American Public University Questions

Hello all! After about two weeks of trying to get my account registered here, I was finally able to activate my account thanks to Bruce. I've been hoping that some of you may be able to offer some insight into my situation. I am currently a high school history teacher in Virginia. I earned my BA the traditional way (graduate high school, go to college...) at Christopher Newport University in 2004. After failing to secure any employment, I enrolled in a teacher licensure program (which was what I wanted to do anyway) through the University of Phoenix. To be blunt, I hated it and thought it was utter crap. I got the basic classes I needed to obtain my license, and quit the program.

After completing my first year of teaching, I wanted to do more, so I enrolled in the Instructional Technology program Virginia Tech, which was available via distance learning. I liked the course format, but didn't like the program, so I left that one. However, the last course I took was amazing, so I decided to continue on the track of instructional design. I enrolled with Walden University's MSEd program in Designing Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment and am currently in my last class. (WHOOHOO!) After completing this degree, I want to move on.

I am very interested in American Public University's MA in History with the emphasis in Ancient and Classical History. This is the part of history that I love. I am comfortable with distance learning, but I'm not very familiar with this school. Could someone comment on their course format, specifically with history courses? Phoenix had 6 week courses, Walden had 8 week courses, and Virginia Tech had 16 week courses. I see that APU has 16 week courses for their history department, but I'm wondering how intense they are. I've been taking 2 courses per 8 week session with Walden on top of teaching full time. I'm wondering if I would be able to handle this history program, and how much of it I could handle at once. Not only is it a different school I'd be enrolling it, education is very different than history, and I'm concerned about being able to manage my time and such.

If any of you have experience or knowledge of this school, I would appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks,
Matt Brent

 

I've actually looked into the University of Florida. The problem is to be admitted into their PhD program, you have to have an MA in Latin or Classics. I could go on to their program after completing the MA in History, but I'd still need the Latin background. CNU only offered elementary Latin, of which I had two semesters.

While we're on that topic... anyone know of any good schools to get some Latin credits?

 

APU/AMU has an excellent reputation in DL circles, and I believe they were one of the first schools to obtain RA after being DETC for a good amount of time.

Regular contributor Ted Heiks was a student there for awhile; hopefully he'll chime in with his experiences.

 

Excellent. Thanks Bruce. By the way, do you think there's any difference between AMU or APU? They seem to offer the same things. Is there a difference I'm just not picking up on?

 

Both AMU and APU fall under the APUS umbrella. They started out as AMU focused on military students and then added APU to focus on those outside the military. The curriculum at either is identical. I teach courses in the fire science program there and have students enrolled at both schools in the same class.

 

Do you have any ideas what the diplomas look like? Would it say AMU, APU, or APUS?

 

When I was at American Military University, they had 16-week courses, 8-week courses, and 4-week courses. According to their website, the 4-week courses and 8-week courses still demanded the same amount of work as the 16-week courses, but I never took any of the shorter courses so I can't say for sure. By the end of my time as a student at AMU, they were offering start dates for new 16-week classes at the top of every month. You can likely expect about 1000 pages of reading and 25-30 pages of writing as well as midterm and final exams. The school started out as American Military University (which had the military as its target market) but then created American Public University (which has the general public as its target market) and American Community College and put all three under the umbrella of the American Public University System. (They have since abolished American Community College and put their programs under American Military University and American Public University.) That said, I believe they will allow both civilians and military personnel to freely choose between AMU and APU. For further information, consult C. Novick's old thread, "Question for Ted Heiks" at http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19467 .

 

Are Buckwheat Wildebeest, C. Novick, and Tireman out there somewhere? All of them are going to or have expressed interest in American Military University and they are all esteemed Senior Members here.

 

I don't normally pay attention to such things, but I see where I have more than 2,000 posts more than Ted--and more than anyone else, IIRC, but my status is merely "Registered User."

Howja do it, Ted?

 

Wow Ted! I dont know about esteemed but I would probably fit in the category of roustabout. I have been in contact with AMU about the possiblity of a startup doctoral program in history. Looks like late 2008 or early 2009.

Like Matt, I'm also looking to grab hold of a history position at the secondary level. With that in mind AMU would be an obvious choice since my home state is very fickle about RA requirements. However, until something definite is hammered out with AMU's doctoral program I will continue pursuing UNISA.
How I will make the UNISA "thingy" work out in my situation reamins to be seen. (groan)

I would attend AMU in a heartbeat. I have seen the Elephant (syallbus) for one of their courses and it was by no means a quick and dirty approach but a learning experience.

atb,
Gavin

 

Bruce granted me Distinguished Senior Member status as a birthday present.

 

Maybe it depends more on average posts per day rather than total posts.

You have around 3 posts per day while Ted has around 5 posts per day.

 

Which is pretty bad for me, as I had close to 10 posts per day as of my 1-year anniversary here (2/15/2006) and 7 posts per day as of my 2-year anniversary here (2/15/2007). So, apparently, my output has been dec lin ing.

 

I'll make a custom title for anyone, provided it's not profane or defamatory.

What do you have in mind, Rich? Or shall I just ask Kizmet?

 

Thank you all for the comments. It looks like I'll be enrolling with APU soon. I was just concerned as I've had some good distance learning experiences, and some baaaaaaad experiences. From what I've read about the faculty there, they all seem to have a brain. I've had some professors who were outright idiots, and I wanted to avoid that again.

Now I'm excited!

 

What Custom titles!
Can I have "Master of the obvious"?

 

Thanks! I'm also torn because I know they're starting an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership which would qualify me to become a school administrator. That would be a massive pay raise, about double what I'm making now. However, I'd probably be limited to K-12 education for the rest of my life, and I don't know if I can handle it. This is my 3rd year of teaching, and half of all teachers leave the profession after their 3rd year. I love my kids... but I hate the politics.