Difficulty of Online Colleges

I am currently attending ITT Tech at the school which requires 1 online class a semester. I really enjoy the school and am learing great things, but it is not a very challenging school. I have a 4.0 gpa right now and I have never done so well before in a learning institution.

Here is my question.

I see a lot of stuff about UOP, Kaplan college, AIU, Walden university, A college in Colorado, etc. and I am just wondering are they all schools like ITT Tech where it seems like they are very relaxed on grading and do not grill you to dot every i and slash every t. I am really enjoying ITT, I am just finding it too easy in a way. A huge difference from my Community College.

If anyone can give insight i would appreciate it. I am not Wanting you to come on here and trash your degree if you went to one of the above schools that I am sure are fine schools, I am just wondering how difficult they are compared to some of these state schools (Pellessippi and UT) That are Killing my friends social lives, making them lose their hair, and raising their blood pressure and stress levels with the degree of difficulty of their classes.

I am asking this question becuase I read a review about UOP online about getting a masters degree and they talked about how it was very relaxed compared to a regular university masters degree. Let me give you guys the link over at Eopinions.com:

http://www.epinions.com/educ-Colleges_and_Universities-All-University_of_Phoenix/display_~reviews

Did not know if places like AIU and UOP are super hard schools or more like ITT Tech.

Thanks!

 

do a search for AIU discussion on this forum.

Every college (online or BM) instructors are different. Some require a lot of work and some not that much. Also some assignments are harder than others which makes them different.

 

I will be taking courses starting in December towards the Master of Science in Information Technology Degree (MSIT) from Aspen University. I will let you know how the course difficulty meter reacts. The AA degree from AMU in which I am enrolled has a moderate to heavy workload associated with each course.

When I attended an on-campus college in the early 1990s I found the courses extremely easy but then again I had already covered most of the material previously through my interest in computers beforehand.

 

Grading at Walden

I am enrolled at Walden. I am into my second quarter. They do not just give you an easy grade. They are hard and you really have to work to get a good grade. They are real sticklers for APA formatting and grammar.

Wanda

 

The Univesity of Illinois masters in computer science program is reasonably difficult, but their model is a bit different than many online programs. In their case, you take the exact same classes as on-campus students at the same time. Basically, the lectures are recorded and streamed over the internet (on-campus students can watch the lectures in this way as well instead of physically going to class).

Overall, the mixed graduate/undergraduate classes tend to be very challenging and the graduate only classes a bit less challenging. The material is more challenging, but grading standards in graduate-only classes tend to be more relaxed (this is common at all B&M schools) as long as you show reasonable competency.

 

This is not a rule, but for-profit schools tend to be "easier" than state or private non-profit organizations. You will see a great difference between a course at a University like Colorado State and one at AIU.

 

Not every class at AIU has been easy for me. I am very familiar with most of the subject matter I've taken so they have not been that difficult, but the Java course I had to take for my masters nearly whipped me.

It varies class by class, some professors grade more harshly than others. Some are what I call fairy graders. You can never quite tell what metric they are using to grade your performance and your grade is whatever their magic pen happens to dish out at the moment.

The problem with for profit schools, and schools in the State of Georgia (because of hope scholarships), is the pressure not to fail students because of a loss of revenue. If you fail a student they are less likely to continue dishing out money (or in the case of HOPE scholarships, the state will stop paying). All of the colleges want your money (or the lottery money) ergo there is a perceived bias in favor of giving the student better grades than one might expect to receive absent this influence.

That said my experience with AIU is that they will fail students, but more often than not, it's my opinion the students they fail never should have been admitted to the program to begin with.

 

Good point, other explanation is the "relax" admission policy that most of these school have. You will find that the level of students is very wide, you will have some excellent students and some that have no idea of the subject. Most of the school admissions officers are nothing more than sales people than recruit students based on comission or a quota.

However, in IT is the market that will decide if your credential is good or not. If you are an excellent IT worker, it won't matter if your degree is from AIU or Colorado as long as you can prove yourselve.

 

Re: Grading at Walden

I noticed the same thing with AMU (American Military University), now part of American Pulic University System (APUS), except they favour MLA.

