Comparisons of Distance Calculus To Other Math Online Options

Distance Calculus @ Roger Williams University is a unique online course offering for Calculus-level courses for real academic, transferrable credits from an accredited institution.

Our Distance Calculus courses are designed around Mastery Learning and intense human interaction, unlink many other online and even hybrid Calculus courses avaiable around the internet.

Below are some links to explore the various other options around the internet. We want all students to find the right Calculus course for them to succeed. Distance Calculus is a different program than nearly all other online Calculus options. Perhaps Distance Calculus is right for you!

Distance Calculus - Student Reviews

Date Posted: Feb 23, 2020
Review by: Carl Conners
Courses Completed: Multivariable Calculus, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra
Review: After a really rough first year of calculus, I completed all of the second year calculus courses with Distance Calculus. It was like night and day the difference. My first year was so boring and monotonous. Multivariable Calculus, Differential Equations, and Linear Algebra through Distance Calculus were just so much different - so not boring at all. I thoroughly enjoyed these courses. So engaging.
Transferred Credits to: Michigan State University

Date Posted: Jul 22, 2021
Review by: Emma C.
Courses Completed: Linear Algebra
Review: This was a great course. Flexible and informative with a great professor. It's a great option if you need to fill a prerequisite fast or if you enjoy working at your own pace.
Transferred Credits to: University of Virginia

Date Posted: Jun 24, 2026
Review by: Julia
Courses Completed: Calculus I
Review: 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

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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Distance Calculus - Student Reviews

Ian M.★★★★★

Posted: May 18, 2025

Courses Completed: Multivariable Calculus

Distance Calculus was a life saver! I needed an accredited program to complete multi-variable calculus for grad school and at the time was an American living in England. Being able to take the course on my own timeline, from my own home, was amazing! The content was thorough and the visualization exercises were very helpful for comprehension and understanding. This was an exceptionally, affordable, thorough, and convenient course that I found a lot of value in and I’m thankful it was available to me!

Transferred Credits To: Air Force Institute of Technology

Hannah J.★★★★★

Posted: Apr 30, 2020

Courses Completed: Probability Theory

Probability Theory was a great course. Very very thorough. I thought it would never end :). I was very prepared for my coursework in economics. Excellent refereshher of derivatives and integrals - really forced me to remember that stuff from freshman cal.

Transferred Credits To: Boston University

Anonymous☆☆☆☆☆

Posted: Dec 31, 1969

Bill K.★★★★★

Posted: Dec 20, 2019

Courses Completed: Calculus I, Calculus II, Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra

I took the whole calculus series and Linear Algebra via Distance Calculus. Dr. Curtis spent countless hours messaging back and forth with me, answering every question, no matter how trivial they might seem. Dr. Curtis is extremely responsive, especially if the student is curious and is willing to work hard. I don't think I ever waited much more than a day for Dr. Curtis to get a notebook back to me. Dr. Curtis would also make videos of concepts if I was really lost.

The course materials are fantastic. If you are a student sitting on the fence, trying to decide between a normal classroom class or Distance Calculus classes with Livemath and Mathematica, my choice would be the Distance Calculus classes every time. The Distance Calculus classes are more engaging. The visual aspects of the class notebooks are awesome. You get the hand calculation skills you need.

The best summary I can give is to say, given the opportunity, I would put my own son's math education in Dr. Curtis's hands.

Transferred Credits To: None

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

Hari K.★★★★☆

Posted: Jun 24, 2026

Courses Completed: Linear Algebra

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★★★★★

Posted: Jun 24, 2026

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