Just finished NCU Business Ethics graduate MBA course in 3 weeks

Discussion in 'Business and MBA degrees' started by ryoder, Apr 6, 2011.

Loading...
  1. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    Did I miss where the number of hours spent were reported? Sure if it was 3 weeks 10 hours a day is different from 3 weeks during it on my lunch break while eating, talking, and checking emails.
     
  2. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    The whole notion of an MBA that only requires writing papers is a bit hard to understand for me. For my MBA, I had to make company visits, present projects, write final exams, calculate portfolios by using financial software, prepare case studies, calculate statistics, etc. I don't think that writing 10 papers per MBA course adds too much value to ones knowledge but this seems to be the practice for a lot of online MBA. The matter that he finished this course in 3 weeks is not the main issue to me but the fact that an MBA course can only be finished by reading few books and writing papers makes no sense.

    No wonder why the online MBA has little value nowadays. Why would I want to hire an MBA that only can read books and write essays? How do I know that this guy can handle complex presentations, work group, financial calculations, etc if all the experience was gained by reading and writing essays.
     
  3. AUTiger00

    AUTiger00 New Member

    Now in the OPs defense, this course, business ethics, is clearly a qualitative course. I can understand having papers for a course like this, but writing a paper based on text assigned doesn't require the critical thinking required if managers. Case studies for a course like this make much more sense. I highly doubt a finance course at NCU would consist of only writing papers, at least I hope it wouldn't.
     
  4. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    It's just one class that is designed to improve you skills in academic writing while giving you in-depth exposure to a single subject. The entire MBA is not conducted in this way. Most of the traditional elements are in other classes in the program.
     
  5. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    I took a finance course at NCU and it involved a massive textbook plus some grueling tests.
     
  6. MISin08

    MISin08 New Member

    Ethics as ethics is a perfect subject for a reading and writing course. Whether it can be studied satisfactorily in a few weekends or longer is a largely personal decision. I prepared for the Ethics in America DSST over a period of 4 months; however I learned about Ethics over a lifetime, punctuated by several personally significant books to which I devoted time and effort to close reading.

    Ethics for a MBA seems IMHO to be a different matter. In a real management setting ethical matters require discussion, reflection and engagement to work through. I'm not sure a 16-week term can really prepare one for it. Still, facilitated discussion, guest speakers and case studies would probably be better than paper writing. Unless, I suppose, it is the sort of MBA where management experience is required, and ethics is covered again in the strategy class. Then the foundation provided by the reading and writing would serve.

    Phillip
     
  7. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    NCU sucks, but the academics are not the problem. The design and coursework really are academically equivalent to most other programs, and I've been in a number of them, both online and B&M, so I feel confident in this statement.

    It's NCU's management practices that are ATROCIOUS! The way they treat students like cattle is why you should not attend NCU. One of the most annoying practices, among many, is their habit of requiring textbooks that are published by NCU to be used in their classes. The texts are good quality and complete, but they come with an unlock code that can be only used once. This is NCU's way of insuring that you can not sell your textbook and recoup any of your expense. This way they can charge the new textbook price, sometimes as high as $350, to every student that goes through the program. And it's not a publisher getting that money, it's NCU. My classes, when I was attending, were nominally about $1800, but all of the fees and the book made many of the classes more like $2250.

    I could go on and on, but suffice to say that NCU is OK academically. However, I would never recommend that anyone I know attend NCU.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 7, 2011
  8. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    :shocked: I'm glad that you got out of that mess and found a program that you like.
     
  9. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Thanks, MC. I love my current program. No more jumping ship here.
     
  10. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    There were papers and case studies on businesses we had access to and analysis of the financial statements, suggestions for finance of projects, Present Value of money, breakeven points, etc. all needed to be factored in and what the best finance method was. There were also historical views of finance projects and what worked and did not and why. That class took me the full 16 weeks to get through.

    Classes like "Business Organization and Management" were easier to get through. The "Strategic Management" class was another story and consisted six case studies each being rougly 25 pages.
     
  11. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Do you actually have exams or it is all essay writing and assignments?
     
  12. AUTiger00

    AUTiger00 New Member

    Who does NCU get their cases through? I'd be interested to see one. All of the case studies I've ever done have been through HBS, Darden and Kellogg (I'm sure there are others, I'm just not aware of them). Did your cases tell you to calculate the PV of Money, financial projections, etc? Seems a bit ridiculous that at the end of a case it would say "now calculate this, this and this based on what you read here and the provided financial statements?". That doesn't demonstrate critcal thinking, it just shows that you were able to memorize some formulas.
     
