American College of Education

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by tcnixon, Feb 4, 2013.

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  1. tcnixon

    tcnixon Active Member

    Does anyone have experience with American College of Education? I am actually sitting in a meeting right now with representatives from the school.

    American College of Education | Online Masters in Education Degrees


    Thanks!



    Tom Nixon
     
  2. dposborne

    dposborne New Member

    What type of experience? Like getting transcripts?
     
  3. tcnixon

    tcnixon Active Member

    More in terms of quality of instruction.



    Tom Nixon
     
  4. Anthony Pina

    Anthony Pina Active Member

    I did some consulting for for them a while back, as a subject matter expert for a course in the Masters in Educational Technology. The courses were highly structured and five weeks in length. Each week consisted of reading 3-5 articles and viewing four 5-12 minute video lectures (typically the subject matter expert narrating PowerPoint presentations or other visuals). In addition, students would participate in a discussion forum assignment and complete a written project assignment. There would be two short multiple-choice quizzes (one covering the readings and one covering the video lectures) and one larger exam over all of the week's content. The production equipment and the EPIC LMS that they used produced a very professional looking course.

    I agreed to teach the initial 5-week session of the course, in order to work out any technical bugs. In order to keep tuition low, the class sizes were very large. I taught a section with 53 students, which is far more than I have ever taught in a single online course in nearly two decades of online teaching. If this was my full-time job, it could have been do-able, however, as an adjunct, it was extremely difficult. At my institution, most of our online sections have less than 20 students and we cap section enrollment to 25-29 students.
     
  5. Johnny Aloha

    Johnny Aloha New Member

    I took a class from them about 2 years ago. I think Dr. Pina pretty much nailed how ACE does things, although I believe the class size was in the twenty range. The only thing I would add is ACE is a college for folks in the teaching profession. So expect to do a lot of work in your own school setting in an effort to complete weekly assignments.
     
  6. major56

    major56 Active Member

    Another Dallas-based entrepreneur Randy Best (Academic Partnerships, L.L.C.) entity via Best purchasing the financially distressed Barat College (a Catholic liberal arts school in Chicago, IL) along with its HLC-NCA accreditation; and renaming Barat to American College of Education. (Shortly afterward ... Best did basically the same with New England College of Business).

    The current likely downside as regards any college of education and K-12 teacher certification /reciprocity … American College of Education is not NCATE accredited.

    E.g.,

    “At this time, this program is not available to residents of the following states: AL, AR, CT, DC, FL, GA, IA, KS, KY, LA, MA, MN, NC, NE, NJ, NM, NV, OH, OR, TN, WA, and WV. This list of states changes over time; please contact [email protected] for the most current information."

    "Upon completion of these programs, residents in the following states must get licensed as a teacher in Indiana first and then apply for licensure in their home state: AZ, CA, CO, DE, ID, IL, MD, MI, MS, MO, NH, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, UT, VT, VA, and WY. Some states have additional requirements for teacher licensure.”
    Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) - Secondary and Transition to Teaching (T2T)

    Randy Best Is Going to Save Texas' Public Universities, Or Get Rich Trying | The Texas Observer
     
  7. Anthony Pina

    Anthony Pina Active Member

    When I did my consulting for them Academic Partnerships was called Higher Ed Holdings. The instructional designer, videographer and staff that I worked with to develop the course were very good. I flew to Dallas to record my video sessions. It was quite pleasant.
     
  8. tcnixon

    tcnixon Active Member

    That is interesting to know, Anthony. All of the other pieces seem reasonable in terms of cost, quality of instruction, etc. in terms of what I saw.

    Question: While it was a huge challenge for you, do you think that students could tell a difference between this large class and smaller ones?
     
  9. tcnixon

    tcnixon Active Member


    Yes, they do seem to be very up-front that most of what they do is for professional educators. One of the appealing offering that they have now are graduate certificates in very specific areas related to the new Common Core State Standards.


    Tom Nixon
     
  10. tcnixon

    tcnixon Active Member

    Interesting. None of that is an issue for whom we would be recommending these master's degrees and graduate certificates because they are all already teachers in our system.

    Still, it could be problematic those pursuing new teacher licensure. It appears that my state would accept it (via Indiana), but it's unclear how much additional work would be required (and typically my state makes folks do a little more when they transfer).


    Tom Nixon
     
  11. tcnixon

    tcnixon Active Member

  12. Anthony Pina

    Anthony Pina Active Member

    They would have if they had taken a previous course from me; otherwise, perhaps not. In this course, I was not able to provide as much individual feedback and interaction as I do when I teach normally, which was frustrating to me. I did the best I could under the constraints.

    I have no skin in this particular game, since my institution does not offer the same programs as ACE. I do not have any particular problem with ACE--In order to keep their tuition so low, they need to use adjunct faculty and have large online courses. They are certainly not the only ones to do this.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 10, 2013
  13. IrishJohn

    IrishJohn New Member

    I'm not trying to spark the old debate, but isn't ACE nationally accredited and not regionally? In my state I don't believe a degree from them would help get licensed for teaching in most schools. Just wanted to mention that in case it's an issue in your state.
     
  14. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    The American College of Education is regionally accredited, by the NCA HLC. It doesn't hold specialized accreditation in teacher preparation from the NCATE.
     
  15. IrishJohn

    IrishJohn New Member

    Interesting. Might work then depending upon your goals.
     
  16. major56

    major56 Active Member

    That’s true Tom … excepting if the already teacher in one state needs credential reciprocity in another state (NASDTEC Interstate Agreement). Yet at times, NCATE program accreditation is required for eligibility regarding licensure reciprocity agreement/s or licensure testing eligibility, e.g., commonly those credentialed teachers seeking licensure /certification as a K-12 administrator.

    Note: Lamar University (formerly Lamar Tech) alumnus Randy Best as a HIGHLY successful industrialist is already likely in the NCATE accreditation process for the American College of Education. Without doubt, he recognizes the weight of NCATE accreditation.
     
  17. foobar

    foobar Member

    What's interesting is that their home state (Illinois) won't certify their graduates directly.

    I've never heard of a school approved for teacher certification solely in a state outside the state it's located in.
     
  18. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    Ah, but their home state now is Indiana. The college moved from Chicago to Indianapolis in 2011.

    Online education college moving to Indianapolis (IBJ staff, IBJ.com from Indianapolis Business Journal, June 7, 2011)
     

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