Alternatives to UoP

I'm just starting my ninth class at University of Phoenix Online, finally getting into the core classes of the BSIT program. Overall, I find that the online format is perfect for me, since I pretty much live online already. In general, I'm quite pleased with UoP.

My one gripe, and it's fairly serious, is the "team" aspect. In each class, the students are divided into teams and given team assignments. I understand and appreciate that this is to encourage teamwork skills that are useful in the real world, but I really don't feel as though this works well in the online education world.

Usually, you'll get a team that is adequate, and the projects do get done with only moderate prompting. Sometimes you end up on an exceptional team, where everyone is doing more than their fair share and the projects are positively fun.

Unfortunately, as I experienced in my last class, you sometimes get stuck with a team where no one does anything. I tried several times to get my teammates motivated, but as the five week class progressed, it became clear that none of the others were interested in doing the project.

I ended up doing at least 90% of it. The work I did was very good, IMO, but it certainly didn't meet the project requirements for word length and subject depth. It was, however, the best I could do working alone without adequate time.

All my individual assignments in the class were A-level work, and I'd gotten A's in all previous classes. However, due to the lack of participation by my alleged teammates, I only got a B in this class.

Some people might argue that this experience really mirrors the real world, and they're right to an extent. The difference being that in the real world, slackers can be fired, and in the real world, I'm not paying for the dubious benefit of having my work dragged down by others.

And that's the part that really bothers me about the UoP format. When you get a team that sucks, as I did, their lack of effort and participation can damage your grade, no matter how you try to compensate. I'm perfectly willing to accept my own failures, but it really aggravates me when someone else's laziness hurts my GPA.

So, finally getting past the rant portion and on to the actual question, are there any accredited online schools with formats highly similar to UoP, but without the unhappy insistence on the "team learning" aspect? I'm looking for a learning experience where I'm graded on my merits, not punished for someone else's poor performance.

Best regards
Eric Schreiber

 

Eric

I completed a Master of Arts Degree in Organizational Management with UOP on 30 April 2004. I had the same experience as you. I had one class where I had to carrry almost the entire load for the team that I was assigned to.

I am sure that you will get a significant number of alternatives to UOP on this board since they are not even listed in the databases here.

Like you, I had no probably with UOP except I thought they were a little pricy and the team concept. If they held the non-performers accountable than I it would be ok but they don't.

Good Luck.

Fred

 

Go to Peterson's Lifelong learning page and do a search for IT bachelor degrees. I found 35 results. So, it appears you have many potential options.

http://www.petersons.com/distancelearning/

 

It is essential that potential degree candidates examine not just costs, but also learning methodologies prior to enrolling in a particular program. This is especially so in UoP's case because of their collaborative learning approach.

Collaborative learning is based on the notion that the students bring much to the table in terms of knowledge and experience, and that they can gain much more from each other than from the facilitator alone. While I believe this approach has merit, I do not believe UoP has implemented sufficient controls to deal with non-performing team members. The number one method seems to be for the performing student(s) to get through that particular course and switch teams for the subsequent ones. The facilitator has the power to adjust individual grades on team assignments, but it is difficult to do so without sufficient information, something students tend not to provide.

 

In today's world where software development is often distributed I think online, team projects give a DL learner a wonderful learning opportunity to which their B&M counterparts do not often have access. As you say, the experience is more real with respect to the workplace than non-team-based courses and there are so many valuable things to learn -- organization, teamwork and leadership. These concepts are extremely important when there are asymmetric capabilities represented. And I agree with Rich, the team concept works great when proper controls are in place.

At FSU, I've had three classes in which the students were broken up into teams. I hated the first one because of all the time it took in comparison to my other classes. However, as time went on I started to appreciate the skills I was learning. In software engineering, each of us had to grade our team members every week and our professor used those grades to determine each members final grade. Does not UoP have a similar system in place? Does every class use teams or just some of them? If you do decide to change schools I wish you the best of luck.

 

All. Students are allowed to take a limited number of courses by Directed Study, where they study one-on-one with a faculty member. However, this is by exception and students pay a higher fee for it.

UoP is based on the collaborative model. Learning teams are at the heart of its instructional methodology.

 

I recently finished a credential program where there was much emphasis on collaborative (group) learning. I also did some student teaching in a school that used group work heavily. There are some important differences in classic group work where students are seated in the same class, compared to an online environment.

As anyone who has tried to teach from this standpoint finds out quickly, facilitating group work is an art form. It's not enough to just hand out an assignment and say "go to it," as UoP apparently does. Assignments have to be tailored to group work. If it's easier for students to do individually, there's no incentive to work in a group. Physical placement of desks is important, as well as assigning roles to each team member. Sometimes something as seemingly trivial as handing out two assignment sheets (say to a group of four) is critical, as it forces teammates to share.

I only go into this much detail to highlight that what UoP does (as far as I've heard on various threads here) is not really group work. As others have mentioned, it may be trying to accomplish something akin to the "real world", but there are important differences there as well. As one who has also spent a lot of years in the corporate world, the UoP method may indeed duplicate some aspects of the real world. Unfortunately, it seems to duplicate the bad aspects, such as working with free riders.

 

I certainly agree. I was aware of the team oriented method at UoP, and I approached it with some concern. While this most recent class wasn't the first where I did most of the work, it was the first where the laziness of others hurt my grade.

As you noted, the problem lies with the controls that are in place. Since the learning team work all takes place within a message area that the instructor has ready access to, one would hope that the instructor is paying attention, and knows how to allocate the grades. Apparently, UoP doesn't enforce this requirement on their teachers.

That's pretty much my plan. Now that I've entered the core classes, odds are I'll be running into these same people quite a lot. I have no intention of ever being on a team with any of them again.