Gâday,
Thanks everyone for the messages of condolences. It has been a difficult time but helped by the support of family and friends and it is no surprise to receive support from fellow Instantcert members. The community here goes far beyond supporting each others educational goals and I feel privileged to be part of such a group.
hunter2115 Wrote:I am in the "common" situation of trying to figure out which route to take with Business Policy (TECEP, CSU-Pueblo, EC course) and the EC course is of course a possibility for me. How is the course going for you? Any insights and/or information on the course is appreciated!
As I stated, I am running behind on this course because of the slow start I got. There seems to be a heavy emphasis on participation (via the online forum environment) with 20% of the final grade coming from this participation. In other classes I have taken, guidelines have been specific such as, at least 3 posts to the message board a week to get maximum grades, but in this course all that is stated is that participation makes up 20% of the final grade. There are two discussion topics each week, one of which is a case study that requires a reasonable amount of research each week to be able to discuss intelligently. Between the two discussion topics there are about 150 messages posted each week, some of which are very lengthy and requires quite a bit of reading but plenty of opportunities to participate.
The quizzes, which make up 50% of the final grade, each have 20 questions, are open book and not timed. There have been discussions about how the wording of certain questions have tripped up some people but all questions come directly from the text and a perfect score on the quizzes is very possible.
There is a major case study, which is different for each participant and assigned to the participant at the beginning of the course but not due until the end of the course. This case study is worth 30% of the final grade and while I canât comment on it much at this point, it does appear that both the text and the weekly discussions are geared toward preparing participants for completion of this case study. I feel that certain research could be started as soon as the case study is assigned but I would be reluctant to submit the final assignment until very late in the course to ensure nothing is missed from the discussion topics.
All-in-all I think that getting a C (70%) for this course wouldnât be too difficult, getting a B (80%) should also be achievable for most people with a reasonable final assignment and regular participation, getting an A (90%) may be a little more difficult and without knowing exactly how the participation is being scored it is hard to judge at this stage.
ImustStudy Wrote:Are the Excelsior online classes self paced so I could finish quickly? Say like in 1 week or so?? Or do I have to take the entire semester to complete them??
From my experience I havenât come across an Excelsior online course that can be finished quickly (not counting Information Literacy). One course, the quizzes, course content and weekly assignments werenât released until the beginning of the week they were due. In another course, the assignments, quizzes and course content were available from the time the course started but the mid-term and final exams were not available until the week before they were due. Even with courses that have everything available from the start of the course, the amount of work required is likely to preclude anyone from finishing the course within a week, even if the instructor was willing to mark assignments immediately. Most courses have a participation component worth from 10% to 20% of the final grade which would be hard to address if not addressing it at the same time as other participants.
A couple of the courses had penalties for late submission of assignments and quizzes that were no longer available after their due date while others are less strict about when the assignments and quizzes are done, as long as they are done.
If you intend signing up for a 15 week Excelsior course, expect that contributions would be required each and every week.
I hope this has been of some assistance
Regards
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