FAQs - is this for reps for students? Maybe need a section for both?

About StraighterLine

1. What is StraighterLine?

StraighterLine is an online education program that offers very low cost, online, self-paced, general education college courses for credit transfer into colleges and universities.

Longer Version: StraighterLine offers very low cost, online, self paced, gen ed college courses. Our courses have been reviewed and recommended for for credit transfer by the American Council on Education. We have approximately 10,000 active students and our students have transferred credit into hundreds of US college and universities.

2. What is Self-Paced Learning?

StraighterLine courses are self-paced, which means you can start immediately and work at your own pace. You can take as much--or as little--time as you need to get through the material. There is no deadline to finish our assignments or courses since we do not operate in traditional semesters like a college or university. You take quizzes and exams when you are ready, not before.

StraighterLine courses are low-risk which means if you do not pass or complete your course it does not affect your degree program or grades at your school directly. Students are allowed to retake SL courses as much as they would like and complete it when they are ready. If a student stops a course for any reason they can pick it back up by renewing their membership and finish where they left off.

StraighterLine Courses

1. Does StraighterLine offer graduate level courses?

While StraighterLine currently offers general-education courses that are typically covered in the first two years of most undergraduate degree programs, we do have students who are fulfilling prerequisites for graduate programs.

2. What is the Free Trial?

The Free Trial is a demo that allows students to sample 2 free lessons from StraighterLine’s most popular online college courses. The free trial can be accessed at any time and many students find it helpful in learning about our curriculum, online course platform and getting comfortable with self-paced education.

Course Transferability

1. How does credit/course transfer work for non-partner schools?

If your school is not a partner school of ours you will need to do the following:

• • • Contact your school’s registrar or college advisor.

    • Explain to your advisor that you plan on taking StraighterLine courses which have been revised and recommended for credit by ACE Credit, and would like to enroll upon approval for transfer of credits.

    • Your college advisor or registrar will need to verify whether or not your StraighterLine courses will be accepted for transfer of credit.

    • Once you have received confirmation, enroll in your StraighterLine online college course.

2. What is ACE Credit?

ACE is the American Council on Education’s College Credit Recommendation Service or ACE Credit, which is a nationally recognized higher education accrediting organization. Thousands of colleges recognize ACE credit recommendations, and all StraighterLine courses have been recommended by ACE for credit.

• • • If you would like more information feel free to visit ACE’s website at: http://www.acenet.edu/Pages/default.aspx

SL Membership & Costs

1. What is the StraighterLine membership about?

   1. There is a monthly membership cost of $99 that is billed to each student who is enrolled in a StraighterLine course.

   2. You can add an unlimited number of courses and your membership fee stays the same.

   3. Also, most SL courses include a free e-textbook, so that’s an additional savings for our students

   4. Members are able to receive academic tutoring for their courses at no extra charge. On-demand tutoring provides academic support whenever you need it. Every StraighterLine membership includes 10 hours of tutoring at no additional cost, FREE. It’s a great resource to assist you through the online courses.

   5. Unlike a Gym Membership, our membership can be cancelled at any time, and restart when you are ready. There is no admission requirements or application fees, so you are always able to restart right away and not lose any work.

   6. You can get started on your course right away!

      • Monthly membership is re-billed on same day of month as original purchase.

      • Membership fees are charged to the original form of payment used at checkout.

      • A membership is required to access your SL course(s).

      • Unlike the monthly membership the Course fee is a one-time fee that does not re-bill

      • After cancelling you can restart at any time and not lose any work

      • Average investment of time by student per course is 25 hours per credit (i.e. 75 hours for a 3 credit course) (do we have an estimated cost to take one class, two classes, etc?)

2. How much can I save?

• • I’m sure you know that the costs of college is out of control. StraighterLine offers guaranteed credit pathways to accredited degree programs and our students can save up to 60% on the total cost of a degree. At StraighterLine with most courses costing just $59, with an e-textbooks included + our $99 monthly membership and free tutoring, students can save LITERALLY tens thousands of dollars off the cost of their degree. (include the cost comparison chart from the website here..I believe we have a new one)

  • How much you can specifically save depends on how much your school costs and how many StraighterLine courses you can take and transfer in for credit.

3. Does StraighterLine offer financial aid?

StraighterLine does not offer or accept financial aid funding. However, many of our students have found our courses and membership fees to be affordable and flexible to their financial needs.

