Farewell degreeinfo but not goodbye..:-)

Negative. As William Shakespere said, "To thine own heart be true." My conscience is clear.

Prior to my embarking on a long educational journey, I was warned about the various kinds of accreditations in Dr. John Bear's book. He was by no means being disingenuous in his explanations; and conversely, by having ad infinitum discussions on the limitations of DETC programs, new viewers to this forum are continually being educated on these important issues that could affect them several years down the road. It might be old to you, but it's new to someone!

The truth can be extremely painful -- and if the truth can't be overcome with logic, then the next worst thing is to use Ad Hominem attacks, such as name calling, just as Dave Wagner does by calling people names e.g. shill.

 

Dr. Lady, Now you are the Boss How about this suggestion

Aspen could let the students who have already doing a degree program to take extra courses for a discounted price. That way Aspen can generate revenue and at the same time those students have the oppertunity to take more courses above and beyond thier program track to satify the thirst for extra knowledge.
No one would be motivated to take extra courses if they have to pay the full price.

 

A related suggestion for the Aspen website... Put tuition and fee information on the tuition and fee page:

http://www.aspen.edu/tuition.htm

 

I agree it's not intuitive, but if you click on Doctorate, Masters, or Bachelor's links on the left of the Tuition & Fees main page you will get the fees.

 

The tuition (and discounts) are difficult to follow even when you click on the links... The reader has to do math to realize that the multiple course payment plan is a pretty interesting selling point for the budget conscious student. My advice is to not make the prospective student work so hard. The cost of each degree should be obvious.

 

Thanks for asking!

The debate is about RA verses DETC accreditation. DETC proponents are advocating that potential students enroll in DETC programs, without telling them of the limited utility of that kind of accreditation. For example, no public school in the United States (k-12) will recognize a DETC bachelors in education as a teaching credential. Also, no state university (or any other RA college or university) will recognize a DETC masters in education for teaching purposes.

What I don't want to see are aspiring students enrolling in DETC programs with false hopes. That's my motive.

Thanks for your reply!

 

Check.. good suggestion.

We got the new website facelift up; I am now in the process of going through it, area by area, to start to organize the information in a more modern and contemporary way. It is a good site, but also one that will be worked on through the end of the year pretty heavily. You will see many incremental changes.

I just bought a house in Denver yesterday, flew back to Tampa today, in a hotel in Orlando this weekend presenting a paper I wrote last year. Down to Cape Coral Monday to say goodbye to family, pets to the vet Tuesday to get their airplane travel health certificates, on a plane Wednesday to Denver, Wife brings pets up next weekend, she fly’s back to Tampa, movers come and pack everything up, list our old house the following week, then she drives to Denver the week after that.

In my spare time, I have inventoried the existing courses and am making sure they are all current and on high-quality textbooks. Then on to making sure we have the best instructors available (open invitation to anyone: send me your resume if you have a terminal degree in your field and will knock-my-socks-off in our phone interview). Aspen courses and instructors are already of a very high quality, of course. We are also looking at our learning site and considering some improvements.

Once that is done there are many new programs in the hopper to get moving forward (send me any ideas if you want, however understand they are offered to me freely and once you send them, I own them

What has impressed me so far in getting my feet wet is how much learning and instructor/student interactions are going on. I spent several days peeking into each classroom, reading the posting boards, and so on. I know it sounds sappy, but seriously, it almost brings a tear to my eye when I see just how hard everyone works and how much high quality work is being produced. I may start looking into ways to focus some of it and leverage the final projects so that the work receives appropriate University recognition, but also potentially is submitted for publications if/when appropriate.

DEL

PS - My actually official start date is July 15

 

Yes, thank you, and yes her arms will be tired.

 

Are you absolutely 100% sure that the correct operative word is no (as opposed to few)?

 

What public school system in the United States will accept a DETC bachelors degree in education as a teach credential for k-12? None!

 

Of the dozen or so California Community colleges I've investigated, there is no requirement that the degree be from a regionally-accredited institution; the wording is "accredited degree".

Hence, it seems reasonable to presume that a nationally-accredited masters degree in education would suffice for teaching some subjects in a community college setting. Of course, the emphasis is placed on proficiency in the subject rather than degree preparation in this setting.

For example, I recently sat through a couple of classes in a course on alcohol and substance abuse counseling led by a certified counselor with an associates degree in social work from somewhere... Other than a few instances of awkward grammar in her materials and presentation, she was an excellent instructor of the topic.

 

What I am asking is whether anyone has researched the teacher licensure requirements of all 50 states to verify that none will accept NA degrees.

 

You said "out way." The word is outweigh. Not to be pedantic, but I've got to toss out a penalty flag for that one. That's an official "ouch!"

 

Sure, and "I've got" is slang and not good formal writing presuming the goal of this board is now to do petty critiques. "ouch!"

 

"I've got" is not slang. Informal, yes; slang, no.

Look, I know message board members everywhere get their knickers bunched when people start nitpicking about spelling and grammar, but, hey, you're a university president now, and so you've got to hew to a higher standard. And I sincerely mean that. Not because I'm trying (or even unintentionally succeeding) to be an a**hole, but because it's true. So I disagree that confusing "out way" for "outweigh" is a petty critique. If I'm making a judgment you can bet others -- board regulars or passers by -- are as well whether they choose to point it out or not.

I took an online course this past spring and the long-tenured professor consistently spelled the possessive of it as "its'." I chose not point this and other writing transgressions out to him until he made this very same "correction" on one of my papers. Not to compare you with him, but his writing skills were very poor, an issue to which he was clearly oblivious. An unfortunate consequence of this was that it made much of his feedback suspect.

I don't mind or take personally when my mistakes or pointed out to me. And it happens far more often than I like. For sure it's humbling, but it's also educational, which more than out ways the ding to my ego.

 

okay, taken as offered

 

Wait a second...how can you be:

1) VP of Academic Affairs
2) President
and
3) Instructor:

Double Duty is one thing, but triple?

 

When we lived in San Diego, we became friends with a wonderful man named Robert Tschirgi (MD, PhD) at UC San Diego. At one time, he was a professor of physiology, professor of neuroscience, Dean of the medical school, acting vice chancellor of the university, Provost of the university, and acting head of the NASA Exobiology Center. And when the president was on leave, he was acting President of the university. He said the most remarkable thing about that time is that, for a while, he had seven parking spaces on campus.

He once wrote a serious article (for Mechanix Illustrated) on why mirrors reverse things left to right, but not top to bottom. I still fret about that.

 

Thanks, Ted. I welcome evidence over and above personal opinions, as well.

Tom