Final Class – And Thank God

Tonight is my final class at UOP. While I am sure that the counselors would love for me to return to get my masters (although my academic counselor might be ready to be rid of me), I have no intention of doing that just yet, and almost assuredly not at the University of Phoenix.

I have been reflecting back on my UOP experience this last week, in large part to a number of comments earlier posts have gotten in recent days, and I think I believe the following things.

1. The general public is buying into the idea that everyone should go to college. The realization is that at some point in the education process (just like the regular workforce) you have to start separating the able from the rest. Not everyone is capable of completing the highest level of academic work. Instead of providing institutions that have lower requirements than others, we need to standardize the education and exclude more people. Imagine if each public high-school was able to establish it’s own graduation criteria. How much faith would people have in the education from certain high schools?

2. UOP does a good job of providing the basic education services to the adult learner. The bottom line is that I was wanting a college experience similar to what I received the first time. I originally attended Westminster College in Fulton, MO. For people who want a rich history, and a tough academic curriculum, combined with some good college fun, I can’t think of a better place to go. Small town, good school, and the best instructors you can find. UOP is not trading on it’s academic rigor like Westminster is. UOP is trading on volume, and the basics. I should have done a better job of realizing that earlier in my curriculum and gone somewhere else.

3. The team concept can go to far. In work environments, companies are increasingly going to a team environment for work assignments. This works in most cases because in private industry you have accountability for your contributions. (I work for the government which mutates this idea in a bad way, but that is a different concept). At UOP, students do not have really have accountability for their work because the consequences are not routinely enforced. I would be surprised to see someone actually flunk out of UOP. One instructor talked about how a person could do only the team assignments, and participation points, and still graduate from UOP. Beings you don’t normally put a GPA on a resume (unless it is followed by **** cum laude) then why work hard?

4. Professional people are not always good teachers. Not everyone can teach. If you don’t believe me then you need to try it yourself. Some people just do not have the ability or the patience for it. UOP needs todo a better job of making sure it’s instructors are actually doing their job, and of monitoring their classes. I have received comments that the online courses are monitored fairly well, but their on-ground courses (especially in Kansas City) are not. 2 years, and I have yet to see someone audit a class.

5. Most UOP students are not looking for a education, they are looking for a degree. They want the piece of paper that they see as the key to the corporate ladder. If they really wanted an education, then more of them would be writing blogs like this one.

I don’t know if I will keep posting to this after today. If comments appear and others have questions I will be sure to respond. My profile should now list my real name, and this post pretty much gives away anything you need to know about me. If UOP staffers find this and want to talk to me, e-mail me, you have my address in your files.

Thanks

Josh

Do you really need college, or just the degree?

I played golf with a friend of mine yesterday who is considerably older. Successful financial planner that is closing in on his own retirement. We got to chatting about college and I told him I was going back to complete my degree now. That lead to a further discussion about college in general and he said to that, in his opinion, really the college degree is really nothing more than a formality to his business. In some cases, even a Masters degree is not significant enough to really add any value.

It got me thinking, can any place really teach a person the most critical skills that are needed to survive in the business world?

Most people would agree that you need critical thinking (which is really just problem solving), research skills, and communication skills to succeed in any job. The level of these that is needed depends on the job you are going after, but you still need these just the same.

 I am starting to believe that no matter what the school teaches, you can’t really teach these skills. Someone is going to read this and get mad that I said you can’t teach research skills. Yes, you can teach people how to do simple research, just like you can point them to a stack of encyclopedias or google and tell them to look it up. What you can’t teach is the part of research where you have to identify the problem first, and then find the answer without asking you co-worker.

I do computers for a living, and half of the research that I do is not actually finding the answer, it’s finding the real problem so I can look for the right answer.

So if college, either UOP or otherwise, can’t really teach these skills, then why are we paying for the schooling in the first place.

The end is near

So I have been neglectful in posting to this, but I am now in my last class. The CIS course, and we are in week 4. I will be turning in my last UOP individiual assignment tonight. I should feel relieved that I have finally made it. Even exstatic that I will soon be receiving my degree. But the truth is that I still feel like I have wasted money, and time.

 I have the following advice for those studnets who are considering attending UOP. Do your research. I am not saying that it is not appropriate for some people. I am not saying that there are not good experiences, and good instructors.  I am saying that in my experience those cases are rare. So you need to do your homework and make sure you know what you are getting into. Ask existing students to see homework samples. Ask to sit in a observe a class or two. Bounce between classrooms.

Then compare that to other schools. Find the hardest school you visited and go there. It will be hard, and you may not have the perfect GPA, but you will learn more. And that is the point.

Gen 480, Instructor meetings, and the future.

