Kennedy-Western Faculty to Present at DL Conference

Discussion in 'Accreditation Discussions (RA, DETC, state approva' started by Anthony Pina, May 13, 2005.

Loading...
  1. Anthony Pina

    Anthony Pina Active Member

    I have said many times on this forum that faculty at the virtual universities need to be publishing and presenting at the technology conferences, in order to help establish their institutions' reputation in the field. Although I have been presenting at various technology conferences for over a dozen years, this will be my first time to participate in the Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning in Madison, Wisconsin.

    While perusing through the program, which includes several well-known people in the field of instructional technology & distance learning, I was surprised to find a presentation given by two faculty from…Kennedy-Western University.

    Now, most of the people on K-W’s list of faculty appear to have full-time jobs at other institutions. However, Ms. Swanson and Ms. Meister-Emerich have chosen to list Kennedy-Western as their primary affiliation in the conference program. I find this fascinating. I have never seen K-W represented at any conference that I have ever attended. Their topic is interesting and I am tempted to attend their session.

    http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/index.cfm?main=showcase

    I am eager to read some reactions from my colleagues here on Degreeinfo. I must admit that K-W’s website is better looking than those of many colleges and universities (including, much to my chagrin, my own university's site) :)

    Tony Piña, Ed.D.
    Northeastern Illinois University

    The title of my presentation? Oh, I am giving a roundtable (Cracker-barrel) session called “Online Diploma Mills: Why Distance Educators Need to be Concerned”.
     
  2. oxpecker

    oxpecker New Member

  3. DaveHayden

    DaveHayden New Member

    Wouldn't be interesting if K-W decided to renounce their degree mill ways and becomes something close to a real university? I wonder if such a change is possible.
     
  4. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    Hey Tony! The presentation I like is this one:

    "Street Prostitution is an asynchronous, Web-based course using database-driven content to provide a choice-driven learning experience..."

    Now we're talkin'!!!

    (If you want to increase enrollments, you've gotta offer what students really want.)

    But how do they deliver it online? It's a criminal justice simulation? Oh, never mind....

    Moving on to the K-W presentation...

    "Asynchronous delivery of an open-entry course

    This is an example of one course, out of 500 courses offered, which demonstrates the delivery model used by Kennedy-Western University. Courses are designed using a modular format, which includes multiple self-assessment opportunities. Offered as open-entry, a student may be the only one taking the course at a given time or may be one of many enrolled at the same time. The model allows for anytime, any pace, and any place learning."


    That sounds kinda like marketing to me.

    I've always had the impression that K-W offers reasonably credible courses, though I've heard contradictory things about their quality. The real question with K-W is how many of those courses typical students actually have to take and how many catalog requirements are waived by sales reps/counselors for life experience. The K-W administration is always vague about how that part works.

    There's a strange bit of cognitive dissonance associated with K-W. On one hand they offer hundreds of wonderful classes that supposedly should be a model to the DL community. On the other hand they fled from California (in spirit if not in body) and avoid the accreditors like the plague. What's up with that? How is that consistent?
     
  5. galanga

    galanga New Member

    Gelzer

    Claudia Gelzer's testimony at the Senate Government Affairs committee a couple of years ago was damning.
    The transcript is too long to fit here; please see the Committee's web site.
     
  6. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    Very interesting tidbit!!!

    I personally had always assumed that the educational side was always fairly rigorous, whereas the administrative side of KWU is by all appearances very millish. The senate hearings were a big wake up call to me that I should have been more skeptical when the KWU graduates kept saying how academic rigorous the intructional side was.

    I suspect that the KWU faculty is paid by the job. I would therefore assume that these two KWU teachers are being paid for this particular job? I wonder what their response would be to a question regarding the senate hearings? The testimony indicated that the two graduate classes taken were passed with only 16 hours of total effort and zero prior relative knowledge in the course material. Most of that time was spent getting familar with the table of contents and the index in each of the two books and then the taking of the open book tests.
     
  7. Hotel, Foods – Vine – Lobsters.

    The GAO hearings were a total circus.

    The Federal Government paid to everybody (Hotel, Foods – Vine – Lobsters, and Expenses) and creates a fascinating story.

    The purpose of that circus is for destroy some politics that have degrees of some of the Victims (California State Approved Universities) of that circus; also specially KWU (Wyoming – California).

    Now, they not count, that the thing hanging in my wall:D :D, was in process to be accredited; now, they are accredited. (By the way; more grease to you A Man, everybody knows that you do not want that in the cool North of USA).

    To summarize, that entire circus, is only a politic move, they paid well $$$$$$$$$. We know that.
     
  8. Jodokk

    Jodokk Member

    Re: Hotel, Foods – Vine – Lobsters.

    OK, that entire post was like a weird english translation of a Japanese translation of something or another. But I'm seriously curious... What does it mean?
    Dan B
     
  9. galanga

    galanga New Member

    boats in rough seas

    In short, you believe that a Coast Guard officer (who sails into storms to rescue civilians in peril) has submitted dishonest testimony to a Senate committee. And her price was a lobster dinner.

    You should be ashamed.
     
  10. Re: Re: Hotel, Foods – Vine – Lobsters.

    No Japanese, is a Greek language translation. :D :D
     
  11. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Re: Hotel, Foods – Vine – Lobsters.