 

I have been involved in distance learning for many years, earning most of my undergraduate education in that way before the Internet became popular. I earned my entire Masters Degree by distance learning and I now teach for an RA accredited online university. I have taken a few graduate courses at State Universities in a traditional way. Overall, I find that the DL courses are MORE work than the traditional classes that I have taken in both undergrad and grad settings. In the grad school where I now teach a Masters program, students have a lot of work and it is rigorous but a high percentage get As because they are highly motivated adults, in my opinion. I have no experience with UOP so I can't say anything about that. I also teach online at the undergrad level for another college and the courses require a lot of work (some courses actually require too much work in my opinion), especially with substancial discussion participation in addition to all other assignments. My undergrad students are motivated for the most part, but some seem to have unrealistic expectations (they expect courses to be much easier) and weak entrance credentials. These students typically do not earn As in the courses. I will just say that the schools I work for do not give "easy As." We may give As but they certainly are not easy ones!

 

University of Phoenix Online

This is my first post after reading several article on this newsgroup. I've attended the U of Phx for 3 years now and I'm nearly completed with my Masters degree in Computer Information Systems. There are two ways to look at this environment, one is that you can do the minimum and still obtain a decent grade, and the other is you can do what you are suppose to and obtain an education. Either way I think that you will find that your grade at the University of Phoenix will be about the same, however, how you can apply your education will be vastly different. As a data center analyst with exposure to nearly every type of enterprise level technology out there my time at the university has definately improved my worth and will have a very positive influence on my career. By attending the U of Phx, or any other DL University you have the chance to network with people from all different industries from all over the world. Its really up to you as to what you want to do with your time at any adademic institute. I personally believe that the U o Phx provides a solid foundation for people to learn in an independent manner.

 

I work for KU what do you want to know?

[email protected]

Kaplan U is not anymore "lax" than another online college. We are all governed by the NCA, which has strict formulas to follow.

 

Kinda funny because after taking courses at some decent B&M schools, I found the community college to be too easy. Well, let me qualify that statement.

I've found that when you are in an environment where students of lesser ability can be admitted, certain professors will lower their expectations. So then a student who has a better education coming in (whether out of high school or previous college or work experience) will also feel a downward pressure. However, what you get out of school is completely up to you. If their expectations aren't high enough, that doesn't stop you from working to your ability.

It is difficult to do that all of the time, though. As a returning student, I'm much more interested in what I'm learning now and so I start every course with enthusiasm. By the end of the course it begins to wane, not because of the material, but because of the lowered expectations. I'm using the lowered expectations to my advantage in that I know I can do less sometimes and still pull the grade, and when my life is very busy, I give myself leeway. However, when there is no excuse for slacking, I don't allow myself to slack. If the others are providing 1 sentence answers to their homework, that's none of my concern. I'm here to learn.

 

I teach at the Commu College level

I had one failing student this semester but instead of giving him an F I gave him a D. He just didn't do the work at all, but I didn't want to see him completely fail.
College is what you put in it. Each department's requirements & syllabus are different. I found that going to school online is tougher than being in class. You have to read more, write more, think more.
Now how the teachers grade you that's a different story.

 

How do you work for Kaplan and teach at a community college? Adjunct? And also, what is with the mass advertisement for them? I think they do fine with all of the internet ads.

 

Answer your question

Adjuncts & professors are not tied to one college or university. Some adjuncts work at 5-6 different colleges. I can work here at Kaplan, teach at Kaplan, and teach at other colleges also. Your next question, is am I making money? Only at Kaplan which is full time and pays for benes. As an adjunct you don't get benes.

 

Sally,

No offense, but I did not ask you if you made money nor was I going to, and you did not answer my question, all you did was shill more for Kaplan..

 

I think Sallygal has probably been banned for shilling so I doubt you will get an answer.

Too bad, I wanted to find out more about the beans

 

Re: Re: Difficulty of Online Colleges

What experience do you speak from?

 

I have recently taken the 1st GEN300 class at UOP, it was an easy class, the 1st one usually is as it's a orientation type of class, but it was hard in terms that I found 5 weeks to take any class is too compressed and for me learning anything, reading all that material, it's unrealistically impossible, and I think many people who went this route may feel the same way too. I just felt like I was a cramming all the time and got really stressed out, I don't need that on top of a demanding job and family obligations and of course the unexpected itmes life can dish out. I was doing Flexnet, I've left for a different 100% online University.