h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Saw you are doing an online business degree at Phoenix and I wanted to ask you about it.

They do an on-line e-commerce MBA, but it isn't accredited, so I was a bit doubtful. But it is one of the only online e-commerce MBAs around, and I wanted to know more.

What's it like?

B
btw - if you want to take this discussion offsite my email is [email protected]

AGC Ben:

Can I call you Ben, for short? Or perhaps just B, like you concluded your posting? Oh, drat, this has gotten too long already to qualify for making things quicker and easier...

B, I really enjoy the classes at University of Phoenix. They run cycles of 5 weeks per course (3 credit hours), you get a 1 week break, then you press on with your next 5 week course, etc. The UoP infrastructure is excellent and they make it easy to enroll, get linked on-line, and they give you a wonderful indoctrination to the flow of classwork with a General course to start off.

The class structure centers around your own personal work assignments, your class participation (by posting cogent responses in the class threads), and your team projects and participation. The collaborative atmosphere is really the best part of the whole virtual environment, and I'd wager you'd make a lot of good friends through this venue.

Typical threads include:
Main Thread (instructor posts Lectures and Discussion Questions, students post responses);
Assignments Thread (write-only, instructor accepts completed papers here, students have no viewable access)
Class Material Thread (any downloadable documents from instructor appear here, lots of reading);
Chat Room (discussions outside the purview of regular class-related info get posted here; make it a point to put your Bio and Points of Contact here);
Team A / B / C / D Threads (space for the collaborative teams to post messages back & forth about on-going projects; you can peak in on other teams' progress & get to know them better, too)

We have found it exceptionally helpful to provide each team member's points of contact (home/work/cell phone, alternate e-mail addresses, AIM/ICQ/mIRC contacts, fax, even address) to mitigate failures in any one medium, so the team can progress.

The course of study is fast-paced. 5 weeks per course. $1,266 per course, plus any additional resource materials you download or purchase as hard-copy. It all goes on your tab. Hope you have some easy way to pay it out, because it adds up quick.

I'm not into a business degree, just straight management. Shortest course of study, quickest degree for the cash. Since I'm fishing for a management position at the nuclear plant where I work, this is the fastest way for me to market myself better. I hired on as a laborer/janitorial worker to get my foot in the door, yet the electronics and supervisory skills I learned in the military haven't opened any avenues to move up. Gotta do something to provide better for my family; this is the route I chose.

Here's their web site: https://www.phoenix.edu/
Here's their curriculum: https://mycampus.phoenix.edu/secure/currGuide/homepage.asp

Hope the info helps.

B4

Blimey, that's expensive! (I know education IS expensive, but when I have time I don't have funds, and vice versa).

It sounds a great way to study, the only other on-line qualification I have looked at in detail is from Warwick, and it is based on lots of reading and exams, with forums, for sure, but the forums are not part of the studying. I am very bad at retaining information I have read, so I know the Warwick one would be tough.

Good luck with the career shift. I am temping at the moment, and offered my skills as a Web Consultant (which is my day-job, when I have one) to the organisation - but I don't think they could make the perceptual shift that a temp could actually have anything useful to contribute as a consultant.

Thanks for posting. I will investigate the Phonenix option more though.

One more question: How many non-Americans are on your course? I've worked abroad a great deal and I am looking for a very international class.

B

B,

Since this is only my second class (of about 15), I've not met one international student. I met a Cambodian lady named Sarorng Sorn, who lives and works in Philadelphia, PA, during last class and she's in our 'Team A' collaboration group this class. It's been a little tougher on her than the rest of us, as she struggles with the language a bit. Regardless, she puts in a fair amount of work and her ideas have had impact on our projects.

Bless,
B4