University of Wisconsin - Flexible Program (BSBA Degree)

[KanekiGirl99]

Hello, I wanted to write about my experience taking the Business of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) at University of Wisconsin - Parkside (Flexible) degree. Initially, I was very excited to get started. The enrollment process was rather quick and seamless. They even accepted pretty much all my college credits, so I transferred in with 73 College credits. Obviously I was super stoked! But that excitement soon turned into confusion and regret. 

The classes they have are in Canvas. It is not competency based nor do you take any assessments to test out what you already know; in comparison to The Strut Learning platform UMPI and UMass uses, and/or even WGU's own learning platform. The UW Flexible program is pretty much a traditional college format that is fully online, but without any due dates. It has a ton of work for each course: Heavy writing for papers, crazy projects, and ultimately even final assessments or exams. There's several "competencies" within one course and within the assignments for the course. Also, the syllabus's have incorrect information and a lot of the information provided in the canvas courses/assignments have broken links and are outdated.

If you're okay with going to a program that isn't CBE, doesn't give you letter grades, requires physical books for most courses, and is pretty much a traditional college school setting then by all means, give it a go. But if you are looking for a true CBE school, please look into WGU, UMPI, and/or UMass. 

Although, it does seem like letter grades are given for general education courses, but I have yet to confirm this.

Here is the BSBA Course Catalog:
Business of Science in Business Administration Course Catalog

General Ed Course Catalog Options for Parkside:
General Ed Courses for UW Parkside

General Education Courses Syllabus:
BIO 141: Heredity
HES 209: Nutrition and Weight Management Course

Here are some of the course syllabus for the first few courses I'm signed up for directly related to the BSBA:
Microeconomic Market Analysis I
Introduction to Business Administration
Sales Data Analysis and Communication Using Spreadsheets and Statistics

My Academic Plan of Study: Shows what is left and etc. in order to complete the BSBA:
APS

I hope this helps anyone considering University of Wisconsin - Flexible degree option. I took a chance since there was very limited information on this program. I do realize that nothing is ever one size fits all, so this may be work well for someone. But I would NOT recommend this to anyone who wants a competency based degree with the intent of completing it quickly.

[bjcheung77]

That's a very good review post! Hmm, that's what most degrees/institutions are like, there really isn't any one-size-fits-all model, the closest would be a BALS, BSLA, BLS, or any degree that allows you to have 60 credits of free electives to choose anything that interests you, there are very few institutions have a degree that allows up to 60 credits of electives.

[LevelUP]

Great feedback.

The biggest problem with the UW Flex program is that it doesn't take alternative credit providers such as Sophia, Study.com, etc., and only takes about half of the CLEP exams.

I wondered what would happen if someone started from scratch at that program or had a lot of RA credit to transfer in. It seems like it would be slow to complete the program.

[ishady]

I flabbergasted to the fact that UW Flex is not CBE such as UMPI (which I am a student). Also UW Flex does not accept International student (to whom need the info).

[Kjnova]

Thanks for posting this. I have been looking closely at UMPI and UW-Flex, for business degree programs. Sounds like UMPI will be easier to deal with, though I like that UW-Flex (really UW-Parkside) is AACSB-accredited.

[ss20ts]

Thanks for posting this. I have been looking closely at UMPI and UW-Flex, for business degree programs. Sounds like UMPI will be easier to deal with, though I like that UW-Flex (really UW-Parkside) is AACSB-accredited.

Have you confirmed that the CBE program is AACSB? Sometimes the accreditation doesn't apply to all degrees or all programs.

[mr_peanutbutter]

That's a very good review post!  Hmm, that's what most degrees/institutions are like, there really isn't any one-size-fits-all model, the closest would be a BALS, BSLA, BLS, or any degree that allows you to have 60 credits of free electives to choose anything that interests you, there are very few institutions have a degree that allows up to 60 credits of electives.

This is the reason why I love the RBA option at West Virginia University.  66 credits worth of electives!

[staceydiane]

That's a very good review post!  Hmm, that's what most degrees/institutions are like, there really isn't any one-size-fits-all model, the closest would be a BALS, BSLA, BLS, or any degree that allows you to have 60 credits of free electives to choose anything that interests you, there are very few institutions have a degree that allows up to 60 credits of electives.

This is the reason why I love the RBA option at West Virginia University.  66 credits worth of electives!

I had considered the RBA program, since I live in WV now, but I changed my mind.

[tobymiller]

Hello, I wanted to write about my experience taking the Business of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) at University of Wisconsin - Parkside (Flexible) degree. Initially, I was very excited to get started. The enrollment process was rather quick and seamless. They even accepted pretty much all my college credits, so I transferred in with 73 College credits. Obviously I was super stoked! But that excitement soon turned into confusion and regret. 

The classes they have are in Canvas. It is not competency based nor do you take any assessments to test out what you already know; in comparison to The Strut Learning platform UMPI and UMass uses, and/or even WGU's own learning platform. The UW Flexible program is pretty much a traditional college format that is fully online, but without any due dates. It has a ton of work for each course: Heavy writing for papers, crazy projects, and ultimately even final assessments or exams. There's several "competencies" within one course and within the assignments for the course. Also, the syllabus's have incorrect information and a lot of the information provided in the canvas courses/assignments have broken links and are outdated.

If you're okay with going to a program that isn't CBE, doesn't give you letter grades, requires physical books for most courses, and is pretty much a traditional college school setting then by all means, give it a go. But if you are looking for a true CBE school, please look into WGU, UMPI, and/or UMass. 

Although, it does seem like letter grades are given for general education courses, but I have yet to confirm this.

Here is the BSBA Course Catalog:
Business of Science in Business Administration Course Catalog

General Ed Course Catalog Options for Parkside:
General Ed Courses for UW Parkside

General Education Courses Syllabus:
BIO 141: Heredity
HES 209: Nutrition and Weight Management Course

Here are some of the course syllabus for the first few courses I'm signed up for directly related to the BSBA:
Microeconomic Market Analysis I
Introduction to Business Administration
Sales Data Analysis and Communication Using Spreadsheets and Statistics

My Academic Plan of Study: Shows what is left and etc. in order to complete the BSBA:
APS

I hope this helps anyone considering University of Wisconsin - Flexible degree option. I took a chance since there was very limited information on this program. I do realize that nothing is ever one size fits all, so this may be work well for someone. But I would NOT recommend this to anyone who wants a competency based degree with the intent of completing it quickly.

Hi, Im in the same program but in the Business Analytics concentration. I will start Jan 7th. how has your experience been so far? I havent been able to transfer almost any upper division courses. I dont mind having lots of homework to do since i have the time and really want to learn. But i do feel pressure to finish quick since i only have 2.5 years of FAFSA left and would have to do 9 credits every subscription period (3 months).

The main reason i picked the program was for R programming, althought i could learn it on my own in coursera, i thought i would be better in a classroom and i get that analytics concentration on my diploma.

If i pull out i might transfer to the BBA in GIS and Analytics from UMASS global but i wanna ask if they use R (i dislike python and no serious statistician uses it.) also it depends if they want a GED or something which im not looking forward to getting.

If all esle fails ill go back to FSCJ which accepted all my Saylor transfer credits but was too easy for some courses.