Problems with AIU

Personal attacks?

Not really. You see, a personal attack is where I tell "you" that, for example "you suck". Pointing out that someone's bad grammar may be an indication of the quality of their education is hardly in that league, but rather a public service.

Intelligent debate among academic professionals, such as the august members of this board represent, must include a fairly stringent "peer review". When posters claiming the superiority of their AIU 10 month degrees with 10 credit courses can't put two words together without either a mispelling or dropping a pronoun or forgetting where the verb goes it seems that it is someone's duty (which I've taken upon myself) to call attention to that obvious deficit in their education, which by implication may call into question the quality of the entire program.

 

Just for grins I pulled out some old CCAF, Community College of the Air Force (SACS Accredited), transcripts. I completed 38 credits (semester hours) in less than 30 weeks. But I must admit that the military had me full-time in class.

Learning curves are individual based.

I would judge Jason, or any indivdual based upon their resume and the merits of an interview. Work ability would be self-evident.

Poor writing, including the occasional indefinite "this" is not exclusive and we should ensure our own communications are accurate before passing judgment on an individual who may be handicapped, non-native English speaking, or otherwise.

 

While admitting to poor grammar myself at times, I would like to think that education generally enhances one's ability to communicate effectively at a certain 'educated' level regardless of their handicap or their non-native English speaking ability - especially when that education was achieved using English.

 

Absolutely. Otherwise includes fat-fingered typing, hurry etc... I don't think most of us take the time to cogitate over most of our posts and to pass judgment on any individual's writing ability based upon the examples in this forum may be excessive. Certainly not worthy of the otherwise professional debates.

You have, however, touched on a pet peve of mine regarding outsourcing call centers, etc... to supposed English educated and speaking countries outside the U.S.

My reference was to the Section 508 compliance which affords handicapped individuals an opportunity to engage via computer generated typing, etc...

Not necessarily the case in this instance, but shouldn't we provide benefit of the doubt in an effort to be civil?

 

Re: AIU degrees and utility...

In my opinion, it sounds like mild bashing and discrimination to me. No everyone who attends this or any university have "motives". In my opinion, you make out that the students are in fact breaking the law or something. For some, AIU's programs are rigorous, especially if they are attempting a career change or limited background in IT/Business. I wouldn't fault anyone for what school they go to because it is not important to me. Some are trying to be a degree to meet requirements for job promotions/career changes. If they have the “significant work experience” as mentioned, what does it matter what school they went to as long as it was accredited and met minimum requirements. You should be more worried if that person can do the job.

School name-recognition is not going to keep my networks and databases running, experience in the technology will. I've done IT work for a while in the military and private industry. An IT degree is just another tool, like certifications, to determine who gets an interview and who doesn't. I've asked some IT managers this when interviewing and college didn't matter to them as long as it was accredited. One manager actually favored vocational school education because it took particular technologies that were relevant to the industry.

I come from a military background, not an academic one. I think my resume is impressive more to the fact that I gave my country 10 faithful years instead of what schools I graduated from. But that's another debate and will not dwell on it. Everything said is just my point of view.

 

Onlinephd, are you still here (or was this a trolling session at its finest)?

 

Re: Personal attacks?

I don't believe this thread started out with anyone claiming the superiority of AIU. In fact, it started with someone clearly stating their distaste for the program. A few of us, who happen to be AIU students, were then kind enough to attempt to answer questions that were raised about the program.

Now it seems the discussion has escalated into this wonderful public service campaign where by all academic programs will be judged by you based solely upon the grammatical quality of posts made by their students and alumni.

I must take a moment to point out the obvious bias in this assessment. Preferential treatment undoubtedly will be given to English majors.

 

Yeah, I am still here. I even forgot what my initial point was -
Just kidding. I did not start this for any other reason other than to point out some things that I think AIU should change to make their program a bit better and more marketabloe for their students.

I dont think it serves them (AIU students) well when on their transcript notations of 10-credit classes are visible etc etc ...

I hope we are done with AIU for some time and can move on to NorthCentral Univ - a favorite of mine.

----
PS: I hate schools with bad websites - they just get to me.
I hate them because they dont represent fairly their school, or they miss a lot of useful information that a person can use to make a decision before enrolling. But that is another topic.

 

Onlinephd,

Northcentral university? There is a complete bashing thread for this school too.

There is no point to compare AIU or Northcentral programs with traditional programs from reputable universities. AIU, Northcentral and similar schools are options for established professionals that normally require a degree for promotion or for better opportunities. The students at these schools normally are middle aged professionals with many years of experience and family commitments and cannot afford to spend more than 15 hrs a week for their studies.

I agree with you that traditional programs in engineering or computer science are far more rigorous than those offered under different labels at online universities (e.g. Information Technology or Information Systems), however, the market for these programs are students that cannot afford to spend years in their education and also are more concerned about learning hands on skills rather than theoretical courses with little application in the real world.

I can see that the AIU degree for the young student with little experience could be of very little value since I doubt someone can develop solid IT skills in very little time, but if the student is already an IT professional and only needs a program that covers the gaps of knowledge that he or she is missing then the AIU could be highly beneficial.

 

Let's discuss Merits rather than bashing

I think we should discuss merits of AIU, Northcentral, UNA, Touro etc for distance learners.

I think all thes schools are offering a lot of value for those who can not attend the regular school.

