Learning at distance can actually be a pretty intense investment of money and of time for the students. This is why it is so important for you to decide what your online learning platform will be very wisely.
We will look over Study.com, today, they give themselves a pretty good reputation from their website, and how they boost themselves up.
They boast themselves to be the largest, and most extensive website to education seekers. With all of these online learning platforms that are available today, it is a pretty lofty claim.
So, is it what they claim?
We also have to consider if they are also what some claim they are, as some claim they are a scam.
We have to wonder if this is indeed the case. So, we will be looking at Study.com Review.
What Is Study.Com?
First, thing, first, we need to provide you with a true understanding of what the site is actually about. Answering the most basic question of, what it is.
Somehow the answer for this question is actually kind of complicated.
Study.com is not exactly your average, typical, everyday learning website. It is attempting to be something of a one-stop-shop for online learners, so it has a bit of everything.
It has not always been this way, it evolved very quickly since it was founded in 2002, with nearly 20 years of tech advancements in online distance learning technology.
Which did allow it to transform into an incredible remote learning super platform.
It claims to have reached an incredible 25 million students on a monthly basis with all its educational content, from guides, articles, videos, all the way to their online college courses!
Who Is Study.Com For?
So, who is this site aimed at?
According to this online platform, a good 10 million of their students have been college learners or graduates who are looking into their career options and further academic options.
Which leaves a good 15 million people who do not fall into this category, using the site on a regular basis.
So, who are the others? Well it is kind of an online school for everyone.
You can get students, high school kids, college kids, teachers, nontraditional learners, and tutors all looking for resources for learning.
There is attention coming from all over, getting attention from a very varied audience, but, with it being a program that is so versatile, it is hardly surprising.
Anyone who is enrolled in any type of academic course from a K-12 class to advanced college courses could gain from this site’s resources.
Is Study.Com A Scam?
It all sounds so awesome right? Yeah!
But, hold up now. There is some concern online that Study.com could be a scam. But, we can thankfully tell you are not. They are in fact, 100% legitimate, with fully legitimate products on offer.
But, that being said, we won’t sugar coat things either. There are some complaints, which although are not a scam, can be concerning for some people.
Billing & cancellation scams: Still being billed after attempting to cancel membership.
This is a bait & switch scam, in which you get hooked in with a free trial, provide payment information, and when the trial ends, they make it hard for you to get a refund or to cancel, and bill your card each month.
Another issue that is notable, but not a scam is that they sell your personal information. This is very common with many different businesses and companies, however.
The company who owns Study.com does sell student information for for-profit colleges.
Of course, this is hard to confirm 100%, however, you can always assume someone is selling off your information without consent, even being on social media gets your information sold.
How Does Study.Com Work?
Not put off? Awesome! Well, a vast majority of their content is delivered through video courses and informational text. This kind of content is accessible via a PC or any kind of mobile device.
How it operates depends on how you want to use the website. You could access study.com as a college or K-12 student, or as someone looking for a new career.
Depending on how you access it, you could come across several different features or materials of learning on the website.
Let us look into these.
Tools For Career Planning
In spite of its reputation for being an online education platform, it actually has a great deal of tools, and it helps job seekers too.
It has a great deal of career articles, and they contain a lot of information about career paths, as well as occupations in some of the more popular fields such as health, medical, logistics, engineering, transport, and education.
To find something on your job or ideal career, you can just search and browse the site just by selecting a particular field.
When you do this you can see an interactive article which will be full of all the information you need.
It will include things such as the knowledge and requirements you need, the annual salary average, what you need to get the job, opportunities and job growth projections.
They will also give some interactive tools that will help them find the resources that you might require to start a career in a specific area.
Each article will have a list of schools which can provide you with training in the industry as well as programs and plans for degrees that they offer.
You also get the perfect school search which can show potential students different schools which may meet career goals, subjects of interest, learning formats and education levels as well as more.
Courses
One of their most outstanding features as an online platform for learning is how many online courses they have.
These classes can span options for a whole variety of learning, including college students, K-12 students and professionals.
There are an insane 84,000 courses on this platform alone.
College Credit Courses/ College Accelerator
There are also their courses which can be transferred for a college credit, which could save users a lot of money and time depending on how much their degrees cost.
