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. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Aha, since your friend said it, it MUST be true!!!! What are his thoughts on string theory?

    Better yet, has he heard of the phrase "self-fulfilling prophesy?" Or "confirmation bias"? Or "sweeping generalization?" Maybe he can teach you a few things.
     
  2. AUTiger00

    AUTiger00 New Member

    I'm not saying it must be true, but Cyber is likely correct. Call it whatever you like, for the most part online for-profit schools produce substandard "PhDs". That's just my opinion, I have no need or desire to support it with silly evidence.
     
  3. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Yeah, all that evidence stuff is just a waste of time. :smile:
     
  4. AUTiger00

    AUTiger00 New Member

    Agreed. I enjoy my close minded opinions.
     
  5. ryoder

    ryoder New Member

    Please don't judge the curriculum by the speed at which I progressed through the class.
    I just got an email from my mentor to all of her students scolding them for turning in assignments on the last day of class because they couldn't keep up with the course work.
    Here is a small excerpt.

    "If you cannot make the recommended submission dates, I would like to receive a message from you detailing how you intend to catch up."


    Funny how if my post was "Just finished business ethics class after 12 weeks and made it by the skin of my teeth!" the school would be extolled for its academic rigor.

    ;)
     
  6. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member

    Originally Posted by Randell1234
    You're an idiot.

    ''agmschmdt"
    Nice comment from a moderator.

    Oh Please! We are all grown up boys and girls. Just because the Dr. Is a mod does not mean he cannot share his opinion.

    Stop being dramatic.

    Abner
     
  7. AUTiger00

    AUTiger00 New Member

    As I mentioned, I don't know you and you seem like a sharp guy, the problem you're going to run into is that you are at a school that has no admission requirements other than an ability to pay and you're telling us you finished a graduate level course in three weeks. Yes, that is going to raise some eyebrows and lead to questions around academic rigor. Beyond that, the descriptions of how those courses are designed (by both you and other people on the board) lead to additional questions on my end because they aren't designed like any quality MBA program I am aware of, either on line or face-to-face.

    As to your instructor's email, I would fully expect there to be people in that class that couldn't keep up as it is an open enrollment program. I would guess that you are one of a small number of people in that program that had other more selective options to choose from when looking for a school. You will likely see a lot of washouts between now and when you finish the degree. That's just the nature of open enrollment programs.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 8, 2011
  8. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    I think it is hardship to generalize, I'm sure that there are quite few graduates that use their degree and publish and are active researchers. However, the experience doesn't seem to be the same as traditional program due to the mass production concept translated into academia. While in a traditional doctoral program, a supervisor only takes few PhDs and works with them one to one and encourages them to present in conferences and prepare publications, in the mass production doctoral factory the online learners are given a supervisor that is paid too little too really put the time to create a good product. Students are not asked to publish because this would take years of effort that doesn't translate into profits and just encourage people to leave a program that is translated into loss revenue.

    I also don't see metrics that show the utility of the online PhD, traditional schools would keep track of employment for post graduation but we don't have many statistics that show the same for online graduates. It is hard to tell if these programs did something for the students. I'm sure that there are a lot of success stories of people that were able to use it in places where a doctorate is required but we don't know the success rate as this information is not published.

    PhD programs are not revenue generators at most research universities. They are created to train future scholars and most professors use these students to work with their own research so they become cheap research assistants. The program was not created to attract hundreds like in the case of professional programs (e.g. MBA). As online schools realize that cannot longer compete with traditional schools with professional programs, they are taking the PhD as their revenue generator and changing the concept of an scholar training program to a semi professional program with the intention to boost professional's credentials. The reality is that the concept is working as you have many taking these programs but they are not being trained to become scholars but more like "Super MBAs".
     
  9. AUTiger00

    AUTiger00 New Member


    Come on ya'll, there is no reason to insult one another.....you morons.
     
  10. ryoder

    ryoder New Member

    I'm checking out of this forum for a while because I have found what I need. The NCU program is perfect for me and if anyone has any questions about it or needs help deciding, feel free to PM me.

