Sterling College Online

I did a search before I made this post and all seven returns were a minimum of five years old.

I was wandering the "interwebs" looking for affordable history courses and came across this RA brick and mortar Christian college in Kansas, Sterling College. Their online division, Sterling College Online, offers five undergraduate programs and two graduate programs.

Undergraduate tuition is just $135 per credit hour! Graduate tuition is $400 per credit hour.

BACHELOR'S DEGREES: Criminal Justice Administration, Elementary Education, Professional Studies - Secondary Licensure (for degree holders), History, and Organizational Mgmt.

MASTER'S DEGREES: Sports Ministry, Special Education Add-On Endorsement

Sterling College is RA through the Higher Learning Commission, North Central Association. It also has professional/programmatic accreditation through the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE).

It's not too late to enroll for Spring 2019, which starts January 24, 2019. The application deadline is January 10, 2019. There doesn't look to be an application fee, but upon acceptance a $50 deposit is required. Other start dates in 2019 are listed on the Sterling Online home page (scroll down).

Education Students ONLY: A one-time $150 Watermark Data Fee is required. I didn't see any info about what a Watermark Data Fee is, but that can be remedied by sending an email to ask about it.

Lastly, student may need to arrange for exam proctoring (link to guidelines).

 

BAs in CJ, Education, History and Org. Mgmt. The thing that catches the eye is the Masters in Sports Ministry. I'm not exactly sure what that involves but if I can get a crash course, I think my Patriots are going to need a little extra help this year if they're going to make it to the big dance.

Certainly the price is right. It's interesting that Kansas is home to two of the more affordable degree programs (Ft. Hays being the other)

 

Have a friend who went to Sterling--then to Emory for grad (she's very smart). Tiny, tiny town, tinier college. But yes, a very legitimate B&M school, liberal artsy, affiliated with the relatively liberal PCUSA (though that said, like most such denominations, it's not monolithic, I used to be on paid ministry staff at a PCUSA many years ago, and I am not liberal in doctrine). I've been by there, nice little campus, the kind of place I'd be glad to send the kids. On the minus side (for the ones who believe the Bible's a real thing teaching truth), you might run into the occasional prof who'll tell you the Bible's just pious Iron Age mythology; on the plus side, you're extremely unlikely to run into an administrator who can correctly recite doctrinal statements, but who seems to understand the meaning of not a one, and who tryannizes your adult child for questioning faculty or dating the opposite sex.

 

Mmmm. Sounds like maybe someone might have had a bad experience once upon a time. Maybe.

 

Kind of. Not at a college, but at churches which had the same mindset, though I did once work with a pastor who'd gone to Pensacola Christian for undergrad and had pretty much been destroyed by the tyrants there (this was the poor schmuck I wrote about elsewhere who later went to the Master's Seminary under John MacArthur and got Tyranny 2.0 for grad school). My oldest daughter once visited a church, her boyfriend's at the time (thankfully now an ex-boyfriend), a little bitty Deep South fundamentalist church, and the middle-aged church ladies (think Dana Carvey) kept offering her a sweater. She figured they were just being a bit fussy, overconcerned, because it wasn't all that cold there "No thanks, m'am, I'm fine, nice and toasty", but when one approached her and literally draped a sweater over her shoulders without asking permission, she knew something odd was afoot. Evidently her boyfriend then clued her in on his church. They were offended because her arms were exposed! He also told her no one at his church was allowed to play high school or college sports, watch any movies, or wear shorts, not even the men (imagine all those women just lusting after guys' hairy legs and men writhing in passion at the sight of a womans bare arms--an outrage, I tell you!)

Turns out the pastor (who I met once--a hulking but reptillian creature, reminded me a great deal of old photos of Boss Tweed, the ones you'd see in the high school civics books) had developed an entire theology around the story of Adam and Eve and how God presumably had to sacrifice an animal to provide them clothing because of the embarassment of their nakedness in Eden. There was evidently much discussion about what type of animals might have been available in that part of the Middle East at that time and how much yardage of animal skin would've been likely used and the pastor and elders had concluded, after biblical study and theological debate, that both legs and arms would've been covered, therefore, to do otherwise would be greivous sin.

Such people still exist out there, they tend to congregate in the Deep South (though not exclusively), and when you try to reason with them (as I have), to tell them that maybe the Lord had a larger point there about how defying God leaves us exposed and humiliated and vulnerable, but that He'll still protect us, even to the point of sacrifice of life--in this case, the animal(s)--to do it, and that might be the takeaway, the big point, nope, they'll be ready to burn you at the stake because they want to debate how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. By the way, that boyfriend at the good little fundamentalist church? Ended up being something of a sadist--surprise!

 

Preacher - There are 2 ways to do things in this world, my way and the wrong way.
Me - Smell ya later.

