anyone here taking online college classes? u of phoenix in particular, but any

[mopinko]

college level online classes?
my segundo, who was absolutely not cut out for factory school, but had to go anyway, survived one semester of high school. he took g.e.d. prep classes at the local community college and passed with mostly flying colors. we have been bugging him to get into school, like back where he took the classes, or whatever.
we kind of have a rule here that kids have to go to a cheap school for the first 2 years, expenses paid, then we can talk about a big ticket school. he has been bugging that he wants to get started at an online school. not what we really want, but know that he will stick to it better if it is his choice.
so, he applied to the u of p inline school. it is $1k per 9 week/3 hr class. you can take 2 at a time. no books.
this is over the "cheap school" line, although no books helps. but, we want to let him own the thing, ya know.

so, do people have experience with this particular school? online college in general? how did you do? have trouble transferring credits? (i assume if he goes the whole 2 years and gets an a.a. that that will transfer whole. doesn't always work that way, but mostly.)

please keep kicked if you would. i have a busy day, but will check in around dinner time.

[Deja Q]

1. Even brick'n'mortar diploma mills are better than the online rubbish

:(

Everything i've read says to avoid online classes.

It's a joke, but this is life. What isn't?

[Lyric]

2. I've heard some terrible things about the UoPO

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/150/RipOff0150301.htm

That's one place to start. I don't know much about it, but I *do* know that there are places that refuse to hire UoPO grads, because they don't consider the degrees to be valid. It seems to be viewed on about the same level as places like DeVry. I am not knocking the entire UoP--I've just heard terrible things about the online program.

Good luck.

:hug:

[bamademo]

3. I go online at a local university.

Most community colleges and universities have online classes now.

[Blue Diadem]

7. That's what my daughter is doing.

She spends all day working at one and doesn't want to spend anymore time there for classes so she does them online. Several of her co-workers are doing the same thing.

[rug]

4. Try here.

https://www.excelsior.edu/

[Book Lover]

5. If your kid isn't cut out for school, why make him.her go?

What's wrong with plumber, fireman, etc?

[mopinko]

13. nothing. i would love to see him do something like that.

i spent some time as a carpenter myself. it is a fine way to make a living. it would be really good for him, also, as that is the way he learns best. but the apprenticeship programs here are harder to get into than the universities.
we are talking about maybe a woodworking class, just for the heck of it. i really don't care what he is doing as long is it is not city of heroes 24/7.

[Book Lover]

16. Oh!

Where we are, the plumbers are going begging for apprentices, so I guess I was just assuming! Sorry!

[Sanity Claws]

6. I taught at University of Phoenix

I do not have a good impression of the school. It is a for profit institution which means its decision-making is very different from a non-profit institution. Books are selected on the basis of who will give the best deal to the institution. The text I used was absolutely horrible.
It gives inflated credits for its classes. What may be considered a four credit class at UofP would only be a 2.5 credit class elsewhere.
I don't think employers think much of its graduates.

[SoxFan]

8. I'd stay away from U of Phoenix, but....

there are some online offerings at legitimate brick-and-mortar colleges. I have a neighbor who teaches several online biology courses for the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

Your profile says you are in Chicago, so here are a few links you might want to check:

http://exedweb.cc.uic.edu/uiconline/index.asp

http://www.csu.edu/distlearn/Spring2009OnlineCourses.htm

http://www.neiu.edu/Faculty_Staff/Faculty%20Resources/Instructional%20Resources/Distance%20Education/Distance_Education.html

[Gidney N Cloyd]

10. Try also the Illinois Virtual Campus

http://www.ivc.illinois.edu/

[mopinko]

12. his sister goes to neiu

it's a great little college. she likes it, and it is not too far.
thanks for the links. i have kept my nose out of it, and i think he went straight to the google.

[mopinko]

14. hmm a bug

trying to post this to the next reply up the thread, but it doesn't seem to want to.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

9. Most accredited 'brick and mortar' colleges offer online classes.

It's a big growth area. I know at our college that we require the online versions of our classes to be just as complete and rigorous as the face to face sections.

[fizzgig]

11. i can't speak to uop, but a lot of colleges offer online courses

check with the local community colleges to see what they offer, ours offers a pretty extensive range of classes online.

[LeftyMom]

15. The community college system here offers most of their classes online

And not only are they not 1K a class, a whole semester's full load with books shouldn't run that much. And they're much easier to transfer.

I would be very wary of taking classes through a for-profit school that are offered elsewhere.

[mopinko]

17. looking at that here. it's funny

the city of chicago has a longer standing 2 year college system than the rest of illinois, but they all seem to have online classes and the city colleges don't. there were some threads around here recently about arne duncan, and charter schools, and teachers unions. i said the teachers unions in chicago are not always on the side of the angels. and here ya go. this is a result of the chicago teachers union having their heads in the sand.
the same is true at the high school level. there are some online classes, but they really try to keep that to a minimum. you can only take them if you flunked the class, and if you are over 16. my youngest flunked some classes last year and had to go to summer school. so they put them all in a room to do an online class.
the kid who is now looking for online college could have made it though high school if they had had a good online system to help him out.