If your teen is taking a course from Study.com, take note. Between now and then we hope to see a renewal, but if we don’t, it’s possible that they won’t be worth college credit at your target college. Read more for details.
What is the Watch List?
This list helps you plan your Homeschooling for College Credit courses and exams so you can be sure your student doesn’t miss their window to finish a course or exam.
Why is Study.com on the Watch List?
Study.com courses are ACE evaluated for college credit, thus they follow a normal expiration/renewal cycle of 3-years. Out of the 200+ courses available on Study.com for college credit, they’ve only ever let 15 expire permanently. What is noteworthy with today’s list is that it includes a LOT of courses, and sometimes I get an email notification when courses are going to be removed, but I haven’t received anything as it relates to this list.
ACE Evaluation?
ACE (American Council on Education) is a third-party credit evaluator that evaluates all types of learning that happens outside of a college.
No ACE evaluation = no college credit.
Why do I care?
When these Study.com courses hit their expiration date, one of 3 things will happen.
- The course or exam may be discontinued.
- The course or exam may be revised.
- The course or exam will be renewed for another 3 years.
We can’t know which of the 3 things will happen until after it does.
If a course or exam is being discontinued, you must have finished it before the discontinuation date for it to be worth college credit.
If a course or exam is revised, the scope of the content may change, the credit value raised or reduced, or the level may be raised or reduced. We’ve seen a LOT of Study.com courses lose their upper level status and being downgraded to lower level through the years. I’ve pulled these out and listed them separately below.
If a course is renewed, nothing significant changed.
What Usually Happens: Renewal
Usually, a course that is still popular and selling well is renewed and any possible gap in the date range is back-dated by ACE to cover the students who may have completed a course or exam during the gap. In companies that have been around for a very long time, renewal usually happens and the consumer is none the wiser. If you’re in the middle of a course that renews, nothing changes.
What Could Happen: Revision
At Study.com, revision that is significant would involve adding lessons, adding quizzes, adding homework, or changing the content. Unless the revision is significant, you may not notice and we will see a date extension. If we see a new date range, that means the revision was significant enough to warrant a new evaluation.
What Else Could Happen: Downgraded
Since Study.com is one of the only providers of ACE evaluated upper-level college credit, the “worst case” that we hope doesn’t happen, is a downgrade. Downgrades from upper level to lower level impact hose students who are using the upper level courses to complete their degree. Often the removal of an option is a very expensive consequence for the family. Families using Study.com for upper level credits are likely planning a degree from one of the Big 3 or WGU, so if that applies to your family, you’ll want to check in our HS4CC degree planning group on Facebook for recommended substitutions.
| UPPER LEVEL Study.com Courses | Expiration Date |
|---|---|
| Business 325: Union & Labor Relations | 08/31/2023 |
| Business 323: Organizational Theory | 08/31/2023 |
| Business 310: Advanced Business Ethics | 08/31/2023 |
| Business 314: Employment Law | 08/31/2023 |
| Business 311: Project Management | 08/31/2023 |
| Hospitality 304: Hotel and Lodging Management and Operations | 10/31/2023 |
| Accounting 302: Advanced Accounting | 10/31/2023 |
| Accounting 301: Applied Managerial Accounting | 10/31/2023 |
| Business 302: Foundations of Leadership | 10/31/2023 |
| Business 309: Digital Marketing & Advertising | 10/31/2023 |
| Business 306: Strategic Human Resource Management | 10/31/2023 |
What to do?
- Watch and wait.
- If you’re close to finishing the course, do it before the expiration date.
- If you use Study.com courses in your homeschool, send them an email and ask them to renew their ACE evaluation – it makes a huge difference!
- If you are NOT enrolled in any of these courses, do not begin a course until we know their ACE status for each.
