Looking to do my first degree

They all provide different content and it's all presented differently. As a very rough introduction, the following applies:

• Sophia.org - Offers only lower level (LL) courses. They are an affordable way to get your gen ed requirements out of the way. Also, inexpensive electives. Because of their low cost, you want to fill up your degree plan with as much of Sophia.org as you can.
• Study.com - Offers a mix of LL and UL (upper level) courses. Due to the way they grade their courses, they are arguably the easiest way to get the necessary UL credit. Much of their UL catalog is unique.
• StraighterLine - Somewhere between SDC (study.com) and Sophia as far as both ease-of-use and cost are concerned. They only have LL options, a few of which are unique if you need/want them. Their exams use ProctorU, which is a love-it-or-hate-it live proctoring system.
• Coopersmith - Both UL and LL courses. They give you information on a textbook which you're supposed to purchase yourself (generally not necessary) and PDFs or PowerPoint presentations to study. When you feel like you know the material, you schedule an exam with ProctorU. They have several courses that you can't find anywhere else, including "Special Events and Meeting Planning" and "Training and Development".
• Davar - Both UL and LL courses. Nearly identical to Coopersmith in concept except a.) cheaper (especially for business classes) and b.) they let you choose whether you want to use RPNow or ProctorU as a proctor. If you like their format, their business classes are cheaper than Study.com if you use RPNow as a proctor. They don't really have any unique offerings but they are also cheaper than Coopersmith.
• Saylor Academy - Both UL and LL courses. You might come across this one as you do research. They offer free study materials and are only $25 per exam and they do offer several business exams. However, they use ProctorU and they are extremely slow to respond or to grant credit. They are generally to be avoided unless you have no other options.

 

They're relatively inexpensive and fast ways to earn college credit that can be transferred to many colleges and save you time and money on your degree path.

 

Thankyou for the huge write up, that all makes sense now!

Apart from LL/UL, which I have searched on, and now understand (https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-What-does-UL-mean), I understand LL is a kind of "core" subject, whilst the "UL" is more of an advanced understanding, and depending on which university is picked, I will roughly know how much of each to complete to transfer in, and the more the better?

I did sign up to saylor Academy to consider, however, after reading about issues with ProctorU I am unsure, the CEO seems not the nicest of people, as well as some kind of data leak.

For the ace credits, do they have an expiry date from issue? For proctoring, does a person watch me through a web camera? It sounds a little intimidating?

 

Yes, exactly. Also, at least as pertains to SDC, the UL courses tend to be more work. For instance, "Accounting 102: Intro to Managerial Accounting" requires you to complete the quizzes and then take the exam. On the other hand, "Accounting 301: Applied Managerial Accounting" is considered an UL course and it requires two assignments in addition to the quizzes and the exam.

Depending on the class, the assignments at SDC can be quite lengthy. For Accounting 301, the first assignment is a financial report on whether or not to hire more employees. 800-1200 words. The second assignment is a 400-800 budget report based on earnings/expenses.

ACE credits themselves do not expire. If they are more than 5-7 years old, some schools will no longer accept them. But the courses themselves can expire and then you'd no longer receive credit for completing them. This has been another issue with Saylor. They have had courses that students were in the middle of taking but they did not renew them and students were unable to get credit for their learning.

If you complete a course on April 10th and it expires on April 23rd, your credit is still good and valid indefinitely. If a course expires on April 10th, is not renewed, and you don't finish until April 23rd, then you receive no credit. Study.com and Sophia are very good about renewing their courses so that's not really something you need to worry about. Coopersmith and Davar aren't ACE (they're NCCRS and this is similar) but they are also very good at renewing courses when it's time to do so.

For proctoring, it depends. With ProctorU, yes. Definitely. There is someone sitting there watching you through your webcam. All other issues aside, I don't like that either. It makes me nervous. With RPNow, kind of. Instead of being a live proctor, like ProctorU, the RPNow software records a video of you taking a test. I think they then run it through a computer program that checks for irregularities. An actual person may or may not ever actually see your recording. I don't like this either, but it does seem less intimidating to me than the way ProctorU does it.

I did ProctorU once and I'd rather not do it again if it can be avoided. I will do it for Calculus but I'm not happy about having to use ProctorU for that. I vastly prefer RPNow.

 

It has taken me a few hours to realise SDC means Study Dot Com (have been searching and coming up with all sorts)

The last time I sat an exam was at school, an online exam will be an interesting event. I contacted straighterline who told me their pass mark is 70%, and I asked if my dog can pass, the answer was yes (clever boy). Apparantly the main exam can only be taken once (I asked if this was per lifetime, or per course purchase, no answer)

For the degree, is this a simple pass/fail, or do they have different marks (if so, is there an average pass mark?). Is there a website where I can look at different degrees? I am content in changing subjects if there is another subject that is cheaper?

The simpleton in me says this should be a reasonable easy path when some effort is put in as it seems everyone has a degree nowadays, the more sceptical part tells me what am I overlooking, my memory isn't what it used to be and I usually write everything down, but if I am not allowed my study material, that won't be too good

 

For most providers, you only get a pass/fail mark. But this depends both on the provider and the school in question. For instance, if you transfer Sophia credits to TESU then you only get a grade of CR (credit/pass). On the other hand, with UMPI, you have the option of sending your actual grades and having those be added to your transcript. Regardless of which method is used, this won't impact your institute GPA. If you want to continue on to an MBA or similar, some schools do want an actual GPA for a certain number of credits. Having pass/fail grades can be a complication but it does not mean that you will not be able to get a Master's degree. It just means that you would have to find the "right" Master's degree.

For possible TESU degrees, you can take a look at https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sample_TESU_General_Education_Requirements_Roadmap while COSC is https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sample_COSC_General_Education_Requirements_Roadmap The COSC one isn't as complete but it should give you an idea of what the school actually expects.

There is not currently a cost comparison between the different degrees. However, I can tell you that a business degree is one of the more affordable ones to obtain via alternate credit. I can't say whether or not it's "easier" or "harder" than other degrees because difficulty varies depending on the person. One person might find History to be difficult and Business to be easy while another person would have the opposite opinion.