Straighter Line Adding New Courses

Straighter Line is rapidly becoming a major option for earning college credit economically. When I first found them about two years ago, they only offered a couple of English, math, and business courses. In the years since, that offering has expanded to include courses in chemistry, anatomy, pharmacology, and biology, amongst others. They now have even more courses listed as "coming soon," like US History I, Western Civilization I, and Introduction to Business. At this rate, it will probably soon be possible to do the entire core curriculum for a college degree through Straighter Line, and the price of these courses is comparable to the cost of CLEP and DSST exams. They might be a better option for people who are living far away from a testing center, which is most people who aren't living near a large city or college town in the US.

Online Degrees Deserve More Respect

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The internet has helped to boost distance learning in many ways, and the number of degrees offered online is always increasing. To some people, the many advantages of doing an online degree are offset by the fact that some employers don't take these degrees seriously. One hears numerous stories of employers who will automatically not consider an application if the resume contains a school like the University of Phoenix or DeVry. Online degrees are sometimes looked down upon by the students of brick-and-mortar schools, especially if they come from a for-profit university.

However, this disrespect towards online degrees hasn't been earned. It's true that in the case of for-profit schools, the student often took courses which could have been done for much cheaper at the state university. At the same time, the students at the state university paid a lot of money to take courses which could have been done a lot cheaper through independent study and the CLEPs. This doesn't make the coursework at the state university look any less legitimate.

Another argument against online degrees is that for-profit schools allegedly have lenient grading systems. As their existence is dependent on customer satisfaction, they can't make it too difficult to pass the courses. Otherwise, their students won't come back next year. Although it's a disturbing thought that a student might have a qualification without having the knowledge that's supposed to go with it, this can happen at any type of school. The most popular professors at state schools are often the ones who require the least from students in order to pass the course. This is especially the case with the professors of the required courses which have large numbers of students who aren't really interested in the course content. There are many news reports of public universities dumbing down the curriculum to please their "paying customers," or disinterested students. Even with the lower standards, half of all college freshmen never graduate. The problems with dumbed down courses and/or students who don't study exist at most colleges and universities.

It's also worth considering that a graduate from a brick-and-mortar school is likely to have done at least some online courses. Most public colleges these days offer at least some online courses, and more and more are offering online degrees. If taking one or two online courses during college doesn't reduce the value of the of the qualification, why should it matter if the whole degree was done this way? Some of the best universities are offering some of their degrees online. Harvard offers a number of master's degrees that are mostly online, as does Columbia University. Online education is an extension of correspondence courses which have been around for many years. The University of London has been offering distance degrees since the 1800s.

There's no reason to believe that an online degree is any less legitimate than a degree gotten the old-fashioned way. In fact, online students often need more self-discipline as they have to organize their study schedule during their free time rather than just having to turn up in a classroom at 10 a.m. on Wednesday. A graduate with an online degree is also very likely to have met the challenge of getting the degree while juggling a lot of other things in life. Offering college courses over the internet brings knowledge to anybody who's interested regardless of where they're located or when they have time available. As we have the technology, it would be best to get the most benefit from it.

Low Cost Online College Courses

Online college courses are popular with students who want to study at home, but they're frequently just as expensive as on-campus courses. Some colleges even stick on a "technology fee" for their online course offerings, thus making the online courses even more expensive. However, there is a cheaper option. Straighter Line offers many lower level college courses, and is constantly adding to their offerings. There are courses in English, math, business, and science, along with plans to add courses like anatomy and pharmacology. They offer the freshman year of college for $999, along with a subscription plan whereby if you pay $99 per month, you can get as many courses as you like for $39 each. Along with the instruction, these courses also come with the option of 10 hours of online tutoring. The courses are also self-paced. As for getting recognized credit for these courses, all three of the credit-by-exam colleges are on their list of partner colleges which accept their courses for credit. The courses are also recommended by the ACE for college credit. Straighter Line courses are worth considering for anyone looking for cheaper college options. Hopefully, they'll soon add on the sophomore year of college as well. Maybe it will one day be possible to get an associate's degree entirely through Straighter Line courses. The day in which college is only possible with massive expenses seems to be coming to an end.

The Free Online College

As a college education is normally a major investment, it's interesting to see that it's possible to get one for free. The University of the People offers free online courses to the Associate's and Bachelor's levels in Business Administration and Computer Science. As the education is free, many people will wonder what the catch is. The University of the People isn't yet accredited, and therefore, can't yet award degrees.

Still, this college might be worth considering for some. Although the college isn't accredited, it's courses do offer valuable knowledge. Amongst their computer courses are offerings in software engineering, programming, and operating systems. It might be an idea to use this knowledge to take IT certification exams, which would be widely recognized. Also, the value of this education depends on what you want to do afterwards. If you wanted to list it on a resume while applying for a traditional job, most employers would probably be wary. It would also be difficult to transfer to an accredited institution to earn a graduate degree. However, you might have more success if you listed it as a qualification to work as a freelancer. If you were using the knowledge in your own business, the lack of accreditation wouldn't be a problem.

