UMPI Class Review Master Thread

[RbxFunRocks]

The University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI) offers degrees through YourPace. Each term is 8 weeks in length. During each term, you are allowed to take as many classes as possible for a flat fee of $1400 (undergraduate programs) or $2000 (graduate program). A semester is two terms. New classes cannot be added when there's 10 days or less remaining in the term without approval from your academic advisor.

As of November 14th, 2022, UMPI YourPace offers the following degrees:

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

• Accounting
  
• History & Political Science
  
• English – Professional Communication & Journalism
  
• Criminal Justice
  

Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration (BABA)

• Accounting
  
• Management & Leadership
  
• Marketing
  
• Project Management
  
• Supply Chain Management
  

Bachelor of Liberal Studies (BLS)

• Accounting
  
• Educational Studies
  
• Management Information
  
• Management
  
• Project Management
  

Master of Arts (MA)

• Organizational Leadership
  

Here's a link to a list of the available undergraduate degrees: https://online.umpi.edu/degrees/undergraduate/

Here's a link to the Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership (MAOL): https://www.umpi.edu/yourpace/maol/

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I've noticed that there have been a lot of threads by UMPI students asking about certain classes and their difficulties/lengths. Some of the time, these threads are asking for class ideas instead of anything specific.

I'm sure there's a lot of useful information about certain UMPI classes that students would like to know, but can't find much about due to a lack of discussion. Some course info might be out there, but is incredibly scattered and buried in the website's search results. I imagine UMPI speedrunners don't want to start a new thread every single time they complete a course. To solve this, what better than to start a thread to encourage reviewing classes?

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Here is a recommended format to follow:

Name: EXL 707 - Example Course II
Subject: Accounting? Business? Something else?
Semester/Term: Winter Term 3 20XX
Instructor: Lastname
Long or Short?: Long / Medium / Short
Number of Outcomes: How many chapters are there? 
Adaptive Outcomes?: Yes / No 
Number of Milestone Activities: How many milestone activities do you have to complete before the final?
Type of Milestone Activities: Quiz? 500-word Essay? Something else?
Type of Final Assessment: Quiz? PowerPoint? 1500-word Essay? Something else?
Notes & Overall Thoughts: Anything else you'd like to say about the class?

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A "Short" class is one that takes less than 10 total hours of coursework (reading, watching videos, and assignments). "Medium" refers to one that takes between 10 and 24 hours. "Long" is longer than 24 hours.

For "Number of Outcomes", include ones without milestone activities. "Adaptive Outcomes" refers to when a class personalizes your required lessons based on a quiz at the beginning of an outcome.

This thread is for UMPI's YourPace classes only.

Feel free to fill this out for classes you are currently taking/don't remember much about. I'm sure a lot of the students reading this will appreciate some info about a class instead of none. Filling out every detail isn't necessary.

The future change to BrightSpace will change things considerably, but this thread should be good for now.

This thread had inspiration from MrsBulletPoints' ENEB Master Thread:
https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...ter-Thread

[ss20ts]

Classes cannot be added with 10 days remaining in the session without approval from your academic advisor. You can't add classes on your own anyway. They always have to add them. The 10 days remaining in the session is past the 6th week mark.

Define long or short? Not sure what you're referring to there.

I was the first one on here to attend UMPI and report back with a lot of details. I am interested to see what changes happen with the move to Brightspace. One thing I hope happens is that students will be able to communicate with each other.

Filling this out really only works if you do it right when you take a class. I finished my second degree back in March and there's been some changes since then. Some of my professors are no longer teaching the course I took. I know one class has an entirely different course on Strut now and the Final Assessment is drastically different.

One thing that might be helpful is which style of quiz the course has. Those adaptive quizzes can sometimes hold you back from quickly moving through the content.

Did you watch whole movies for HTY 456? Or just clips of movies?

[RbxFunRocks]

Reposting this here to give it separation from the original post:

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Name: HTY 456 - Films of the Cold War
Subject: History
Semester/Term: Fall Term 2 2022
Instructor: Zaborney
Long or Short?: Long
Number of Outcomes: 5 real outcomes, 1 "Are you ready?". The movies begin in Outcome 2.
Adaptive Outcomes?:  No
Number of Milestone Activities: 5
Type of Milestone Activities: Essay (500 words)
Type of Final Assessment: Essay (1000 words)
Notes & Overall Thoughts: This is a pretty fun class. You get to watch some Cold War Era movies and analyze them through the lens of the time. There are also some documentaries, PSAs, and TV Shows mixed in. There are also some readings/regular lessons to give you some background knowledge. 

