What are UMass Global MyPath classes like?

[pluggingalong]

Does anyone know what the classes are like at UMass Global MyPath?  I believe they are CBE, but I didn't know if they were test-centric essay-centric, or something else.

I recently joined and dropped out of a good online school because it seemed like I was unable to remember anything I read. Even simple quizzes. I helped take care of an older friend who had dementia, and I was seriously concerned I was now suffering from it.  Yet, I am able to remember things I read in physical books. After some research, I see that there is a difference in retention of material when read from a digital book versus a physical book. It has to do with the way the brain remembers things, and the location on the page is part of that process. Scrolling through material on a screen can make it much harder for the brain to remember it.  Most people are not affected by this condition, but some are affected significantly. I think I am one of the latter.  After looking in to what you can do about it, the two main fixes seem to be getting physical copies of the books, or manually copying the material in to a notebook.  

With physical books, I can creep through them reading over things I already know, and high-lightening new information.  When I re-read the material, I can jump right to the high-lighted parts. Earlier I had asked about online colleges where you can get physical copies of books, some people were curious why. This is why. 

I was failing French in HS and was sent to a tutor. She had me try different methods like reading and listen-and-repeat tapes ("Ecoute et repete!"),  but nothing worked until she made me just write everything down.  I had to write the English and French words 3 times, which sort of worked.  Then I had to write them 10 times, which I hated, but I remembered everything.  I had so much French on the brain, I started answering tests in other classes in French. I expect this method will still work, though I would have to be really desperate. Which is where I am now.

I'm too embarrassed to go back to any of the schools I've previously backed out of, so I was looking for another one that was an online self-paced CBE.  If a college is self-paced, I don't see a major need to do a lot Sophia/Study.com transfers, unless the S/S one is easier (some people have mentioned that is often the case).  I started looking for a school where I could take one class at a time, do the work, and move on to the next class at my own speed.  I can certainly take S/S classes, especially if the college's class was know to be problematic. I found Umass Global, SNHU, and maybe Purdue Global, as schools that had a plain-vanilla BS IT degree. I had never looked at UMass Global or SNHU before, for some reason I thought they were for-profit, or somehow less serious schools. I thought Purdue Global require Calculus, but that also seems to be wrong.

The first one I am looking in to is UMass Global, which there doesn't seem to be much information about.  Their YT videos show you have to do some online discussions so they know you are alive, and mentions some essay papers.  Does anyone have any experience with them? This is the degree I was looking at:

https://www.umassglobal.edu/academic-pro...ogy-mypath

[faresayari]

I was also thinking about UMass Global MyPath BS IT but decided to go with Purdue Global Exceltrack for the lack of reviews and community around UMass, whereas I found it easier to make a degree plan and gather some advice when it comes to PUG

[rachel83az]

Have you considered TESU? Many/most of TESU's classes require a physical textbook. Usually not even the latest version, either, so it'll be cheaper than a school that requires the latest and "greatest" edition every single year. It's not CBE, but depending on your budget and time commitments, it could still be cheaper than a CBE degree. Especially when dealing with textbooks.

You could do gen eds and electives on Sophia, then the AOS from TESU itself.

[dfrecore]

I prefer a physical textbook as well, along with notetaking. So the TESU capstone was fairly easy for me.

IIRC, Straighterline courses have textbooks if you want them (although it's been a long time). But I think it's fairly expensive to do this, so I probably wouldn't do it with every course.

The good thing about Sophia and Study.com is that they present things in smaller chunks (so less to read on a page); and they have videos, which might be helpful for taking notes. You could do Sophia for a bunch, then switch to Study for anything else you need, and then finish at TESU. It might be more expensive to do it this way (esp 1 course at a time), but it's doable.

[pluggingalong]

I was also thinking about UMass Global MyPath BS IT but decided to go with Purdue Global Exceltrack for the lack of reviews and community around UMass, whereas I found it easier to make a degree plan and gather some advice when it comes to PUG

I was scared off from PUG because I think they use to be Kaplan, which I had read some horrifying stories about.  Purdue must have fixed the problems at Kaplan during the takeover, because people here seem friendly towards it. Did you complete your BSIT, or still still enrolled?

---

Have you considered TESU? Many/most of TESU's classes require a physical textbook. Usually not even the latest version, either, so it'll be cheaper than a school that requires the latest and "greatest" edition every single year. It's not CBE, but depending on your budget and time commitments, it could still be cheaper than a CBE degree. Especially when dealing with textbooks.

