http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d12150.pdf The GAO released another report today--- FOR-PROFIT SCHOOLS: Experiences of Undercover Students Enrolled in Online Classes at Selected Colleges. The report discusses the experiences of GAO “undercover” students enrolled in online courses. The GAO enrolled undercover students at 15 colleges and reported the student’s experience in the following areas: Enrollment, Cost and Financial Aid, Course Structure, Substandard Academic Performance (like failure to attend class, failure to submit assignments, submission of objectively incorrect assignments, submission of unresponsive assignments, and plagiarism), and Withdrawal and Exit Counseling. From the Executive Summary page: “For example, one student submitted photos of celebrities and political figures in lieu of essay question responses but still earned a passing grade”. (GAO-12-150). Rene
Just what online for-profit schools need in order to be taken seriously ... :/ They really need to stop doing this kind of stuff. I can only hope AMU didn't even admit the student based on their sketch HS diploma. Regardless, it still makes schools like AMU look bad.
I am not a special fan of the for-profits but neither do I feel a need to bash them. To be perfectly fair I think the GAO should do a similar study on a selection of non-profits. It's possible that they may not come out sparkling clear either.
I don't think the report is that damning. College 4 and college 10 were clearly terrible. Many others attempted to take action even if it was not as stringent as it should have been.
It's not all that damning, true, except for-profits (and online in general) have an uphill battle and any bad news is just fuel on the fire of the opposition.
I wonder if many of these professors that failed to take action were afraid for their jobs. I know for a fact that many adjuncts of these profit schools live in fear of negative student evaluations. I have heard that some of the profit schools take those way too seriously. I wonder if that's because they are consumer driven, like a department store where a sales clerk who ticks off customers losses their job fairly quickly. fftopic: As a side note, many of our papers are now being turned through SafeAssign at Liberty University. We are not even turning them in to the professor, they go through this service first to find plagiarism and farmed out papers. Liberty will can you really fast for these kinds of things.
AMU uses Turnitin sometimes to check papers but the students can also use it. I always run my papers through it first just in case. No issues so far.
If you notice the degree programs pursued in the sample, 11 of the 12 were AA programs. Number 12 was a 3-year BA program. I wonder why they did not choose more BA programs?
Exactly so. I also wonder why accreditors don't do something like this. They more just swoop in every few years, look at everything, and then are mostly hands-off until reaffirmation time.
