What do you think of accelerated courses? For example, some colleges offer semester-long courses that last for eight weeks. Does it feel like the pace is too fast or that you are cramming too much?
8 weeks is good. National University offers a Masters degree program with one class a month. Imagine after 2 weeks a midterm and end of the month a final. My wife earned Masters degree in such program from National University. I had classes at the master degree graduate certificate that are 7 to 8 weeks per class. I completed 2 such classes in 8 weeks while working FT and having other obligations.
I feel like 8 weeks is enough to get a lot out of a course. My courses at Lamar are delivered over an 8-week session. While Don Bosco had no term limit, I had to complete one course every month in order to complete the 12 courses in my MBA in one year. I felt like that was too fast as I didn't fully grasp the material.
I completed my MBA at Corban University and every course was (and still is) 5 weeks long. Many students, and especially many who post on this forum, are obsessed with the idea of "quick" or "fast". While this may sound great, it is not easily done. In my case, there were one or two discussion board posts per week (along with 2 - 3 required replies) plus a weekly assignment. In some instances, though there was additional work to be done. For example, in the Managing IT class there were multiple discussion boards each week plus weekly assignments. In addition to that, however, there was also an annotated bibliography that was due at the end of the course in which I needed to provide 20 - 25 references which resulted in even additional work each week (and I fell behind on this part and REALLY felt the strain of 5 week courses). Between that and not really getting a break in-between classes it lead to some serious burnout. I took 3 straight classes over 15 weeks in Fall '14. By the time that semester was over, I can only thank divine intervention that I had my sanity left. To be fair, it wasn't just the school workload. It was just school, plus work, plus family as well. All I can say is this: Proceed with caution. I enjoyed my time at Corban and I got out of it what I put into it just like any other program, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't frequently wish for a slower place.
My first online classes were with Thomas Edison. They were 12 weeks. As a teacher at the community college, we always used 16 week semesters, so I worried a bit about 12 weeks being fast- but by the end of my year at TESU, I was dreading the 16 week semesters I had to endure at work lol. I took a summer session that was 5 weeks- quite fast, I was glad I only took 1 class. I also took an 8 week lab science, possibly just my perspective of the added lab, but it felt like a lot of work.
People usually take fewer courses at a time when they take accelerated courses, so you'll have more time to focus on two courses rather than worrying about four or five courses at once.
I don't doubt it! In the 80s, I took Biochemistry (with lab) in class in a Canadian 13-week Community College form - two nights a week. It went fine, but I think I did more work in that 13 weeks than in any other course, anywhere. 8-week format would have killed me - and I was young (about 45) back then! :smile: Good crowd of students. The best! Almost all except me were nurses, taking course for B.Sc. (Nursing) credit. J.