    Military officers are sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States. It is not something we take likely. While it is certain that some of us make mistakes, tell lies, commit crimes, and can even be bribed, these are extraordinary events, not common ones. I'd like to see some proof of this poster's claim before jumping to his conclusion. (Yeah, like that's ever going to happen.)

    I would also like to see some semblance of a motive for all of these alleged improprieties. What would be in it for the parties concerned? Not that such an explanation would be sufficient. But its lacking would be sufficient to dismiss the rambling gibberish of an anonymous poster who has repeatedly demonstrated his/her propensity for twisting the truth about degree mills. :rolleyes:
     
  12. decimon

    decimon Well-Known Member

    Re: Re: Hotel, Foods – Vine – Lobsters.

    Yeah, that's the kind we had. :)

    What we actually had was careerists and one-termers. The oath was perfunctory.
     
  13. decimon

    decimon Well-Known Member

    I hope you can attend. Who better than you to assess their presentation?
     
  14. Jodokk

    Jodokk Member

    I see

    Well, it was all Greek to me.
    Thanks
    Dan B
     
  15. Jake_A

    Jake_A New Member

    BD: "I've always had the impression that K-W offers reasonably credible courses,...."

    Me: Not so. Exactly what is the basis for this impression of yours? KW"U" offers hundreds of wonderful TEXTBOOKS, not courses. It will be interesting to hear or read about what exactly these KW"U" conference presenters will actually present!

    It has been amply documented and reported on, that at KW"U":

    - There is no faculty-led teaching, online or otherwise; one reads the textbook (usually quite good texts) and at any time of one's chossing, take the one open-book test.

    - If KW"U" "courses" are very good, it is only because the textbook often cited for most courses are most of the time, very good textbooks, written by top RA-degreed authors and professors at legitimate, mostly RA universities.

    - Take this quiz: have you ever heard of any textbook written and published by KW"U" faculty/professor? Nada! Zero to nil - or at best, very, very few. A drop in the ocean!

    - KW"U" has no required faculty interactions; no quizzes, tests, essays, assignments, mandatory discussions.

    - No instructional CDs or videos, no web-enabled class- or group-based instruction;

    - KW"U"s implementation of the "Blackboard" software system is a colossal joke (up until the damning May 2004 US Senate hearings).

    - KW"U" professors do not post their course materials, lesson-by-lesson.

    - There are no detailed lesson plans, no elaborate lecture notes that are like little textbooks.

    - For some KW"U" "courses," the name of the one textbook for the "student" to purchase and a faxed or mailed brief introductory note with some additional readings is all an enrollee gets upon paying thr lump-sum fee for the degree and registering.

    - KW"U" makes it very, very clear that any and all additional readings and illustrative materials are not required and will not be included in the one and only open-book test.

    - There are no KW"U" lecture audio and video. The once-in-a-blue-moon online lecture that is publicized are nothing more than poorly-attended chat sessions not worthy to be called a "university" class or course.

    - KW"U" offers no "courses" in the traditional sense of the term; One named textbook and an open-book exam is what KW"U" refers to as a course! This is a "university" course given by a "university?"

    Read/listen/review the rigor of the fairly representative KW"U" Environmental Engineering program or course, here, at this US senate hearings webcast archive:

    BD: "The real question with K-W is how many of those courses typical students actually have to take ......"

    Me: Fact; documented.

    Bachelors degree: (4) mostly, to 8 (quite rarely) courses, plus final paper.
    Masters degree: (4) mostly, to 8 (quite rarely) courses, plus final paper.
    Doctorate degree: (4) mostly, to 8 (quite rarely) courses, plus final paper.

    BD: "...... and how many catalog requirements are waived by sales reps/counselors for life experience. The K-W administration is always vague about how that part works."

    Quite true!

    BD: "On one hand they offer hundreds of wonderful classes...."

    See above.

    BD: "On the other hand they fled from California (in spirit if not in body) and avoid the accreditors like the plague. What's up with that? How is that consistent?

    It is not consistent with a legitimate "uiversity." But it is consistent with a supremely less-than-wonderful school that shares a lot of characteristics with a sham, a scam and even outright diploma mills, IMHO.

    Thanks.
     
  16. Jodokk

    Jodokk Member

    Yeah

    Yeah! What he said.
     
  17. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    Re: Hotel, Foods – Vine – Lobsters.

    It appears that you are accusing an apparently honorable person of lying under oath to the US Senate so that she could get a free meal!!!! Assuming that I've properly deciphered your ramblings, you are dishonorable.
     
  18. Bill, in the real live and in politics, not in the video games (Smart Guy), everything can happen. Just ask Alexander the Great, where are the weapons of Mass destruction?

    Note that the New Alexander the Great (George), an apparently honorable person, lie to the world in order to wet petroleum.

    Bill, this is real live and politics, not video games.:D
     
  19. Jodokk

    Jodokk Member

    Not Real

    OK, you're not actually a "real live" poster are you... This is too easy. Stop it. I mean beside all the bs about KW you're slinging, your strange take on english cannot be attributed strictly to ESL problems...tell the truth. Come on.
    Dan B
     
  20. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Re: Re: Re: Hotel, Foods – Vine – Lobsters.

    Of course, I meant "lightly." I was a little peeved when I typed it.

    Decimon, who is "we"? Were you a commissioned officer? If so, I'd be shocked at your attitude. If not, you don't know what the hell you're talking about.
     

Share This Page