Commencing Virtual Master's in Adult Education

Next weekend, I'll be in downtown Chicago for the residential start of National-Louis University's online master's degree in adult education. One weekend of face-to-face group learning at the start, and one weekend again at the close 15 months later.
The program is based on the cohort (one for all, all for one), no-elective model, and barrels through because there are essentially no vacations.
It is rather pricey, at $18,000US before texts. But it is fast, intense, and the students I have corresponded with were uniform in their praise of the work they were doing, and their profs. Indeed, several students have elected to stay on for doctoral work that they had no original intention of pursuing.
If I find the program less than stimulating, I will quit and transfer to something more intellectually nourishing, probably a master of liberal arts program.
My hope, however, is that the coursework and group learning idea will prove invigorating. Maybe even fun. Plus it's certainly a quick way to an accredited master's degree.
I mention all of this for two reasons. Firstly, to thank the Bear's Guide for putting me onto National-Louis in the first place. And secondly, to thank this discussion board for helping me refine my thoughts about going back to school and distance learning. It's overdue that I start reading and writing papers again, and doing some directed critical thinking.
My guess is that I won't have much time to post here over the next year, but good wishes to all.
Peter

 

Good Luck!!

 

Good luck. Don't eat in any restaurant with fewer than four numerals in its address. No, your cabdriver speaks no English unless he's from Nigeria. They think they have a real hockey team. Humour them.
Parking?
HEHEHEHEHOHOHOHOHOOHOOHOOHOO...

 

Peter.....best of luck with the program, and do keep us updated when you get a chance.


Bruce

 

Forgot to add that this is clearly a program designed for the working adult. Estimated time commitment: 10-15 hours a week, except for the more demanding research and methodology 8-week segment, where it's maybe 20 hours a week. Previous cohort ranged in age from 27 to 55, and included teachers, human services types, an air traffic control trainer, policeman, etc. We'll see.

Up until some 20 years ago, National-Louis University was a small private, well-regarded regional teachers college called the National College of Education. Based in Evanston, Illinois, in the shadow of Northwestern U.

But then they started to grow, offering many more programs, and reaching out to the older working-adult community, and to Chicago's black population. Much parttime and night-school education. A board member, Michael Louis, then gave them $10 million dollars, and voila, a name change in 1990 to National-Louis University. That umbrella name covers the National College of Education, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the College of Business and Management. There are now other campuses in Atlanta, Washington, DC, Florida, Wisconsin, and elsewhere.

Not much virtual ed at NLU, but the online adult ed master's has been going since 1998, and they seem committed to it. Will keep you posted.

Peter

 

To Peter Kristian Mose: Good luck in your academic pursuit. I wish you nothing less than the motivation and the energy that you definitely need to complete the program.

To janko: In addition to cab-driving, there are other Nigerians in this country who have won Nobel price as well as those that have been nominated for Nobel price. This isn't bad for [a] people that were exposed to western education a little more than a century ago!

 

But Bill, at the end you're divine. That's a big difference. No wonder it's more work.

Peter

 

Ike: quite so. With (distant) family from around Port Harcourt, I'm always glad to hear of Nigerians of distinction. When I lived in Chicago I always liked the idea of sharing a language with the cabdriver, and appreciated that Nigerians would respond to things like "I never went 100 mph on the Edens before" with "you want me to slow down?" instead of a weird cackle and expostulations in Uzbek, Kirghiz, or God knows what.

There's still nowhere to park.

 

-----------------------------------

Thanks for the compliment, but were I divine (finished MDiv in '92) why would the ThD require much effort? Naw, the difference is in the degree, not in me ; the MA is a pipsqeak degree! (just foolin!)

 

oops. that is " pipsqUeak"

 

But Bill, adult ed is a pipsqueak discipline, to use your colorful languge. Once you get through its jargon, it's the world of facilitated non-credentialled learning for everyone. Precisely the opposite flavor from the give-me-fifty-pushups-now-son-or-else degree machismo exhibited on this board.

Pete-the-pipsqueak-wannabe

 

HOW MANY PIPSQUEAKS CAN PETER PICK?

------------------------------

Peter

I appreciate your humor and good naturedness. It's needed in education;I know, I've taught public school since '69.

The EdD at OSU which I only finished half of was pretty easy ,as a matter of fact ,compared to what I am into now

The best for you and your studies,

 

Adult ed newbie studies ever onward

Just thought I'd give everyone an update after the first eight-week term.
The program is better than I might have hoped: the online discussions are more invigorating than any I ever had face-to-face at two distinguished universities I attended, and so far the profs act largely as facilitators rather than professors, leaving our cohort of nine to hash out fundamental issues of the adult ed field for ourselves. Actually the program seems to mirror principles of the left-wing flank of adult ed, in the belief that students and teachers are in essence peers sharing power.
The time investment seems to be what you make it: I'm sure I am putting in more time at this per week than most of my fellow students, just because I have more time, the subject matter turns my crank, and I enjoy debate and writing. I'm probably working 25-30 hours a week at this -- rather than the anticipated 10-15 -- and a fair bit more than 30 hours during weeks when papers are due. That's a lot of time, but it's stimulating, not onerous, and everyone is very encouraging of each other -- also something unfamiliar to me.
My fellow master's students are quite a cross-section of employed adult society: a police detective-sergeant, a neon sculptor/glassblower, a couple of college administrators, a computer trainer, and me, the music educator. Average age is probably around 40-45. Five women, four men. Three blacks out of nine, which is a nice dimension to a program big on the multicultural debate. Plus my Canadian perspective probably adds something.
Adult ed itself seems like kind of a goofy or shoddy academic field, invented in the 1970s by US hippie do-gooders. The readings I've seen so far are not too impressive, although if you range a bit widely you find the occasional good book. Like Jerome Bruner's recent "The Culture of Education": that's an impressive mind at work, near the end of his distinguished career.
Also a nice leftie dialogue, "We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change" by Myles Horton and Paolo Freire. And the Italian Gramsci sounds interesting, a communist educator who wrote about the adult ed struggle from prison under the fascists.
So it goes. Every 8-week term is team taught by two profs, and the department preserves a bottom-up, democratic left flavor. I'm making some good friendships, too.
New semester starts later today, hurtling on to the degree completion in another 12 or 13 months.
Not for everyone, and it's pricey, but this is a worthy, enjoyable program.

Regards from the distance learning trench,
Peter