StraighterLine Courses

1. What are StraighterLine Courses like?

StraighterLine currently offers 60 general-education courses which are fully online, engaging, interactive, and self-paced. All of our courses come with a series of free supportive tools such as: 10 hours of tutoring, videos, e-textbooks, technical support and academic support.

2. What are professor-led courses?

Straighterline offers one professor-led course option (Business Statistics) which provide communication options with an experienced professor, an expert in their field. Students are able to communicate and get additional support through tutorial videos, office hours, study guides and discussion boards.

3. How soon can I complete a course?

Since StraighterLine courses are self-paced you can complete a course as quickly or slowly as you like. On average our students can complete one course in 4-6 weeks by allotting 15-20 hours of study time a week.

4. If StraighterLine is not accredited, how can I trust your courses?

All StraighterLine courses go through an extensive vetting process which has been approved by over 130 of our partner colleges. Our courses are all reviewed by Subject Matter Experts throughout the country to guarantee that they align with standard higher education course requirements. We have partnered with world-class providers for educational content delivery and support, such as McGraw Hill, Rosetta Stone, and Zyante, additionally, our courses have been reviewed and recommended for credit by ACE, American Council on Education’s College Credit Recommendation Service, a nationally recognized higher education accrediting organization.

Course Breakdown

1. How are StraighterLine courses designed?

All StraighterLine courses are designed to educate students on essential concepts to achieve the learning objectives of the course, and are the equivalent of a course offered at a public or private college or university.

All StraighterLine courses are structured by:

• • • • • Course syllabus

        • Topics which align with the e-textbook

        • Assignments: written assignments, labs, lesson reviews, oral assignments, etc.

        • Exams, quizzes, and assessments to review and test mastery of each topic

        • Proctored final

2. What are the assessments like?

Exams and quizzes follow best practices in online course delivery. Each of our quantitative assessments are multiple choice questions, timed, and align with the content reviewed in the lessons and text. Students are allowed to retake their first assessment for a higher score.

3. How are assignments and assessments graded?

• • StraighterLine assignments and assessment grading varies by course, however, all work is graded by hand by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and receive a percentage and letter grade averaged out of 100%.

  • Qualitative assignments and assessments are graded by highly qualified, trained professionals with college-level teaching and tutoring experience, with at least a Master’s or Ph.D. in their field of study. Written assignments are submitted through a service called, TurnItIn to ensure originality of work. Graded assignments are typically returned in less than 5 business days, but often much sooner.

Course Features and Benefits

1. What the e-Textbooks like?

StraighterLine courses offer free online e-textbooks which is highly correlated with student success and course completion.

Features of the e-textbook include:

• • • Online and offline reading

    • Mobile app and desktop viewing or app

    • Unlimited printing

    • Ability to bookmark, highlight, and add notes to important pages

    • Sync enabled so you can pick up where you left off in your reading

    • Text-to-speech options

    • Aligned by content domain and subtopics

2. How often are your courses updated?

StraighterLine is continuously working to improve course content and delivery to ensure a positive student experience. Our courses improvement strategies includes updates based on textbook changes, errors found in content, and student feedback we receive from surveys, evaluations, comments, support tickets and more.

3. What if I need extra help in my course?

StraighterLine offers several channels of academic support to ensure successful completion of our courses.

• • 1. Each StraighterLine membership comes with:

       • FREE on-demand tutoring services with several flexible options to connect with our tutors - writing center, drop-in tutoring, offline questions, and scheduled sessions.

       • Help center where you can find tutorials, FAQs, and resources

       • Access to our student advisors to assist with student needs

4. How are the final exams facilitated?

Our final exams are all proctored online. This is considered a best practice in online course delivery and is one of the ways in which we establish the academic integrity of our courses. It’s also one of the reasons our courses have the ACE Credit Recommendations and are accepted as transfer credit by so many college and universities.Similarly, to a traditional school, where your final exam is supervised by an approved person who ensures the identity of the test taker and the integrity of the test environment, your final exams are proctored online, so they can be taken in the comfort of your home (or other preferred location) and all you will need is a webcam which is used by the proctor to review your computer screen, testing area, and materials before you begin your exam.

What not to say?

1. Do not isolate any type of student → StraighterLine can be a solution for any type of student (graduate, undergraduate, high school students, older adults, international students, etc.)

2. Do not explicitly say that proctoring is an easy process