Just wondering what the format is for excelsior's online exams/finals etc. Are they procotored or unproctored? If they are proctored how hard is it to find a proctor etc. If it is a mix of both what do you say the percentage is: 50% etc. Any other feedback you can give on the test taking format of excelsior would be great. Also are the courses asynchronous, meaning there is no set times to log in etc?
I have taken a few Excelsior WebCT classes. As far as I can tell, Excelsior does not do any proctored examinations. WebCT courses are generally synchronous, and in my experience the quality of teaching is highly variable. I withdrew from my last WebCT class and would not take anymore with Excelsior ever after dealing with an entirely non-responsive professor for several weeks, with no recourse from Excelsior other than to withdraw and take a complete loss on the course tuition. I prefer UMUC's WebTycho classes, but they do all require a proctored final. Professorial quality can still be uneven, but I have yet to deal with nonresponsiveness, and UMUC profs do all their own grading, while Excelsior employ's graders which removes the profs that much further from the classes. UMUC also has some fulltime faculty and, importantly, academic deans to whom one can go in the event of issues with profs rather than just dealing with Excelsior's office people. For full disclosure, I am enrolled at Excelsior and expect to graduate this summer. I have like many things about Excelsior, but their in-house courses aren't part of those things, nor is the newly gutted course search that no longer allows student access to the full Distance Learn database. Elizabeth
The Excelsior Classes I have taken consist of a weekly discussion question w/no instructor interaction, weekly short answer quizzes, a short paper mid-course (750 words), a mid-term, final and final paper (2000 words). No proctor, all essay type exams. Courses are asynchronous but there are deadlines for having all of your posts completed for the week. I have found the instructors to be less than glowing and usually offer little feedback. I do not find the classes to be too difficult, I have taken mostly criminal justice type courses and on my last class for my BSL!! Hope this helps!
