StraighterLine running into growing pains - Chronicle for Higher Ed article

Ambitious Provider of Online Courses Loses Fans Among Colleges - Students - The Chronicle of Higher Education

 

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bummer, I'd like to read it. Our family was a subscriber for about 4 months and dropped. Too many simple things were complected and annoying. The 2 drop box system, their relationship with Smarthinking, and even the cost are really black marks. It's a pass/fail system, but you have to complete EVERY assignment (and wait for it to be graded $cha-ching) no matter your score. So, you could be >90% going into the last several homework assignments, but you have to do them anyway- in some cases that can add weeks (again, $cha-ching). I could go on and on. I like the idea, but they need to amp it up, and maybe hire someone from ALEKS to help them get their ducks in a row. They are in hyper-launch mode, pumping out poor classes at warp-speed. *tons of errors on quizzes, etc.

 

The gist of the article is that the partner schools were not seeing students enroll at their institutions; in fact the article stated there were numerous internet forums which advocated "laundering the credits" through partner schools. There were also concerns voiced by schools about the quality of the instruction.

The founder of Straighterline is lobbying legislators to have the credits accepted at State U's, pitching the low cost.

Shawn

 

Straighterline

To be quite honest the schools that are complaining have the same issues in the market as a whole. Students flock to "The big Three" because they are the most advantageous to the student. If the schools want to differentiate themselves from the competition then they should do that. Offer letter grades for Straighterline courses, offer subjects and degrees over and above what other schools do and at a cost competitive price that makes students want to choose your institution. The word of mouth alone would increase the revenue stream. I don't understand how this is difficult to understand.

The degree seeking students want the same thing, the most respected degree possible at the lowest cost possible, its a trade off sometimes. Often those are not business or teaching degrees that everyone offers. The non-degree seeking student wants to learn the subject at their own pace with as little difficulty as possible at the lowest reasonable cost.

 

For those of you that wish to read the article but think you can't:

If you are currently enrolled at a university, check to see if they subscribe to the chronicle. You might be able to access a digital copy that way. I just realized that I could do this 2 months ago.

 

Of course IC is one of those forums, I doubt there were "numerous ones" though. I'm sure SL is discussed on numerous forums, but I've yet to find any other better sources than IC and here.

THE only laundering ability was through Ft. Hayes, but they stopped. So, there is not a single RA college in the USA that (as of today) launders pass/fail credit for you into a letter grade. ....cuz that's the kind of thing I'm obsessed about. That relationship was limited to 4 courses. You could take the course through SL, enroll at FH and then FH would award a letter grade for a coure IN RESIDENCE. This is golden (and unlike CLEP/DSST which is not shown as originating from the college) so your official transcript from FH would show your SL classes as FH classes! You could then forward that on to anyrandom college.

Quality? Yeah, I'm right there too. I could (but won't) go on about why the quality of the courses my son took were in the crapper, but you could tell everything was "new" and needed to be worked through a few times. (assuming they started soliciting feedback and making revisions).
Cost- SL isn't as cheap as people think. You pay per month and per course, so $99 per month is your subscription and then your course fee which is usually $39 on a BOGO deal (offered often). So, say you enroll in 1 course and it takes you 3 months, you're still looking at $340 PLUS a book (required). That's for an ACE course, which *IMO* is less transfer friendly than your typical AP/CLEP/DSST option. That is EXPENSIVE for undergrad credit! The only way to save money with SL is to enroll in multiple courses under a deal. Taking a full load under a promo puts you at about $380-$460 plus books, a MUCH better price....but that's only if they have classes you need and your college accepts ACE credit.
I'm not loving SL. I HATE their relationship with Smarthinking (same founder I believe). If they ditched Smarthinking, the product would improve ^2 Smarthinking is bad bad bad.

 

Ryoder is a great example. I think he did A&P 1 and 2 in a month. So, that was 6 bio credits for under $200, not too bad. That's only possible without labs. Dev Writing, Eng 101, Eng 102 and all lab sciences require HUMAN interaction which is a big SL problem. Let's not forget that lab kits are above and beyond your subscription, tuition and books. (~$200 per course!) They don't let you have ANY incompletes, so you are stuck. Again, even if you're earning well above the 70% requirement, you still have to submit every assignment.

I'd estimate no less than 1 full month of my son's developmental writing class was a result of lag time waiting for grades!

 

I like straighterline a lot. They gave me a free t shirt too!

 

Does it match your ninjawear?:laugh2:

 

MC - all the more reason for you to concentrate your school search in areas near you and stick with traditional adult programs (i.e. night classes and weekend classes) and skip the whole DL thing.

 

I took Calculus I and II, Macro, Micro Economics I and II, College Algebra, Accounting I and II from Straighterline. Seven classes finished all in one month. Got the ones than could of been transferred to FHSU to launder the credit, than will be transferring to one of the big three soon. I also got a free shirt =]

 

The article noted four colleges that decided to stop being partners. Most stopped being partners because they want to charge more for their own online programs. None stopped for academic reasons. The article also notes that StraigtherLine’s enrollment has grown almost four-fold, the number of non-partners that are awarding credits for StraighterLine courses has more than tripled to over 180, an independent study that we commissioned (available on our website) had very positive results and that students at partner colleges are graduating at the same rate as other students. Stay tuned for more partner college announcements and new courses coming this Fall.

 

StraighterLine rocks. I think anyone who wants to learn at their own pace, with world class books, instructional media and ultra low costs should check it out. No I am not paid for this. I just wish there were more courses at StraighterLine. They have a bunch and are adding more but these courses are great for dedicated independent learners.

Maniac, if money is an issue, go buy the books and read up on them for a while. Then sign up for the $100/month deal and knock out 2-3 courses in a month. Its the best deal going if you do it right. If you get stuck with a certain course, no worries, just take a little more time and pay an extra $100 for the next month.