UofP campuses

I learned quite a bit while attending UOP. Most of the Instructors were outstanding fascilitators and highly steeped in their respective fields. However, I must also add that the ground campus courses were a bit more rigorous and beneficial. I ventured online toward the end of my program to finish up the final three courses for the B.S. BA/BM program, and discovered that the online forum does indeed require much more time. One must go to class every night to ensure collaborative project issues are discussed. Also, there are strict guidelines on daily participation...if you care about your grade.

One of my study group members went on to establish a successful business with a collaborative project concept created during one of our marketing courses.

As for the "rigor" of the program. Well, it's difficult for me to comment on this. Reason...I'm also pursuing dental school. Therefore, I've taken courses such as inorganic chem, physics, bio, biochem and the like. So, these business classes were a breeze. Not quite sure how these courses measure up to other business programs available.

All quibbles aside, personally, I enjoyed the program immensely.

 

If you dig through the archives there is also quite a bit of discussion from former students and instructors about a lack of rigor. The instructors indicate the grade inflation is much higher than other schools they have taught at.

 

UoP is the first school I've seen (I'm sure there are others) that actually has GPA as a metric. It has as a goal to maintain average GPA's below a certain figure, and that dispersion (measured by standard deviation) be at a certain figure or higher. There are metrics for both undergraduate and graduate programs, and they're reported throughout the university.

 

WOW!!! I have never thought of that. So do they base their success on the grading?? Higher grade, more suucess (perceived)... That is scary?

 

I think the point Rich was trying to make ...

is not to keep the grades high but to keep a spread. When I was an adjunct for Central Texas College back in the 80's they did the same thing. They had become concerned about grade inflation and actually started rating us on our grade spread. The didn't start telling us to fail people but did tell us that not everybody in the class could be stellar. The C is for average, B is better than average and the A is for exceptional. If we had too many A's we were either testing at too low a standard or giving out A's willy nilly. If that is what UoP is doing it speaks well of them not poorly.

 

Re: I think the point Rich was trying to make ...

Intersting - I just finished my first semester teaching. I met with the Dean and asked him how many does he usually fail, he said he will have a couple of assignments up front, and if students are doing poorly (or not showing up), he meets with them to find out the problem. This way the students either drop, or start taking the class seriously. This eliminates any F's in the semester.

I am going to do that next semeter.

How many is too many A's?? (Just curious)

 

Perhaps I need more coffee, but I don't think that's what Rich implied:

So, what Rich means is that they don't want to see an extremely high GPA (well, he doesn't mention what the target GPA is, it could be 3.99 for all we know) and more variety in the grades assigned (not all A's, or B's, etc.)

 

I went back and re-read, I think I took it a different way, but still interesting about the metric. I am wondering what the targets are (percentages?) of the dispersion.

 

10% was the norm expected for A's

Then more B's and even more C's. I don't remember the percentages for anything but the A's. However, it was recognized that smaller classes could greatly skew results. The schedule on a military campus is five 8 week terms. Many students wouldn't take classes over the summer or around the holidays leaving those smaller classes heavily populated by the dedicated (and normally better) students. During those periods the percentage of A's would skew higher. Actually I never had a problem, I used a lot of essay questions on my exams and never had a problem with my spread. The stellar students really stand out on the essays. However, they do take much longer to grade and invite more questions about what is a 5 or 3 point answer. To avoid controversy, you do an answer sheet that lists the points which should be explained in each answer and you grade according. An answer which requires 5 points of explanation would be worth 5 points if they got them all. They would get 3 points if the listed only 3 points in their answer. It makes it much easier to defend your grading when challenged by an upset student. To avoid testing too hard, I would announce that I would be grading on a curve if no one in the class got an A. However, I have never had to grade on a curve.