University of the Cumberlands Online PhD in Information Technology

Discussion in 'IT and Computer-Related Degrees' started by Marcus Aurelius, Jan 29, 2018.

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  1. graduate

    graduate Member

    Couldn't agree more, that makes perfect sense now and thanks for sharing your insight.

    That is a tricky decision solely based on the needs, like for me an in-house PhD isn't an option and then comes the price tag among the online doctoral options, this still looks 1/3 best options, but for others, it may be a waste of resources. What other options you've in mind? May be do it from Capella and joins here as faculty member :)
     
  2. onlymybest

    onlymybest Member

    I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I've known about Cumberlands brick & mortar campus for decades and was excited to attend online, but it seems the online portion of the school still has some maturing to do.

    I have several masters degrees and one of them was earned as part of a doctoral program, but I never finished the comprehensive exam or the dissertation for the PhD. I've spoken to that school about returning, but would prefer to go in a different direction, even though financially it might make a lot of sense.

    Actually your suggestion about teaching for Cumberlands might be a possibility, unless they require the doctorate, although I would rather complete Cumberlands PhD than incur the high cost of Capella's doctorate program.

    Otherwise I may checkout a variety of IT certifications such as the CEH or CISSP variety, or possibly a certification from a university such as Stanford's Advanced Computer Security Certificate.

    Everything happens for a reason and I'm just glad I got out before I invested a bunch of money. I enjoyed the Cryptography course so I'm not really out anything, assuming Cumberlands refunds my money for the this semester. :)
     
  3. graduate

    graduate Member

    Again it is a matter of personal choices and individual preferences, instead of doing a second masters, I would opt for a 'low named' PhD even if it isn't the best option but I'm sure some people prefer a second masters with a 'better name school'.

    I would still suggest to continue till you find a better option. A drop costs time to get in the market, like if you are planning on teaching, then why not get a deg sooner than later? Am sure still it sounds better than Walden/NCU/GCU(apologize from the grads), that is a highly personal opinion.
     
  4. onlymybest

    onlymybest Member

    Messaged my student adviser who stated that I had a year to take sign up for classes again without reapplying. Maybe things will get cleaned up by then.
     
  5. graduate

    graduate Member

    Great; And I got acceptance letter today, now have to 'motivate' myself over the weekend on that :)
     
  6. onlymybest

    onlymybest Member

    That's awesome! Classes just started earlier this week, so you can probably sign up for a class and get started today and just catch up over the weekend.
     
  7. dhinkz

    dhinkz New Member

    I was accepted a few months ago into the PhD IT program. I am slated to start in the end of October. I had the following classes transfer from previous course work:

    ITS 630 – Organization Leadership and Decision Making
    ISOL 633/MSDF 633– Legal Regulations, Compliance, and Investigation
    ISOL 532 - Telecommunications and Network Security
    ITS 831 – Information Technology Importance in Strategic Planning
    ITS 833 – Information Governance
    ITS 834 – Emerging Threats and Countermeasures

    I have 5 courses left in the content specialty area of Cyber Security and 3 core courses. How are you guys typically scheduling course loads? On or two courses at a time? I feel confident that for the content area and possibly the core courses that I can take two courses at a time based on my previous coursework and experience. But I know at 8 weeks these are accelerated classes and I don't want to over burden myself. What do you guys think based on personal experience? Also, how many terms is it in a year?If there are multiple new terms every two months taking one class at a time is still feasible as I only have 42 credits to complete. Again, just want some feedback based on experiences of current students.
     
  8. kumar413

    kumar413 New Member

    Hi,

    I applied for Ph.D program in Information Technology. I have an interview on monday.
    What kind of questions can i expect in the 30 minutes interview?
    Can you please let me know.

    Thanks,
    Kumar
     
  9. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    I dropped out of the program because I want to pursue different adventure. Your experiences in the field, academic background. I forgot what was my question, but my response that technology is an innovation tools help driving the business organization toward its objective faster. However, technology is not mandatory for business organization. My explanation that not all business requires computer technology, internet, and etc...because the old fashion way still exist.

    Why did I want to study Ph.D in information technology. Why do I choose the University of the Cumberlands' program over other schools. It is mainly convenient because completely online from a decent academic institution.
     
  10. jfitzg

    jfitzg Member

    So I am actually an adjunct at UofC (amongst a few other schools), and can speak to a few of the topics brought up here.

    First off, the school employees at least 150 adjuncts (that was the number of attendees at the last department meeting), and the school really is really liberal on how instructors teach their classes, especially compared to other schools such as UMUC. This is the reason the quality of instruction differs from class to class, it really is up to the instructor on how everything is designed (though the school selects the books used in each class). With that said, the reason some of the classes seem easy/basic is because of the students.