  13. Cyber

    Cyber New Member

    We are comparing a correspondence program, which is what NCU provides, with that of traditional B & M schools. We have to remember that degrees from traditional B & M schools are totally different in regard to how courses are packaged, compared to programs from online-only schools where the only means by which they can measure work is through written work only. Programs from B & M schools that are offered online tend to mimic how the program/courses are structured and taught in the face-2-face on-campus mode, however, courses from online only schools are pre-packaged and sold for as long as students are willing to pay. That is why as a student of both B & M and online-only schools, if you pay attention to courses taken at online-only schools, the content addressed seem to be very old (based on when the course was first created).

    But in traditional B & M programs/schools, the same course taught by the same professor may differ every term because of the continuous update of the course based on what the professor think is important for students to learn at the time (example, case studies may address a real-world event/news that is two weeks old while an online course may still have students analyzing news events that are 5 years old because that is when the course was created.) I'm saying all of this from my past experience at TUI University (an online-only school), and my current experience at Bellevue (a B & M school that offer classes online).

    Like it or not, many will still view degrees from traditional B & M schools as superior to those from online-only schools because of a combination of these factors. In my opinion, online-only schools dwell too much on making money and they forget that improving or maintaining high quality education through the courses that they offer should also be the other half of their efforts. Making those online schools very expensive does not improve program quality or its image, which they all seem to think or compete on.

    There are significant differences in personal input/effort between a professor who goes to a physical campus to teach everyday and one who grades papers at night after a long day of working other jobs and doing other things that are more important to them than adjunct work. It is these differences in effort between B & M programs and those from online-only schools that metamorphoses into program quality.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 7, 2011
  14. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    These were all papers.
     
  15. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    I honestly do not remember where they came from (I took the class years ago). I know part of it was based on my friend's company and his financial statements.
     
  16. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member

    I agree with you on this one SD. I have been around the DL scene a long time. I remember sending in DL papers to the UOI. I was a literature major, my forte. I was able to complete some assignments very fast, due to the fact that I love the subject matter. However, when I switched over to a business major, my progress became slower. Some well known fellas (who I have met in person) from DI, were able to complete the Aspen MBA in a year. It took me 3.5 years. How could this be? Several humanistic factors are involved. First, I have discovered these gents are all around geniuses who can survive on little or no sleep. Second, they LOVE the subject matter. No mystery here. each individual is different. Comparing oneself to others is an excercise in futility.

    I congratulate the gentleman who completed a masters level class in 3 weeks! My hat off to you! Biddy well, biddy well.

    Abner :)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 7, 2011
  17. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    Did you graduate from TUI (for profit / online only) or from Touro University International (non profit / private / attached to a B&M school)? I graduate from Touro University International and I will see if the content information is different from the courses I am taking now.
     
  18. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    I did my bachelor's degree at a B&M and the MBA program at Cal State Long Beach and I rarely had an instructor that contributed much to the class. In my circumstance, they mostly commented on the book. I remember regularly thinking that I was wasting my time sitting in class. I agree that a great instructor would offer advantages over a class run by an online adjunct, but I argue that great instructors are rare. Most B&M classes I have attended have revolved around reading the book, writing papers and taking tests. That's not much different than an online class.

    Moreover, my online program includes video lectures and constant input from the instructor who is an assistant professor and not an adjunct. I believe that my current program is superior to any B&M program I have attended. This is not NCU, in fact, I left NCU for to go to this program. I am not saying that all online programs are better or even equal to B&M programs, but great online programs do exist. Nor am I saying that the education at NCU is equal to a good B&M, I only argue that it is equal in quality to other online schools.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 7, 2011
  19. major56

    major56 Active Member

    In addition to those you’ve mentioned (HBS, Darden, and Kellogg), case studies are also published by Ross, Stanford GSB, Wharton, Ivey, INSEAD, ICFAI, IESE Business School, IMD, or obtainable through repository case study clearing houses such as the European Case Clearing House; and I’m certain there are others.
     
  20. StefanM

    StefanM New Member

    Of course, it is an online program through a B&M school.
     

Share This Page