) it has between 5-7 multiple choice questions

Final exam format:  The final example is multiple choice and it was 70 questions

Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: I would recommend at the very least to pay attention to the longer video a lot of the questions came from those videos, a few come from the quizzes.

Time taken on course: It took me 2 weeks with listening to the videos while doing day to day things.

Familiarity with subject before course:  Science is my passion so I knew a lot of the information already that was being put out. 

Pitfalls, high points, things others should know:   The only real pitfall is if you get something wrong on the quizzes you will never know which question you got wrong or the answers. It makes it a little harder to figure out where you went wrong to make it up later in the final exam

1-10 Difficulty level: 3 I think anyone with minimal knowledge and with the videos can pass

[lalacabore]

I was just curious, would any of you guys be interested in a thread just like this but reviewing courses from TESU, COSC, Excelsior, WGU, etc? I looked over in the other forum but didn't see one, just seems like something people might want, although if they're transferring in everything and just doing the capstone, maybe not.

I would be. I'm sure it would be more than helpful for a lot of students here.

I would love this for WGU!

[AMRH94]

Provider: Study.com
Course: Accounting 202: Intermediate Accounting II
Course content: 72 lessons
Final exam format: 70 question multiple choice final to be completed in 2 hrs. 
Final exam content vs course content/practice exams: All of the material on the final exam was covered in the lessons. The proctored final was definitely a bit more difficult than the practice final with quite a few problems to solve.  
Time taken on course: Approx. 28-30 hours. 
Familiarity with subject before course: Intro to financial Acc, Intro to Managerial Acc, and Intermediate Acc I
Pitfalls, high points, things others should know: This course does cover a few complicated topics like deferred tax assets/liabilities, corporate income taxes, bond valuation, etc. That said, most of these topics are just briefly introduced. Like Intermediate Acc I, the course focuses more on theory than math.  
1-10 Difficulty level: 7.

[Supermind]

Has anyone else noticed the recent intensification of study.com’s proctored exams? I am not sure if that is my subjective impression. But I feel that from January, the questions are a little trickier, and test application and comprehension. In December last year, it felt like the questions were testing basic understanding and recollection of facts. Sometimes, the questions are worded wrongly, and may confuse readers. But, with a little more focus, you seem to get what they are trying to test.