"easy courses and programs" ICK!!

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by obecve, May 24, 2010.

Loading...
  1. obecve

    obecve New Member

    I find myself challenged to even read the postings on "easiest course" or easiest degree! I actually find myself angry about many of the postings. Perhaps I am the only one. I can understand the need for speed or lower cost (I have three state university degrees). I can understand the need to do nontraditional programs. However, I wonder about the thought of mastery of the subject, learning the skills, quality programming or the thought of releasing another unskilled, unqualifed person into an unsuspecting professional world. Is the point to just trick your way into a job and to gain and unearned title. Sorry...just a rant!!! Oh well.
     
  2. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Thanks. It needed to be said.
     
  3. b4cz28

    b4cz28 Active Member

    I have to agree with you. Things such as speed and cost are important to me but when you ask for the easiest degree...well that shows me that you just want the paper and not the education that comes with it.
     
  4. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    I tend to agree with you on course content but there are several other factors that make a course "easy" or "hard" including signing up for a course (I have yet to get thru the bureucratic maze at my local CC while at a CC in the next county it is a breeze), need for a proctor or not (I travel or have telecons, sometimes at very short notice), cost of tuition and books, requirements for prerequisite courses, and a students age and experience. Also what is easy for one person is not easy for the next -- all but two courses in my two masters were easy (I learned a lot however) but I doubt if they were easy for some students.

    Also the specific degree requirements add to the :easy" "hard" equation - the flexibility of the Excelsior BSL degree make it easy to find suitable courses whereas some degrees include mandatory courses that are sometimes hard to find.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 24, 2010
  5. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    One of the things that bothers me the most is when, on other forums, I hear people bragging about how LITTLE they studied for a CLEP/ECE/DSST exam :confused: I don't see what great thing anyone has accomplished by not doing work and still getting credit. Comments like "all I did was read the Wikipedia article" make me cringe!!!

    In fact, I pity them. For the World Population exam I am studying for, most feedback about it are along the lines of "if you need cheap/easy credits, take this exam!" and "following everyones advice, I didn't even bother studying!!!" I do pity them, because even if the test is easy and common-sense based (I haven't seen it yet so I don't really know), the course materials certainly aren't. The population data sheets give you an in-depth view into the demography of the largest section of people in the world, and the text book takes you from A-Z of the history of population research, gives you contrasting theories and how they developed, and discusses at length the major issues facing current and future population trends. I am like a bright-eyed young schoolboy getting pleasantly lost in my studies and seeing the universal value of it all... and yet feeling jipped in the process. I don't get to write essays, do library research, make extended critiques of the bases and methods of all the theorists. The people who barely study are missing out on a whole lot, but the fact that this is just a test and nothing more means that I am missing out as well.

    I do think that it is nice for some of these cheap/easy opportunities to be available. It allows skilled people who value learning to not have to sit in basic courses, and permits people of lesser economic standing, yet all the will in the world, to be able to afford life-changing college degrees. However, in the end, if all one does is "get a degree" and does not gain anything in the process, then it defeats the entire purpose of having schools to begin with.
     
  6. rcreighton

    rcreighton New Member

    Michael, You are not alone. When I made the decision to take online classes in order to finish up my bachelor's degree and continue on to my MBA, it was in order to accommodate my work schedule which varied from time to time. Easy was never part of the equation nor was it ever even considered. Thank you for taking the time to vent on this.
     
  7. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Obviously there's a lot of agreement on this issue. I can sometimes understand it when someone takes that extra step and says, "I am really bad at taking tests and so 'easy' to me means I want a program that is heavily weighted toward writing essays, etc." Sometimes you hear just the opposite. A person wants to avoid writing but will take any test that's thrown at them. I can understand those positions (although I think that on a grad level a person should be able to put a few words together and have it make sense) but someone who just wants it to be "easy" doesn't usually seem to want to actually learn anything.
     
  8. thomaskolter

    thomaskolter New Member

    I have no problems with people that may need the "sheepskin" to get or keep a job who may not be what most would call college material at that level, are you naive that this is the case in many cases?

    And I am proud to offer degrees for those Called by God to get one for free from the program I'm Dean of. After all if God calls someone to get a doctorate to do scholarly work that is more than enough for me and that they use the degree non-deceptively, but all I ask is they say they want one and provide minimal information for my ministry records.
     
  9. Respectfully I disagree - there are many people out there who take "easy" B&M electives so I don't see any reason why the same shouldn't be true for DL courses/exams.

    Also, CLEPs et al are designed to measure prior knowledge, right? If someone already knows most or all of the material then if that's sufficient why bother with more? I had thought that a "C" on a CLEP was roughly equivalent to what a person taking an equivalent undergrad course with a grade of "C" would know, etc.

