(09-28-2024, 08:57 PM)wow Wrote: I'm looking at American Public University for some of my ULs in a TESU biology degree. Would love to hear from people who have taken classes there what the structure etc is generally like (even if the ones you took weren't biology).
Any classes my husband ever took there were super easy. Well structured, all materials available inside the classroom environment, and the exams were unproctored. Even the upper-level ones. Neither of us would ever choose to get a degree from there, but in terms of getting an A in core classes to transfer elsewhere, it has been great. I like the LMS they transitioned to in 2022.
He was enrolled in Nat Sci classes there to transfer to TESU for Environmental Studies. A lot of crossover on the electives with Bio.
Classes generally had a discussion forum once a week with two replies. Amount of assignments depended on the class. One just had a powerpoint as the final project. Many have a midterm quiz and final, both unproctored and very straightforward. Quizzes were usually just multiple choice with a very obvious correct answer. Think Sophia level of difficulty re milestones for the assignments. Slightly more work than Sophia given the discussion forums, but... The effort most people put into those was minimal. More "busy work" than anything else.
As an educator, I suspect the discussion forums were there to make sure people were still logging in and participating in the course. APU and AMU are just different frontends, the backend it is all the same thing with unified classes. If military students DNF or fail, they have to pay back the Tuition Assistance and are banned from using it for a year--so it is in the college's interest to make sure this doesn't happen. If you miss a week's discussion forum they reach out to the student to get them back on track.