    Basic things like writing a paper are incredibly difficult for a large majority of the students that attend here. As pointed out, this is a big F1 visa school, and I mean big. I have been teaching there for a few years now, had close to 700 students so far, and only 3 have had American sounding names. This school relies on these F1 students heavily, though there are many problems with these students. First off, they cheat like no other. And I don't mean forget to cite your sources cheat, I mean find a previously submitted paper on CourseHero, change a few words and submit is as your own. I am not saying they all are cheaters, but it is not uncommon to give 1/4-1/3rd a class a 0 for their papers because they copied someone else's work. Some are more obvious (they just grab a paper off the internet, put their name on it, and submit it), and some are less obvious (they grab a paper off the internet, use a thesaurus to change some words, then submit it). Even though I warn students over and over, they still cheat, get caught, then ask for a resubmission and swear they will never do it again (I get at least 5 of these per 8 week term). Those thesaurus based papers are really fun to grade because TurnitIn catches everything, and the students don't even know what they are submitting most of the time. This leads to interesting terms, such as turning Smart Card to Keen Card, then turning Keen Card to Persevere Card. Another example is hard disk to ? to hard circle to hard circle plate (I wish I was making this up, I have had more than one submission refer to a hard disk as a hard circle plate).

    Students also post quiz questions and answers on Course Hero, I have found several of my quizzes posted there. As a response, I create test banks and change the wording on the questions posted on Course Hero as a deterrent, yet people still cheat and fail.

    The students also lie (once again, not all of them, but it is common). I once had a student email me stating he/she missed the midterm because they were in the hospital for the past two weeks, and send me a routine bloodwork document dated 10 days earlier. I checked their activity and noticed they had logged in almost every day for the past week. I asked them to explain and the dates started shifting (not uncommon). Another example is when 3 students submit the exact same paper, they just changed their names on the title page. Of course, TurnitIn catches this and I give them all zeros and report them. A student then emails me and states all 3 of them were at the same house, using the same laptop to submit the paper and they just selected the wrong file. I then asked how were the names changed on each submission, only to be told I must be mistaken. I have numerous examples of this, and I hate to write this, but unfortunately it is the truth about this place.

    I was actually thinking of getting a Ph.D. from this school, but after my experience with this place, I would rather get a degree from a much more reputable university. Just my 2 cents.
     
    Last edited: Sep 26, 2018
    graduate likes this.
  11. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Considering that the US is a nation of immigrants, this is a remarkably xenophobic statement.
     
  12. decimon

    decimon Well-Known Member

    There was no fear or hatred in that statement.
     
  13. jfitzg

    jfitzg Member

    You do realize that it is common for a person for who has no rational or logical argument to attempt to attack the messenger's credibility to attempt to make the argument look invalid.
     
  14. jfitzg

    jfitzg Member

    What is remarkable is how you obviously have no idea what the word xenophobic even means, yet you use it freely.... I would report you for the personal attack, but I would just be reporting you to yourself, lol!
     
  15. heirophant

    heirophant Well-Known Member

    It wouldn't be the first time that an ostensibly American school made its living off recruiting foreign students, many of whom were poorly prepared or struggled with English, then cut academic corners to accommodate them. For example:

    https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?threads/northwestern-polytechnic-university.48180/

    I don't have any way of knowing whether the U. of the Cumberlands is doing this. (Just one anonymous Degreeinfo post.) Somehow I kind of doubt it. But I think that we can agree that some schools do it.
     
  16. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    I agree some with jfitzg because some of them I experienced first hand because I did not teach there. More than half of the names were Indian nationals. Some even asked me an ebook after 2 weeks. I did not like the discussion board with at least 2/3 responses. I rather to have a professor bring up several topics and the students start debating (discussion) based on references and professional experiences. Some student just post "AGREE" and even copy straight from the book or other sources, where I copied and pasted in Google search found exactly the same texts. This is a Doctorate level not a Master or undergraduate degree.
     
  17. dlbb

    dlbb Active Member

    That sounds like a testament to the rigor and substance of their doctoral program.
     
  18. graduate

    graduate Member

    But then the question is what are the other options? I completed a masters from Bellevue and there were times when I took the class instead of the teacher (in multiple courses) as I was the most experienced and knowledgeable resource. I thought about dropping the program but then it was convenient, since i was working 10 miles from the university and I can take the evening classes.
    Most of the classes have same F1 folks (percentage in majority of the classes was 90-95%). I got enrolled here as well but not sure how long I'll be staying here. May be 5 courses and then a transfer, but where :(
     
  19. CalmLogic

    CalmLogic New Member

    In case you are interested, there is an online PhD in Information Science at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. A few campus visits are required.
     
    graduate likes this.
  20. CalmLogic

    CalmLogic New Member

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