UMPI Class Review Master Thread

[bjcheung77]

Awesome reviews, the 4 classes that can be transferred into the MAOL have been mentioned by a few members... Basically, I've decided to go for the UMPI BAS along with 4 classes that can transfer into the MAOL if I go that route later!  Link: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid400861

[CaughtInTheRye12]

This is a great thread for us prospective UMPI students. Don’t worry about rating a course that’s been rated already. Not everyone is the same, so let’s hear about your experience!


Sent from my iPhone using DegreeForum.net

[anthony3070]

Name: BUS 240 Change Management
Subject: Business
Semester/Term: Fall Term 1 2023
Instructor: Brian Richards
Long or Short?: Short
Number of Modules: 6
Number of Milestones: 3
Type of Milestone Activities: Short essays (approx 500 words)
Type of Final Assessment: 1500-2000 word APA paper with recommendations for a change management plan at the company/organization of your choice.
Notes & Overall Thoughts:
    Brian Richards is a great professor. He grades milestones promptly and provides thoughtful feedback. This was a very good short course and I recommend it be taken at UMPI versus SDC.

Name: BUS 466 Governmental and Not-For-Profit Accounting
Subject: Accounting
Semester/Term: Fall Term 1 2023
Instructor: Dr. Michael Curran
Long or Short?: Long
Number of Modules: 7
Number of Milestones: 7
Type of Milestone Activities: 2-3 page APA papers per instructions
Type of Final Assessment: 10 Essay Questions
Compilation of ten essay questions on material from the modules that also requires substantial outside research and sources. This ended up being around 15 pages long in the end.
Notes & Overall Thoughts:
    Dr. Curran is a really awesome professor. He grades milestones promptly and provides interesting feedback. However this course is a complete nightmare. I must have written over 40 pages and at least 10,000 words for this course, which is more than all of my previous accounting courses combined. The milestones are just the worst. Every single one is like write a 2-3 page paper about this laundry list of topics, which actually take 5-6 pages to fully explain. And they don't even tie into the Final Assessment at all either, so it's literally just tons of non-graded busy work for nothing. Whoever designed this course did it like a normal 8 week course with a 3-4 page paper each week and a final paper for an assessment. This definitely is not a CBE formatted course at all. This course was an emailed course prior to this semester as it was not on Strut. The move to Brightspace has made this course a monster. Transfer it in from somewhere else easier at all costs.

I am on my last two courses for accounting. You are right about this course. The milestones are kind of ridiculous. However, they are not the worst if you just plow through them (the material is not hard). I have completed 3 of them in a week. 
The nice thing is that the prof (Dr. C) grades them same-day. I think if I keep at it I will have all 7 milestones finished in another week. That will give me two weeks to write the final and then a month for my last class -- Advanced Accounting.

I'm assuming you took advanced accounting -- am I in for another headache with that one or is it reasonable?

[turbotortuga]

I am on my last two courses for accounting. You are right about this course. The milestones are kind of ridiculous. However, they are not the worst if you just plow through them (the material is not hard). I have completed 3 of them in a week. 
The nice thing is that the prof (Dr. C) grades them same-day. I think if I keep at it I will have all 7 milestones finished in another week. That will give me two weeks to write the final and then a month for my last class -- Advanced Accounting.

I'm assuming you took advanced accounting -- am I in for another headache with that one or is it reasonable?

I took Advanced Accounting at SDC and I reccomend that you do the same. It's not as bad as Governmental Accounting at UMPI, but it's not that much better. It took me like 3 days of lazy work and studying at SDC and I was done. Just take it at SDC and transfer it in like I did, then take an easy BUS or whatever course instead at UMPI in its place.

[danmd]

Im just going to do reviews of courses that Rbxfunrocks didn't already cover previously, however I took each one of those courses and think they're spot on!

