Khan Academy Calculus versus Distance Calculus Academic Credits

The free courses available from the MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) like edX, Coursera, Udacity, Khan Academy, MIT Open Courseware, etc. are really excellent courses, but they do NOT result in transferrable academic credits from an accredited university!

If you wish to complete a Calculus course online, make sure you take this course from a regionally accredited college/university so that the credits you earn from this course will actually transfer to your home college/university.

There are more than a few actual colleges/universities offering Calculus courses online. Be careful as you investigate these courses - they may not fit your needs for actual course instruction and timing. Most require you enroll and engage your course during their standard academic semesters. Most will have you use a publisher's "automated textbook" which is .... um .... well, if you like that kind of thing, then you have a few options over there at those schools.

Distance Calculus is all about real university-level calculus courses - that's all we do! We have been running these courses for 20+ years, so we know how to get students through the these courses fast fast fast!

Here is a video about earning real academic credits in Calculus from Distance Calculus @ Roger Williams University:

Earning Real Academic Credits for Calculus

Applied Calculus vs Calculus I

Distance Calculus - Student Reviews

Date Posted: Feb 19, 2020
Review by: Rebecca Johnson
Courses Completed: Applied Calculus
Review: I took the Business Calculus course from Distance Calculus in 2013. I was admitted to my MBA program, but then they told me I needed to take Calculus before starting the program. I finished the Business Calculus course in about 3 weeks in August before my program started. Not the most fun thing to do over the summer, but at least I got it done. Thanks Diane and Distance Calculus team!
Transferred Credits to: Kellogg MBA Program

Date Posted: May 3, 2018
Review by: James Holland
Courses Completed: Calculus I, Calculus II
Review: I needed to finish the Business Calculus course very very very fast before my MBA degree at Wharton started. With the AWESOME help of Diane, I finished the course in about 3 weeks, allowing me to start Wharton on time. Thanks Diane!
Transferred Credits to: Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania

Date Posted: Apr 10, 2020
Review by: Benjamin T.
Courses Completed: Calculus I
Review: This course provided an excellent chance to learn about Calculus...again. I took calculus in high school, but I learned so much more with this course! It does take a good amount of time to do all the lessons, so definitely keep on top of them, but all the exercises helped me to really understand the material. And the nice thing is you can do it on your own time at home.
Transferred Credits to: Western University of Health Sciences: College of Optometry

Distance Calculus - Curriculum Exploration

Rational Polynomial Functions

P6: Rational Polynomial Functions:

P6.1: Reciprocating

P6.2: Polynomial Over Polynomial

P6.3: Rational Polynomial Equations

P6.4: Rational Polynomials Revisited

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Posted: Dec 31, 1969

Lucas L.★★★★★

Posted: Jun 25, 2026

Courses Completed: Multivariable Calculus

The professor as well as the TAs give great feedback when you need help with problems and the videos are great at explaining concepts. Return time on work is good and the work is not too much to handle.

Transferred Credits To: University of Wisconsin

Dorota M.★★★★★

Posted: May 5, 2025

Excellent course that you can take at your own pace. The instructor is excellent and I was able to get my questions answered quickly and complete this for an EMBA prerequisite. I would recommend this course to anyone trying to learn basics of calculus on their own timeline. The class prepared me well for my coursework at MIT.

Transferred Credits To: MIT

Laura T.★★★★★

Posted: May 18, 2025

Courses Completed: Linear Algebra

I completed the Linear Algebra course as a prerequisite to an M.Ed program in Mathematics. I worked entirely at my own pace, it was cheap, I actually learned the material. This was not a "pay your fee, take your B" type of class. I had to demonstrate true understanding in order to earn credit. Dr. Curtis was responsive and helpful when I had questions. All in all I would recommend this course and any other Distance Calculus course.

Transferred Credits To: James Madison University

Hari K.★★★★☆

Posted: Jun 24, 2026

This course gives a perspective on Linear algebra that no traditional course does. I’d say i gained much more intuition for this subject from the DC course than my friends who took traditional courses elsewhere. As a cs major, this version of learning with visualization has helped me a lot in understand ML models. However the course doesn’t have videos for the last 2 chapers so i had to self learn with the mathematica notebooks. Response times are a little slow but since it’s a remote class, i guess it’s justified. Overall amazing course and definitely take this over traditional lin alg classes.

Julia★★★★★

Courses Completed: Calculus I

As a full-time business owner completing an Executive MBA, I needed to satisfy a calculus prerequisite without putting my work on hold. Distance Calculus made that possible. The fully self-paced structure let me work early mornings and weekends around an unpredictable schedule, which a fixed-semester classroom course never would have allowed.
The course covered the core business calculus material thoroughly — derivatives, optimization, integration techniques including u-substitution, the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, improper integrals, and numerical methods. The LiveMath computer algebra environment was central to the experience: it forced me to build each step explicitly rather than just arriving at an answer, which actually deepened my understanding of the mechanics.
Communication through the student portal was responsive when I had questions. For working professionals who need a rigorous, accredited calculus course on a flexible timeline, I'd recommend it.

Transferred Credits To: MIT Ebma