You could do gen eds and electives on Sophia, then the AOS from TESU itself.

A long long time I ago, I was looking in to TESU/SL. This is a good idea.  I had not thought about TESU because I don't think they are self-paced, but they do take a lot of 3rd party credits.  I will do some research on TESU and find a possible Degree to pursue.

[ss20ts]

UMass Global is very heavy on the writing. It's all papers with citations and APA/MLA formatting. Yes, you can move at your own pace, but you must complete a specific number of credits each term. There also aren't any textbooks. All of your reading is online just like UMPI and WGU. CBE programs tend to work this way where they include all of the reading material in an online platform. CBE programs are also heavy on writing and short on tests typically.

[LevelUP]

If you transfer 75% or more, most of your college experience will be through alt credit providers such as Sophia and Study.com.

Sophia and Study.com, the entire course is usually around 200-300 pages, making it much easier to memorize than 1000 pages of small print for college textbooks. 

Grades don't matter till you enroll in college as everything alt credit will come in as either pass or fail with no grade. That makes things a lot less stressful.

When you write papers, memory doesn't matter that much as you can look up anything you need. For exams, memory does matter as you study for what will be on the test. 

TESU, PUG, SNHU, and UMPI are mostly papers. WGU has a mix of exams and papers.

[pluggingalong]

I prefer a physical textbook as well, along with notetaking.  So the TESU capstone was fairly easy for me.

IIRC, Straighterline courses have textbooks if you want them (although it's been a long time).  But I think it's fairly expensive to do this, so I probably wouldn't do it with every course.

The good thing about Sophia and Study.com is that they present things in smaller chunks (so less to read on a page); and they have videos, which might be helpful for taking notes.  You could do Sophia for a bunch, then switch to Study for anything else you need, and then finish at TESU.  It might be more expensive to do it this way (esp 1 course at a time), but it's doable.

The idea of going to TESU is growing on me.  I will talk to someone at TESU once I pick a degree. I will tell them I have issues and it would be better for me to not enroll until I had some success at 3rd party schools.  Hopefully they would let me apply with existing transcripts to get a list of remaining classes. If they know I don't plan to join yet, would they choose not to evaluate my transcript?

---

UMass Global is very heavy on the writing. It's all papers with citations and APA/MLA formatting. Yes, you can move at your own pace, but you must complete a specific number of credits each term. There also aren't any textbooks. All of your reading is online just like UMPI and WGU. CBE programs tend to work this way where they include all of the reading material in an online platform. CBE programs are also heavy on writing and short on tests typically.

Thanks, that is good to know.

[LevelUP]

A long long time I ago, I was looking in to TESU/SL. This is a good idea.  I had not thought about TESU because I don't think they are self-paced, but they do take a lot of 3rd party credits.  I will do some research on TESU and find a possible Degree to pursue.

TESU isn't self-paced, as they do have deadlines. However, you can work ahead, which makes things a lot easier. Nothing is stopping you from completing the entire course in the first two weeks if you had enough time.

You can sign up for Sophia and take the first lesson of each course for free. Also, you can download the pdf's for the entire course to see what you are getting into.

https://www.sophia.org/

SL uses traditional college textbooks. I tried to read them word by word but couldn't remember every detail, so I stopped doing that. Their exam questions were super specific and impossible to know what to study for. 

They have open-book exams for most courses. It's a matter of how good you are at searching for answers.

[pluggingalong]

Have you considered TESU? Many/most of TESU's classes require a physical textbook. Usually not even the latest version, either, so it'll be cheaper than a school that requires the latest and "greatest" edition every single year. It's not CBE, but depending on your budget and time commitments, it could still be cheaper than a CBE degree. Especially when dealing with textbooks.

You could do gen eds and electives on Sophia, then the AOS from TESU itself.

Is there any advantage to getting an Associates IT degree before getting the Bachelors IT degree?  It seems like getting the 3rd party credits would be broken up in to 2 separate times, once in preparing for the Associates degree, and again when preparing for the Bachelors degree.  The college might try to get you to immediately pursue the BS after the AS, and not go back to Sophia/StudyCom/SL. That would take you more time and earn them more money.  One of my friends knew I had been struggling, and suggested I just get an Associates as a "little victory", then get the BSIT. 

https://www.tesu.edu/ast/programs/as/com...technology

https://www.tesu.edu/ast/programs/bs/it