[MathFilter] Taking for-credit math classes online

April 4, 2014 6:35 PM

For professional and academic reasons, I need to take a number of college-level math classes (mainly Calculus and Linear Algebra) in a relatively short period of time (4-6 months). They need to be online, for-credit, and I need to be able to do them at my own pace, meaning faster than a normal 1-course-per-semester flow. I've already found https://netmath.illinois.edu/, but the classes are terribly expensive, so I'd like to learn of other alternatives that don't cost as much.
posted by dcrocha to Education (6 answers total)

I don't know what to do for the rest, but would CLEP credit for the calculus work if you did some kind of non-credit way of learning it online? That would probably be the cheapest way to handle that part.
posted by Sequence at 7:38 PM on April 4, 2014

It looks like the UC Berkeley Extension school has self-paced online calculus for less than half the price of the NetMath program you found, but perhaps no linear algebra.

Have you looked into community colleges in your state? Since they are often catering to adults continuing with education while working, they tend to have more online classes than most 4yr universities.
posted by ktkt at 7:59 PM on April 4, 2014

Please be careful, I paid to do courses via TeacherStep (formerly Converse College) as for credit (Education) Math Credits and they were invalid as they were only considered to be "professional development" courses despite being accredited/credit-bearing etc. (maybe should have been obvious). Anyway, just something to note.
posted by bquarters at 8:00 PM on April 4, 2014

Here are some suggestions.
posted by Brent Parker at 9:38 PM on April 4, 2014

The LSU distance learning courses are relatively inexpensive. Some of them are via mailed correspondence instead of online, though.
posted by Jacqueline at 10:52 PM on April 4, 2014

You might try National University. Their courses aren't self-paced per se, but since they run one course per month you could get through a lot of courses in 4-6 months. They're online, for-credit, definitely accredited, and not-for-profit (well National isn't, though other entities within its system are). Disclaimer: I used to work there once upon a time and I think they are over-priced and provide a fast but not always quality education--but they're still worth checking out.
posted by librarylis at 10:44 PM on April 5, 2014