APU Course Prefixes

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by mattbrent, May 13, 2008.

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  1. mattbrent

    mattbrent Well-Known Member

    I have registered for courses for my MA in History through APU. I am trying to earn a second masters to complement my MSEd. My school's principal would like for me to complete 18 graduate hours in history so that I'd be eligible to teach the dual enrollment courses for our kids that are offered through the local community college. However, here lies my question/situation.

    APU's course prefixes for their courses vary. There are the RC, HS, OC & LW courses in my program. All of them are history related (RC 575 Historical Research Methods, HS 502 The Greek Civilization, OC 530 Graduate Seminar in World History, LW 577 The Wars of Ancient Rome). In seeking the 18 hours, does anyone know if the differences in prefixes will cause any problems?

    Thanks
    -Matt
     
  2. bamafan

    bamafan New Member

    Before I completed my master's degree with 18 hours in history I called our local community college and inquired about the very thing you are asking about. Albeit I am in Alabama, so I have no idea if it matters but their department head told me the graduate level history courses must have "HY" prefixes. You might want to check with the school you are doing dual enrollment for. I enjoy Dual enrollment, it is a great thing and the kids at our school really love it.
     
  3. buckwheat3

    buckwheat3 Master of the Obvious

    Yes and no. I have some history courses that have a different prefix, so the state of SC says " You must take this evaluation form to your dept. dean or a college dean in your subject content area and if they sign off on these courses we will accept them."
    atb,
    Gavin
     
  4. mattbrent

    mattbrent Well-Known Member

    Here's another random question for you. Do you know if having 18 hours allows you to teach all community college level history courses? I'm just wondering if the 18 hours has to be specifically in the topic. The school wants me to do the Dual Enrollment US history survey course, but my MA will NOT be in US history, though I can take a few US courses as electives if need be. Currently I teach high school world history, and that's what I'd like to stick with. But if they want me to do DE US History, I want to make sure my credits work for that.

    -Matt
     
  5. Tireman 44444

    Tireman 44444 Well-Known Member

    I know in the community college genre, most schools want you to have 18 hours in a certain subject. Now I am only speaking for my college (HCC) and my region (SACS). I am not sure about others.
     
  6. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Depends on exactly how anal the hiring authorities are. If they have any common sense, the course titles should be more important than the course prefixes.
     
  7. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    In seeking the 18 hours, does anyone know if the differences in prefixes will cause any problems?

    Thanks
    -Matt[/QUOTE]



    Matt,

    Can you get a grad certificate for your 18 hours or are they random? Maybe a grad certificate (or two) would be a nice way to package them together and make your life easier?

    The community college your students will be dual enrolled in should already have a policy in place. Also, it might matter if the course has open enrollment for degree seeking students or if it is limited to only the high school students. (In culinary, our dual enrolled students are in a completely separate course held on the high school campus and never mix with our degree students who are attending classes on campus. We even use totally different teachers)

    If this is any help, I pulled this off my college's website for the teaching criteria. Note- this is for part time faculty only- our full timers need masters in their subject...and again, dual enrollment may not be the same criteria.

    "To teach in the Arts and Sciences Division (Classes that transfer to 4-year colleges) a teacher must have a Masters Degree in the teaching area OR a Masters degree WITH 18 graduate hours in the desired teaching area. "

    You really should just contact the community college and ask.
     
  8. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    The 18-hour rule, as it is known, requires that a professor in a field should have either a doctorate in the field, a master's in the field, or a master's with concentration (18 hours) in the field. Thus, a prospective history professor would need a PhD (or DA or DSSc) in History or an MA (or MHum or MLS or MPhil or MS or MSSc) in History, or something like an MA Humanities or MA Liberal Studies or MA Social Studies would also be adequate if it had 18 hours of history courses. So, I think it's saying that an history professor needs 18 hours of graduate history courses (not that one needs 18 hours in ancient history to teach ancient history or 18 hours in American history to teach American history).
     
  9. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member



    American Military University www.apus.edu offers the Graduate Certificate in Air Warfare, American History, American Revolution Studies, Ancient and Classical History, Civil War Studies, European History, Land Warfare, Naval Warfare, and World War II Studies. One can then continue on and parlay these into the MA History, MA Military History, or MA Military Studies. :cool:
     
  10. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator


    I have seen it as a masters in any field plus 18 credits in the subject or a masters in the subject to teach.
     