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Name: POS 101: American Government 
Subject: Political Science
Semester/Term: Fall 2
Instructor: Zaborney
Long or Short?: Short
Number of Milestone Activities: 4
Type of Milestone Activities: Brief written answer, paragraph or less. 
Type of Final Assessment: Essay 1500 words
Notes & Overall Thoughts: Just a basic overview of the Government, Bill of Rights, Constitution, etc. Very quick and basic course.

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Name: POS 332: Constitutional Law 
Subject: Political Science
Semester/Term: Fall 2
Instructor: Zaborney
Long or Short?: Short
Number of Milestone Activities: 3
Type of Milestone Activities: 500 word essays 
Type of Final Assessment: Essay 1500 words
Notes & Overall Thoughts: Overview of Constitution Law topics such as Freedom of Speech, Federalism, Executive Privilege, etc. Interesting topics, pretty quick course.

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Name: ENG 211: Creative and Critical Thinking
Subject: English
Semester/Term: Fall 2
Instructor: Zaborney
Long or Short?: Long
Number of Milestone Activities: 3
Type of Milestone Activities: Paragraph or less 
Type of Final Assessment:  8-11 page essay
Notes & Overall Thoughts: Course ended up being much longer than expected, there are a lot of quizzes. Regardless, pretty basic material. 

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Name: POS: 301 European Governments & the European Union 

Subject: Political Science
Semester/Term: Fall 2
Instructor: Zaborney
Long or Short?: Short
Number of Milestone Activities: 2
Type of Milestone Activities: 500 word essays 
Type of Final Assessment: Essay 1500 words
Notes & Overall Thoughts: Fast course, cover topics revolving around the EU, like Brexit, Climate Change, immigration, etc. Enjoyed it.

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Name:  HTY 454: Slavery in the US
Subject: History
Semester/Term: Spring 1
Instructor: Zaborney
Long or Short?:  Long
Number of Milestone Activities: 5
Type of Milestone Activities: 500 word essays 
Type of Final Assessment: Detailed 25 slide Powerpoint, 2000 words in notes. 
Notes & Overall Thoughts:  Interesting topic, quite a bit of material to cover. What really makes it long is putting together the powerpoint and writing up the notes for each slide. Final is listed as an essay on Course Details list, ended up being a Powerpoint. 

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Name: HTY/POS 370: Topics in Non-Western History: Native American History 
Subject: Political Science/History
Semester/Term: Spring 1
Instructor: Sebold
Long or Short?: Long
Number of Milestone Activities: 5
Type of Milestone Activities: 500 word essays 
Type of Final Assessment: Essay 2000 word essay
Notes & Overall Thoughts: Covers each era of Native American History in the US from first European contact to Wounded Knee. This was the only course I took with Professor Sebold, she is great! Detail oriented.

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Name: HTY/POS 371: International Relations & Modern Conflicts 
Subject: Political Science/History
Semester/Term: Fall 2
Instructor: Zaborney
Long or Short?: Long
Number of Milestone Activities: 4
Type of Milestone Activities: 700 word essays 
Type of Final Assessment: 25 slide powerpoint with 2000 word notes.
Notes & Overall Thoughts: This was my first class that didn't consist of an essay final, so it took me awhile to finish. Fascinating course though, cover WW1, WW2, and the Cold War. Also first course I ran into that lists its final on the Competency Details as an essay when it's been changed to a Powerpoint. 

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Name: POS 211: Intro to Political Thought 
Subject: Political Science
Semester/Term: Fall 2
Instructor: Zaborney
Long or Short?: Short
Number of Milestone Activities: 3
Type of Milestone Activities: 300 word essays 
Type of Final Assessment: Essay 1500 words
Notes & Overall Thoughts: Covers basic social science theories and civics, pretty short course.

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Name: POS 343: Marxism 
Subject: Political Science
Semester/Term: Fall 2
Instructor: Zaborney
Long or Short?: Short
Number of Milestone Activities: 2
Type of Milestone Activities: Paragraph or less essays 
Type of Final Assessment: Essay 1500 words
Notes & Overall Thoughts: Short and easy course. Basic overview of Marx and Communist ideology, how its been implement throughout history. Not a fan of any of it, but interesting nonetheless. 

