UConn Grad School and Distance/Online Courses

[Chin Diesel]

I'm looking at grad schools in a couple of different fields of study. I was born and bred in Ct but intentionally chose to not attend UConn as an undergrad so that I could get out of the area and find my way (or something like that. I definitely didn't want to be within 30 minutes of my home).

Now, I'm out of state but thought it might be nice to trade up from tailgate fan to alumnus. Due to geography and a job that requires frequent travel, I'd need to be enrolled in a Master's program that can be done 100% online.

Looking at UConn's website, it seems to be behind many other schools for online Master's programs. If I'm reading it correctly, the only Graduate degrees are the following: Accounting, Educational Technology, gifted and Talented Education, Human Resource Mgmt, Neonatal Nursing and Survey Research.

http://ecampus.uconn.edu/programs.html

It seems odd that you can't even get a general MBA online.

I see it from a couple of different angles. Online degrees increases risk of fraud or misrepresentation. It also decreases the collegiality of the classroom experience. On the other hand, the world is getting smaller and UConn is limiting its pool of potential students to the tri-state area and those whose work schedule allows attending classes at regular intervals.

Overall I lean towards greater online classes moving forward. It really is the future educational model in a global economy; especially for graduate degrees in professional fields. The number of students rolling directly from a bachelor's into a full-time or part-time campus-based curriculum can't be expanding.

I realize that school's want to protect their reputations via graduate outputs and job/career metrics. No one wants their degree programs devalued as diploma mills.

Any relevant opinions from the board on UConn or other online/ecampus programs?

 

[upstater]

The early data on online classes shows that they are failing in terms of effectiveness. Most students are multi-tasking and fast forwarding through lectures and getting very little out of it. Faculty who teach on campus already have enough on their plates without going out of their way to develop a really strong online course. Universities are simply videotaping lectures without giving much though to producing truly effective online communication. There are only a few schools in the country who are thinking this through from the bottom up: Virginia, Georgia Tech, MIT, etc. In other words, don't hold your breath.

 

[huskypantz]

I have my undergrad at UConn and decided to get my masters in here in Boston. I had a pretty specific need (Health Care and IT) and Northeastern happened to have a masters program that fit my needs (this was before BU, Harvard and others added programs). I started off classroom only (2009), but by my second year they began offering some of the same classes online, taught by the same professors. Toward the end I had specific classes I wanted to take that were online only during various semesters, so I ended up taking 2 classes online. Here are my thoughts on the online courses:

• The same professors taught both in-person and online courses. As far as I could tell, the syllabus was always the same, just different medium.
• The classes were pretty intensive. While I agree that students could multitask and go through the motions, let's be honest - they can do that in person too. You get out of it what you put into it. I easily did as much work in the online classes as the in-person classes. There was actually so much work that slacking for a week put you in a major hole.
  
• I met some pretty cool people in the online classes from all over the country and Canada as well. The in-person classes were great for networking with people in the Boston area. The smaller your program is, the more often you run into the same people and build stronger rapport. You can still do that in the online classes assuming you have team projects or collaborative efforts.
• They are very convenient. My in-person classes were in Boston but I lived/worked in the burbs (mostly)- I had to deal with traffic getting in to the city, paying for parking, and then dealing with road construction on the way home. More expenses and time spent commuting. The online classes are great if you are big on maximizing time.

Would I do a completely online program today if I had the chance? Yes for one of two reasons. One, if it was a program that was not available locally or at all convenient. Two, if it was for a university that I felt was beneficial to have a degree from.

 

[intlzncster]

I've heard Kentucky offers an amazing range of online and independent study courses. Not too sure about their rigor though.

 

[huskiesNhoos]

I'm looking at grad schools in a couple of different fields of study. I was born and bred in Ct but intentionally chose to not attend UConn as an undergrad so that I could get out of the area and find my way (or something like that. I definitely didn't want to be within 30 minutes of my home).

Now, I'm out of state but thought it might be nice to trade up from tailgate fan to alumnus. Due to geography and a job that requires frequent travel, I'd need to be enrolled in a Master's program that can be done 100% online.

Looking at UConn's website, it seems to be behind many other schools for online Master's programs. If I'm reading it correctly, the only Graduate degrees are the following: Accounting, Educational Technology, gifted and Talented Education, Human Resource Mgmt, Neonatal Nursing and Survey Research.

http://ecampus.uconn.edu/programs.html

It seems odd that you can't even get a general MBA online.

I see it from a couple of different angles. Online degrees increases risk of fraud or misrepresentation. It also decreases the collegiality of the classroom experience. On the other hand, the world is getting smaller and UConn is limiting its pool of potential students to the tri-state area and those whose work schedule allows attending classes at regular intervals.

Overall I lean towards greater online classes moving forward. It really is the future educational model in a global economy; especially for graduate degrees in professional fields. The number of students rolling directly from a bachelor's into a full-time or part-time campus-based curriculum can't be expanding.

I realize that school's want to protect their reputations via graduate outputs and job/career metrics. No one wants their degree programs devalued as diploma mills.

Any relevant opinions from the board on UConn or other online/ecampus programs?

I'm finishing up my masters in mech engineering at nc state. Did the whole thing online and thought it was a real good program/setup. There was an on campus section and the lectures were video taped so I just watched them during the week or on the weekend when I had time.

You definitely have to put in the extra effort because while some professors were fantastic, others weren't particularly helpful

 

[gtcam]

Try UNC
Perhaps all you have to do is sign up, pay your cash and you can print any degree you chose
Worth a try
But don't tell Roy you are doing this

 

[Chin Diesel]

I've taken several online classes over the past few years, some better than others.