  11. CoachTurner

    CoachTurner Member

    It's not that the hiring authorities are "anal" but that they are not knowledgeable enough in such matters. Departments know what is and isn't a history (or whatever) course. Those people down in HR get massively confused if all of the course prefixes don't say "History" in some form. All that they know is what they were told by the department is the requirement (ie: master's in history or 18 graduate hours in history") so they look for exactly that and will sometimes screen out apps they shouldn't.

    My wife sees this with her communications apps. Her transcripts list "Media Communication Management" as the course prefix even on titles such as Organizational Communication or Media Law. I know an accounting adjunct that has a time with his because all of his accounting courses are prefixed "BUS" and the HR folks don't bother to read course titles.

    If you include a list of the courses you are claiming as qualifying with full titles then you should really be fine. Sometimes these apps are being screened by people who don't have a bachelor's degree, let alone a master's. They need the extra help interpreting your transcripts.
     
  12. mattbrent

    mattbrent Well-Known Member

    That's what I figured (and hoped for). It wouldn't make much sense to me to have to have 18 hours of graduate credit in US history AND 18 hours in World History to teach the survey courses. I was just wondering mainly, however, because if my MA is going to be in Ancient History, I wouldn't really be taking any credits in US history. So, theoretically, I would still be able to teach a community college US history course without having taken any graduate courses in US history. I'm going to end up taking at least the US History Seminar through APU so I'll have that covered though.

    I'll just be glad to get the 18 hours so I can start teaching the classes at my high school. When I get it, I'll have MAJOR bargaining power. If someone FROM the college comes to teach the class, the school has to pay standard tuition rates for the students. That's about $450 per kid for the year. So, at 20 kids, that's $9000 in tuition. However, if someone on staff teaches the course, the school gets a major reduction in tuition. It's something absurd, like $30 per kid for the year. I'd be saving the school thousands, so they'd be ignorant to ignore my "demands" hahaha...

    I also just found out that our department head is leaving this year, so I'm hoping to be promoted to that position next year. Apparently all of this graduate work is paying off! :)

    -Matt
     
  13. mattbrent

    mattbrent Well-Known Member

    Yep, that's what I was told by my school. I have an MS in Education, so I just need 18 graduate hours in history to teach the community college classes. Of course, if I had gotten an MA in history, the 18 hours would be a moot point because they'd be incorporated into the degree.

    -Matt
     
  14. mattbrent

    mattbrent Well-Known Member

    I've thought about getting a certificate to accompany the MA. Because I teach World History, I've thought about getting a certificate in European History to go along with the MA in Ancient History. But then again, I could just go for the Ph.D. after that. I've been considering the Ph.D. in Classical Civilization through the University of Florida. It's available via distance, but I'd just need to reteach myself enough Latin to pass their entrance exams.

    -Matt
     
  15. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Hey, if you can say that with a straight face I say go for it! The closest I ever got to Latin was singing old motets in high school. :)

    -=Steve=-
     
  16. mattbrent

    mattbrent Well-Known Member

    Electives???

    Okay... this is totally unrelated the course prefixes, but since I have this discussion going, I thought I'd ask.

    I had been emailing my advisor with APU regarding course schedules. I registered for three courses, and she advised me to change two of them. No big deal. I happened to mention that I already had my MSEd, and that although I was going to pursue the MA, I really only needed the 18 credits to teach the class for my school. She perked up on the mention of the masters degree and told me to submit my transcripts for review so that I could potentially have some courses applied as electives.

    This took me by surprise. All of my prior graduate coursework is in education. Sure, I suppose they could count as electives, but do I really want random education classes applied to my history MA? Yes, that'd be 9 credits I wouldn't have to pay for, but would that look weird to a potential employer or PhD program? What do you guys think?

    Thanks,
    Matt
     
  17. Tireman 44444

    Tireman 44444 Well-Known Member

    I dont see a problem with it. That is just me.
     
  18. edowave

    edowave Active Member

    No, that is not weird at all. UF accepted 30 credits from my Heriot-Watt MBA into my PhD program. They will most likely accept around that many from your MSEd or MS program if you do the PhD in Classical Civilization. However, different departments have different rules about credit transfer.
     

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