 

Yep!

 

UPDATE:
I enrolled and gave Sterling College Online a try. Spring 1 courses (7 weeks) started on January 24, 2019. A little while ago, I informed my advisor that I wanted to officially withdraw. I initially enrolled in two courses then dropped one and tried to stick with the remaining course. Nothing "bad" happened. HOWEVER... the instructors for the two courses I was taking had unrealistic and unreasonable expectations for students. And, I'm going to assume that, because it happened in both of my classes, this is the norm for Sterling Online. They haven't figured out that you can't cram 16 weeks of information into 7 weeks without leaving some things out.

So, as I was beginning this post, I received a reply email from my advisor asking what was wrong and could she help. Below is my reply to her.

(screenshot of Week 1 assignment list)

So, that was my experience with Sterling College Online. They have a lot of room for improvement, but I can't be one of their guinea pigs as they try to figure it out. One thing that I do think is worth mentioning is that in all of the dozens and dozens of Google searches I've done, trying to find tuition I could afford to pay out-of-pocket, Sterling College never came up in my search results until the day I made the initial post about it here. So, hopefully, as more people discover them they'll refine things.

 

I am not sure I agree with you at least on one point. I have taken compressed classes and I have taken semester length classes. The learning objectives, course requirements, expected knowledge to be learned, and what you are able to perform are the same from an institution and accreditation standpoint. The benefit of a condensed class is that you are getting the "same" level of instruction/interaction/testing in a much smaller interval, doing the increased (per day) workload, and allowing you to finish each course and the degree quicker. If the condensed class cuts out just as much material as it cuts out days, what is left of the class? You think you should get the same credit, for half the material and half the time, as someone that takes the "full" class?

As for if it is reasonable to complete in that time frame, that isn't for me to answer.

 

False narrative. No course ever covers ALL of the information available, even in B&M schools. Professors have to pick and choose what they can teach in full semester courses all the time. It isn't rocket science to know that a full semester long course cannot be crammed into 7 weeks. It's impossible. So, course adjustments have to be made. And, I didn't say anything about only teaching HALF the material. Another false narrative you're trying to put out here. Not everything that is taught in a course is of the same importance. What I actually said was that for shorter, accelerated courses, professors should pick only the most important materials to cover - within the time span allotted. Again, it's done all the time.

 

For federal financial aid purposes, the amount of student work must coincide with the number of credit hours assigned to a course. If a school has 8-week courses and 16-week courses, it would be difficult for the school to justify why there is less work in the 8-week courses even though they are worth the same number of credits.

https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2009/credit.html

 

False narrative? You are confusing yourself. I didn't mention "all material," as in all material available in the world, only that material which is supposed to be part of a "normal" class as per the syllabus and what they design to match accreditation standards. As far as what gets "crammed" in, it is possible and is required. There are schools that give you the option of the 16 week course or the condensed timeline version and are very clear that the material is the exact same. Since it is "done all the time" what schools do you have on record stating their accelerated courses have "less" of anything related to learning objectives/material compared to the longer course? Again, you seemed to have confused yourself with your expectation of what is possible, required, and your expectation of an easier class.... no reason to be aggressive with anyone.

 

I wasn't aggressive. Not liking my reply to you doesn't make me aggressive. Matter of fact? Yes. But, aggressive, no.

However, you've tried to pick apart my PERSONAL OPINION, and insinuated more than once that I couldn't hack it in the classes, and then had the audacity to demand that I prove my point to you. But, I'M the aggressive one? Seriously? Aggressive is playing dumb (you know exactly what I was trying to say) and then arguing with someone about their own opinions. What is wrong with you!?

We're not going to agree so let's just end this right here. Have a nice day!

 

I understand that. But, I still haven't EVER run into so many assignments due in one week, for one class. I've been taking online courses 7 years at this point, and have taken undergraduate as well as graduate courses. Never, until now, have I felt that the amount of work was impossible to complete without extraordinary effort. I have had a challenging amount of work due before and got it done. So, I can handle a challenge. But, this is the first time that I've ever had to face not being able to get everything done on deadline, through no fault of my own. This is what was due in a three day time span - not 7 days, but 3 days:

• First Americans PowerPoint (45 slides)
• Timed Quiz on First Americans PowerPoint - "quiz" included several discussion/essay questions, in addition to multiple choice and fill-in-the blank. Thirty-five minutes to answer 15 questions, averaging 2.3 minutes per question, including the discussion/essay questions.
• Exploration PowerPoint (53 slides)
• Timed Quiz on Exploration PowerPoint - "quiz" question types the same as the other one. Allotted 40 minutes to answer 25 questions, averaging 1.6 minutes per question, including the discussion/essay questions. This "quiz" had about 5 discussion/essay questions.
• Age of Discovery video
• Quiz on Age of Discovery video
• Read Chapter 1 of textbook
• Timed quiz Chapter 1
• Read Chapter 2 of text
• Timed quiz Chapter 2
• Read Chapter 3 of text
• Timed quiz Chapter 3
• Chapter 3 writing assignment #1
• Chapter 3 writing assignment #2 (a reading then answering 5 discussion/essay questions)

Then, I would've had to turn right around and submit a "response essay" worth 50 points, alone, on January 28, day four.

