CSU Pueblo - Mgmt 468

[addision]

Ok, I finally got the book for this course and looked it over with the syllabus.

At first look the course does not appear extremely difficult. The instructor has a D.M and tells you in the syllabus that you will be grade on your adherence to the instructions and proper use of written English. Thats not expecting too much seeing as this is a quality management course.

The course consists of six lessens of two chapters each and a term paper. Each lesson appears to have 7-10 essay questions. In all the course looks very easily doable. The book was written for those with no QA or statistical training. I was expecting the book to be heavy into statistics. However, there appear to be only a couple of chapters dedicated to quantifiable methods. Out of 22 chapters in the book the instructor only uses 12 for assignments and reading.

The term paper has to be 2,000 words (some where 5-9 pages depending on graphs and spacing). You must submit an outline for approval before hand, and then stick to the outline for your paper.

Most of the book looks to be written about the wide variety of quality methods and philosophies. It looks as if it was written so the student gets a broad understanding of many methods rather than concentrating on the details of just a few.

I just read through the syllabus four times to make sure.......NO EXAMS!!!!

I would envision that the instructor will grade hard on the assignments though. But still that is better than a proctored exam as far as time is concerned. I will submit my first assignment this next week and see how it is graded.

[MISin08]

Thank you, Addison. Interesting to know. QA is one of my current hats, so this would draw on and add to my knowledge. I usually have trouble selecting paper topics, though, so I would want to think about that early.

Phillip

[addision]

I submitted my first assignment on 9-10-09. I was concerned because one question of the first assignment was not defined in the text.

On that point, I have noticed that the text is very general in nature and will leave you searching the internet for assistance or heading back to old textbooks. I asked the instructor for clarification and of course the answer was more vague than I would have liked. However, he did respond quickly.

So, It took me a good full day to complete the assignment. I expected the instructor to grade hard so I answered the 7 assignment questions in great detail.

I turned in 6 pages of homework, but this includes restating all the homework questions before answering them as requested in the syllabus. I would say that there is about 3/4 page of essay for each question.

There were only two statistics problems in this lesson.

I got a response from the instructor on 9-12-09 that he would have my assignment graded by the following Sunday (which I took to mean 9-19-09). I was worried because I am trying to finish the course this month and this would really set me back if he only graded one per week.

Fortunately, I received an e-mail from him that he graded the lesson (I got an A @ 96%). He grades using a structured rubric the criteria of which are: Content- Organization- Format- Spelling, Grammar, & Punctuation - Clarity and Style. But he is obviously not as strict as I had imagined.

I was really concerned about this. English is my worst subject and any time I find an instructor who says they grade based on strict adherence to proper English I just cringe.

So now I am off to work on the rest of the assignments (5). And then get a paper done. I figure it will take me a full week to do the assignments in detail. So maybe I will finish the course next week.

I will continue to do updates with the instructors progress.

[addision]

I didn't update this thread as much as I had with others because of the way I turned in my assignments.

I turned in my first two assignments and then the instructor notified me it could take up to two "Sundays" to grade the assignments. As it turns out whatever you have turned in by the time he grades is what he grades. So for the first Sunday he graded assignments 1 and 2.

I turned in assignments 3-6 on consecutive days and did the 2000 word term paper (with four charts) a few days later. I actually wrote the paper in one day, but it was suppose to be on developing a business process, then reviewing the process for changes and you really can't do that in one day. Each assignment takes like 6 pages of writing. Not difficult at all but there are a lot of questions, and NO EXAMS!

I sent them in and he said he would grade them by 10-11-09. I have been worried because TESC told me you have a little bit to get the final transcripts in but that there was no set date and that the transcripts have to be there just by whenever they review you for graduation.

Fortunately, he decided to grade everything today. I got 100% on all the assignments but the first, and a 98% on the term paper. So that is four "A" grades at CSU Pueblo. (1 last summer)

This course again is more on management than it is on quality techniques. If you have taken the other business courses required for a business degree you will have already covered all the subjects for the assignments in the book. This course can easily be completed in two weeks, however the assignments may not be graded that quick.

That is a little discouraging if you want to learn new techniques, but the techniques are in the book, just not covered in the course.

Good luck to all who take this course.