I've recently completed my first course, People at Work, at Capella University and would like to share the experience. The program that I'm enrolled in is the M.S. in Organization and Management. The initial class size was 12 students. All, including myself, had undergraduate degrees from traditional B&M schools and at least 5 years of professional experience. My classmates provided excellent diversity of real world knowledge. The class included a Senior Director from Medtronics, a Software Development Manager from Boeing, and a Human Resources Manager from Slim Fast. By the time the final drop date arrived there were only seven of us left. I assume the others dropped the course due to the amount of work required. To keep up was a challenge, I was thinking of dropping the course, but found the desire to stick it out. I've taken undergraduate and graduate courses at SUNY Farmingdale, Queensborough CC, NYIT, Hofstra, Montclair State, and Fairleigh Dickinson. All the courses that I've taken at these schools were traditional. My first comparison between my DL experience and traditional coursework is the interaction and discussions among students. At traditional schools interaction was non-existent. The professor would teach, give assignments, and after class everyone would go their separate ways until the next time class met. With DL we had weekly required and suggested readings, two discussion assignments and one action assignment. Everyone in the class participated in the discussions and provided a thought provoking environment. In addition to the weekly assignments we each had to research and write a 20-25 page paper. Each of us had to post a rough draft of our work for the class to critique. There was a negative aspect to my experience. The professor initially assigned to my class did not do her job such as grading and providing direction. After two weeks she stated she couldn't continue due to personal reasons. She was replaced by an excellent instructor who quickly and expertly took control of the class. My overall experience was great.
