Excelsior's MLS; Edison's MAPS

Anyone on this list have firsthand (or even secondhand) experience with the Excelsior Master of Liberal Studies progam? We've all heard about it, and its generous amount of transfer credit, and comparatively low cost. The dean has told us that there are about a hundred people in the progam, so it's not small.

The first year is a tutorial in research techniques, followed by essentially a "great books" communal reading program. Has anyone here tried the latter? It sounds compelling -- two streams, one humanties focussed, one more social science and science focussed -- but I wonder what this reading program really feels like. How good the profs are; how much interaction there is; student caliber; etc.

I'd be similarly interested to hear any reports from the Thomas Edison State
MAPS program. That version of the MLS one requires two years of great books reading, versus Excelsior's one, yet still ends up sounding rather lacking in intellectual fizz. Anyone have details?

Peter