They boast that they save students a whopping $132 million in expenses for tuition (so far, perhaps more!)
Students will need to select their college’s courses from over 200 titles in a variety of different disciplines such as chemistry, criminal justice, statistics, and so on.
The student gets video content accessed by a computer or mobile, so they can learn whenever and wherever.
Students can also pace their course material out around a busy schedule. This is technically referred to as ‘microlearning’.
There are plenty of for-credit online courses through Study.com. However, it is worth asking if these are legit, as they claim their lessons are made by top instructors and experts, we assume they’re legitimate.
Practice Assessments & Questions
Students do have to pass assessments to complete a course and earn credit for college to transfer.
In order to do this, the platform will give the students access to practice questions in the form of quizzes, tests and so on.
They help the students to apply knowledge and assess where they are at, so they are better prepared for assessments that really do matter.
Study Tools
It is something of an easy way to get college credit, and it allows them to go a bit further.
Every course will feature tools to support online learning for these students, so they have plenty of resources to be able to study effectively
Online Tutoring/ Online Support
With Study.com, students will not be doing everything solo when they need to complete course material.
If they have problems or questions they will have access instantly to instructors as well as experts on the subject matters who can help them as any problems may surface.
This will extend beyond the course’s topics, and they can even get assistance with transfer credits, enrollment and even more!
Adaptive Learning
Adaptive learning allows students to take placement tests at the start of each course on Study.com. This helps them to test out any content on the course that they have mastered.
It can enable a busy student to save time, and they can then skip any content they do not need, and instead, focus on the subjects they need to finish their courses online quickly.
Earning College Credit
Once college courses are then completed, earned credits are able to be transferred to a range of over 1,500 colleges and universities across the USA…
Transference of these credits was approved by the ACE (American Council on Education), and the NCCRS (National Credit Recommendation Service). So, these credits are definitely legitimate for students to make use of.
If you want to see if your university or college will accept these credit transfers you can check on Study.com as they provide a list of institutions which accept transfer of credits from Study.com.
You can also use their search tool to look up a specific college or university to find if they are partnered up with Study.com
Making The Grade
Real college credits are at stake for those students who are enrolled with Study.com courses, they are required to complete assessments which they will get grades for.
Grades for these courses will be based off of a points’ percentage which is earned out of 300 points total.
In order to pass this course, they will need to earn a good 210 points overall. This is about the equivalent of 70% of the total points possible.
Their actual score will not appear on their transcript with Study.com, however, this only provides them with the information on if they passed or failed at each class.
In order to get a pass grade for a course with Study.com, a student will need to take every quiz and an exam.
Students will have 3 opportunities to pass the quizzes, and the highest of these 3 will be the one which is noted.
Final exams will be proctors by a 3rd party virtual proctor/ You could also re-taken this exam if you are not successful in your first attempt.
Pricing Model
Just like any other online learning platform, there are different levels of subscription. Each of these levels can be paid on a monthly basis, or on an annual basis with a 10% savings rate.
Basic Level: $29.99 per month/ $325 per annum.
This level will grant users access to all the video lessons, transcripts and technical support assistance.
Premium Level: $59.99 per month/ $648 per annum.
Premium level grants you access to all basic level features, as well as the following:
- Completion certificates.
- Custom course materials.
- Individualized coaching.
- Practice assessments.
- Progress tracking.
- Support from instructors.
College Acceleration Level: $199.99 per month/ $2,160 per annum.
This is the priciest subscription plan for Study.com. It is also the only plan that allows students to have access to transferable credits.
With the College Accelerator enabled, students are able to earn the credit as they take their final exams for up to 2 courses per month.
Pros
- Work at home opportunity that helps students.
- Transferable college credits.
- Versatile range of courses.
Cons
- Expensive.
- Some issues with cancellation.
- Data sharing.
Alternatives To Study.Com
If Study.com is not quite for you, you can always look at several alternatives such as Udacity, Coursera, and edX. Each of which have their own pros and cons.
While Coursera allows students to earn a total degree on their site, they do not create their own content.
Udacity is more geared towards professionals and career-minded students. Finally, edX features pre-made material, instead of offering custom content like Study.com does.
Is Study.Com Worth It?
We would say that for most people, Study.com can be worth it, and it can help you, but it depends what you are looking to get out of it.
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