Why trash 24 credits toward MA/Ed.?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by rinri, Oct 5, 2001.

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  1. rinri

    rinri New Member

    Hello All,

    Does anybody know of an RA Master's program (via DL in US or overseas) in Instructional Design/Educ. Technology that will accept my already completed 24 graduate (MA) sem. credit hours from a leading RA grad. program in the US, so that I don't need repeat that work? If this is important, the classes were taken in 1997-98. I have not seen any school accept more than 6 credits.

    So far, I know about the following school: http://www.coe.missouri.edu/~muedtech/ (max. 6 cr. transfer; total prog: 32 cr.).

    I would also consider other education specialties and so-called interdisciplinary Master's programs that can accept my credits.

    Any help from the members of this Board is much appreciated.
     
  2. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    I'm not aware of a US school that will take more than 25% of the credit for a Master's from work done elsewhere. Some state laws mandate this; other schools believe that at the graduate level, it is important to 'train' their own graduates. Annoying, I think. But it still may pay to shop around. I note a moderate number of possibilities in the subject index to Bears' Guide, including Boise State, City U (Washington), and Florida Gulf Coast U. It is conceivable that a non-US school with such a program (U of Southern Queensland is one) might be more flexible. Best wishes in your quest.

    John Bear
    Publisher's site: www.degree.net
     
  3. Tom Head

    Tom Head New Member

    This might sound a little silly, but have you thought of taking a backwards approach--doing 9 more credits through distance learning and transferring them into the original school to finish your master's degree requirements?


    Cheers,

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    Tom Head
    www.tomhead.net

    co-author, Bears' Guide to the Best Education Degrees by Distance Learning (Ten Speed Press)
    co-author, Get Your IT Degree and Get Ahead (Osborne/McGraw-Hill)
     
  4. Gary Rients

    Gary Rients New Member

    My wife is in the same boat (19 sh of grad credit to transfer). While searching for something for her I came across Fort Hays State University in Kansas. They have a Master of Liberal Studies program that I believe only requires you to complete 15 sh of credit with them, and you can pretty much name the degree (such as Master of Liberal Studies in Instructional Design). The program requires one 1 sh and three 3 sh core courses plus a 3 sh "culminating experience" which can be a project or mini-thesis type of thing (I think it's pretty flexible), so that would just leave you with 2 sh to take from them, which you could probably do as an independent study in something relevant to your degree. The degree only requires a total of 31 sh, so once you finished those 15 sh you should be done, as long as the courses you are transferring are cohesive enough to give you what you need for the subject area that you want on the degree.

    The courses, etc. can all be completed totally through distance learning. The kicker is that it's incredibly inexpensive at only about $120 per sh for distance learning and no enrollment fees a la Excelsior, et al. So if it works out for you then you might be looking at about $2k to finish your Masters. [​IMG] Unfortunately it won't work for my wife since all courses used toward the degree need to have been completed within 7 or 8(?) years of your graduation date, and my wife's courses are all 7-8 years old right now, so that wouldn't give her time to take the courses before her transfer credit would "expire". It sounds as though your courses are more recent though, so this might be a good option for you.

    The web site is at FHSU MLS. If you navigate around the web site there is more information about the program, and you can email them about your specific situation.

    Good luck!
     
  5. Bill Highsmith

    Bill Highsmith New Member

    It seems like the courses would transfer at the time of enrollment rather than at the end of the program, essentially grandfathering them in. Frequently on things like this, the answer you get depends on which administrator you ask. Ask them all from the bottom to the top and her credits might be accepted.
     
  6. Gary Rients

    Gary Rients New Member

    I thought that it was strange too, but I've found several schools that very specifically state that transferred courses must have been completed within 7-8 years (usually 7) of the date of *graduation*. At first I thought that it was something unique to programs a particular field, but I came across it in programs ranging from education to human resources and development. It seems weird to me, but oh well. Most programs still accept transfer credit at the time that the program is started, so she'll just have to stick with those.
     
  7. Gary Rients

    Gary Rients New Member

    Oops. I wish there was an option to preview before posting...
     
  8. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    Hi Rinri. I think that your best option would be to complete your remaining six units or whatever at your original school, if that's at all possible. But assuming that it isn't...

    The one American option that I know of that might work for you is Western Governor's University's MA in Learning and Technology.
    http://www.wgu.edu/wgu/academics/lt_listing.html

    This is America's only examination based master's degree program. Instead of offering conventional courses, they assess your knowledge in various subject areas, no matter how you learned the material.

    They say that the program is basically aimed at people already working in the field. But if you have already taken 24 graduate units, you should fit in pretty well. While you couldn't transfer your credit in, you could review the material and then test out.

    They conduct their examinations under proctored conditions, in college testing centers around the country. They also use Sylvan Learning Centers.

    This whole concept is kind of experimental, and WGU is currently only a candidate for regional accreditation. But considering the kind of backing they have in the educational establishment, I think that their chances of becoming RA are pretty good.
     
  9. Gary Rients

    Gary Rients New Member

    Their site says that they are a candidate for accreditation with the "Inter-Regional Accrediting Committee (IRAC)." I don't think that I've heard of this accreditation before. Are you saying that IRAC approval is the same as regional accreditation? I'm a bit confused...
     
  10. http://www.wgu.edu/wgu/about/index.html has information about WGU's accreditation.

    WGU was accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) June 6, 2001.

    On November 27, 2000, it was announced that WGU has received "Candidate for Accreditation" status by the Inter-Regional Accrediting Committee (IRAC). There's a link to a press release at http://www.wgu.edu/wgu/about/release49.html which explains: "IRAC is the sixteen-member committee that represents four regional accreditation commissions that was formed to conduct the accreditation process for WGU. Candidacy for Accreditation has been approved by each of the four member commissions of IRAC."

    It goes on: "The commissions involved in IRAC are the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (Commission on Institutions of Higher Education), Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges (Commission on Colleges), the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities and Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges). Since WGU is incorporated in the state of Utah, the Northwest Commission on Colleges will serve as the gatekeeping agency with respect to the University."

    According to 12/15/2000 Chronicle of Higher Education article, "Accreditors decided to form a consortium to evaluate Western Governors because its facilities were dispersed and the actual courses came from institutions in several regions. "

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    Kristin Evenson Hirst
    DistanceLearn.About.com
     

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