negative Indiana experiences...anybody elses experience?

Hi all--pardon the clumsy title line....

I recently enrolled in Indian U's distance learning program and am beginning to wonder if I have made a mistake...I'm curious what experience/hearsay/funding scuttlebutt/ etc. others might have.

My initial experience was not good, my first registration was completely lost and it took weeks to get the right people to deal with the problem and correct the charges. Most were quite nice but I sensed much disorganization.

Now the one class in which I'm enrolled appears to have a phantom instructor---I can only rarely reach them during their offfice hours.

In addition, Im finding many little snafu's and glitches in their telephone grade report system, everything is taking longer than expected, etc.

I'm not new to giant landgrant universities--- so I do take this a little in stride.

But my doubts are increasing....it seemed a reputable program but maybe they have been having severe staffing or funding issues?

thoughts? Experiences?

regards
-jim

 

Are you talking about the AAGS, BGS? My only knowledge is that they require 25% of the credits taken to be from IU, the rest can come from transfer, Clep/Dantes/Ece, and SAC. For a student who wants to test out of most of the credits, take some classes, and get a very identifiable degree, this program makes a lot of sense.
As far as their administrative processes, I have no idea. Although the email I sent them was responded to the next day, and it was actually relevant to the question asked!!

Good luck,
Tony

 

Most of my experiences with Indiana U. has been positive. I went through the BGS application process without a hitch. They were even receptive to discussion of how credits might be applied differently from their interpretation (I'm not saying they always agreed, but they listened).

As far as the courses, I too was a bit surprised at the time lag for grading assignments. I soon learned to get around this by aggressively overlapping assignment completion (most instructors allowed this after seeing a couple successful assignments). Still, I think you'ld really have to work the system to complete a course in under four month. But otherwise, I found the instructors to be fully engaged, helpful and interested.

There was one notable exception: an instructor who insisted assignments be snail-mailed and then returned them with completely illegible hand-written notes. But this was definately the exception to an otherwise very satisfying educational experience.

By way of consolation, I've had my application and materials lost by other universities that folks on this board think are wonderful -- so it may be the luck of the draw.

Best of luck,
Dan

 

That sounds like the S.O.B. I have experienced at the B&M schools I've attended. Sometimes I think that's the price you pay for a "name" school. On the other hand, it seems like some of these large universities want to get into the d.l. market, but don't want to add the necessary resources.

 

Incompetent Administrators

There are incompetent administrations all over...
I applied to RIT's DL (undergraduate) program. They said they never got my transcripts. The other place to which I applied got all of them, and I had sent out all of the requests on the same day using the same FAX machine, and I did double-check the address. The probability that RIT got NO transcripts was pretty low. I decided to take this as a sign--maybe had they said, "duh, we can't find them, could you re-send them" I might have soldiered on, but instead they gave me a snotty "you never sent your transcripts." I decided that they were too incompetent to deal with. When doing a brick-and-mortar degree, you can usually get results by whining in person, but I'm not going to fly all the way to Rochester just to complain. Even though I could have gotten my company to pick up the tuition, it irked me to think about spending $2200 per class to be treated that way, and besides, I thought the program was a bit hokey.

I have noticed that institutions that deal with mostly undergraduates have a snotty "you stupid kids" attitude, which is hard to take when you're pushing 40 and have a successful career. I put up with that attitude when I was at U.C. Berkeley (20 years ago...I should have stayed in school but I won't now, not for $2200 per class...

Now I'm enrolled at the University of London (BSc Mathematics, Computing, and Statistics.) They're a bit archaic (all assignments must be printed out and mailed in, no e-mail) but have always been pleasant and have not lost anything I've sent them. We'll see how enthusiastic I am after my first exams

 

I would like to here about your experience after you have taken your exams. I know alot of members have looked at U.o.L., and have wondered about the difficulty of their exams.

Good luck.

 

Indiana U redux (plus PennSt)

Thanks for the replies all--

Im actually double-enrolled at Penn State and Indiana. Ive found my Penn interactions to be ultra-smooth, but of course they are significantly more expensive than IU! They do appear more committed to their distance-learning efforts.

I attended the B&M Univ of Mn at one time, and one day went to get my transcripts only to be told they had "no record of my enrollment". (Heart in throat here). Turned out they had my first and last name reversed on their records. So, I guess thats the trade-off for a more "recognizeable" degree.

Ahhhh---state run institutions!

As I take more courses with IU I will post my experiences, Im beginning to suspect the course instructor of being a little burned-out. She said email was not a good way to ask questions because she gets "confused" and so far has been missing during her office hours on several occasions.

My dealings with counselor and office have been very slow but always pleasant and helpful. So, we'll see!

Anymore thought on Penn and IU appreciated!

regards
-jim

 

I'll let you know. They do send along some books containing past exams, so I have a pretty good idea of what to expect in terms of content. Each class also has a subject guide, which is a condensed explanation of the subject, which is perhaps not that useful to learn from (no substitute for a textbook, and I've also gotten the Schaum's outline for each subject) but I think they'll be useful to know exactly what parts of a subject they expect one to know. They also include examiner's reports for some of the exams, which describe those areas in which students had problems. I think that's going to be very useful in diagnosing my progress.

I'd say that the exam problems are individually more difficult than those I experienced at U.C. Berkeley, though there are fewer problems.