All films and videos are provided within the lessons. These are actual full movies and episodes. Some documentaries are split into multiple parts. All movies are between 1 and 2 hours. The longest is Double Indemnity (1944) at 1:47:38. Most movies are close to 1 hour 10 minutes. I really enjoyed the 5 Twilight Zone episodes that were included. These are 25 minutes each.

Outcome 1 is pretty simple, focusing on culture and how movies reflect it. Outcomes 2-4 follow a similar format where there are 4 main movies plus some other videos, documentaries, and shows preceding them. Outcome 5 has 5 movies, 4 episodes of The Twilight Zone, and some other assorted videos (such as government PSAs). My personal favorite films from the class would have to be Quicksand (1950) and The Blob (1948).

Outcome 1 is the shortest. Expect Outcomes 2-4 to take at least 5 hours of watching movies and videos each. Outcome 5 is the longest, which may take close to 10 hours of watching movies and videos. This doesn't account for writing the milestone activities and final assessment.

This is a good class to take, but not to speedrun. Don't get me wrong, the class is extremely easy. It's just that you will want to give these films your undivided attention to fully understand them. I spent an entire weekend watching these films. Usually, in other classes, I listen to lessons on Speechify in the background while doing other things. Can't really do the same with this class. Easy writing assignments, though.

I recommend this class to students who aren't trying to rush things & want a simple class that is easy to pay attention to. The most entertaining class I've taken at UMPI so far.

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Classes cannot be added with 10 days remaining in the session without approval from your academic advisor. You can't add classes on your own anyway. They always have to add them. The 10 days remaining in the session is past the 6th week mark.

Define long or short? Not sure what you're referring to there.

I was the first one on here to attend UMPI and report back with a lot of details. I am interested to see what changes happen with the move to Brightspace. One thing I hope happens is that students will be able to communicate with each other.

Filling this out really only works if you do it right when you take a class. I finished my second degree back in March and there's been some changes since then. Some of my professors are no longer teaching the course I took. I know one class has an entirely different course on Strut now and the Final Assessment is drastically different.

One thing that might be helpful is which style of quiz the course has. Those adaptive quizzes can sometimes hold you back from quickly moving through the content.

Did you watch whole movies for HTY 456? Or just clips of movies?

Thank you for the catches. I've updated the thread to reflect them.

I've included this in my update, but I'll also say it here. To me, "Short" is a class that takes less than 10 hours of coursework, "Medium" is between 10 and 24 hours, and "Long" is longer than 24 hours. If a student works on a "long" class 2 hours per day, they could expect to take at least 12 days to complete it. A "Short" class would be something like Arab-Israeli Conflict (which I'll write a review on at a later time). A "Long" class would be something like BIO 105 from what I've read.

I know the label is extremely subjective, but it's also useful for students passing through and wanting to find a quick class to take/long class to avoid.

The move to Brightspace will be a welcome change. Will be cool to see.

Yea, I imagine it will be hard to remember every single detail after some time has passed. Some of the history classes I've taken are different from what I've heard about them over a year ago. The students who read this thread should be a bit skeptical about how relevant class reviews from older terms are to them today. Still, I think older class reviews still have some use. Some classes aren't that good and don't have many signs of being updated. One review is all it takes to help someone avoid taking a class like BIO 105.

HTY 456 had full movies. I've updated my review to include more details. In the class, you watch some films from 1940 - 1960 and write papers about how they relate to the Cold War culture of the time. Most films are in black and white. I've had a lot of fun with the class. Glad to have taken it.

[ss20ts]

Yea, I imagine it will be hard to remember every single detail after some time has passed. Some of the history classes I've taken are different from what I've heard about them over a year ago. The students who read this thread should be a bit skeptical about how relevant class reviews from older terms are to them today. Still, I think older class reviews still have some use. Some classes aren't that good and don't have many signs of being updated. One review is all it takes to help someone avoid taking a class like BIO 105.

HTY 456 had full movies. I've updated my review to include more details. In the class, you watch some films from 1940 - 1960 and write papers about how they relate to the Cold War culture of the time. Most films are in black and white. I've had a lot of fun with the class. Glad to have taken it.

It's interesting to see that the history classes have had changes over time. I didn't know that any of them had changed. I only took American Government and that doesn't seem to have changed. I know several business classes have changed. Even the change in professor can make a difference with how the Milestones and Final Assessment are graded and sent back for revisions. One class changed the programming language which was good since the language I had to use wasn't even covered in the course content. I'm definitely interested in seeing what changes take place with Brightspace. I am hopeful that it will be an even better platform. One thing several students brought up to the President of UMPI and the Chancellor of U of M was that we did not have a way to see who else was taking classes and had no way to communicate. Some of us felt pretty lonely. I know the President took this to heart and wanted to make communication possible so I'm hoping this is possible in Brightspace. Would be great to see who else is in your class and ask for pointers or ideas on what is needed for a Milestone if it gets kicked back to you. One of the marketing professors was really picky and didn't do a great job at answering questions. He would basically respond with it's in there. Great. Thanks so much. LOL Totally not helpful. Maybe he enjoyed reading the same Milestone 10 times? 

