Just finished NCU Business Ethics graduate MBA course in 3 weeks

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

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  1. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    What does this mean? I took online classes from a B&M school and the classes were all over the board.
     
  2. StefanM

    StefanM New Member

    Cyber was contrasting traditional B&M with online-only. SurfDoc's degree program is neither.
     
  3. ryoder

    ryoder New Member

    Thanks everyone for the feedback.
    I spent a good 20 hours working on this course each weekend, got up at 3:30 AM one morning last week and worked 4 hours on papers, and worked most nights except for Friday night which is when I get crazy and wild watching the Jersey Shore.
    I am a good writer, a fast reader, I have an undergrad in business which I just completed recently, I have been working in business for over 15 years and I had the 2nd highest SAT score in my graduating class of 500 people in high school.

    I don't know if I can go this fast in all classes but I will certainly try. I am working on the SKS5000 course now and am half way through my first powerpoint. I write powerpoints all the time at work so its not a problem.

    I wish I had taken detailed logs of my time spent researching and writing essays about these case studies so that I could tell you how many hours it takes to complete. NCU syllabi state that you will spend 120-140 hours on the course and I probably spent 90.

    Just for reference, I also skipped every chemistry class in college and just took the 4 tests and got a passing grade of a C.
    I did the same exact thing for calc III and got an A. I spent almost no time in the class.

    Learning occurs on your own time. The class is there to give you somebody else's perspective on the topic and to introduce a section that you need to go home and study on your own.

    I haven't been posting recently because I am so busy doing coursework.

    I highly recommend these courses to someone who doesn't like group projects or discussion boards and wants to move as fast as they possibly can and not be held back by someone else's schedule based on what the average student can accomplish. I bet one of these courses will kick my but and I will have to take almost all twelve weeks to complete it but until then I'm speeding through at my normal speed which is 150mph.
     
  4. JBjunior

    JBjunior Active Member

    I agree. I get irked when someone comes here and asks for ways to test out of graduate courses or something similar. You will have a specific understanding of the overall subject matter for the degree but you won't be an expert in every single class that you take. You are taking 10+ courses of different subject matter under the same umbrella of knowledge that is required to do the job. My point was that someone can put in just enough effort to pass it without having a thorough understanding of it. If someone is going for a MA/MS they should have the desire to learn the details and become an expert on the subject matter but that isn't always the case. For some people it is just about the resume.

    Also, as far as time to complete the course there are too many factors involved to make complete comparisons. For example I had to complete a required graduate course for Duquesne this semester that I already am familiar with almost every single concept in the course (from previous courses, training, experience) and have spent very little time reading. Just because someone else struggles with the course or spends a large number of hours doesn't mean that everyone will and isn't necessarily relevant to the quality of the course.
     
  5. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    So you are a high achiever in your B&M undergrad degree? I'd like to ask your opinion; do you think that NCU is lame, poor quality, an academic joke? I would bet that you do not. Nobody I know that has actually attended classes at NCU has ever remarked to me that the education is inferior. Most I know are people with experience in decent B&M programs so they can actually compare rather than condemn NCU based on their assumptions. Most don't like how it is run, but nobody I have come in contact with says it's academically inferior to other programs they have attended.
     
  6. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Prepackage courses are an excellent way to reduce cost. You pay a "course architect" a lump sum to develop the course, this course architect is normally a well known professor from a B&M school and then pay peanuts to an adjunct with a PhD from no name university to deliver the course.

    The cheap adjunct is not really teaching but just moderating the course so the instructor doesn't even need to have an indeep knowledge of the course. I have moderated few classes for subjects that I have little knowledge but did not matter as the course was prepackaged with solutions and discussions questions.

    The business model of for profits is to make a course and the sell it thousand times. The online instructor is willing to make few thousand because the course is prepackaged and there is little preparation time.

    It seems like a win-win situation but the student doesn't get same experience no matter what people say in this forum.

    An graduate online class would need group discussions, case study presentation, faculty teaching the class (not just moderating a prepackaged course) that actually contributes to the content and not just delivers a template and a rigorous set of exams. This would be the ideal situation but it is just too expensive to generate and will reduce profits.
     
