I think it would have been nice to have TESC and COSC STATE college people interviewed.and maybe a few others as well. Dan
While UoP was their example of an upstanding online university, I thought the story overall was about the distance ed revolution. (I loved the Columbia professor's line, "I went to Phoenix hoping to find a diploma mill. But I didn't.") Also, I think the person 60 Minutes didn't interview, but should have, was - c'mon, you can guess who I'm gonna say - the Reverend Dr. Leland Milton Goldblatt. (Oops! I meant to say the world's foremost DE expert, John Bear.) (In the second story tonight, I saw a banner that read, "Evil prevails when good men stand idly by." I liked that.) ------------------ H. Piper http://harcourtbites.tripod.com
I wish I had logged on earlier. I did not know 60 Minutes was going to profile on-line education tonight. For others of you who also missed the show, here are some numbers you can call to get a transcript or a videotape: To order a transcript, call: (800) 777-TEXT To order a videotape, call: (800) 848-3256 I found those numbers on www.cbs.com, where I also gave CBS my idea for Survivor III: The Distance Learning Gauntlet. Tracy <><
I was a double dipper tonight on 60 minutes. Both the Distance ed and the Sierra Leone stories were of intrest. I will be co-presenting at the Association of Childrens Orthotic and Prosthetic clinics on Third World Prosthetics. So the story On DeBeers and Diamonds maybe NOT being a girls best friend, kinda hit home. One of the presenters recently came back from Sierra Leone. My focus will be land mines and amputees in El Salvador. every 22 minutes another lnad mine goes off....That's over 65 a DAY! Well I guess I am a "bit" off topic, so good night. Dan
Unfortunately, I don't get to watch my television machine much these days. However, I would have loved to see the story. I'll send for the transcripts. I'll set up the VCR for the Good Morning America interview, though. ------------------ ========================================== Humans are the only animals that protect their stupid from the forces of evolution. <A HREF="http://www.blahetka.com ===================================" TARGET=_blank>http://www.blahetka.com ===================================</A>
Anyone who would like a transcript of the Univeristy of Phoenix 60 Minutes segment, e-mail me at [email protected]. Sperling, the founder of U of P has a bio that was published a few months ago. ("Rebel with a Cause") He was also featured on CNN's Pinnicle. They apparently have a very good PR machine. Dave Boyd
Oh, I don't know about that. Distance education is a popular topic today and the UoP is really a shining example. A for profit company that is succeeding in online & adult education. FWIW I attended UoP for a while and I think it's a good model for some people. The posters on AED tend to be a bit more do-it-yourself than the average individual looking for a business education.
I didn't mean to imply anything negative towards U of P. Non-traditional schools need good PR. Based on his bio, Sperling doesn't seem to be the nicest guy, but I admire what he's achieved. He's the "Jackie Robinson" of non-traditional RA education.
Hi folks. How comes that UoP is not listed in Business Week Online and U.S. News rankings or MBA Searches? Greetings, Trigger
UoP is a nontraditional school. Those rankings seem to be for traditional schools with dorm rooms and athletic teams. UoP sets up its schools in shopping malls and on the Internet. They are more like a business school than a traditional 4 year college. At this point they only offer degrees in business and computers, not liberal arts. Their programs are very much applied programs when compared to many schools. They also have an unusual group-based, compressed course schedule that sets them apart from a traditional college.
Okay, understood. But that could count for the rankings, but not necessarily for the MBA search engines. In my opinion, those MBA search engines should provide every information about any ACCREDITED MBA program, regardless if it´s from a campus-university or an institution like UoP, or do I see that wrong? Greetings from Germany, Trigger
Not entirely accurate. UOP offers degrees in education as well. They offer many courses for teachers. They're probably second only to National University in providing those types of courses in California. Tom Nixon
Triggersoft asks, How comes that UoP is not listed in Business Week Online and U.S. News rankings or MBA Searches? Rankings seem to be a means for magazines to sell copies, and schools (who go along with the game) to have something else to promote. With over 1,000 MBA programs in the US, obviously 990 won't make the top 10 and 900 won't make the top 100. The only publication to rate (not rank) MBAs worldwide is the Economist's annual "Which MBA: a critical guide to the world's best programmes." The same author has been doing it for about ten years, now, and the standards and selection process are described reasonably well. That book does include a growing number of distance programs (Warwick, Heriot-Watt, Henley, Open U), along with all the usual suspects with their residential programs (Harvard, Wharton, etc.). --John Bear (who once used a rating system for the schools in Bears' Guide, probably 15 years ago, and still hasn't entirely recovered from the abuse that follows that unwise move)
In "Get Your IT Degree and Get Ahead," all I did was rate the web sites on a four star scale -- and I'm still seeing nasty comments about that here and there (most recently in an otherwise positive review on Amazon.com). Seems like most folks would rather education writers read like Joe Friday ("8:15am. It was cold in Los Angeles. We were working the foothill division on east..."), but personally I'd much rather read a Bill Gannon ("You know what you need, Joe? Swiss Kriss." "Is that right?" "Blows your colon out clean as a whistle, Joe.") But then if I were the only guy buying college reference titles, I'd have to buy 15,000 of each one to keep them in print, so I should probably count my blessings. Peace, Tom
8th edition, I believe. The squinty-eyed-just-smelled-something-awful face rating was my personal favorite. I can imagine how many operators of less-than-wonderful schools wanted to get upgraded to the I'm-disappointed-in-what-you're-doing frown or even the Ho-hum-I'm abivalent-about-the-whole thing face. Rich Douglas, a graduate of a smiling-because-it's-pretty-good school and a wide-eyed-no-kidding-this-is-a-leader-in-alternative-higher-education school. (Insert MIGS joke here.)
Rankings may be flawed but are better than no rankings -- especially for people trying to do a preliminary screen. About 20 years ago, I was living on the other side of pond and decided to attend graduate school in the U.S. Someone sent me a book (don't remember the authors or title) that described U.S. colleges and universities in such a generic, non-committal manner that it wasn't possible to differentiate between them. The book noted that many junior colleges had originally offered only 2-year degrees, but that many had become fully-fledged peers of the traditional universities. I ultimately decided to go to Stanford, more formally known as the Leland Stanford Junior University. When I later met with my Stanford advisor (a well-known scientist, member of National Academy of Sciences, etc), I made some remark about Stanford being a "junior college", and he really had a conniption. Another interesting thing about that book was that it listed for each college the number of "Greeks". Typically 6 Greeks, or 12 Greeks, etc. As a non-American, I couldn't for the life of me figure out why they listed the number of Greeks but not the number of Belgians or Germans, etc. It was only later that I learned about fraternities/sororities.