So my Gen 480 class ended last night, but not before I had about a 45 minute meeting with my instructor before hand. In his defense, he was very open to my thoughts and opinions, did not get defensive, and was every bit the professional. He even provided some valuable feedback on some issues, and was suprisngly candid in his statements.

But, in the end, my team was still able to slide through the course with what really should not have been a sufficient level of effort. We did not have a final recommendation for the class, and it really felt like we skated through another course. I don’t think that this is the instructors fault this time. I honestly feel that he would love the opportunity to be much more demanding with the curriculum, but the variance in ability levels in the students is so high that he is really handicapped by the school.

The common statement that I have heard from both my academic counselor and my instructor on both of these occasions, is that they agree I might have made a bad decision in choosing UOP. The instrutor made that statement not attacking UOP, but in stating that it probably was not the best fit for me. I could not agree more. I should have recognized the level of students that I was going to be around and bailed much sooner on, but I didn’t and that is my fault.

I just wonder, who exactly is UOP for. If it is not the ideal situation for me, then who is it the ideal student for? And more, does the ideal UOP student really have a place in the college world. My instructor made a point last night when I raised a issue about academic standards for admission, that the same situation exists in public schools and in private. In todays’ society, high school is a requirement for almost anything. The odds of actually moving up the ranks of any company without having a diploma or GED is nearly impossible. That was not the case 30 years ago.  If today we are saying that you have to have a college degree or else you can’t go on, what will we be requiring of our children in order for them to succeed. Masters, Doctorate, Multiple Degrees?

At what point does college need to be reserved for those people who are willing to do the work, and have the abilities to succeed? Where should that quality limit be set, and never lowered? If we don’t draw a line in the sand, won’t the college degree continue to devaluate, making it no more valuable in the future than a diploma?

UOP Students need to “grow a pair”

At the end of my class last night, the students were giving quick individual presentations over their Past, Present, and Future papers. Now, I talked to several members of the class before it started, and I got the impression that several of them had taken a decidedly negative tone with their paper in reference to the learning experience at UOP. However, when each of those individuals got up to talk about UOP during their presentation, when they had to verbalize their issues with both the isntructor and students listening, all of them chickened out of saying that their papers said.

They danced around the issue like there were on “Dancing with the Stars” and tried to make sure and put a nice polite bow on the topic. As a result, when I got up there and was decidedly more negative, the isntructor was sufficiently suprised. I made the statememt “I do not think my degree will really help me in my career.” After picking his jaw up off of the desk, the instructor asked around the room if anyone else felt that way? After some muffled agreements, the louder voices (with brown noses) started speaking about how much it will help them. I was literally watching the UOP bandwagon groan under the load as the rest of the class jumped right on board.

If we, the students of UOP, do not like what is happening at the school, we are obligated to say something about it. It’s not a recommendation to voice our concerns, it is our duty. And sometimes that means saying things that people do not normally want to hear. That’s why the majority of UOP students I have encountered need to “Grow a Pair”. If you aren’t willing to stand up in front of any member of the UOP staff and tell them what you honestly believe about the experience at UOP, then you have no right to complain. None. You should be forced to sit there and shut-up, and be happy with your worthless degree. I however, have made a habit of standing up and telling them. That’s why my name is on the desk of the campus chair. Becuase I voice my opinion, and don’t stop untis they hear me.

Now, I am feeling a little hypocritical on this topic, becuase I have not divulged my full info either. This is more becuase of the grey area involving my statements about my team members. I am not impressed with their work, but unlike my instructors, I need my team members cooperation in order to complete these classes. So with them, I have to be more tactful. But I do not need to the instructors to like me in order to pass the class. They are paid to be objective and teach the material. If they don’t personally like me or my opinions of the school, that should not affect my standing in the class. (That does not imply that all teachers are ethical in this area, but they should be.)

So, for all of those people who logon to the UOPSucks website and write their opinions, but aren’t relating the same issues to their instructor, academic counselor, team members, campus chairs, and anyone else who will listen, then they need to “Grow a Pair” as well.

Past, Present, and Future

In week4 of my Gen 480 Capstone course, the assignment is to write a paper that details the students personal and professional growth, and how a UOP education has helped the student to grow in both capacities. It’s obvious that the assignment is spun in a way to make sure that each student can reflect fondly on UOP and talk about how they are a much better person and how their career will now advance thanks to the degree.

My concern is that I don’t believe that UOP has helped me in any way. If you are one of the readers of this blog, you should know by now that I am not really a big fan of the school or the curriculum. So this leaves me with a formal paper in which to discuss how while learning is still an important skill, UOP didn’t actually advance my learning or any other professional skills.

