Liberty Masters in Counseling... just one course.

I will be taking just one course of the Liberty Counseling program, to transfer back to my own program for cost and convenience. COUN 503: Research & Program Evaluation. I found an old syllabus from the class though, and it seems like the cost for books and materials is pretty expensive.

Any recommendations? Are there ways of getting SPSS for cheap?

 

Other than theft? Probably not much. I got mine for about 90 dollars through MBS Direct for my EDUC 712 Stats class at LU.

 

$90 is a lot cheaper than what I have seen. What/where is MBS?

 

The contracted textbook supplier for LU. I don't show that 503 requires SPSS.

http://www.luonline.com/media/3415/courseguides/COUN503_Syllabus.pdf

That's the most recent course guide, and it's not listed.

If you go to mbsdirect.net and put in the course information, altogether the books are under $200 (still expensive, but not as much as you would have to spend for SPSS).

If you need SPSS, look up EDUC 712 at mbsdirect.

 

Fantastic! The only syllabus that I was able to find was for COUN 503 in 2008... and SPSS was listed as required. Still, SPSS would be nice to have on my own computer. Version 20 looks awesome. $200 is a lot for one class... but I'm pretty sure that I can find things used and much cheaper. Especially since I already own one of those books.

 

Don't buy SPSS unless you absolutely have to. It's great, but really expensive. List, if I remember correctly, is around $1000. I bought mine through NCU and paid $300, thought I was getting a good deal.

If you just have very light statistics to do, you can use Excell. Or even the Open Office equivalent for free. If you need to do something more complex like a 3-way ANOVA, you'll need SPSS.

 

Thanks everyone. I am going to talk to the Liberty people this week about registering. Would anyone in the MA Counseling program who has taken the course be able to front load a little bit? In that I mean, what is this course like... how are online courses at Liberty normally taught... etc. My current program is much more expensive, but I'm used to the way courses are taught and graded and am wondering if taking this course at another school during my final semester will actually be worth it.

 

I proctored a student about 5 or 6 years ago that took this course. It is basically looking at a DVD of the teacher (who, if it is the same teacher) is not very good. You then read the material in the book and put data in the SPSS package, print and interpret the results. I have a business background and a minor in Statistics, so from my perspective the course was not that challenging but the student, who had a liberal arts background, had major difficulty with the course. Although I have a masters in counseling from Liberty I did not have to take this course due to my extensive background in statistics. Good luck.

 

What about Master's Theological Research Institute. They have a Doc program in Counseling. But I could not found out anything about them. Are they worth it?

 

Hi everyone. Thanks for your help in this. I ended up taking the research course that was part of my degree program, instead of Liberty's (or any other's). It was just a heck of a lot easier to stay in my program, even though it was more expensive than Liberty's. It also sounds like I had a richer research experience in this class than I would have had through Liberty.

And... the syllabus for Liberty's class listed The Holy Bible as a required text. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the scientific and professional mental health community would not consider that book to be a valid research tool.

 

Liberty is a Christian school so the Bible is probably listed as required for every class they teach, but it's not necessarily used as a textbook except for classes and situations where it's relevant to do so. At least I hope that's the case.

 

http://www.luonline.com/media/3415/courseguides/COUN503_Syllabus.pdf

I see it as an additional material for learning item, not a required text.

 

Thanks for the clarification. It is not a "required text". It is however included as a course tool along with a computer, internet access, MS Word, and a calculator.

Getting back to the topic of research, the available time for learning in a one-semester course is extremely limited and very valuable. As a student studying to be a mental health counselor for all populations, it was not in my best interest to take a research course that included the bible. For people who only wish to counsel or research the mental health of Christians... I'm sure that that course works perfectly fine.