That was just for one class. I initially had two, and the second was just as bad, so I dropped it. Classes started on January 24. All of this had to be submitted by January 27. Three days! Does this look like a reasonable amount of work to assign to be due in 3 measly days? But, wait, there's more, LOL! You didn't see anything about an EXAM did you? The first one is at the end of Week 2. As I heard someone say once, I'm a bad "B", but I'm not a superwoman.

And, the quiz essay questions being asked weren't "bird" questions that were so easy that you could "fly your way" through the test without much thought. You want us to compare and contrast the entire civilizations of the Aztecs and Europeans in 2.3 minutes tops AND with appropriate grammar and punctuation!? We're out of time before we can gather our thoughts and formulate a thesis sentence. It takes more than 2 minutes to adequately answer a discussion/essay question. But, some of you all are probably reading this and saying "So, what's the problem?" DI must be full of geniuses.

Anyway, most online students are adults, or other non-traditionals, who have other things going on in their lives and cannot dedicate 100% of their time to homework and study. The way Sterling Online is set up, that's nearly what it would take. And, I can just about guarantee you that the on-campus students are not facing this much work in such a short amount of time. They'd never have enough time to have the "college student experience" or go to chapel.

 

That would also be a lot of work for a full-term course, so it lools like this college is just one of those that thinks that more busy work means more academic rigor.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head. But, I have to admit that the inadequate time allowed to complete the quizzes is what really made me give up. If these were the quizzes, what were the tests and exams going to be like? Like I said, I'm up for a challenge, but this felt like they were purposely stacking the deck and setting up an environment to fail (money grab). I had to make a quick decision to keep from owing tuition, so I withdrew before the deadline.

 

I doubt it is a money grab, but probably just an ill-prepared adjunct who did not think it through and put in very minimal work into turning it into a condensed course.

In a semester long course that is of normal length, you can expect to work up to 15 hours per class. That should include lecture time, homework, study, tests, etc. How this breaks down at each school and number of credits will vary slightly per institution. How many hours you need to work for each credit hour should be specified somewhere. If it is a super condensed course, that amount could double or triple depending on how condensed the accelerated version was. Does every course require that amount? I think not, although they really should. That doesn't mean that they need to be draconian and unrealistic with due dates.

I do think some of what you described sounds like busy work. It might be better to have a more comprehensive quiz or test with more realistic time allotted to answer the questions. The time frame you describe is indeed absurd. They could test over the same material in one longer test.

I do think three days is absurd as well. They should cover identical content as a full length course, but at least give you time to do the work and readings and stagger it to fit your schedule; start having deliverables due a week out. Online students have difficult schedules, and some may have to wait until a weekend to do the work.

I think condensed classes are in general a very poor idea. I think it is primarily for-profit schools that rely on them to push people through. The exception is summer school. I think one or two if needed during the summer as needed is more acceptable.

 

I've always tried to avoid compressed classes precisely because I'm not prepared to devote all my time to them. I have taken quarter classes as opposed to semester classes, and they made me feel rushed. There was always an exam or an assignment looming.

My preferred learning style (as a part-time student for DL classes) is to take one class a semester, and devote all of my attention to it. That allows me to do all the readings, to do additional readings if I'm motivated, and to think about things. I spent five years doing my part-time MA.

Right. The typical argument in favor of awarding 3 units for a compressed class is that the student is still doing the same work, just in a shorter timeframe. But inevitably, that's going to imply a greater workload per unit time. Students signing up for compressed classes probably need to be prepared for that.

If I'm studying part-time and have other things going on in my life, I don't want compressed classes.

Other than that, I think that Sterling College sounds very attractive.

 

Exactly. Same work, shorter time frame. Similar to you, I take compressed or standard length courses based on preparation (getting books, syllabus, read ahead), how much time each week I have to commit, and my overall time for completion. Regardless, I know going in I am going to have to put in 2 - 3 times more time/work each week on the compressed class to get a similar grade as if I was taking a standard length course. I haven't evaluated Sterling's curriculum/syllabus for this class as to whether it is "too much" or not, that is for the school and potential students to figure out. The rigor may be just what some students are looking for. Regardless, I have dropped courses due to workload/capability in the past myself, one of which changed my entire undergrad path, so I know it is frustrating and disappointing.