Wow you got to watch whole movies? That's pretty cool! I never would have related The Blob and the Cold War. Did the content cover the Cold War and a relationship to the movies? Or was it more that the movies were released during this era of history? It sounds like an interesting class and history isn't typically my favorite subject. These types of movies make me think of The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. When I was a kid, I thought that was a fake movie.

[RbxFunRocks]

Wow you got to watch whole movies? That's pretty cool! I never would have related The Blob and the Cold War. Did the content cover the Cold War and a relationship to the movies? Or was it more that the movies were released during this era of history? It sounds like an interesting class and history isn't typically my favorite subject. These types of movies make me think of The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. When I was a kid, I thought that was a fake movie.

Yea, when I signed up for the class I was not expecting it to include seemingly-regular movies people don't typically associate with the Cold War. Awesome that they did.

Each Outcome focuses on how movies during the Cold War reflected certain values.

• Outcome 2 is about films reflected general fears and anxieties (getting caught up in situations beyond your control).
  
• Outcome 3 is about women and how movies reinforced gender roles. Near the beginning, there's an episode of Leave It To Beaver.
  
• Outcome 4 is about how movies reflected anti-Communist fears. This is the chapter with The Blob. It also has Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Red Menace, and The Woman on Pier 13. This was my favorite Outcome of the bunch.
  
• Outcome 5 is about how films reflected fears of the atomic bomb. This Outcome has the most historical context, government PSAs, and Twilight Zone episodes.
  

It's cool because it's a history class, but it feels different from the other history classes I've taken (at UMPI and a B&M school).

[ss20ts]

Yea, when I signed up for the class I was not expecting it to include seemingly-regular movies people don't typically associate with the Cold War. Awesome that they did.

Each Outcome focuses on how movies during the Cold War reflected certain values.

• Outcome 2 is about films reflected general fears and anxieties (getting caught up in situations beyond your control).
  
• Outcome 3 is about women and how movies reinforced gender roles. Near the beginning, there's an episode of Leave It To Beaver.
  
• Outcome 4 is about how movies reflected anti-Communist fears. This is the chapter with The Blob. It also has Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Red Menace, and The Woman on Pier 13. This was my favorite Outcome of the bunch.
  
• Outcome 5 is about how films reflected fears of the atomic bomb. This Outcome has the most historical context, government PSAs, and Twilight Zone episodes.
  

It's cool because it's a history class, but it feels different from the other history classes I've taken (at UMPI and a B&M school).

This is fascinating! I had no idea there was a class like this at UMPI. I wonder with the Brightspace move if students will be able to see what classes are available.

[RbxFunRocks]

Name: HTY/POS 370 - Topics in Non-Western History: Arab Israeli Conflict
Subject: History / Political Science
Semester/Term: Fall Term 2 2022
Instructor: Zaborney
Long or Short?: Short
Number of Outcomes: 2 real, 1 "Are you ready?" 
Adaptive Outcomes?: No 
Number of Milestone Activities: 2
Type of Milestone Activities: Essay (500 words)
Type of Final Assessment: Essay (1500 words)
Notes & Overall Thoughts: By far the easiest class I've taken at UMPI so far. The class only has 2 real outcomes. Outcome 1 is about globalization and how the Arab-Israeli Conflict is an example. Outcome 2 details the conflict's history.

Most lessons aren't that long. Some lessons are only 2 paragraphs plus a graphic. Some are so short that you can't scroll down. There are 3 John Green videos sprinkled throughout, which together come to about 30 minutes. The longest lesson is the last one, which talks about the Trump Peace Plan. There are 17 "real" lessons total (not including references, reviews, etc.).

I spent more time working on assignments than I did initially reading through the lessons. To be honest, I felt that the class was lacking in content to the point where I had to do a lot of nitpicking for my essays in order to not be repetitive.

This class is short, but I'd really only recommend it (for non-History/PoliSci majors) if you're good with history and/or global politics. I can see how most people wouldn't be able to keep up with the class. If you can keep up, though, this is far and away one of the easiest classes to take. As far as I'm aware, this is shortest class you can take to meet the non-Western requirement for the History & Political Science major.

