Umuc

Does anyone know what's going on at UMUC (Adelphi, Europe, and Asia)? UMUC has a new president, Susan Aldridge. That is not so much my concern though, although maybe it's a factor.

I've noticed that UMUC is tapping instructors to to teach courses in various fields other than the field in which the instructor is trained and credentialed. There have been a lot of comments lately about it, and I'm wondering if there is some sort of administrative change behind that. Most universities are kind of conservative about instructors teaching outside more than two departments. Not that it can't be done, it's just kind of rare at b&m colleges I think.

At UMUC, according to bloggers who calculated combinations of courses, UMUC is assigning an instructor of IFSM, for example, to teach philospohy and math, or an anthropologist to instruct psychology, IFSM, sociology, and biology. There's another teaching English, philosophy, and another subject. That's a lot. Doesn't it stretch training and competence. There are other instructors with other combinations of courses to instruct at UMUC.

I once thought there must be some sort of rules about who teaches what, but I think the lesson here is that there are no professional rules about who teaches whatever subject. It's up to somebody in the college adminstration. As a grad student I'm wondering what is the real expertise of the instructor teaching a course in which I'm enrolled, especially when I notice how many different subjects the instructor teaches psychology.

If there are other Marylanders there in cyberspace, please let me know what's going on with the college. There must be more to what the bloggers are saying. Maybe I'm not seeing the situation correctly.

 

Hello from across the Potomac!

While I can't generalize from my online courses to those at UMUC, reading your question provoked this thought: the two courses in psychology I've taken via distance require so little actual "teaching input" from the instructor that I often think "If someone had a lesson plan from the textbook publisher, and just fed us the exams, read our homework, etc., they would have accomplished all the real teaching that gets done in our course!"

So this makes me wonder if the administrative powers at some colleges have come to the same conclusion?

Interesting question.

 

Thanks for the reply. That's a really good point. What then is the reason for getting a terminal degree with the possibility of teaching in mind if, for example, UMUC managers decide that any one person can teach all of the following subjects: anthropology, psychology, sociology, biology, math, and computer science? When I see that and know that we're not really talking about a "Renassaince man" (otherwise why would the professor with all that brain power be at UMUC and not Georgetown U. with cameo appearances on CNN).

Easy classes aside, I'm really baffled by this because I thought that to teach at the college level one had to have a graduate degree, or "substantial work" in a field to maybe teach in two fields.

I'm trying to keep this in perspective by rationalizing that it doesn't happen often at UMUC Adelphi; that it's a peculiarity of their military programs. But in UMUC's DE you never know if the professor is going to be assigned to Adelphi, Europe, or Asia, and the standards look to me to be different in each area.

Does it devalue the UMUC degree? Doesn't the accrediting agency (Middle States) monitor that kind of teaching at UMUC? Don't the professinal associations like APSA, ASA, APA, etc. get annoyed by that kind of poaching allowed by UMUC managers?

Anyway, if you're a fan of UMUC you might peek at umucreview.com and [email protected]. I think the latest issue at Yahoo is aUMUC teacher who is missing in action with a clueless TA and nervous students who have put the financial aid money on the line.