Personally, I'm taking a serious look at this option, as the computer science courses do look good, and you can't beat getting it for free. I still don't know what this college's policies are on taking transfer credit, or in letting people enroll for individual courses rather than the entire program. I'm thinking that it might be possible to transfer the UoP course credit to one of the Big Three distance colleges, and get an accredited degree from them. At the same time, the Big Three might also not recognize college credit from an unaccredited college.

The Free Online College Core Curriculum

Over the past year or so, I've been on the lookout for free online learning materials, and have been surprised at the abundance of materials which are out there. In fact, there are so many that I've started to think that one could get a whole college education with free online learning materials. There's even one university, the University of the People, which offers a college education for free, with the only costs being for testing and a few administrative fees. I've also discovered that the core curriculum for a bachelor's degree can be gotten online for free. I've put together this list of the core courses for most bachelor's degrees, along with the name of the exam which can be used to fulfill that requirement, and a link to an online textbook or course which can be used to prepare for the exam. (More information for getting a college degree through independent study can be found at http://www.testingoutofcollege.com/ and at http://www.bain4weeks.com/.)

Written Communication

AP English Language and Composition or CLEP English Composition 6 credit hours (Online Textbooks)

Oral Communication

DSST Principles of Public Speaking 3 credit hours (Online Textbooks)

US History

DSST Civil War and Reconstruction 3 upper-level credit hours (Yale Open Courses)

CLEP US History to 1877 3 credit hours
CLEP US History since 1865 3 credit hours
Online textbook for US History from precolonization to the present

Non-US History

CLEP Western Civilization 1 and 2, 3 credit hours each.(Online Textbook)

Global Understanding

DSST World Religion 3 credit hours (Online Textbook)

DSST General Anthropology 3 credit hours (Online Textbook)

Literature and Fine Arts

DSST Art of the Western World 3 credit hours (Online Textbook)

CLEP English Literature 6 credit hours (Online Textbook)

Ethics

DSST Ethics in America 3 credit hours (Online Textbook)

Social Sciences

CLEP Introductory Psychology 3 credit hours (Online Textbook)

CLEP Introductory Sociology 3 credit hours (Online Textbook)

Mathematics

CLEP College Algebra 3 credit hours

CLEP Calculus 3 credit hours

An assortment of online mathematics textbooks.

Natural Sciences

CLEP Biology 6 credit hours (Online biology book)

CLEP Chemistry 6 credit hours (Online chemistry book)

I put this list together using Charter Oak's core curriculum as a guide, but the core curriculum of most other colleges is similar. My goal is to get a college degree entirely through credit-by-exam, so that my only costs will be the testing fees and the administrative fees to get the credits banked and to get the degree. It's not only possible these days to get a college degree without going into debt, it's also possible to get a degree without going to college, except to go to the testing center.

Online Courses from MIT

In a recent post, I discussed the open courses offered by Yale University. I've since discovered that MIT also offers free courses online, and that they offer a greater variety, over 2000 to be exact. MIT offers free graduate courses as well. Many of the courses on offer are technologically oriented, including advanced mathematics courses like algebraic topology, quantum computation, and assorted courses in statistics. The engineering courses include airline schedule planning, sustainable energy, and space systems engineering. Before I found this website, I thought that MIT only offered courses in science and technology, but there are many courses in other areas, including a variety of courses in micro- and macroeconomics. The foreign language courses include four levels of Chinese, along with Japanese, Spanish, French, and German. If you look at the history department, you'll find a course in "How to Stage a Revolution." Of course, there's the question of how an independent student can get college credit for this knowledge, as CLEP doesn't offer an exam in algebraic topology. One idea might be to find a university that will let you "challenge" the course, in which you take the final exam and give you the credit if you pass. At any rate, the MIT Open Courses are an excellent resource for those who are studying independently at home, and give free access to knowledge that only students with the best academic performance get access to normally.

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Free Online Courses From an Ivy League School

The Internet offers a wealth of learning materials for independent learners. Last fall, I discovered Open Yale Courses, a website from Yale University, which offers online lectures of some of their courses for free. Although the school doesn't offer credit for these courses, it's an excellent way to get access to instruction that many people pay $120,000 over the course of four years to get. The lectures are offered in video format, but if you have a slow computer that "puffs" a lot like mine does, there are also transcripts of the lectures. I've read through the two religious studies courses, Introduction to the Old and New Testaments. One warning about these courses for conservative Christians: They do present the Bible through a secular lens, ie, they presume that the book of Daniel was written after the events he predicted had already taken place. However, they do present an interesting view of Biblical history and little-known facts about the world in which the Bible was written. One of the professors also teaches a course on the historical Jesus, and I'm hoping that it also is placed on this website. I'm currently studying the course on Financial Markets. As the world economy plays such a major role in the world, it would be good if more people had a good understanding of how the economy works. There are also courses offered in chemistry and physics which require a good knowledge of mathematics, along with courses in biology. Some of these courses would be a good aid in preparing for CLEP exams, and as they often put new ones online, it's well worth checking back periodically to see what's on offer.