Generally, I would be exicted about this concept, but in the nature of a formal academic paper, I am faced with the challenge of writing about how I did not grow from the UOP experience while not making the paper sound like I am standing firmly on my soapbox. Add in the fact that my instructor is one of the head administration members at the school, and the risk for issues grows. I can’t see how it is possible for anyone that has made a career out of the school would not be offended by what I am writing here.

 I am sure that I will go ahead and writing a fairly damming paper about the school. I will also relate the same information during my presentaiton on the paper. The reaction I will get should be interesting, and I will keep you posted on what happens.

The UOP Learning Model is Broken

I just spent the last 4 hours listening to the rest of my class mates give mock “board room” presentations on how they would fix a given problem at a number of companies. Some of the presentations were pretty good, but one dominant theme came through in all of them.

Each team really consists of 1 (maybe 2) people who can really pull their weight, and the rest simply sit back and ride on coattails. And the nature of the team based assignments and grading system at UOP are responsible for this. When facilitators do not, as a rule, give each member of a team different grades for a team presentation, you end up with an imbalance of effort, and of learning.

If someone is allowed to stand in the shadows, then not only are they hurting the team grade (assuming the instructor correctly counts off for that) but they are also hurting themselves by passing up a productive opportunity to overcome any issues they have with public speaking. If for some reason the instructor is not marking down a team because they do not all participate, then the instructor is doing a disservice to all the team members, class members, and students as they are allowing a portion of the team to slip by without having to learning anything and without consequence.

The entire team-model at UOP is a broken concept, and needs to be re-engineered. In IT we would say it needs to be refactored.

In my opinion, the best way to solve the team issues at UOP are.

1. Force a 50% turnover in team members in each class. This will help reduce the stagnation, and will help to expose those who are making a career out of riding someones coattails. It will also reduce burnout, and students might actually learning something from having to work with different people.
   It is also more like real world situations, where the employee is not generally picking his or her co-workers, but must still find a way to survive.
2. Force team members to identify who is responsible for each section of any given assignment. If the team is truly collaborating on the entire paper (as some actually do) then notate that on the assignment. But most teams I have seen use the “divide and conquer” method where the split the assignment up, do their individual portions, and then compile it together at the end. If each person has to notate which piece was theirs, then the instructor can balance their individual effort with the entire teams. This will create some variance in team member grades for a given assignment. But again, this will expose those who aren’t pulling their weight.
3. Require the teams to complete team evaluations each week. I know the school requires them at the end of each class, but most classes I have been in do not actually require or collect them, and I have not seen any thing happen as a result of those surveys. My academic counselor told me that they can adjust a team members grade based on the surveys, but I have seen no evidence that it actually happens.

The other half of the model that I think is broken, is when students are asked to take examples from their work, like in my current class, and use that for analysis. We have to have quantifiable information to determine the problem, which really focuses us down to a small set of issues we can tackle. Combine that with working for a company that doesn’t fit the mold, and you are left digging through SEC filings as your dominant way to get corporate information. This not only limits the students ability to apply other classes (like HR, Organizational Behavior, Quality Management, Employment Law), but it can impact motivation and in my case makes me feel like i am at a disadvantage because i can’t pick a more personal company.

If the class requires using examples, the school should make virtual organizations available for use, and it needs to drastically expand the choices and the detail available. If done correctly, these organizations could accurately reflect the job market of the surrounding campus, making it easier for students to apply the topics in a fairly realistic setting.

As a final note, if any members of the UOP administration or staff, actually read this, contact me. I do not want to just sit here in the blogosphere complaining, but my efforts as a student to make change have been ignored. So I have turned to this. I welcome the opportunity to sit down, in person if needed, and discuss my frustrations with UOP and any other topic I have listed here. I have already sent several e-mails to my academic counselor and the the dean for my campus with this same offer, but the school has yet to accept. So I am extending it to the greater UOP community.

I will gladly provide my full name and identify to anyone who is willing to engage in a discussion with me on these topics. But if you are not, and are only going to read my blog, then all you get is J.

Bad learning teams, and how not to kill them.

I have a bad learning team. And what’s worse is it really fits the description from the despair.com saying about meetings. “None of us is as dumb as all of us.” In looking through and finding this one, I actually stumbled across another one that fits most UOP learning teams even better, Ignorance

So, now that we have established the ideal motivational sayings for my group, I should probably explain why. It really comes down to the fact that non of them have been forced to deliver up to their potential. Everyone on my team has fully accepted the fact that their UOP degree is not really about challenging them intellectually, but more about taking their money and giving them a important piece of paper.

So for our latest course, we have to select some business processes from a selected company for study and analysis. It’s all going to be done with the PFA method (Pulled From Ass) because we don’t have the means or the time to actually do through research, but they can’t even seem to wrap their heads around the high-level concepts. Heaven forbid they actually required to work when they have to complete the simulation part of the assignment. I think that the rest of my team actually believes that “Critical Thinking” is a dirty word.

