05-17-2016, 01:58 PM
I wanted to add to this discussion for the benefit of those who will be taking this course in the future. I am finishing up the March 2016 term and had Arlene Sinding as my mentor. I was really concerned originally because I couldn't find much on her other than some reviews on Rate My Professor.
All in all, I have to say that it wasn't that bad. I got the following scores for writing assignments 1-5 (in order): 90, 90, 80, 95, & 85. After busting my butt for the first two assignments and only getting 90 on each, I admittedly half-@ssed the third assignment where I earned the 80. Final paper earned me an 89. Once you add in the six 100's she gave me for all the discussion forums and the 2% added to final grade for that stupid "ETS Proficiency Profile" it brought my final grade for the course to 91, which I'll gladly take!
As far as the mentor (Ms. Sinding), she was ok. She was a little detached from the whole process (at least compared to the mentor I had in the only other TESU online course I took). She was prompt to reply to questions, but she didn't always answer thoroughly. if you asked a yes/no question, you got a yes/no answer - she wasn't going to expand on anything. It felt like no matter how much work you put in or how well you did, she was going to find something to ding you on. The flip side of that is it felt to me like you weren't going to fail with her, either, so long as you honestly tried.
My grades initially upset me after reading about how easy some other mentors were with this course, but then again, it helped me feel like I was really "earning" my grades - they weren't just being handed to me.
Here's my takeaway from the course (all my personal opinion, of course):
-It's a waste of time for most folks. If you aren't going to grad school, there's nothing useful you'll really take from this course. If you are going to grad school, it'll be quite the practice for your future thesis or dissertation. For me, it helped me realize that I don't much care to go on for my Master's!
-It's a LOT of work. A lot of researching and writing, but it can be done. You might feel accomplished after you're done. Or you'll feel like you wasted a LOT of time like I did.
-Pick a topic that interests you. It'll be a much longer and harder 12 weeks if you have to do that much research and writing on something you don't care about.
-I strongly suggest going the online route instead of guided study. Sure, the discussion forums are silly and can be a little bit of a pain, but they're easy points towards your final grade (23 of the final 100 points to be exact). For me, this was the difference between an "A" and a "B" in this course since the mentor was a little tougher at grading than many other mentors apparently are.
If I can think of anything else useful to add, I will. Also, when I get time, I'm going to try and add my assignments and final paper for others to refer to as an example. I had a real hard time finding examples other than the single other paper linked to earlier in this thread.
Hope this helps!
All in all, I have to say that it wasn't that bad. I got the following scores for writing assignments 1-5 (in order): 90, 90, 80, 95, & 85. After busting my butt for the first two assignments and only getting 90 on each, I admittedly half-@ssed the third assignment where I earned the 80. Final paper earned me an 89. Once you add in the six 100's she gave me for all the discussion forums and the 2% added to final grade for that stupid "ETS Proficiency Profile" it brought my final grade for the course to 91, which I'll gladly take!
As far as the mentor (Ms. Sinding), she was ok. She was a little detached from the whole process (at least compared to the mentor I had in the only other TESU online course I took). She was prompt to reply to questions, but she didn't always answer thoroughly. if you asked a yes/no question, you got a yes/no answer - she wasn't going to expand on anything. It felt like no matter how much work you put in or how well you did, she was going to find something to ding you on. The flip side of that is it felt to me like you weren't going to fail with her, either, so long as you honestly tried.
My grades initially upset me after reading about how easy some other mentors were with this course, but then again, it helped me feel like I was really "earning" my grades - they weren't just being handed to me.
Here's my takeaway from the course (all my personal opinion, of course):
-It's a waste of time for most folks. If you aren't going to grad school, there's nothing useful you'll really take from this course. If you are going to grad school, it'll be quite the practice for your future thesis or dissertation. For me, it helped me realize that I don't much care to go on for my Master's!
-It's a LOT of work. A lot of researching and writing, but it can be done. You might feel accomplished after you're done. Or you'll feel like you wasted a LOT of time like I did.
-Pick a topic that interests you. It'll be a much longer and harder 12 weeks if you have to do that much research and writing on something you don't care about.
-I strongly suggest going the online route instead of guided study. Sure, the discussion forums are silly and can be a little bit of a pain, but they're easy points towards your final grade (23 of the final 100 points to be exact). For me, this was the difference between an "A" and a "B" in this course since the mentor was a little tougher at grading than many other mentors apparently are.
If I can think of anything else useful to add, I will. Also, when I get time, I'm going to try and add my assignments and final paper for others to refer to as an example. I had a real hard time finding examples other than the single other paper linked to earlier in this thread.
Hope this helps!
MBA - WGU - In Progress
BA Social Sciences - TESU - 2016
BA Social Sciences - TESU - 2016
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