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Name: HTY 161 - U.S. History I
Subject: History
Semester/Term: Fall Term 2 2022
Instructor: Sebold
Long or Short?: Long
Number of Outcomes: 7 real, 1 "Are you ready?". 3 don't have milestone activities
Adaptive Outcomes?: Yes
Number of Milestone Activities: 4
Type of Milestone Activities: Essay (300 words)
Type of Final Assessment: PowerPoint (25 Slides, 1000 words in Notes)
Notes & Overall Thoughts: One of the first 2 classes I've taken at UMPI. Covers the time from Native American History to the Reconstruction after the US Civil War.

A lot of the lessons are beefy with information. Expect a lot of reading (or Speechify). If you take this class without much prior knowledge, it will take a long time. Some outcomes even have subtopics within them. If you know enough to get a 100% on the adaptive outcome quizzes, you can skip straight to the milestone activities.

Lots of Crash Course US History videos included.

[uncoolbilly]

Name: BUS 200
Subject: Intermediate Business Computing
Semester/Term: Fall 2 2022
Instructor: Roxanne Bruce
Long or Short?: Short
Number of Outcomes: 4 Chapters 
Adaptive Outcomes?: No 
Number of Milestone Activities: 3 milestones (Word, Excel and PowerPoint)
Type of Milestone Activities: Essay, no minimum word count
Type of Final Assessment: Milestones work towards this final - Word, Excel and PowerPoint from milestone are improved and submitted for final.
Notes & Overall Thoughts: AWESOME class and a great teacher.

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The class was short for me as I have used Word and PowerPoint for projects in the past. The Excel milestone and final took more time to complete as I took the course very seriously and used real world number for sales and projections. The course caused me to re-evaluate my business in more detail and to plan out some marketing details - this was not the goal of the course, but the Instructor and Content is maybe the most thought provoking of the college classes I have taken to date (I came to UMPI with 97 credits already).

In total I spent about 6 hrs total on the course, analytics says I spent 3.43 hrs on the website, and I tried to keep it open when working on any of the projects.

[RbxFunRocks]

Name: HTY 439 - The Vietnam Wars
Subject: History
Semester/Term: Fall Term 2 2022
Instructor: Zaborney
Long or Short?: Medium
Number of Outcomes: 3 real, 2 other ("Are you ready?" & References). The first outcome has no milestone activity.
Adaptive Outcomes?: No
Number of Milestone Activities: 2
Type of Milestone Activities: Essay (500 words)
Type of Final Assessment: Essay (1,500 words)
Notes & Overall Thoughts: A pretty easy class overall.

The first outcome doesn't have any milestone activities. The lessons are extremely short. There is a 7-minute Khan Academy video included. The second outcome has 3 readings and 1 documentary. Between the two outcomes that have milestone activities, this is the shorter one. The third outcome has 3 readings and 6 documentaries.

There are 7 total documentaries in the class. Each one is about 55 minutes (including intro + credits). This comes out to about 6 hours, 25 minutes.

Outcome 1 is about comparisons. Outcome 2 compares the before-and-after of the beginning of the Cold War within Vietnam. Outcome 3 compares the before-and-after of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. 

Overall, this is a great class to take for history majors. It is fairly easy and your assignments get returned pretty quickly. I feel like I learned a lot from it. Would recommend 

[RbxFunRocks]

Name: HTY/POS 377 - Modern China
Subject: History / Political Science
Semester/Term: Fall Term 2 2022
Instructor: Defelice
Long or Short?: Long
Number of Outcomes: 5 real, 1 "Are you ready?" 
Adaptive Outcomes?: No 
Number of Milestone Activities: 5
Type of Milestone Activities: Essay (500 words)
Type of Final Assessment: Essay (1500 - 2000 words)
Notes & Overall Thoughts: Honestly, this class wasn't as long or bad as I feel it's been made out to be. It is still a long class (don't get me wrong), but not in the same vein as other classes like Medieval Europe or US History I/II.

Outcome 1 is about early Qing China (up to the Opium Wars). Outcome 2 deals with the second half of Qing China's history (after the Opium Wars). Outcome 3 discusses the Republic of China, Nationalist vs. Communist fighting, and World War II. Outcome 4 is about China under Mao Zedong. The last outcome (outcome 5) talks about post-Mao China. I found the last outcome to be the one that took me longest (but was also the easiest).

As far as grading goes, Defelice has been pretty good on feedback.

The final assessment is a paper. The essay is pretty much a review of all 5 outcomes. I picked out information to include from my milestone activities. Think of it as a class where all the milestone activities come together for one big paper. The word minimum is listed as 1200-1500. There is a word maximum on this at 2000. Personally, I was more wary of the maximum than the minimum. In the end, my essay was 1972 words long.

If you're looking the complete the non-Western requirement, Arab-Israeli Conflict is shorter class. Still, I really liked taking this. Anyone with a passing interest in Chinese history (and doesn't mind writing) will like this. Would recommend