Excelsior College - The Same Education at Triple the Price

[sanantone]

I often disagree with the people who laud the use of adjuncts because they are usually current in their fields. I like having professors who are current on the latest research. The adjuncts often don't have a lot of time for their students because they work full-time jobs.

Colorado Testicle University did have live chat sessions, but I didn't find much value in them. I did find some value in the taped lectures in an English Comp II course I eventually dropped since TESC was going to give me credit for a writing course I took at Western Insidious University. But, it seems like I'm very different from most people. While some of the lectures in my PhD program can be a little intriguing, I have no use for them. What I've discovered in a couple of courses, though, is that lectures can allow you to just completely skip reading the textbook because the exams were more based on the lectures than the readings. Unfortunately, this led to watering down of the subject matter. If they ever offer online courses, I will enroll in them in a heartbeat.

I do have to admit that I did like Pearson's My CJ Lab, but when I had to use it for a course, I was only paying $54 per credit hour.

[UptonSinclair]

If one were to combine the Thinkwell videos that feature Professor Burger with the homework system of MyMathLab, it would make for a fairly complete Calculus course. This is basically what I have done. I supplement the textbook with video resources found on the web, taught by professional educators with years of experience.

[sanantone]

Professor James A. Sellers, the one who did the algebra videos for The Great Courses, is really good. He's also quite handsome. He did a calculus series, but I haven't gotten a chance to watch it. Don't ask me how I got a bunch of these video courses, but they might be at your local library.

[dewisant]

I have many of the Great Courses on cassette tape. I now buy them used since Teach12 doesn't sell them anymore. I also have a few on CD, but none on DVD as of yet.

[UptonSinclair]

Is he from the University of Florida? If so, I have the complete set of the Calculus videos. He is a bit more formal than Burger but excellent at explaining the material. I love the great courses videos.

[sanantone]

He teaches at Penn State, and I just found out he's from my hometown!

[UptonSinclair]

I have the videos from Bruce Edwards. I will have to see if I can find those from Sellers.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[Prloko]

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Just to be clear. This is a course design issue, not a professor issue. I understand what you are saying about a variety of experiences, but higher education has a special status that allows it to get away with a poor quality product and remain above criticism. What other product would people people pay thousands for and shrug off poor quality? I am not saying this is unique to Excelsior, but I found it much easier to tolerate publisher provided curriculum when I paid $400 for a course rather than $1440. Hopefully, my future courses will be better quality. If so, I will brag about the high quality just as I will complain about poor quality if that is the case.

I hate the publisher courses that are being jammed down our throat these days. I feel your pain.

That said, I'll play a little devil's advocate. Your CC where you took a similar course is heavily subsidised by community taxpayer dollars; Excelsior isn't funded in the same way.

Now what I wish universities would do is to charge tuition based on actual program cost. Large universities can spread the cost of an Intro course where there is 300 students to reduce cost significantly, where courses with 10 students should be a lot more. I'm sure this would bring a whole load of other problems though.