Reminded why I prefer independent study

[UptonSinclair]

I just had an experience with the local community college that I thought would be fun to share. I signed up for two online class this semester: System Analysis and Computer Science. The Computer Science class looked like it was going to be great, but the System Analysis class made me decided against this college. There were two exams and a quiz in the first two weeks of class. Since I am addicted to testing, this wouldn't have been a problem if it weren't for on small issue. The questions were from different chapters than the assigned reading. We had questions from 3 or 4 chapters ahead of the assigned reading.

I brought this up on the discussion board, and the discussion board was deleted. Next I emailed the college president who quickly responded that he would look into it. The next day I received an email from the department head who gave me a song and dance about how busy the professor is and that the professor had a death in the family. I understand that life happens, but the problems with this course go beyond an emergency funeral. This clown is using test bank questions that are either from an earlier edition or he is clueless on the use of Desire2Learn.

After paying $220 per credit for online classes, I wasn't about to put up with incompetence. I will take my tuition dollars elsewhere.

I am amazed that many colleges reject a system like Aleks where you are basically taught by the textbook publisher, yet they do the same thing; assign reading from the textbook and give exams from the publishers test bank. I really don't see a difference.

It is off to KCTCS for me. At this point I have no idea how I am going to apply the computer credits, but I am going to rack up a bunch "just because". If Excelsior doesn't take them, maybe TESC or COSC will.

[NumberSix]

College is a racket.

[sanantone]

Some colleges don't have a lot of experience with distance education. Some professors just suck. I had one professor at a CC who was senile.

[Tedium]

That sucks. I had a bad Eng. 102 teacher at Clovis. I would turn in my assignments a week early and she would wait until 11:30 pm the night it was due to start e-mailing me revisions. Silly ones at that. I thought the students were supposed to be the slackers?

It's too bad they tried to use a death in the family as an excuse for the problem instead of actually addressing the issue. There are plenty of students who work through that and worse, and still do really well. A pregnant friend of mine suffering from lupus, for instance. Graduated with a 4.0. If you can't do the job then ask for more time off.

That's why I prefer testing to courses. Don't have to deal with teacher issues, and I can work at my own pace.

[UptonSinclair]

You rang a bell with the comment about working at your own pace. I don't understand why a person should pay a professor when a class consists of reading the textbook and answering publisher generated questions on a quiz. That sounds a lot like how I pass CLEPs and DSSTs.

[Tedium]

I think there are some pros to having a good instructor teach a class. They can help you see things in an entirely new way, teach you things about subjects not commonly found in textbooks, and help you grasp information in a faster, more helpful manner.

That being said, I think those instructors are far too rare at the lower level. Basically any course you could use a LL CLEP or DSST to test out of. Especially if it's a distance learning course. In that case I would choose testing 100% of the time. I'm glad distance learning courses exist, but many of them are seriously flawed.

[UptonSinclair]

I understand what you are saying. I use Yale Open Courses to study for CLEPs and the professors are amazing. I can see why there is a preference for students from the Ivy league. I have not been impressed with Community Colleges. I guess you get what you pay for. What can be expected of an instructor who makes $1500 to teach a 15 week class?

[Lindagerr]

@Upton I have to disagree, it depends on if you are going to a CC where the adjuncts are just trying to make ends meet and are not really experts in their field or if you go to a CC where the evening adjuncts are experts in their field and want to share the knowledge and don't teach for the money as much as they just love teaching. I had a Chemistry instructor like that and I have 2 friends who are experts in their science fields and love teaching but could not live on that salary so the adjunct classes are like their hobby but instead of costing money it brings a little in.

[UptonSinclair]

It would be silly for me to argue the point considering I am speaking only from personal experience. I suspect that the good CC instructor is an outlier.

[Lindagerr]

I am speaking only from experience of myself and friends in NJ I sometimes forget that NJ has one of the best school systems. Maybe that is why I think so much of the CC's I have attended 3 CC's there over the years and know people that have taught at about 5 or 6 more. Now that I live in NY I will have to see what they are like here. The other factor is NJ has a high percentage of chemical/pharmaceutical/high tech firms and all the teachers I know come from those industries. The schools have a large pool of good teachers to pick the best from.