    For now, I'm going to concentrate on my work. Good luck to all of you!
     
  11. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member


    I reckon, I reckon, I reckon..........

    Abner - The SoCal gentleman back to from the South :)
     
  12. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    Here is what I wonder - schools like NCU are looked down upon because of the "easy classes" as some see and the lack of residency and lack of instructor guidence. Reseach only PhDs in Europe are seen as a good thing and perfectly accpetable. What are the research only PhD doing differently then NCU? Is it the track record? Do they require publishing? I ask because I am not clear on this.

    Don't misunderstand, I am not saying NCU is a forward-thinking organization and setting a US standard to match the European model. I am just asking how one is good and one is bad.
     
  13. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    I don't know about European Schools but worked on a research based doctorate at an Australian school and here few differences from what I see with online schools (Please don't take this as "my doctorate is better than yours" kind of discussion):

    1. Supervisors were full time faculty that are engaged in research.
    2. Supervisors only take few doctoral candidates.
    3. The dissertations processes is long and painful. Supervisor has all the time of the world to pick on your research methodologies, data collection, etc so the process takes at least 5 years from initial start to end.
    4. Supervisor encourages to publish and actually publishes papers with students.
    5. People used to examine the dissertation were actually people that knew the subject and leader researchers in the field not just poorly paid adjuncts.
    6. They don't engage in stream revenue generation strategies such as auto enrollment in courses, fees for delays in submissions, fees for approvals, fees for this and that, etc. I paid just my dissertation course fee and not a single penny more.


    It takes money and effort to create a good product. Most Universities in Australia are government so their primary goal is not to make money but to promote research and learning. I think there is a clear conflict between making money and promoting learning and research, the pressure to make money makes the doctorate less credible and diluted.
     
  14. AUTiger00

    AUTiger00 New Member

    What RFValve said.
     
  15. GeeBee

    GeeBee Member

    They estimate that an average student will spend 120-140 hours on the course? That, alone, tells me a lot about the course.

    Consider that a typical 3-hour undergrad credit course at a brick and mortar school will have about 90 hours in the classroom. And consider the often-quoted rule of thumb which suggests that a student should spend two hours out of class preparing for each hour spent in class. That comes to 270 hours of work for three hours of undergraduate credit.

    Does NCU use semester-hours? How many semester-hours of credit do they award for this course?
     
  16. StefanM

    StefanM New Member

    I don't trust this rule of thumb. I have taken courses at a variety of public and private schools (B&M, traditional), and I don't think I have ever spend this much time in preparation except for my Greek classes. I graduated with a 4.0 as well, so I wasn't just slacking off.

    If a student is taking 15 hours of classes, then the total time under this calculation would be 45 hours per week. Perhaps for heavily quantitative majors or lab sciences this might be the case, but I've not known a whole lot of college students with this kind of weekly workload.
     
  17. AUTiger00

    AUTiger00 New Member

    I'm going to have to agree, I always heard for undergrad courses it was 1 hour of prep for 1 hour of class....granted, I graduated with a 3.2 but in my defense, i was no where near the 1:1 ration more like 15 minutes of studying to every hour in class.
     
  18. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    Thanks for the details. By the way, I did not take this as a "mine is better then yours" comment nor have I ever taken any of your past comments that way. It sounds as though it is a B&M model by distance and without the classes. Does that sum it up?
     
  19. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Any doctorate in Australia can be considered DL, if you find a supervisor that is willing to supervise you by distance, you have a DL doctorate. The rigour is the same if you do it on site or external. Prestigious schools are less likely to take an external student as they have too many applications but the most of the smaller ones would take a external doctoral student. I contacted USQ, CSU, Deakin, QUT, Southern Cross and Sunshine Coast and all agree with an external approach, I went with USQ because their fees but there are many options. Professors over there have degrees from institutions mentioned before so the whole thing of DL is not a big issue like in the US.
     
  20. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    Has the DL degree from Australia ever been an issue? In the US, there is the "is it RA" question that can be asked to ensure some level of quality control. How are international degrees viewed? Were you required to travel there for anything?
     

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