I am leaving the NCU DBA program........

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by truckie270, Apr 23, 2007.

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  1. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    There are extremely few 8 week courses at UOP and the pay is far beyond minimum wage. The courses are typically 5 weeks for undergraduate and 6 weeks for graduate. The number of hours per week will vary with the number students, subject matter, and number of times you've taught the course. For example, management is easy to teach and statistics is significantly more involved. I'm guessing that for most instructors, the absolute minimum is about $15 per hour on average and generally closer to $20 per hour. Note this is part-time, as UOP instructors have careers elsewhere. I think it is a great part-time job, if you love teaching.

    If you love money and are willing to do anything for it, I recommend becoming a mortgage broker, used-car salesman, or attorney.

    Dave
     
  2. truckie270

    truckie270 New Member

    I have done the math - here you go. I have been at UOP for two years and have never heard of an 8 week course there. Undergrad. courses are 1000.00 for a five week course and graduate courses are 1200.00 for a six week course. Instructors are paid 50.00 for every student over 13 in an onground or FlexNet course and over 18 for online. That works out to 20.00 per hour at 10 hours a week. Even lowly UOP instructors can do a cost-benefit analysis.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 12, 2007
  3. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    I've never taught a college class and I never expect to. But these figures certainly seem amazing from my student's-eye perspective.

    Does it really matter how long a class is? Isn't the relevant variable the number of credit-hours a class is worth? In other words, wouldn't a shorter class demand more hours per week?

    What do full-time university faculty typically make per-year? What's a full-time teaching load, in credit hours, over the space of a calendar year?

    If Phoenix instructors get $1000/class, they would have to teach 50 classes to make $50K. (Which still seems low for university professor pay.)

    If a class is 3 semester-units, that translates to 150 semester-units/year. Even if we assume year-around teaching, that's a teaching load of 50 semester-units/trimester.

    And that's totally unrealistic. So it looks to my untutored eye that Phoenix instructors are making a small fraction of what other university faculty make per-unit, teaching classes that are significantly shorter than those offered by other universities (but which presumably award students the same amount of credit).

    There has to be something else happening here that I don't see. Either that, or Phoenix is a much bigger rip-off (to both its faculty and its students) than I ever expected. It's a little appalling.
     
  4. jmetro

    jmetro New Member

    I agree...

    I've never taught for UoP but this hiring process is exactly similar to the process I underwent when hired as an instructor for Kaplan. I submitted my resume, was phone screened, had an interview with the campus president and the director of educational services, had a third interview with two competing department heads who wanted my services, gave a 20 or 30 minute presentation on my favorite technical subject (the OSI model), had another interview with all of them (the campus president, education chair, and the chairs of the two departments, with a third department chair sitting in). It was a fun process. I must say that I really enjoyed the opportunity to elaborate on the OSI model in a teaching situation (regardless of whether I'd actually teach the subject to paying students or not).

    Jacob
     
  5. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    My point exactly, if a course is 4 or 6 weeks then an instructor should spend at least 20 hours to do a good job. If an instructor makes 10-20 an hour you can imagine the excellent work he is doing. Some people might not do it for the money but UoP is certainly making a fortune given their high tuition fees.

    If salaries are much lower than traditional Universities, I have a hard time believing that they actually have high hiring standards and they recruit only top faculty. They are a lot of options for part time teachers that pay a lot more so my guess is that good instructors would just move to greener pastures leaving UoP with the less than wonderful. One wonders if this is the kind of school you want to pay 20K for a master;s degree
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 12, 2007
  6. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    Observation: You're doing a lot of wondering and speculation about UOP, when those who have first hand knowledge have comprehensively answered your questions more than once.

    Dave
     
  7. Pilot

    Pilot Member

    RFValve
    Don't you dare disagreeing with Mr "full of you know what"
    But that's ok with a look like his, check his picture on his blog.
    He has to compensate with something else.
     
  8. Mundo

    Mundo New Member


    I normally don't get involved in other peoples little wars but in this case, as a professional aviator, I feel it is my obligation to say something.

    Pilot, please know that by attacking and offending someone, you not only degrade yourself, but also your school and your credentials. Education should have given you the tools to think critically and to present coherent arguments; by attacking Dave Wagner, you have done neither.

    Mr. Wagner, as a pilot myself, please accept my apologies on behalf of my profession.

    Pepe
     
  9. Shawn Ambrose

    Shawn Ambrose New Member

    Pilot,

    Despite what your beliefs on UOP are, you stepped way over the line with your post about Dave. I hope that an apology is forthcoming. What started as a very interesting thread has, alas, degraded to sophomoric remarks about how people's appearances are perceived. Maybe it's time to close this thread down...


    Shawn
     
  10. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    While I vehemently disagree with Dave Wagner's personal attacks against others (e.g. you're a troll, you have multiple user names at DegreeInfo.com, you're grammar should be thus and such, et al ad nausum), I agree that ad hominem attacks in return accomplishes nothing. :eek:
     
  11. dlady

    dlady Active Member

    This is not acceptable behavior and an apology should be issued immediately.

    I can’t tell what I think of Dave’s opinions; but I absolutely defend his right to have them without undergoing personal attacks.

    And for those that don’t know, ad hominem attacks are attempts to discredit the source of a question instead of dealing with the question; kind of like suggesting that a person does not have the right to ask it instead of identifying if it is a good question or viewpoint. This is, IMHO, one of the worst types of social breaches.

    Feel free to focus on the behavior of a person and the opinions they express, but do not start slandering the actual person.
     
  12. Pilot

    Pilot Member

    Hey Mr sensitive hold your horses!!
    When Mr "Teacher", refrains from personal attacks against others, picking on Grammar, English Etc.., Instead of addressing the issues, may be he'll get respected back.
    It just happens that English is not every bodies first language here.
    So respect is earned.........I am giving him a taste of his own medicine, but with a different twist........
     
  13. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    EVERYONE please watch the personal attacks, please.
     
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