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Name: POS 335: Modern Political Thought 
Subject: Political Science
Semester/Term: Fall 2
Instructor: Zaborney
Long or Short?: Short
Number of Milestone Activities: 2
Type of Milestone Activities: 500 word essays 
Type of Final Assessment: Essay 1500 words
Notes & Overall Thoughts: Overview of differing political ideologies and thought such as Marxism, Anarchism, the Enlightenment, etc. Good course, pretty short.

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Name: POS 493: Political Science Capstone
Subject: Political Science
Semester/Term: Spring 1
Instructor: Zaborney
Long or Short?: Short
Number of Milestone Activities: 0
Type of Milestone Activities: N/A 
Type of Final Assessment: Essay 1500 words
Notes & Overall Thoughts: Easiest course I took. I was expecting a crucible with the capstone, and to my relief it was basically just an essay.

I was looking at the catalog and noticed that POS 493: Political Science Capstone was listed as a 1 credit hour course. Did you get 1 credit or 3 credits for this course?

[FM1]

So I have the following courses that I have to complete as per my degree progress report:

ENG 101 (enrolled)
ENG 121
BUS 200 (enrolled)
BUS 141
BUS 343
BUS 325
HUM 103
BUS 469
BUS 359

Thats 9 courses / 27 credits. I need to add another course to hit the 30 credit requirement. Any recommendations for a course with easiest/lightest workload? I'm thinking BUS 101 Introduction to Business, BUS 240 Change Management, or BUS 260 Leadership.

[danmd]

So I have the following courses that I have to complete as per my degree progress report:

ENG 101 (enrolled)
ENG 121
BUS 200 (enrolled)
BUS 141
BUS 343
BUS 325
HUM 103
BUS 469
BUS 359

Thats 9 courses / 27 credits. I need to add another course to hit the 30 credit requirement. Any recommendations for a course with easiest/lightest workload? I'm thinking BUS 101 Introduction to Business, BUS 240 Change Management, or BUS 260 Leadership.

The history and political science classes are easy to finish. Here is a list of the short ones.


HTY 489  - History of Infectious Disease 
POS 343 - Marxism
POS 301 - European Governments & the European Union 
POS 335 - Modern Political Thought 
HTY 370 - Topics in Non-Western History: Arab Israeli Conflict
POS332 - Constitutional Law
HTY439 - The Vietnam Wars

[yc1981]

Name: ENG 211 Intro to Creative Writing
Subject: Creative Writing
Semester/Term: Spring 1
Instructor: Frusciante
Long or Short?: Medium
Number of Milestone Activities: 4
Type of Milestone Activities: mini essay, short story, poem, all have screencast components
Type of Final Assessment: revision of previous work with screencast component
Notes & Overall Thoughts: I have a really *thumbsdown* view of this course. I don't feel it incorporated creativity well at all unless the creative aspect was supposed to be slotting in all the very specific topics the professor wanted to appear in the pieces. I felt like the written pieces were more about 'word tetris'. By the time you ended up figuring out how to slot all the things in that she wanted (example: 2 city names, 2 refererences to a town in the media, 2 restaurant names... all the way up to 10 references for 1 very short piece) you then had to try and work around those references and make a piece of writing that fit the criteria. It was more about box ticking (I assume this makes it easier for her to quickly grade assignments). Some people might enjoy this, but I did not. I also really enjoy modern/contemporary poetry that doesn't necessarily align with old style rhyming schemes, or even rhyme at all. And that wasn't really allowed here. Her examples of good poems included Robert Frost. I just felt like I was back in in high school doing work that made me hate writing Again, just my personal experience. Another big issue with this course for me is that there was a screencast component to each one. I wouldn't have taken it had I known I would be graded on a verbal presentation for each milestone. I'm not good with speaking or vocal inflection, which is why I chose a writing class, not a public speaking class. All in all I'm just glad it's over. Again, your mileage may vary and someone else may love this format.

