On-line options for summer college courses

[Yolanda in Mass]

My son is looking to take calculus over the summer to satisfy a college req and get it over with at home rather than at school. He's a college freshman this year. Can anyone recommend any on-line options we can explore? This would have to be approved by his college so needs to be college level and reputable. Thanks!

 

Yolanda

[Musicmom]

Would a course from a university's continuing education program fill the bill? As an example, here's a link to the University of Minnesota's College of Continuing Education:

 

http://www.cce.umn.edu/Information-Center/Get-Started/How-To-Take-Credit-Courses/index.html

 

They do have Calculus I and II (Math 1271 and Math 1272--search on Calculus under Courses.)

 

This would definitely be college level, and he would get a transcript and credits. And, since it's a course from a flagship university, I would think it would transfer to your dc's college with no problems. I'd suggest, though, that your ds talk with his own college first to make sure it would work and to find out how to transfer the credit.

 

There are probably many other universities that have similar programs. The U of M is just the one I'm nearest to and happen to know about.

 

Hope this helps!

Edited December 18, 2011 by Musicmom
fixed typo

[Yolanda in Mass]

Would a course from a university's continuing education program fill the bill? As an example, here's a link to the University of Minnesota's College of Continuing Education:

 

http://www.cce.umn.edu/Information-Center/Get-Started/How-To-Take-Credit-Courses/index.html

 

They do have Calculus I and II (Math 1271 and Math 1272--search on Calculus under Courses.)

 

Hope this helps!

 

I just went to the link and it looks like these courses are not offered on-line; they're only offered as classroom courses. Too bad. I'll keep looking. Thanks anyway.

 

Yolanda

[Yolanda in Mass]

I started poking around the Internet and discovered that SFSU offers, what appears to be, a pretty decent Calc I class for science majors. It is an accredited school and part of the California uni system. It's not cheap ($450/credit or unit), but there aren't a whole lot of alternatives out there for us (no decent calc at local cc). Here's a link to their calculus site:

 

http://calculus.sfsu.edu/

 

Yolanda

[Musicmom]

I just went to the link and it looks like these courses are not offered on-line; they're only offered as classroom courses. Too bad. I'll keep looking. Thanks anyway.

 

Yolanda

Hmmm. That seems strange because the U of M does a lot of online and distance courses through their College of Continuing Ed, and I was pretty sure Calculus was one of them.

 

I tried again, going at it this way (by googling University of Minnesota Distance Learning):

 

http://www.cce.umn.edu/Online-Distance-and-Evening-Courses/

 

and then searching for Calculus in the courses, narrowing the search by delivery type (correspondence). Looks like it is at least offered as a correspondence course both this coming spring and this summer. Here is the page I ultimately got to (wait a few seconds for the section list to come up...):

 

http://www.cce.umn.edu/courses/MATH-1271.html

Scroll down and you should find the sections for Summer 2012--all correspondence.

 

Hope that helps/works better (navigating the U's website can be interesting :tongue_smilie:)

[Yolanda in Mass]

Got it! Thanks so much. Looks like although it is on-line there are set meeting times unlike SFSU which does not. However, it does not appear to be as fast paced as SFSU. Looks like most schools cost about same for 4 credit courses as well. Thanks again!

 

Yolanda

[NancyL]

My d is doing Calc 1 through LSU- 6 credits cost $601 (semester credits) the next semester is 4 credits so it will be a little cheaper. The book and solutions manual together were less than $50 and she can use it for two maybe three semesters. It's the same book used locally at the state univ's just a few editions older and one zero cheaper!

 

The course is pretty independent, if you need help I think you'd have to get a tutor or get some of the DVDs for calculus. The tests are hard, though.

 

I took two of the precal courses myself and thought they were very good, however my daughter thought the first test had some typos. I don't know as I didn't see the test. You have to pay to use a testing center for the two exams. LSU has a lot of math courses, plus some English and history that look pretty good.

[Cera]

University of Maryland University College offers math classes online. I have taken a couple and thought they were well done.