  7. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Well, this thread is a success if for no other reason than it is getting me excited about starting my future MBA :AR15firing:
     
  8. ryoder

    ryoder New Member

    I attended the University of South Florida for 3 years in the college of engineering and finished my degree at TESC via testing out of the business core and taking some classes through straighterline and aleks.
    I do not think that the course is a joke or is inferior. I just finished the business ethics course which is using a typical business ethics case study books that most brick and mortar schools use for their classes. The book is published electronically by Cengage and was very interesting.

    I have no problems with how the school is run but I have only been a student for 3.5 weeks. The papers are graded quickly, mostly in 1 day and last weekend I had 2 graded in a single day!

    My mentor has a PhD from Walden in business and knows her stuff. She was helpful in getting my writing up to a scholarly level quickly. As for the content, its business ethics and I tested out of that with a very high DSST score. I studied much more than most CLEPers do since I do enjoy learning. I also tested out of psychology, business law, american government etc.
    I watch 2 hours of cable news per day so I am very aware of the ethical dilemmas facing America.

    I guess for an educated adult with years of business experience and a recent undergrad in business, a graduate degree in business is not so difficult.

     
  9. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    That's great. Kudos to you. One fair warning, I hear the dissertation process at NCU is unreasonable. You should PM with Randell1234, another moderator, who just finished a PhD at NCU. He can give you a heads up.
     
  10. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    Is this different from the non-profits online delivery?
     
  11. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    And when you do finish your MBA, I'll welcome you to our MBA Club.
     
  12. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    After just one? :veryhappy:
     
  13. ryoder

    ryoder New Member

    I'm so excited to be on this journey. From USF to TESC BSBA CIS to NCU MBA in Applied Computer Science, its been great and has enriched my life.
    For a full time employee of a fortune 100, its not possible for me to attend a traditional brick and mortar and complete my degree in a timely fashion. Distance learning rocks in my opinion and NCU has been great so far. I will keep the board posted on my progress through SKS5000 and the other courses.

    And there is nothing wrong with profits. Read some Adam Smith and some Milton Friedman and get back to me ;)
     
  14. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Lol.......
     
  15. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Some non-profits follow the same model. I have taught at places where the instructor is in full control of the material and class but the pay is substantially higher but it requires 3 times the amount of work to do these classes. For profits are not going to pay someone 3 or 4 times more to teach a course so the prepackaged course makes sense to reduce cost but sacrifices quality in my opinion.

    I believe that you can automate lower credit courses that teach basic knowledge but it is kind of hard to automate a graduate class that is supposed to teach advanced knowledge.

    The whole point of having a PhD teaching the class is to have someone with an advanced knowledge of the subject that can transmit this to students but it looks like online for profit courses only need an instructor to babysit the course and grade assignments with little contribution. Online instructors are for the most part customer support, markers and discussion moderators.

    I believe that the online for profit model could be acceptable for undergraduate work that doesn't require high level critical thinking and just training for every day job. However, I don't think you can reproduce the same experience you get with a traditional MBA from a good school with the online for profit model of mass production course delivery.
     
  16. Cyber

    Cyber New Member


    The bottom line is that students get a sub-standard education while the school and adjuncts make money off them. No wonder why some employers and traditional academia look down on online degrees. It will take a long time before online degrees are accepted as an equivalent to degrees earned from face-2-face mode. With what you've exposed, I don't think online PhD holders should be allowed into traditional academia because it would taint the high quality education at B & M schools. I asked a friend the other day, "could you tell me any serious research that came out of an online PhD graduate that resulted in new invention?" The answer was none.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 8, 2011
  17. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    You're an idiot.
     
  18. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    I'm sure that there are many people with online PhDs that can do an outstanding job teaching at B&M schools.
    I don't think you need a PhD to be an outstanding teacher to begin with. Someone with solid working experience and excellent communications skills can do a better job than someone with a PhD from a top school.
    May be people with online doctorates might not be able to attract research grants from government agencies but I don't think is the intention of these programs to begin with.
    I believe that online schools do a decent job training people at the undergraduate level and professional technical programs. However, I think that someone looking for graduate education should look for more traditional schools that might do a better job. I don't believe in the automation of education at the graduate level.
     
  19. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    These are all good points. Graduate level training can be packages but the instructor needs to bring something to the table and not just grade papers.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 8, 2011
  20. agschmidt

    agschmidt New Member

    Nice comment from a moderator.
     

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