But as a student who does have the ability to comprehend abstract thought and critical analysis, how do I get the team to understand that. How do you deal with the decision between either letting them fail (and damaging your grade in the process) or carrying them through the class/program? I have carried one of my team members through several classes, because she chooses not to deliver to her ability, and what she does deliver generally falls on the border between plagiarism, and incoherent thought.

15 e-mails have been sent since our last class period, talking only about if we were going to physically meet, or maybe even teleconference. 5 of them tonight that really talked about how everyone was available, but not a single e-mail actually suggested a time or place.

Ignorance really does suit this group, maybe I will buy them that mug for a graduation present.

How can they ensure quality, when they don’t monitor the classes?

I was thinking about the last time I saw a member of the UOP staff actually sit in a monitor another class. It happens all the time in pre-college educational system, but it doesn’t seem to happen at UOP.  So if they are not monitoring the classes and the instructors, then I can only see one other option for how they are evaluating the curriculum, and the learning progression of the students.

1. They must monitor the submitted work.

2. They don’t monitor it at all.

It is possible that they could randomly sample the work submitted by students, but that would be tedious and inaccurate. Not every teacher is looking for the same in a paper, nor are they going to talking about the same topic. And a large portion of writing at this level is about style, which is extremely subjective.

So, becuase the first option doesn’t seem reasonable, this leaves me with the conclusion that UOP doesn’t actually monitor the content of the courses at all. I guess you could consider the surveys that they pass out and collect during each week 5 course as part of that, but how many students actually put real time and effort into those surveys. Most of my class mates simply circle down the line and turn it back in. If that’s the case, then the surveys’ are useless.

If UOP is not going to monitor the quality of the class room education, then how do they know what is going on. Are they intentionally turning the blind eye. Practicing the “see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil” approach?

My guess is yes. That explains a large portion of why the academic quality is so poor, and why I am as frustrated as I am.

If anyone reading this has another opinion, please let me know. Becuase as it sits right now, I think UOP knows that they have a bad product, but if they dont’ actively try to prove it, they can keep convinceing themselves that they are a high-quality institution.

Are students in a non-traditional business at a disadvantage at UOP?

I work in the IT industry, and from what I can surmise, IT is a different beast than alot of other industries out there. But it’s not really all of IT that is strange. IT help desks can be managed the same way as more traditional  help desks, and networking and infrastrcture is much more stable and measureable than other parts. But what I do, which is software development, management is a crap shoot at best, and alot of the traditional business rules can not b easily applied.

Take the finanace class. It taught us how to calculate payback rates, ROI, and other good tools for doing cost-based analysis. But all of those depend on having farily easily obtianable facts on the costs and expenses. I worked at a company who stated that initial estimates for IT project would be done in 2 days, and they were accurate within +- 100%. It wasn’t until 50% of the analysis was done that their policy would give a estimate within 20%. If you are paying for IT people to do that analysis, you might spend alot of money just to determine that you can’t afford to do your project.

The key here is not the complexities of IT projec estimation, it’s that traditional business functions do not smoothly translate to what is a non-traditional business area, and UOP does not have any way to deal with that. The GEN 480 class wants us to solve the business problem of a company but requires financial informaiton. My team members all work for companies so large that the financial picture we do have access to contains so many other factors that it would be impossible to identify the impact our problem has on the bottom line. Once again, UOP does not attempt to account for that. My instructor explained how one past group had been successful at evaluating a large company, but when pressed for more information admitted that one of the team members had been a high-level manager in the organization. So they succeded on luck, and nothing else.

I think that from UOP’s perspective, if you are a small business owner, or management in a small business, they you may have good luck using your company to help in their assignments. But if you company is large, or if like me, the majority of costs involved in the project is labor and therefore not information the company will release to you, you are at a distinct disadvantage in working throught the curriculum. You also are less able to immediately apply the concepts that they are trying to teach.

I asked my finance instructor (both of them) if they could provide me some additional help on how to apply these concepts to the IT side of the house. Neither one could, so I was left with no more information to apply to my business and career than when I started the curriculum. Same for the research class. My project was to evaluate cost savings of using open-source operating systems instead of windows. Becuase one is free and one is not, the project was to simple. Expanded to try to deal with productivity impact, and ran into the road block of no one wanting to provide HR or payroll information.

I think UOP needs to address the fact that students from non-standard businesses are not going to be capable of directly applying the instruction to their jobs, and that they are also getting ignored from the curriculum perspective. But that would mean increased money, academic time, and higher quality standards. I don’t seem doing that.