Question regarding a couple of schools.....

Is there anyone here with firsthand knowledge of the courses at American Military University and Western New Mexico University? I have seen them referenced on here numerous times. I am currently looking to add other subject areas that I can teach at the community college/online adjunct level. Currently I am eligible to teach history. I am looking at the psychology and political science courses at WNMU and the poli sci courses at AMU. My only reservation is how coursework from these instituions would be received by local community colleges when they look at my transcripts and resume. I wonder if they woudl be leery of these courses as opposed to more local, more easily recognizable schools. Also it would be obvious that the credits were earned online since I live in Alabama. Just wondering you guys opinions.......thanks!

 

For what its worth - I work at a community college in WI, and one of my colleagues just completed his first semester in the grad program at WNMU (English & Education). We live in a very rural area, so for us, DL is almost a necessity.

For my colleague, I don't anticipate any problems with him (and neither does he or his supervisor, the academic dean, who encouraged him to go for a masters.)

Shawn

 

One more question for anyone who may know.......I have two courses from my master's called EP 500 Advanced Educational Psychology and EP 506 Life Span Development. If I were to complete four more psychology courses, do you think this would satisfy the 18 hour rule? Would it be acceptable to have 6 credits from one school and 12 from another?

 

Should be ok...

I had no problem being hired on the spot to teach at a community college in Washington State with an MBA from Regis, which is in Colorado and is not too well-known.

And in answer to your other question, I am rounding out my 18 credits in Finance at APU (the other arm of AMU) to add to the 9 I earned at Regis.

Here's an interesting article that is relevant: http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2008/06/2008062001c.htm

 

If you don't mind my asking what is your opinion of AMU/APU? How were the classes structured? WHat types of assignments have you been required to complete? Obviously our disciplines would be different but I figure there would be similarities in the formats of the courses however.

 

Amu/apu

My observations: Class was well-designed, and this one was an 8 week class. There were 8 discussion questions, each taken from a case in the textbook. There were homework questions (2-3) each week, taken from the questions at the back of the chapter. There was a 15-20 page paper with citations, APA standards. And a six question final exam, which was open-book, no time limit. No group work, thankfully. All this is pretty similar to my grad studies at Regis.

The downside was very little interaction between and among the students and the instructor, which I didn't like. I think a lot of real-world discussion helps me learn. It may have just been this one instructor, we'll see as I signed up for my next class, which starts 8/4. I'll have 24 days of overlap between my class that I'm teaching and the new one, plus my job. Yikes!

 

I teach at APU/AMU and I can tell you your experience with interaction is common. I also teach at several other schools, interaction is by far the lowest at APUS. IMO the distinguishing factor is that there is not any "participation requirements" as a school policy that enforce interaction.
I am discussion-oriented and I can tell you it is like pulling teeth to get students to do anything extra that was not an expectation throughout their programs.

 

Truckie (nice name btw), I do like discussions and my undergrads do a lot of that. Thanks for letting me know about APUS, so my expectations will be low going forward. I am just taking the classes to fulfill the requirements to teach, and I really have a lot of the knowledge already, so the lack of interaction isn't hurting my learning but it does make the class more boring.

 

I am just speaking from my experience - do not let it frame your expectations. In fairness, I have taught very small courses so the interaction aspect is going to be lower. APUS is a very good school filling a highly needed role.

 

I made it half-way through the MA in Civil War Studies at American Military University before dropping out. Classes can be 16 weeks or 8 weeks and start at the top of every month. Generally, you can expect about 1000 pages of reading, a midterm exam, a 25-page term paper, and a final exam.