[ishady]

Name: ENG 211 Intro to Creative Writing
Subject: Creative Writing
Semester/Term: Spring 1
Instructor: Frusciante
Long or Short?: Medium
Number of Milestone Activities: 4
Type of Milestone Activities: mini essay, short story, poem, all have screencast components
Type of Final Assessment: revision of previous work with screencast component
Notes & Overall Thoughts: I have a really *thumbsdown* view of this course. I don't feel it incorporated creativity well at all unless the creative aspect was supposed to be slotting in all the very specific topics the professor wanted to appear in the pieces. I felt like the written pieces were more about 'word tetris'. By the time you ended up figuring out how to slot all the things in that she wanted (example: 2 city names, 2 refererences to a town in the media, 2 restaurant names... all the way up to 10 references for 1 very short piece) you then had to try and work around those references and make a piece of writing that fit the criteria. It was more about box ticking (I assume this makes it easier for her to quickly grade assignments). Some people might enjoy this, but I did not. I also really enjoy modern/contemporary poetry that doesn't necessarily align with old style rhyming schemes, or even rhyme at all. And that wasn't really allowed here. Her examples of good poems included Robert Frost. I just felt like I was back in in high school doing work that made me hate writing Again, just my personal experience. Another big issue with this course for me is that there was a screencast component to each one. I wouldn't have taken it had I known I would be graded on a verbal presentation for each milestone. I'm not good with speaking or vocal inflection, which is why I chose a writing class, not a public speaking class. All in all I'm just glad it's over. Again, your mileage may vary and someone else may love this format.

Thanks for your review, what is a screencast tho?

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HUM 184
Name: HUM 184: Disciplinary Relationship (options between ENG 151 or HUM184). I recommend HUM 184.
Subject: Humanities, Social, little Literature, little Philosophy (nothing too heavy like ENG 151 Intro to Literature)
Semester/Term: Spring 1
Instructor: Dr. Kimbely Sebold (she is a fast grader and kind to chat with email, tho she can not change the due dates of draft and final, you have to contact your advisor if you need to)
Long or Short?: Medium (perhaps native English could do Short)
Number of Milestone Activities: 5 (choose a topic then reading the internal sources and watch videos/movies)
Type of Milestone Activities: minimum 400-words essays answering/combining/describing the questions from the reading sources (only use UMPI reading materials)
Type of Final Assessment: a combination of Milestones Essay minimum 1600 words, no new writing for the final, just combine the milestones with the prof suggestion, and it will do great.
Notes & Overall Thoughts: it is better and easier than ENG 151 Intro to Literature, which I withdrew because I do not understand Western/English literature comprehension. I enjoy this more than ENG 151 cause I understand the assignments and the Milestone always got proficient. As long as you read the sources and answer the question with your interpretation, the professor will approve it (but it is with Dr. Kimberly Sebold case tho).

[ishady]

Name: BUS330 Marketing Management/Fundamentals of Marketing 
Subject: Business 
Semester/Term: Summer 2 2023 
Instructor: Darrat
Long or Short?: Medium 
Number of Outcomes: 5
Adaptive Outcomes?: Yes
Number of Milestone Activities: 0 
Type of Milestone Activities: N/A 
Type of Final Assessment: 78 Question MC Exam 
Notes & Overall Thoughts:

Copy all the results for all quizzes in a Google Doc/Word Doc and use them to study .

When you miss a question, there's a blurb that highlights why the correct answer was the correct answer which you can use to pinpoint where in the course materials to study.

With the adaptives, there's a question ‘bank’ for each concept/sub-concept . You will only get more of the questions from the ‘bank’ if you ‘fail’ the adaptive, so I recommend intentionally failing the quizzes maybe once or twice to try and get the most questions to add to your google/word doc . 

Thanks for BUS 330 review. I will take it next Spring 2 term.