Most of the best classes I've taken were managed entirely through McGraw Hill Connect. It's an interesting way of learning. The book is an e-book. You pay either directly via the website or buy a scratch off code at the university bookstore. Trust me, it's an insane feeling dropping $125 on what looks like a scratch off lottery ticket. You can pay an extra $15 so that you can print out the book. Each week has 1-2 chapters of reading, a series of practice questions which must be completed, graded homework and a timed 20 minute quiz which is usually 12 questions. There are ways to "game" the graded practice and the homework, but the quiz is legit. If you just try to log on for the quiz without reading the material the time goes by quickly. 90 seconds per questions for a multiple choice question means you need to know material. Trying to read the key words in the stem, using a search function in the text and toggling back to the question to read the distractors usually takes more than 90 seconds.

The other method that worked well was done via the university's online portal. Each week had graded quizzes, a 300-500 word (1-2 page) position paper using MLA/APA, etc that had to be posted to a discussion board. You had to post your paper by mid-week and then respond with a 150-300 word response to at least two other papers.

Like others have said, I don't think it was any less time spent than attending class for 3 hours a week and completing the homework associated with it. When I assess the classes I have to remind myself that I'm more than twice the age of most of the students and have more background on the material.

Regional, global and E-campus/online learning aren't going away. It'll be interesting to see who the leaders are in it and who are the laggards.

From the instructor POV, you have a few options. Just videotaping class lectures and posting them online for viewing seems archaic. Most of my classes have instructor audio with a power point presentation augmenting it. As others have said you can gaff off the online lectures just as easily as sitting through a lecture hall and doodling in your notebook. Many of them also have video presentations relating to the material using You Tube videos (Often from TED TV). The best run classes have set times each week that the instructor is available online for Q&A and also have discussion boards regarding the week's content.

I'm looking at different MBA or MSA programs in fields relating to systems engineering, holistic training/qualifications, worker performance metrics or similar fields.

 

[Leebo]

I completed my bachelor's degree through Excelsior College, which did require me to do a handful of online courses, but I opted to do almost all of my credits through taking exams.

Basically, you buy the course materials, study on your own for however long as you'd like, and then schedule an exam at a testing facility which is worth your entire course credit. It can be a little stressful, but for me it worked great. All the deadlines were my own, so I could push a test back or move it up to fit around my schedule. I work full time and also take language courses. It also allowed me to go at a pace that online or standard courses would never allow. I completed everything in 14 months.

I do, somewhat unusually, really enjoy test-taking for some reason, so it's not for everyone, but it worked out great for me. The tests are cheaper than courses, and it eliminates the "did he cheat or have someone else do it for him" question, because the facilities always require ID and palm scanning, and they video tape you taking the test.

 

[huskiesNhoos]

Coursera is a cool site too. You can take classes from tons of different schools in a ton of different subjects

Not really sure how it works yet as I haven't had time to take one while I'm finishing my other program. I'd be interested to hear anyones thoughts who has taken a class through it

 

[intlzncster]

Coursera is a cool site too. You can take classes from tons of different schools in a ton of different subjects

Not really sure how it works yet as I haven't had time to take one while I'm finishing my other program. I'd be interested to hear anyones thoughts who has taken a class through it

The Khan academy is another good one. Also, plenty of top schools offer great offerings (talking the MIT crowd here).

 

[intlzncster]

The book is an e-book. You pay either directly via the website or buy a scratch off code at the university bookstore. Trust me, it's an insane feeling dropping $125 on what looks like a scratch off lottery ticket. You can pay an extra $15 so that you can print out the book.

This is patently absurd. There's absolutely no reason to charge that much. Much of the excessive pricing for science, math, and economics text books used to be justified by the cost of printing (what with all the equations and symbols, etc). But $125 for an ebook? And then $15 for printing?? Come the duckck on. That shoots the old justification in the arse. And it's not like it is that difficult to put this kind of text book together any more. All the hard work has been done. There's a million Calc text books out there: creating a new one is a lark.

I wholeheartedly support pirating in this scenario.

 

[Leebo]

When I had to buy my course materials, I always checked Amazon first, and was often able to get pretty cheap digital rentals. There were only a handful of times when the cheapest or only option was my school bookstore.

But it sounds like anyone putting that digital scratch voucher system together isn't going to offer a Kindle version.

 

[Chin Diesel]

This is patently absurd. There's absolutely no reason to charge that much. Much of the excessive pricing for science, math, and economics text books used to be justified by the cost of printing (what with all the equations and symbols, etc). But $125 for an ebook? And then $15 for printing?? Come the duckck on. That shoots the old justification in the arse. And it's not like it is that difficult to put this kind of text book together any more. All the hard work has been done. There's a million Calc text books out there: creating a new one is a lark.

I wholeheartedly support pirating in this scenario.

It's a money maker that removes used books, ebooks or rental books. You need the code to access the course and everything you do is tied to your log in. Once you drop the $$ on it once or twice you realize that paper books and university book stores are f-ed going forward. the profit margin is insane and there isn't any overhead for storage or shipping. Need an update?? No problem. A few key strokes and you are printing fresh cash again.

As for creating a new book, I can't believe that universities actually sell or recommend buying style guides. There's literally hundreds of websites that do it for free. Many university online libraries will sources the book for you. When you "check out" a book from the library and need it as a source you just click the box for whatever style it is and bam it shows up in a pop up window. It's nothing more than a box to click and copy/paste.

 

[TasteofUConn]

I got my PhD online from the University of Phoenix. I highly recommend it. Best $500 I ever spent. The best thing about it was that the degree comes on a roll, so you can hang it for display very easily.

 

[Drew]

On a serious note-

My friend got his MSA from Uconn online last year. You spend the first weekend of the program on campus for "orientation" and then the rest of the course is online. It's a phenomenal program so if you're looking at a MSA I would suggest looking into it.