My NCU Ph. D.experience

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Ian Anderson, May 14, 2004.

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  1. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    I recently completed my first course, LS6010 Information Research Strategies, in the NCU Ph.D. program. There has been discussion on this course on degreeinfo in the past.
    This course teaches how to research and retrieve information that one will need in academic and business research. I was supposed to pick a topic for this course related to my dissertation topic but since I could only find one document related to my planned dissertation (and that was a dissertation that explored almost the same question as mine (in aerospace) but in a different business area (nursing). Anyway, I changed my topic to Ethics in aerospace since I had planned to take an ethics course later. In general I found the course fairly easy (but harder than about a third of my master degree courses) but the amount of time spent on-line searching for information, reading them, and summarizing them, took a lot of time (probably 6 to 12 hours per week). If one was familiar with their selected topic, and its literature, then this time could probably be reduced. If one was not knowledgeable about on-line searching and data bases it could take longer. Was this course informative and useful: definitely yes. Not so much in the information retrieval area (I do that as part of my job) although I did discover new databases, but I learned a lot about ethics (more than I learned in mandatory classes in my previous company) including some areas previously unknown to me such as space ethics. Because of work load it took me the full 16 weeks to complete the course otherwise I think I could have completed it in about 12 weeks. If anyone is starting this course I recommend working on the final exam throughout the course rather than in the last few weeks. This will ensure you do not have to re-read articles read earlier in the course.
    Overall, NCU's on-line campus is impressive – everything from course outlines, information retrieval (including full test articles), assignment/exam submittal/review, student records, financial transactions, and much more is all done on line.
     
  2. Ralphus

    Ralphus New Member

    When you write your dissertation please use paragraphs.

    That way people may be more inclined to read what you've written. :p
     
  3. Ike

    Ike New Member

    I am glad to hear that your NCU experience is positive so far. I believe that things will continue to improve at NCU, and with time, much of the criticisms that we see today will subside.
     
  4. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    I guess paragraph indentations don't transfer from MS Word!!!! Next time I write more than a few lines I will try spaces instead.
     
  5. -kevin-

    -kevin- Resident Redneck

    Ike,

    despite the criticisms, I enrolled at NCU anyway. I will form my own opinion unless I know the source. I share Ian's view to this point and will offer a little more insight. Among the many threads in the student discussion board is one on academic rigor. It has a significant amount of posts going back for a number of years. All the students want and expect to earn their degrees, I have not read or had a dialog with any student who wanted the easy grade. More importantly the bios of most of the students include some significant graduate schools. We make comparisons on everything from syllabi to colors in the websites. I like the format and really like my particular concentration of classes. I did keep some options open (including NSU) but so far the only complaint I have is the color of the platform.

    What impressed me from the start was that a student services representative called me before my first class and offered to guide me around the website and the online platform prior to starting my coursework. Within a week I had a student survey to complete regarding all of the initial processes. A month later all students were emailed a survey seeking areas of improvement for the school. A month after that I got a personal email asking me about the application process and my thoughts. If nothing else NCU ought to have a pile of data to crunch from students.
     
  6. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    Although I seriously doubt that they would ever admit it, I think the controversy surrounding NCU (especially that specific course) on this board was a good thing in the end. It seems that they've tightened-up their standards considerably.
     
  7. -kevin-

    -kevin- Resident Redneck

    Bruce,

    I didn't see any change for me personally, but I am not in the administration, and I would venture that because of the scholarly nature of this forum that folks would give consideration to well articulated posts. Rants and raves I don't think matter to anyone at any school, you will always have the 10 percenters. I always maintain that you get out what you put in. Not that my credibility is greater than anyone else's in cyberspace but I'll post from time to time if anyone is interested on NCU.

    For my own experience on the advice from this forum I have started looking at the credentials of my professors for the courses as a measure of expectation.

    As I've said before, Thanks to all for posting and you guys for having a place to park once in a while...
     

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