BALTIMORE – StraighterLine announced multiple enhancements today that will let professors offer their own online college courses and set their own prices, give students superior course evaluation information, and choose from 15 additional American Council on Education Credit Recommendation (ACE Credit) recommended courses. Further, students may purchase high stakes exams from the Educational Testing Service (ETS), Council for Aid to Education (CAE) and Excelsior College in subjects like critical thinking skills, information literacy and more.
“By letting students choose between self-paced and professor-led courses, students can find the learning style and structure that best meets their learning and financial needs,” said Burck Smith, StraighterLine’s chief executive officer and founder. “Further, this gives professors an opportunity to build their own online teaching businesses.”
Professor Direct allows individual professors to augment StraighterLine’s courses with additional materials, assignments, student support or teaching styles. Professors can set prices higher than StraighterLine’s and receive the difference. They can also use social media marketing strategies to attract students to their courses. This method of taking courses provides a new level of support for students and builds on the StraighterLine’s original self-paced courses. In addition to StraighterLine’s 42 current courses, 15 new courses will be added. The new courses will be in several different disciplines, including business, science, math, languages, government, health, philosophy, anthropology, and communications. About StraighterLine StraighterLine has been recognized as a revolutionizing force in education by major news organizations and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for offering students online courses that earn real college credit for just $99 a month. Inside Higher Ed recognized StraighterLine for offering the “...lowest-cost set of credit-bearing courses on the Internet.” And Fast Company named StraighterLine one of the “10 Most Innovative Companies in Education.” In order to facilitate the award of credit, StraighterLine has forged partnerships with leading accredited online colleges and universities. A student ultimately earns a degree from those institutions but realizes tremendous savings and convenience by starting with StraighterLine. StraighterLine’s courses are evaluated and recommended by the American Council on Education’s College Credit Recommendation Service (ACE CREDIT). In addition to the institutions with which StraighterLine has a direct relationship, more than 300 other schools are reported to have accepted StraighterLine coursework for transfer credit. Currently, StraighterLine offers entry-level college courses online in the Sciences, Humanities, English, Math and Business. Many StraighterLine courses are now offered in both self-paced or professor-led formats. 5 StraighterLine courses have been approved by The College Board to be listed as AP courses: AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, AP English Language and Composition, AP Calculus AB and AP Psychology. Recently, StraighterLine began offering a wide variety of credit-by-examinations that let students earn college credit based on test scores. For information, visit www.straighterline.com or call 1-877-str8erline (1-877-787-8375).