    I agree (at least somewhat) with Lawrie Miller's thoughts - most mid-career workers have assimilated knowledge far superior to that of an 18-21 year old.

    Am I proud to have "Here's To Your Health" on my transcript? Perhaps not, but I'm proud to have the degree - and the opportunity to take it further to get one that required a lot more work.
     
  10. Education does not necessarily equal a degree...but to get a degree (at least an accredited one) you must show prior knowledge at least...
     
  11. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    You mention this in just about 99% of your posts... :\

    You do make a nice point however- some people are being held back from positions/goals that they are fully capable of enacting simply due to lack of degree. This is very frustrating and actually quite silly when you think about it. However, I do not believe that the solution to this problem should be to cheapen the educational value of degrees or to give them out to just anyone for any reason at all.

    In your case, if the individual really believes that he is called by God, then I'm not even sure why he would need your degree to open doors for him (what door do you know of that God even needs a key for?).
     
  12. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    Really? You have brain space to worry about how other people earn their accredited degree? FWIW, that's the same question my students ask on campus, so I think it isn't a DL thing- it's pretty much a student thing. It would be funny to read a post asking for the most expensive/longest/hardest program. I think each of us has a comfort zone- and someone here said it really well last a few weeks back: you can only choose 2 of the 3. Easy, cheap, or short. (Maniac maybe? Sorry, I can't remember who gets credit)

    I'm not downing your vent, I just think that's crossing over into micromanagement a little. Let the student decide HOW to meet a requirement- let the college decide IF they meet the requirement- and let the accreditation boards decide if the college is in compliance. That way we can all decide what is best for ourselves.
     
  13. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    True, and of course, it would only be wise to take advantage of whatever options are available to you. For me, I am saving 2 years of time and a boat load of money by doing half of my degree through exam. The exams make sense for introductory courses and as a basic measurement of prior knowledge, but many if not most of them can be passed with little more knowledge than how to read English.
    I used to agree with this, until I actually took a few exams myself. They don't really measure your prior knowledge as much as your ability to take a multiple choice test. If the exams were not multiple choice (for example, some ECE have essay questions), then I would be a lot more optimistic about their use. I don't believe that school is simply about memorizing definitions and facts- it is about the work that you put into it and the skills you gain from applying yourself to it. These are things that are invaluable and are the true meaning of school.
    You and I are eye to eye here. I'm not so happy that I have CLEP information systems on my transcript, as I didn't actually study for it and still don't know what an information system is... but its not like I am planning on requesting it be taken off either.

    I think its just fine if one uses one degree as a springboard for another degree. If your ultimate goal is an MA and the lack of BA is simply holding you back from applying, then there really is nothing lost, since grad school is near guaranteed to kick your academic butt and rub your wounds with salinated iodine. :D
     
  14. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    True, and of course, it would only be wise to take advantage of whatever options are available to you. For me, I am saving 2 years of time and a boat load of money by doing half of my degree through exam. The exams make sense for introductory courses and as a basic measurement of prior knowledge, but many if not most of them can be passed with little more knowledge than how to read English.
    I used to agree with this, until I actually took a few exams myself. They don't really measure your prior knowledge as much as your ability to take a multiple choice test. If the exams were not multiple choice (for example, some ECE have essay questions), then I would be a lot more optimistic about their use. I don't believe that school is simply about memorizing definitions and facts- it is about the work that you put into it and the skills you gain from applying yourself to it. These are things that are invaluable and are the true meaning of school.
    You and I are eye to eye here. I'm not so happy that I have CLEP information systems on my transcript, as I didn't actually study for it and still don't know what an information system is... but its not like I am planning on requesting it be taken off either.

    If your ultimate goal is an MA or PhD and the lack of BA is simply holding you back from applying, then there really is nothing lost, since grad school is near guaranteed to kick your academic butt and rub your wounds with salinated iodine. :D
     
  15. bazonkers

    bazonkers New Member

    That's actually incorrect. You only need a 50% on CLEP test to get a C.
     
  16. GoodYellowDogs

    GoodYellowDogs New Member


    Well said!;)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 13, 2018
  17. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    I must say that I am flattered that you mistook me for MichaelOliver :cool:
     
  18. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    I'm flattered that you are flattered! This is the MC we are talking about. :)
     
  19. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Thanks for quoting me! I'm honored. :) It's "Easy, cheap, legitimate; pick two". Which is actually a ripoff of the IT saying "Quick, cheap, good; pick two". (But the more I think about it, I don't think easy and legitimate will go together very often, if ever)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 25, 2010
  20. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    >>

    LOL, well, I'm darn lucky I got it even partially right (had a rough semester) however- happy to give credit where credit is due.
     

Share This Page