I don't see points of bashing AIU for the way they grant credits. It is upto them and students. I have heard from Dr. John Bear that there were few students who completed their Heriot-Watt MBA is one diet. It is the student's ability that made him took HW rigorous exam and pass all in one diet. Therefore, mileage vary from individual to individual. What we have to see the relative value that it has brought to us?

 

Aiu is a degree completion program

Frist off I would like say I am glad yo see so many supporter for the AIU program. But There are a lot of people on theis board who are posting infornation that does not direct relate to aiu.

AIU program is a degree completetion program which means:

1. You must have a degree or eqivillant in order to begin AIU Program

2.The degree assumes that you have knowledge eqivllant to that of a 3year college students.

Most people are compairing this program to a four year college program which its not and not intended to be it like the executive mba program where most applicants already have a certain degree of knowledge in ther field and are looking for a degree for job security or promotion.
Although I find it very interesting that some feel that a 13-month degree completion program is strong enough to be compared to a 4 year degree program that does not make me feel bad about my program but quite the contrary,It actually makes me feel better. This discussion has let me know that AIU is now starting to become judged on a different level that the normal trade or a tech school(which are great places to obtain a hands on education by the way!) but as a university as it should and gaining more respect and becoming more known!

 

Re: Aiu is a degree completion program

Interesting spin you present, but where do you get that information? I dont believe either 1 or 2 are true. If they are show us a link.

I doubt a 13-month program compares to a 4-year program, and I dont think anyone is comparing them.

I dont think it is strong enough to compare to a 4yr program.

As long as that makes you happy, that is all that matters.

 

Codekiller is correct. The bachelors programs at AIU online are degree completion programs. You must have an associate degree or equivalent credit hours (I think its 60 hours but don’t quote me on that.) to start the degree program. This information is completely available in the AIU catalog.

If you don't have the required degree or credit hours, you have to start in AIU's Associate Degree or Associate Degree Completion program and finish that before being allowed to move up into the bachelors program.

I have a sibling who just tried to start AIU’s bachelors program and did not have enough hours, so they set him up to finish an associate degree first, prior to letting him start on a bachelor’s degree.

I don't happen to have a copy of AIU's catalog in PDF format on this machine, but I'm sure you could write and request a copy if you wanted to independently verify the information.

 

Re: Re: Personal attacks?

Biased? Of COURSE I'm biased - towards graduates of institutions of higher learning that can spell and put together proper sentences, regardless of their major. If one can't do that by the time one ENTERS college, then it surely says something negative if they still can't by the time they are either in the program or are a graduate, often times with impressive masters level degrees.

My point is that our industry (technology) needs people who are well-rounded, well-educated, can speak and write clearly, and who can display leadership qualities rather than just sling code and keep servers alive. We have plenty of lower cost options for those skills - it is the ability to conduct intelligent written and oral communications that gives (or should give) the US-educated workforce the edge as we become ever more "globalized".

I'd think twice about outsourcing someone's job to India if they had other skills to bring to the table as demonstrated by an ability to write and think clearly about a topic. I'd do it in a heartbeat if I was continuously kept waiting for a report because the "techie" couldn't figure out how to write something for me starting with a blank piece of paper, regardless of his/her capabilities on the "bits, bytes, and wires" front.

I don't intend to sound cruel - I am just attempting to shed some light on why I come down fairly hard on AIU graduates and graduates from other similar institutions who are heading down the road towards tech schools disguised as universities.

Thanks for allowing me to explain myself.

 

Carl,

if a trend materializes with applicants from a particular school or program I would agree. However, basing any opinion on one applicant may be prejudicial.

You are absolutely correct on the ability to communicate, especially in the tech environment when Statements of Work will often dictate the overall success of any IT project. And as important is the ability for technical staff to reduce issues to the lowest common user's understanding. I have found many instances where the tech folks (me included) take for granted a commonality of language and understanding that does not exist in the overall workforce.

Good points all....

 

Re: Re: Aiu is a degree completion program

 

Also look at the last 2 paragraphs
http://information-technology.aiuonline.edu/programdetails/bachelors_it.asp

Didnt you say this infroamtion was'nt ont there website ? ook me less than a minute to find!

P.S

look what else I found on the same page the ciricculum that you said you couldnt find !

 

Wow! Talk about getting off course!

The issue is that RA schools are required to have a minimum number of hours per course depending on the credit hours awarded. It is clear AIU does not come close to requiring the minimum number of hours.

Yes, of course, the BIT is a degree completion program. That means it should require the equivilent of two years of FULL-TIME univesity work. We are talking 9 month academic years. As stated above it is clear that AIU does not require anywhere near this minimum amount of work. What they do require is the equivilent of 2 years of PART-TIME academic work.

At some point this will come back to haunt AIU and their accreditation status. Hopefully by then they will have cleaned up their act.

Their program is a called a Bachelor's in IT. It is a 4 year degree that requires the first two to be transfered in. There is no logical rational that it should NOT be compared to other 4 year Bachelor degrees.

 

The issue is that the student completes the program in two years part time but the load is equivalent to a full time load in terms of number of credits. The same concept applies to their MBA that can be completed in one year part time when many traditional programs are two years full time.

 

Exactly RF. The credit hours awarded ARE equivalent to a full-time load, however the classroom and work required are at best equvalent to a half-time program. They are certifing their students are completing two years of full-time work when they clearly aren't.