If you are preparing for a career in medicine, science, or business, it’s likely that you will need calculus. Your palms might break out in a sweat just thinking about taking calculus, but there are some fantastic online calculus courses to help you get the credits you need or to refresh the material.
There are some advantages to studying calculus online: you decide when and where to study. Some of the available courses are self-paced, so you can even decide when your tests will be and when the course ends.
Seven Online Calculus Courses
1. Calculus One – The Ohio State University and Coursera
Utilizing a platform called Coursera, Professor of Mathematics Jim Fowler likes students to see calculus at work in their everyday lives. Coursera provides students with access to the material at any time, anywhere, and is used by many universities.
Coursera makes outstanding educators more accessible and getting required classes completed easier. Coursera courses cost between $29-$99.
In the online calculus course, students watch 25 hours of videos and take quizzes. To pass the online calculus course, students must pass all graded assignments. A feature of the online calculus course is that peers can connect with one another, ask questions, debate, and get help from one another as well as from Prof. Fowler. This online calculus course continues to receive excellent student reviews.
2. Calculus I – University of Phoenix
The University of Phoenix has become a premier source of online education. Their online calculus course is taught over seven weeks and is fast-paced. However, students take online classes one at a time, in a sequence. By following this model, students fully concentrate on one class at a time.
Students work in Learning Teams, communicating regularly with one another and even completing group projects. Students may take this course as a refresher to apply for a graduate program or may take it towards completing a degree or certificate. Peer reviews for the university are mixed, with flexibility and the ability to work and attend school online as the top advantages. This class costs about $2,220.
3. Paul’s Online Math Notes – Lamar University Tutorial
If you don’t need to take an online calculus course for credit, or you need some extra help with your calculus class, this is an outstanding website, and all its content is free.
The site is broken down into cheat sheets, notes, practice problems, and assignment problems. The cheat sheets contain common facts, definitions, and charts. The notes are from the professor’s Calculus I class; they are so clear that you won’t need to attend the class to understand and learn. In the practice problems, the problems and solutions are visible, so students can see how to work through them. There are no answers for assignment problems.
While the professor is not available to answer homework problem questions, students will be able to find a variety of problems with full solutions provided. This website is an outstanding resource for any student taking an online calculus course.
4. General Calculus I – StraighterLine
StraighterLine.com is a potentially less expensive and more flexible alternative to traditional community and junior colleges. For $99 a month (other fees may apply), enrollees can select and take online classes that will transfer to StraighterLine partner colleges and universities.
Before enrolling in General Calculus I with StraighterLine, the student should ensure that his college will accept the credit. One of the major advantages of taking an online calculus course through this website is the course is self-paced, so the pupil may spend as much time as needed reviewing topics and working problems before advancing.
This online calculus course comes with ten hours of free online tutoring, and there is more assistance available. This website even provides students with an idea of how much work is required to take this online calculus course; it suggests that 17-20 hours of studying per week will allow a student to finish the class in one month (the subscription timeframe).
5. Calculus – Khan Academy
The Khan Academy is a nonprofit organization that offers online classes and partners with a few universities and other nonprofits. Their mission is to provide anyone free, excellent education, anytime, anywhere.
They offer several different levels of online calculus courses. Each course is self-paced. The classes consist of videos posted on YouTube, informative articles, and a lot of practice exercises.
If the student isn’t sure how to work a problem, he can watch a video while in the problem screen that is related to the problem or get a hint. One possible downside to using this platform is that students may feel isolated since there isn’t a way for them to communicate with one another.
6. Calculus – MIT – OpenCourseWare
If you have ever dreamed of attending MIT, now you can. MIT has published nearly its entire course content online. With MITOpenCourseWare, students can take any of the institute’s classes for free. The course consists of actual classroom lectures, lecture notes, assignment problems (without the answers), and exams with the answers. MIT has made this a truly international platform, as the video series are complete with optional subtitles and transcripts.
This online calculus course is perfect for high school students seeking extra preparation, professors looking to write an online calculus course or anyone who wishes to learn the fundamentals of calculus from some of the world’s leading instructors.
7. Calculus I – UC Berkeley Extension
The University of California at Berkeley offers a high-quality online calculus course. One of the unique features of this class is that students may enroll at any time, with the class beginning upon enrollment. Enrollees have between 90 and 180 days to complete the class.
A second exceptional feature of this program is that students may submit only one assignment at a time so that the professor can provide him with sufficient feedback before he continues with the next lesson. Following this model prevents a student from becoming confused, which is especially important in an online calculus course.
The student must take the final exam under the supervision of a proctor, which include a university or professional testing center, a university faculty member, and a public or college library.
Whether you need to take an online calculus course to apply for an MBA program, to refresh your skill set, or need extra help with the calculus you are taking, there are numerous courses and platforms to try. Have you found an online calculus course that you think should be on this list? Tell us about your experience!
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